Duke’s Climate Commitment is rooted in a bold conviction to do something few other universities have attempted – to re-imagine higher education through the lens of the climate crisis. The North Stars below are designed to amplify the ambitions of Duke University’s Climate Commitment, inspiring and guiding Duke educators as they engage all Duke learners1 in fulfilling the transformative vision of this commitment. These North Stars are the compass that will steer our collective efforts, ensuring that every aspect of our work is shaped by a common vision of learning in a climate-changed world.

1. Climate and the Imperative for Change
Climate change poses major threats to the future of our planet and its biodiversity. With humility, we acknowledge the necessity of action that rises to the scale and urgency of this planetary crisis. As educators, researchers, learners, and advocates, we aim to play a constructive role that enables all life and ecosystems to flourish.

2. Collective Action and Resilience
Our students and our communities are among the first generations to grow up in a world disrupted by climate change. Climate change is also progressing faster than our current pace of change and is profoundly altering our relationships to the natural and social world. Our aim is to empower all Duke learners to understand these dynamics, and to constructively participate in the co-design of regenerative, climate-resilient ecosystems and societies.

3. A Commitment to Transformative Education
Climate change changes everything, including our pedagogies. We cannot do or teach the same things in the same ways that created our current challenges and expect to achieve different results. Our aim is to integrate climate and sustainability fluency across our entire educational mission.

4. Responsibility to Lead
As an institution of higher learning, Duke has a responsibility to address the climate challenges we face, as well as distinctive strengths with which to do so. We must mobilize our educational and research capabilities to create innovative insights, spark new conversations, foster breakthrough collaborations, and engage more broadly, deeply, and humbly with each other and our communities locally and globally.

5. The Vocation of Climate Action
Times of enormous challenge also hold the potential for lives and careers of great purpose. We aim to inspire and prepare current and future generations of thoughtful leaders and community members in all sectors who are committed to impactful climate action and transformative change.

The path to these goals is not prescribed. This is by design. The exact pathway towards these goals will necessarily look different for each Duke school, department, program, and unit. Each will chart its own path toward these North Stars, guided by the unique strengths and insights they bring.

As we act together, we expect to face challenges that are beyond our control, and surprises we hadn’t anticipated. Resistance may arise – within ourselves, our institutions, or in the wider world – and we will need to respond with resilience and creativity. Yet despite these obstacles, we are dedicated to working toward a vision of a university that leads with courage and purpose, inspiring a sustainable, inclusive, and flourishing future for all.

1 Our definition of Duke “learner” is expansive, including faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, staff, alumni, and community partners.
2 See Duke’s Climate and Sustainability Fluency Framework here.