Outreach & Leadership Academy (Center)

The Outreach & Leadership Academy (OLA) is the Hariri Foundation’s specialized academy for environmental sustainability and urban resilience. OLA seeks to leverage green education and capacity building to address climate change. OLA operates through 3 tracks:

1. Environmental Education

This track offers comprehensive capacity-building activities, including courses and training workshops, which aim to empower environmentally conscious individuals and organizations to combat climate change through mitigation and adaptation through communities of practice. The track includes OLA’s Green Ambassadors Program and the Blue Ambassadors Program, comprising a set of courses and training workshops for young people and entrepreneurs within areas of climate action, climate diplomacy, urban sustainability, sustainable marine practices, as well as coastal city management and development.

2. Environmental Experimentation

This track increases experiments in sustainability transitions within various systems of the built environment through evidence-based projects and activities. It aims to institutionalize and stabilize innovative practices and nature-positive solutions, accelerating their adoption. These experiments also serve as a knowledge source for courses and workshops provided under the Environmental Education track, integrating activities and ensuring synergies through a feedback loop of knowledge from theory to practice. The track includes OLA’s Circular Economy Program (OLACircles), comprising a set of awareness-building workshops on circularity, as well as digital advocacy and engagement tools such as the OLACircles.com platform and the track’s social media pages. For more information about the circularity initiatives at the Outreach & Leadership Academy, visit olacircles.com.

3. Environmental Planning

This track comprises strategic thinking and research, focusing on leveraging points in socio-ecological, socio-technical, and socio-institutional systems to accelerate green practices, experimentation, and skill development, and to redefine business as usual. The combined learning of the program incorporates global frameworks and employs scientific methods in its operations. This approach is central to the tracks’ functionalities and aligns with the strategic agendas outlined in the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.