Yale Center For Environmental Law and Policy - Program Areas

Program Areas

• Environmental Performance Measurement - The Environmental Performance Measurement (EPM) Project aims to shift environmental decision-making onto firmer analytic foundations using environmental indicators and statistics. In collaboration with the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University and the World Economic Forum, the project produces a periodically updated Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) that tracks 146 countries on 21 sustainability indicators. Work is now under way on an Environmental Performance Index (EPI) that will assess key environmental policy outcomes using trend analysis and policy targets linked to the Millennium Development Goals. The 2006 Pilot EPI was released in Davos, Switzerland, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum on Thursday, 26 January 2006.

• Environmental Attitudes and Behavior - The Environmental Attitudes and Behavior Program strives to address the relationship between Americans’ environmental values and subsequent personal and political decisionmaking.

• Innovations and the Environment - The Innovation and Environment Program develops theory and practice at the nexus of business and the environment. The goal of this work is three-fold: To integrate environmental thinking into corporate strategy; To support the economic utility of environment -related business ventures; and To encourage environmental organizations and policymakers to be more "business-like" in their decisionmaking and management. This Program is a shared endeavor with the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale.

• Environmental Governance - The Environmental Governance Program aims to produce scholarly analysis and tools with policy application for government authorities, communities, NGO leaders, and corporate executives. Environmental governance research projects include the Global Environmental Governance Project and the UNITAR-Yale Environment and Democracy Initiative.

• Yale Environmental Protection Clinic - The Yale Environmental Protection Clinic is designed to introduce students to the fields of environmental advocacy and policymaking by exploring a variety of environmental law and policy questions and the tools environmental professionals use to address them. As a part of the program, teams of three to four students work with client organizations on "real-world" projects, with the goal of producing a major work product for the client by the end of the semester.