The Conservation Trust for North Carolina and the Nicholas Institute have designed a pair of online tools for conservation organizations and land trusts to evaluate the benefits of North Carolina's natural and working lands to climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation.

Little attention has been paid to the economic benefits of natural systems beyond basic measures of GDP. Katie Warnell spoke with Context about how quantifying their value could help drive conservation and preservation policy making.

Over $36 million in initial gifts will launch the Duke Climate Commitment, a new university-wide initiative focused on addressing climate change.

The Duke Climate Commitment will be formally announced on Sept. 29 and builds on the university’s longstanding leadership in climate, energy and sustainability to educate a new generation of climate-fluent innovators and create equitable solutions for all.

An international group of sustainability scholars—including some from Duke University—has published a new guidebook that offers a “vision and a roadmap to a more impactful future” for higher education.

On Earth Day, the Biden Administration announced an initiative to develop national measures called natural capital accounts that connect the value of ecosystem services to economic performance. In a Q&A, Warnell offered some insights into natural capital accounting: what exactly it measures, how it can help decision makers, and the work that lies ahead to implement a national system.

The recently merged Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and Duke University Energy Initiative benefited from the work of 55 dedicated student assistants during the 2021–2022 academic year.

The interdisciplinary crew of student assistants hailed from undergraduate and graduate degree programs across seven Duke schools. They brought diverse skillsets and perspectives to their roles, further developing their expertise by working on real-world projects advancing environmental progress.

Duke University experts will share insights about international climate policy with university students across the nation in a free virtual seminar series funded by the U.S. Department of State. The series is also open to the Duke community, including students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

The Nicholas Institute has developed three online dashboards that make detailed data about North Carolina's forests, farmlands, and wetlands easily accessible to communities, land managers, non-governmental organizations, and the general public.

Discussions about where to focus investments in infrastructure and what to build are not informed by a complete accounting of the nation’s assets, leaving out many critical services that nature provides, write Stephen Posner, of the Gund Institute for Environment, and Lydia Olander, of the Nicholas Institute.