LSE campus
A new Global School of Sustainability at LSE will advance global efforts to shape a brighter future for all that is sustainable, resilient, hopeful, prosperous and inclusive.
Launching in 2025, it will become a centre of expertise, informing policy, helping to rapidly and equitably create the economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protections crucial to ensuring a sustainable future, while convening global experts and training the future generation of leaders.
The Global School of Sustainability will build on and complement further the pathbreaking work of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment and existing outstanding contributions from academic departments and researchers across LSE. It will be informed by insight from a Strategy Board comprising global leaders in the sphere committed to the School’s vision and ambitions in creating a sustainable future, including:
Mark Carney, Chair Brookfield Asset Management, Head of Transition Investing and United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance;
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organisation;
Amartya Sen, Economist, Philosopher and Nobel Laureate (Economics), and;
Lord Adair Turner, House of Lords and Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission.
Designed to deliver immediate and long-term impact, the Global School of Sustainability will:
- Pioneer innovative research addressing five key challenges for policymakers: generating sustainable growth and development; creating sustainable finance and business; mobilising political, legal and governance systems; transforming behaviours; and protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity.
- Accelerate innovative research projects across LSE through a Global Sustainability Research Fund harnessing LSE’s inclusive and collaborative interdisciplinary approach that draws from our faculty’s expertise across the social sciences.
- Train future leaders through scholarship support available to students from around the world, building on LSE's renowned teaching, embedding sustainability across LSE’s core undergraduate and postgraduate courses and developing new joint degree programmes and Executive Education offers.
- Act as a powerful convening body, developing the local, national and international networks necessary to drive impactful change.
The idea for the Global School of Sustainability was conceptualised by Professor Lord Nicholas Stern and global greentech entrepreneur and LSE alumnus Lei Zhang (MSc Operational Research 2002).
The Global School is founded to solve complex global sustainability issues through social policy innovation. By advancing policy-shaping, governance and partnerships, collective action can be taken across industries and sectors. Alongside extensive support for sustainability work at LSE from numerous donors and funders over the past two decades, Lei Zhang has made an initial commitment of £25m GBP to advance the establishment of the Global School.
In making his commitment to co-found the initiative at his alma mater, LSE alumnus Lei Zhang said: “I believe that social policy innovation is critical for us to collectively reach net zero. The Global School of Sustainability will accelerate and advance research in this area to foster a greener and more responsible world.”
The new School brings together experts from across the social sciences and beyond, partnering closely with other leading academic institutions and experts around the world, including climate scientists, governments, NGOs, civil society and leaders in the business, finance and legal sectors.
On the announcement, LSE President and Vice Chancellor, Professor Larry Kramer, commented: “Climate change is already devastating our natural environment, with huge economic, political and social consequences. To stave off disaster, policymakers need to be guided by robust, evidence-based research. The Global School of Sustainability will bring together experts from across academia, industry and policy to explore ways forward, create networks to deliver change, and train the next generation of leaders to address this complex, global issue. I am immensely grateful for the vision and support of Lei Zhang which has made this possible, as well as our Strategy Board members, who will steer LSE in this endeavour.”
The Global School of Sustainability's inaugural Chair, Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, said: “The world is on an unsustainable path of growth and development. There is a real urgency to act to avoid the immense risks we face and there are great opportunities in a new and different path. But the challenges of creating that new way are difficult and deep. The obstacles lie in large measure in the economics, the politics, and society. They are also inescapably international. Thus, LSE is surely the right place for the crucial academic work and policy analysis to take place.
“We are very grateful for the vision and generosity of Lei Zhang that enables us to embark on this new School.”