Zurich Financial Services Group has made a $1 million contribution to the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management to endow a program to bring international leaders in Bren core research areas to the campus. Zurich, which is a Bren School corporate partner, will also provide the school with additional funds to expand the visitors program immediately.

The Zurich Distinguished Visitors program will allow the Bren School to attract international leaders in environmental policy, law, business, and science to enrich the intellectual life of the campus community and share their insights on issues critical to climate change, according to a Bren School announcement.

Visitors, who will be in residence for periods ranging from one week to one quarter, will teach short courses, offer public lectures, conduct seminars, and lead colloquia and symposia planned around their research, professional endeavors, or areas of expertise.

Chancellor Henry T. Yang praised Zurich and emphasized the endowment as an opportunity to extend the Bren’s interdisciplinary perspective. “UC Santa Barbara is tremendously grateful to Zurich Financial Services for their generous and visionary gift,” he said. “Our Bren School has led the way to an innovative and interdisciplinary approach that integrates environmental science, management, economics, and policy in our teaching and research.”

Bren Professor Charles Kolstad, a lead author on the most recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, said: “Many of these events and activities will directly address such climate-related issues as carbon emissions trading, sustainable building design, renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource productivity, impacts, mitigation, adaptation, technological innovations, and more.”

The endowment is part of an institutional outreach effort associated with a company-wide Climate Initiative launched by Zurich last month to develop new insurance products that address risks associated with climate change, and to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. Details of the initiative were announced at a press conference from company headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, which Bren School Dean Ernst von Weizsäcker attended via a live feed in Los Angeles.

“There is rapidly growing demand for teaching in the areas of climate and policy, and so we are very grateful to receive this generous funding from Zurich Financial Services for our Distinguished Visitors Program, which dramatically expands the available resources for bringing leading climate experts to the school and to our students,” said von Weizsäcker.

As part of the initiative, Zurich CEO James J. Schiro is forming a Climate Change Advisory Council to provide the company, which employs approximately 58,000 people in 170 countries, with climate, economic, and policy expertise. He introduced von Weizsäcker and former U.S. Congressman Sherwood Boehlert as the council’s first two members.