ACCO members and staff conduct research projects, synthesize findings and produce publications that provide opportunities for members to learn from and shape best practices on a broad range of climate-related strategies and issues. These research reports, benchmark studies and white papers provide prospective authors and underwriters the opportunity to be recognized as thought leaders related to service offerings or targeted subject matter.

To supplement ACCO’s capabilities in this arena, ACCO is partnering with a select group of universities whose environmental management, sustainability and/or climate change focused graduate programs require students to conduct client-facing projects in order to complete masters requirements. This resources enables us to provide substantially greater capacity in our research services.

ACCO Client-Centered Group Masters Projects

Masters Projects (MPs) are considered original research (not to be as large as a masters thesis) that culminates in a publishable product. All MPs will either follow traditional scientific research formats or best practices in research, surveying or modeling in an appropriate field. The projects are typically either one semester or year in length, with student groups being assigned an advisor from the university’s faculty and a project manager from ACCO staff. These projects may include:

• Laboratory or field research;
• Management plans, handbooks, educational curricula, or other such products;
• Surveys, trends research or case studies;
• Business modeling;
• Policy analyses; and
• Quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of research findings.

Some MPs address a specific problem for a specific client, while other MPs address a problem that is of broader interest, where the connection to a real world problem might be more distant. All MPs must be consistent with ACCO’s mission (i.e. proposed projects outside the scope of ACCO’s operations or mission will not be considered).

University Graduate Student Research Programs

ACCO will submit project proposals to the following Master’s programs in environmental studies —considered by many to be the top environmental graduate schools in the country, attracting top level talent and producing future environmental leaders in all sectors.

• Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment (and Fuqua School of Business)
• Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara
• Arizona State University’s Sustainability School
• Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

Research Topics

Whether a project is assigned a graduate student team is ultimately up to the university and the graduate students themselves. ACCO will work to ensure that project proposals fit university guidelines and are attractive to graduate students. In general, a project will have a good chance of being accepted by the university partner if the MP:

• Can be completed in a single academic year;
• Can realistically and beneficially be addressed by a team of graduate students;
• Is a real world situation, rather than an overly theoretical or academic issue;
• Provides real benefits to the client;
• Has a clear objective and deliverable;
• Allows students to gain valuable experience for future environmental careers;
• Is based primarily on existing data sources (e.g. company energy data) and does not require time intensive data collection efforts;
• Is multidisciplinary; and
• Effectively utilizes student skills at a level commensurate with their graduate school education.

Project Management

ACCO’s Role — ACCO will manage the project throughout, handling both administrative duties and guiding research and analysis efforts. ACCO’s role is to make these research efforts as simple as possible for members so that they can focus on articulating the problem or question and benefiting from the recommendations and results.

Client’s Role — Clients will provide necessary resources to project team to support them with their research. Individuals proposing projects should participate in regularly scheduled conference calls and be available to respond to project group members who have questions in order to ensure that the project is meeting the client’s needs. These projects are meant to benefit ACCO members who propose them, and if there is a benefit to closely managing the project or being involved in all aspects of it, members are welcome to do that. If however, members would benefit most from simply receiving a report or set of recommendations at the end of the process, they can have minimal direct involvement.

Project Management Financial Requirements

MP projects differ greatly based on the scope of work and complexity of the project. Most projects will be billed on a flat fee basis (estimated range $2,500-$7,500). Once ACCO and the client have finalized the proposal to be submitted to the university partners, ACCO will provide a final project fee to the client. Half of the project fee is due before the project commences; the balance is due upon completion of the project.

ACCO gold and silver organizational members may offset part of the cost of the project by leveraging the dedicated research support hours included with membership.

Proposal Process

Publications and Sponsorship Recognition

ACCO will publish reports for each project completed. Reports will not include any client confidential business information or proprietary information. Clients will be recognized as the sponsor for publications resulting from their projects.

Timelines