IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i13p9910-d1176239.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Training Leaders to Facilitate an Energy Transition: Retrospective Evaluation of Course Design

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Newman

    (Erb Institute, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

  • Sarah Mills

    (Graham Sustainability Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

  • Sara Soderstrom

    (Organizational Studies and Program in the Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

Abstract

While there is a widely shared sense that policy action is required for the electricity system in the United States to decarbonize, most climate policy courses focus only on a handful of federal and state policies. In reality, however, there is a web of state- and local-government-level policy choices that can serve to facilitate or hinder an energy transition, which is less discussed and researched in higher education. A new graduate course, first taught in Winter 2019 at the University of Michigan in the Ford School of Public Policy, employs a range of unique course design elements to introduce the idea of a complex web of policies and actors in the energy transition, and to provide students with practical skills to prepare them to be leaders in the transition. By interviewing students 18 months after finishing the Winter 2019 iteration of the course, in addition to surveying students enrolled in the second interaction of the course in the Fall 2020 semester, this study finds that student experiential learning and applied projects, in tandem with the instructor’s focus on local, real-world implications, was found to be effective in preparing students to be climate leaders.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Newman & Sarah Mills & Sara Soderstrom, 2023. "Training Leaders to Facilitate an Energy Transition: Retrospective Evaluation of Course Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-12, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:13:p:9910-:d:1176239
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/9910/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/9910/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sanya Carley & Lincoln L. Davies & David B. Spence & Nikolaos Zirogiannis, 2019. "Author Correction: Empirical evaluation of the stringency and design of renewable portfolio standards," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(2), pages 167-168, February.
    2. Michael Shriberg & Kathryn Harris, 2012. "Building sustainability change management and leadership skills in students: lessons learned from “Sustainability and the Campus” at the University of Michigan," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 2(2), pages 154-164, June.
    3. Zhang, Kun & Wang, Qian & Liang, Qiao-Mei & Chen, Hao, 2016. "A bibliometric analysis of research on carbon tax from 1989 to 2014," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 297-310.
    4. Lienhoop, Nele, 2018. "Acceptance of wind energy and the role of financial and procedural participation: An investigation with focus groups and choice experiments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 97-105.
    5. Sanya Carley & Lincoln L. Davies & David B. Spence & Nikolaos Zirogiannis, 2018. "Empirical evaluation of the stringency and design of renewable portfolio standards," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(9), pages 754-763, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raphael Calel & Jonathan Colmer & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Matthieu Glachant, 2025. "Do Carbon Offsets Offset Carbon?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 1-40, January.
    2. Chunyi Ji & Xinyue Wang & Wei Zhao & Xuan Wang & Wuyong Qian, 2025. "The Impact of Environmental Policies on Renewable Energy Storage Decisions in the Power Supply Chain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-24, April.
    3. Xu, Jie & Lv, Tao & Hou, Xiaoran & Deng, Xu & Liu, Feng, 2021. "Provincial allocation of renewable portfolio standard in China based on efficiency and fairness principles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1233-1245.
    4. Parrish Bergquist & Christopher Warshaw, 2023. "How climate policy commitments influence energy systems and the economies of US states," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. John C. Pierce & Rachel M. Krause & Sarah L. Hofmeyer & Bonnie J. Johnson, 2021. "Explanations for Wind Turbine Installations: Local and Global Environmental Concerns in the Central Corridor of the United States?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-11, September.
    6. Trachtman, Samuel, 2020. "What drives climate policy adoption in the U.S. states?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    7. Hu, Xing & Yu, Shiwei & Fang, Xu & Ovaere, Marten, 2023. "Which combinations of renewable energy policies work better? Insights from policy text synergies in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    8. Neal D. Woods, 2021. "The State of State Environmental Policy Research: A Thirty‐Year Progress Report," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(3), pages 347-369, May.
    9. Bhardwaj, Chandan & Axsen, Jonn & McCollum, David, 2022. "Which “second-best” climate policies are best? Simulating cost-effective policy mixes for passenger vehicles," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Wadim Strielkowski & Lubomír Civín & Elena Tarkhanova & Manuela Tvaronavičienė & Yelena Petrenko, 2021. "Renewable Energy in the Sustainable Development of Electrical Power Sector: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-24, December.
    11. Kim, Jung Eun & Tang, Tian, 2020. "Preventing early lock-in with technology-specific policy designs: The Renewable Portfolio Standards and diversity in renewable energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    12. Wei, Shuni & Yuan, Peng & Yu, Renjie, 2025. "Can renewable portfolio standard promote renewable energy capacity utilization? Empirical evidence from China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    13. Rountree, Valerie, 2019. "Nevada's experience with the Renewable Portfolio Standard," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 279-291.
    14. Wang, Xianjia & Tianrun, He & Zhang, Ling, 2025. "Wind energy use under electricity supply guarantee rates: The impact of two incentive policies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    15. Polzin, Friedemann & Egli, Florian & Steffen, Bjarne & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2019. "How do policies mobilize private finance for renewable energy?—A systematic review with an investor perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1249-1268.
    16. Fang, Yujuan & Wei, Wei & Mei, Shengwei, 2022. "How dynamic renewable portfolio standards impact the diffusion of renewable energy in China? A networked evolutionary game analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 778-788.
    17. Wang, Yunfei & Li, Jinke & O'Leary, Nigel & Shao, Jing, 2024. "Banding: A game changer in the Renewables Obligation scheme in the United Kingdom," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    18. Sun, Jie & Zhou, P. & Wen, Wen, 2022. "Assessing the regional adaptive capacity to renewable portfolio standard policy in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    19. Zhou, Dequn & Dong, Zhuojia & Sang, Xiuzhi & Wang, Qunwei & Yu, Xianyu, 2023. "Do feed-in tariff reduction and green certificate trading effectively promote regional sustainable development?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    20. Zhao, Chuandang & Wang, Fengjuan, 2024. "Economy-equity equilibrium based bi-level provincial renewable portfolio standard target allocation: Perspective from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:13:p:9910-:d:1176239. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.