Fellowship Program

IBE’s graduate fellowship program enhances our ability to expand beyond client work and drive industry transformation more broadly. IBE graduate fellows publish whitepapers and other tools, free to the public, that guide the entire green building movement forward.

Program Objective

The goals of the fellowship program are to further IBE’s mission to advance the development of healthy, thriving built environments while supporting graduate student success and preparing students for professional careers after graduation. Fellows expand IBE’s capacity to translate academic research to practice through industry-transforming tools.

Program Outcomes

IBE fellows receive funding to develop professional resources such as whitepapers, case studies, educational resources, and policy briefs. During their year-long tenure, fellows work with an interdisciplinary team, gaining exposure to the many facets of sustainability, and receiving professional mentoring and sustainability skills training.

IBE fellows come from many academic disciplines and contribute to the industry in diverse ways. For example:

  • A Masters in Greenhouse Gas Management and Accounting candidate is developing a model to predict greenhouse gas emissions impacts from new development.
  • A Masters of Public Health candidate is conducting research to inform a new lifelong housing certification and creating tools to communicate the values and principles of lifelong housing.
  • A Communications Ph.D. candidate is crafting a whitepaper that introduces a competency model for regenerative practice.
  • A Civil and Environmental Engineering D. candidate is developing a model to assess the impact of urbanization on stream quality.
  • A Masters in Sustainable Enterprise candidate is developing a toolkit to support low-budget, tropical K-12 schools in implementing the Whole-School Sustainability Framework.

Supporters

In 2016, IBE was designated as a Program in Research and Scholarly Excellence (PRSE) for setting a standard of excellence in research, teaching, and service that serves as a model for CSU programs and beyond. This designation by CSU’s Office for the Vice-President of Research provided seed funding, which was enhanced by CSU’s Graduate School, to establish IBE’s fellowship program. But IBE needs additional support to continue this game-changing program.

Help Us Transform the Industry

If you are a CSU graduate student, apply for an IBE fellowship. (Applications for the 2019-20 academic year will be due in March/April 2019; please check back.)

If you are a community member, your donation will help sustain the IBE Fellowship Program, supporting our capacity to guide the entire green building movement forward.

What our Fellows Are Saying

"The IBE fellowship has enabled me to take skills I am developing through my academic program and apply these to a real-life project. This is often something that students are unable to do through their degree programs alone. I am very aware of how stand out real-life experience will be for a future employer when the time comes for me to begin my career. This research is rewarding as I can see the end outcome being a viable tool that will help city planners and developers assess the environmental impact of different aspects of a district scale redevelopment. Overall, the fellowship has been an amazing learning opportunity and I have made (and am still building) a network of professionals—not only IBE staff, but also IBE project partners and others I’ve met through my fellowship—who work in sustainable development toward a carbon neutral future."

- Hazelle Tomlin, Masters in Greenhouse Gas Management and Accounting candidate

“The IBE fellowship has been very valuable in expanding my horizons, both personally and professionally. It has been really rewarding to get a different perspective on sustainability – thinking more about social and institutional sustainability rather than just environmental/ecological sustainability. The fellowship has made me realize how important people’s decision-making is to achieving sustainability. As an engineer, I can give people technical solutions but ultimately I need to communicate why it is important and convince others to prioritize it. One of the most useful outcomes of the IBE experience has been meeting people in different fields, learning how they approach problems and what issues are important to them.”

- Rod Lammers, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering