The Environmental Policy and Planning group maintains close links with the world of applied public policy.

MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program
 

Twice each year the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program and EPP offer a two-day executive training program entitled, Dealing With An Angry Public. Based on the book by the same name, written by Lawrence Susskind &Patrick Field (Free Press,1995), it offers instruction on: (1) the best ways of responding to community and consumer groups that have been hurt by the actions of government and private companies; (2) mediation techniques that can be used to rebuild trust and re-establish communications when community and consumer groups are upset about proposed actions or facilities; and (3) new strategies to establish dialogue with groups opposed in principle to policies, programs, projects, or products. With the help of colleagues at the Harvard Business School, and the research faculty in EPP, the Angry Public Workshop has helped more than 1,750 public and private sector officials understand how to apply negotiation and conflict resolution techniques in a wide range of problem solving situations.
MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program web site

Consensus Building Institute, Inc.
  

The Consensus Building Institute, Inc. (CBI), is a not-for-profit organization established in March 1993. It is closely allied with the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. CBI's mission is to: (1) undertake and publish the results of independent studies and assessments of consensus building and dispute resolution efforts in the United States and abroad; (2) assist public and nonprofit agencies and institutions in the United States and abroad in their efforts to develop and employ consensus building and dispute resolution in performing their public-interest functions; and (3) conduct workshops, seminars and other training programs, and develop and disseminate instructional materials and practice guides, designed to advance public understanding of the theory and practice of dispute resolution and consensus building. Graduate students in EPP work as paid interns at CBI.
The Consensus Building Institute, Inc. web site

CLF Ventures is the non-profit consulting arm of the Conservation Law Foundation: New England’s most influential environmental advocacy organization. The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) is the oldest and largest regional environmental advocacy organization in the United States and has worked for forty years to preserve and protect New England’s people, natural resources, and communities. As CLF’s strategy consulting group, CLF Ventures works with private and public sector clients to promote projects that meet the dual goals of environmental sustainability and profitability. CLF Ventures’ strong reputation for environmental protection, technical expertise and successful public advocacy and community empowerment have helped it create innovative solutions to some of the regions most difficult and controversial development challenges. Current and previous clients have included local towns and municipalities, the electric power industry (nuclear, natural gas and renewable) as well as petrochemical and extraction industries. CLF Ventures continues to work with many DUSP interns on a broad range of sustainable development projects.
CLF Ventures