ASU’s historically strong School of Accountancy has a long-standing friendship with ‘big four’ accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) that goes back for many years. Hundreds, if not thousands, of ASU graduates have been employed in the firm. In 2022, however, with the planet’s climate change impacts increasingly coming to the fore, the firm’s relationship with ASU has expanded in a new direction.
ASU’s leadership and reputation in sustainability (including a recent 9th global ranking in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings) caught the attention of EY’s Global Corporate Responsibility team and the firm approached both W. P. Carey and the College of Global Futures to ask if they would jointly host an EY Climate Ideation Clinic on campus in Tempe.
In the past two years, EY Climate Ideation Clinics have engaged hundreds of students across the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, and Singapore — and they have generated many ideas. EY Climate Ideation Clinics are part of the the firm’s Ripples initiative, a program to “positively impact 1 billion lives by 2030.” These university-based clinics have been designed to guide university students through a unique design thinking ideation process on sector-specific climate change impacts and responses. Colin Tetreault of EY noted, “These Clinics are a win-win for the firm and the students because they infuse EY’s thought leadership in climate and sustainability with the fresh perspectives of students on real-world sustainability business challenges.”
In late April, the EY Climate Ideation Workshop gathered 25 undergraduate and graduate students from ASU’s College of Global Futures and W. P. Carey School of Business at the brand-new Rob and Melani Walton Center for Planetary Health (also known as ISTB-7) for a 2.5 hour design-thinking ideation program that concluded with student presentations in the building’s auditorium.
Written by Ryan Mores. For more information about ASU’s Executive and Professional Education please contact [email protected] to learn how ASU can support your sustainability goals.