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15 Years of Cornell Atkinson

A15 Background #1

Driving Real-world Impact Since 2010

Over the past 15 years, Cornell Atkinson has been at the forefront of advancing sustainability efforts by uniting experts and external partners to address complex global challenges. By transforming knowledge to impact through this work, the center’s legacy of impact is defined by groundbreaking collaborations, innovative solutions, and a commitment to a more sustainable future. Innovation for Impact Fund (IIF) grants, in particular, have driven impact on public opinion, corporate practices and products, or government policies.

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IIF Projects Had External Impact

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Grants Awarded

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Faculty Fellows

Our Impact in Action

New York Outcomes Fund

In collaboration with a statewide network of partners, our New York Outcomes Fund is accelerating the adoption of regenerative agriculture in New York’s Lake Ontario watershed.

Bridging the Gap Between Climate Science and Policy

Toby Ault (Cornell CALS) is bringing climate experts, practitioners, and decision-makers together to address drought in a warming world.

David Atkinson, President Kotlikoff, and Provost Bala cut the ribbon in front of Atkinson Hall on 4/9/2025

Atkinson Hall Opens

Atkinson Hall opened in early 2025 thanks to generous funding by the center’s founding benefactors, David and Patricia Atkinson. Aligning with Cornell Atkinson’s sustainability and research to impact goals, the building has been designed to be fossil-fuel free in support of Cornell’s broader efforts to reduce, and eventually eliminate, fossil fuel use across campus. Through the use of several innovative systems, building energy use is modeled to reduce consumption by more than 30%.

Read about the Atkinson Family’s long-time support of the center.

Linda Shi

“Cornell Atkinson's visionary support for our usual work at the intersections of land tenure, affordable housing, climate change, and nature-based solutions enabled us to build new university-NGO-city collaborations and identify policy barriers to climate and housing justice. The interdisciplinarity of this research makes it difficult to secure traditional research funding, and Atkinson's flexibility and continued support, beyond the funding itself, has been critical to our success.”

Linda Shi (Cornell AAP/City & Regional Planning)
2024 EDF IIF Awardee
Meredith Holgerson

"This funding has been of tremendous benefit to us because it provides us the resources to take our project well beyond a prototype. This gives us the chance to have a much larger impact on our community that we otherwise could, and increases the potential scientific impact of our device.”

Meredith Holgerson (Cornell CALS/Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)
2024 EDF IIF Awardee
Mario Herrero

“Cornell Atkinson's support has been transformative in helping us launch research projects, demonstrate progress, and subsequently raise the additional funding needed to undertake complex, longer-term research collaborations.”

Mario Herrero (Cornell CALS/Global Development)
The 2030 Project - 2023 Fast Grant Awardee

“This was a very successful project that improved Walmart Corporation's GHG accounting, helped provide valuable tool and information to important environmental NGOs working on agricultural sustainability, and was used by a Canadian Province to improve their GHG accounting. The tool has also been used to educate farmers, students, policymakers, and others about some key aspects of accurate accounting of GHG reductions from regenerative agricultural practices.”

Peter Woodbury (Cornell CALS/School of Integrative Plant Science), Dominic Woolf (Cornell CALS/School of Integrative Plant Science), and Christina Tonitto (Environmental & Energy Study Institute)
2020 Walmart IIF Awardees
Fred Krupp (EDF) and David Lodge (Cornell Atkinson Director) at 15 year celebration

Celebrating 15 Years of Cornell Atkinson

Our full-day conference showcased the work of Cornell Atkinson while celebrating the partnerships and researchers that make its work possible.

More than 20 Cornell scientists and partners from EDF, Clean Air Task Force, TNC, Frontier Co-op, Nexwell, GoPro, and Sunnking showcased projects that are at the forefront of sustainable solutions — from preventing pandemics and protecting pollinators to accessing deep geothermal energy, recycling renewable-energy batteries.

Watch a recording of select sessions from the event.

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