The Environmental Defense Fund and Net Impact have partnered to create Climate Corps, embedding trained MBA students who identify energy efficiency improvements that cut costs and reduce emissions. This is a 3-month summer program; host companies provide managerial support and report implementation results over time.

The opportunity to become a host company may be most relevant to corporate entities that maintain large facilities to house their workforce, but would also be relavent to smaller businesses that have a large energy draw such as manufacturing, utilities, and datacenters; corporate real estate management firms; and innovators of energy management systems.  The 2008 host companies were Intuit, Yahoo!, Crescent Real Estate Equities, and Cisco Systems.

The 2008 Fellows uncovered efficiencies in lighting, computer equipment, and heating and cooling systems that could: save $35 million in net costs over five years, cut 120 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year—enough to power 10,000 homes, reduce over 57,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year—equivalent to taking more than 7,000 SUVs off the road. 

Access the EDF website to learn more about Climate Corps and how to apply to become a host company.