The team at the Climate Jobs Institute (CJI) believes that the climate crisis is an imperative to build a more sustainable, resilient, and climate-safe economy, and a tremendous opportunity to ensure that economic prosperity is broadly shared. For us, the key is union labor and leadership. 

CJI started as the ‘Labor Leading on Climate Initiative,’ spearheaded by executive director Dr Lara Skinner for over a dozen years before evolving into CJI in January 2023. The initiative also spurred the creation of Climate Jobs New York and Climate Jobs National Resource Center (CJNRC). As the academic partner to CJNRC, CJI helps seed and support a nationwide network of union-led climate jobs coalitions across 15 states and counting. 

Working with union leaders—many of whom represent workers in the building and construction trades—CJI co-develops state-level recommendations for projects, programs and policies that reduce emissions and increase resiliency at the speed and scale that science demands, all while creating good union jobs. 

Becoming an institute has also enabled CJI to scale its impact and conduct groundbreaking research on the clean energy transition. Last year, CJI published studies on the working conditions of New York and Texas’s clean energy industries. 

CJI is not only interested in making “climate jobs” synonymous with “good union jobs,” but also ensuring these jobs are accessible to disadvantaged communities and groups historically excluded from union careers.

The CJI team is excited to host three summer research fellows in Ithaca (356 ILR Research Building) and two in NYC (570 Lexington Avenue).

Summer fellows will collaborate with faculty and staff on ongoing applied research projects. 

Project topics include (but aren’t limited to):

• Renewable energy jobs modelling
• Union organizing in the renewable energy sector
• Union organizing in the green economy: worker solidarity in supply chains
• Just transition in the building sector: skills mapping for thermal energy networks
• Clean technologies: costs, emissions, and associated jobs
• Barriers to entry to union jobs
• Project Labor Agreements

Project tasks include (but aren’t limited to):

• Conducting research and literature reviews
• Coordinating and preparing for interviews/case studies
• Preparing presentations for convenings
• Proofreading and editing reports and other publications
• Collating data and data validation
• Supporting quality assurance review of sources and management of citations
• Grant writing
• Social media

In addition to learning about climate and clean energy and labor policy, summer fellows will have an opportunity to enhance their research, writing, and editing skills, and learn to collaborate as a member of an interdisciplinary research team. Fellows will also learn about effective communication, as we work on questions such as how to communicate our insights to union leaders, policymakers, industry, climate and environmental groups, and the general public.

This is a paid, full-time (35 hours per week) research experience and will last approximately eight weeks from June through the end of July. 

For fellows working in NYC, they are expected to be in the office when staff are in the office, which is two to three times per week. We also have staff in Ithaca.

For more information, visit the CJI website: https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/climate-jobs-institute