Addison’s Judy Sandford Teaching New Sustainability Communication Course at Columbia’s Earth Institute

In an ideal partnership of the private sector informing academia and vice versa, Judy Sandford, senior strategist for sustainability communications at Addison, is lecturing in the M.S. in Sustainability Management (MSSM) program, jointly administered by Columbia University’s Earth Institute and its School of Continuing Education. In teaching “Sustainability Communication Strategy and Reporting,” a new course that she created, Judy draws on years of advising some of the world’s largest companies on the topic.

The MSSM program, instituted in 2010, brings together state-of-the-art environmental measurement tools, cutting-edge environmental science, and world-class management and policy studies to help students fully understand the systemic role of sustainability in any organization. Its goal is to create a sustainable economy, society and environment.

Judy brings invaluable first-hand knowledge and experience to the Institute’s students, having founded the sustainability reporting practice at Addison. This work—comprising analysis, stakeholder engagement and transparent communications—has led her to advise such powerhouse clients as GE, Merck and Kimberly-Clark, resulting in print and digital sustainability and CSR reports.

“I really enjoy the enthusiasm and inquisitiveness of the students,” says Judy, who has lectured at Columbia and New York University in previous years as well. “They remind me of the importance of the work I do, and they help me to think critically about my day-to-day interactions with clients.”

Read Judy’s Q&A on the Earth Institute website