Workshop in Applied Policy Analysis
MPA in Environmental Science and Policy

The Workshop in Applied Earth Systems Policy Analysis

In the spring semester groups of Environmental MPA students are formed to undertake analytic projects for real-world clients in government and nonprofit agencies. These teams, working under the supervision of faculty members, write a report analyzing an actual environmental policy or management problem faced by their clients.. These projects are part of the 3-semester 12-point workshop requirement for the MPA Program. They enable students to integrate the environmental science learned in the summer semester with the policy, politics and management issues they have learned throughout the program.


An analysis of Policy and Management Issues Related to the Disposal of E-Waste in New York City
Client: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Faculty Advisor: Steven Cohen

Electronic waste often contains highly toxic substances such as lead, mercury and cadmium. The NRDC supported a proposed bill, The Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act of 2005, which would require manufacturers to develop a plan to collect and recycle electronic waste generated from equipment sold in New York City, or Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The workshop project would provide policy and management analysis needed to support NRDC’s advocacy on behalf of this proposed statute. The workshop group would address issues such as what are examples of successful EPR programs and whether a disposal ban can and should be added to the bill.


Community Wind Development Policies
Client: The Clean Energy Group and Clean Energy States Alliance
Faculty Advisor: Tanya Heikkila

The Clean Energy Group oversees the Clean Energy States Alliance, a network of clean energy funds, which constitutes the primary incentive funding at the state level for the commercialization of clean energy technologies, such as community wind. The project will directly support the research and analytical needs of the Community Wind Working Group to explore further strategies for collaborative action on community wind. Information collected and analyzed by Columbia students will be used to inform CESA Working Group efforts and strategies in promoting the state-specific markets for community wind development.

What the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Can Learn from the U.S. SO2 Allowance Trading Scheme
Client: Notre Europe
Faculty Advisor: Tanya Heikkila

The European Union established an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to limit CO2 emissions from large industrial sources in 2005, designed largely after the United States’ SO2 allowance trading scheme. Notre Europe wishes to understand how the administrative implementation of the ETS could be improved. Notre Europe deals directly with intergovernmental governance, and therefore, is interested in the ETS, not specifically in the context of climate change policies, but more generally as an environmental instrument of cooperation at the international level. Students will analyze issues such as whether the ETS is applied consistently from one Member State to another and whether governments are coordinating these different aspects by sector.


The Hunts Point Food Distribution Market: An Opportunity for Greening an Industry
Client: Sustainable South Bronx
Faculty Advisor: Gail Suchman

Hunts Point, a peninsula at the southernmost section of the South Bronx, houses one of the largest wholesale food distribution markets in the world. The community experiences extremely high diesel truck volume. In addition, the Market consumes significant amounts of electricity and produces large amounts of organic wastes and waste water. Sustainable South Bronx is a community based organization whose work involves tangible projects and advocacy for public policy decisions to advance environmental, social, and economic revitalization of the South Bronx. For this project, students will collect data and identify the environmental impacts associated with operations at the Market relating to diesel truck traffic, energy consumption, waste production and management, storm water concerns, and discuss them in terms of their potential local, regional and global impact.


Is the Environment a Special Case in Fighting Corruption?
Client: Transparency International (TI)
Faculty Advisor: Sara Tjossem

Transparency International (TI), the foremost international NGO devoted to combating corruption at the international and national level, is interested in articulating linkages between corruption and environmental degradation. The project seeks to provide policy and management analysis to support TI’s efforts to reduce corruption through developing specific case studies to answer questions such as whether there are specific aspects or formulations of environmental policies that encourage or discourage corrupt practices, and what anti-corruption measures could strengthen the protection of biodiversity hotspots.