Since you’re reading the GreenMoney Journal it’s likely that you’ve already made the mental shift to sustainability, and if that’s the case, welcome! I believe that shift happens one mind at a time, one company, one technology, one university curriculum, one industry, one community at a time. Furthermore, I have never met a “former environmentalist.” (Summer 2010)
(Fall 2012) Twenty years from now, we will have either successfully transitioned from our current economic growth paradigm to a new model of Sustainable Capitalism or we will be suffering the calamitous consequences of our failure to do so. Likewise, sustainable investing will either remain a niche strategy or it will have supplanted mainstream investing.
Does the challenge of making informed decisions about your life seem far more complex today than it did even a short time ago? Does the future—yours, and that of the world—feel highly uncertain, perhaps even precarious? The tools we’re offering are designed to keep you nimble, which you’ll need to be as the ground under our feet continues to shift. Because although we can’t tell you how things will change, we do know that they will change. (Aug. 2014)
(July/Aug 2017) Responsible investing momentum is strong. For me, and for many of my generation, the future is clear: we are well on our way towards the installation of a vitally important system-level force for good, one that will protect future generations, indeed the planet itself. We have laid the groundwork for a financial system which functions globally to protect people and the planet.
(Sept 2015) Today\’s environmental challenges are bigger than ever. And a rapidly growing population coupled with climate change will only exacerbate current threats. The environmental movement must try new approaches and scale up our work so it’s bigger, better and faster.
It seems so obvious now: innovators are turning to nature for inspiration in chemistry, building, agriculture, energy, health, transportation, computing – even the design of organizations and cities. Biomimicry is now widely taught from kindergarten to university and practiced in all scales of enterprise. (July/Aug. 2017)
(Dec 2017) There are numerous lessons to be learned from experiences at Facebook. First, agnosticism comes at a price. We live in a values laden society. To presume that our wide spectrum of values can be discounted and factored out of the algorithmic equation ignores the current reality of our society and world. It is still people who are using the platform and people are imperfect. Of course humans are integral to Facebook and when complemented by algorithms, that incorporate ESG factors, they can make an excellent product even better.
Without a dramatic change in the way built environments are designed, constructed, and operated, the world has no chance of adequately addressing climate change. Architecture 2030 has spent over twelve years working with architects, designers and policymakers on programs and initiatives that will lead to zero emissions in the built environment by 2050. In 2014, I had the opportunity to present our “Roadmap to Zero Emissions” report, at COP21 in Paris, which sets out the country-specific international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets needed to avert irreversible and devastating climate change. (Sept. 2016)
(Feb 2014) “Eliminating poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice… Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. People have created and tolerated poverty. And it is people who will overcome it.”
In 2013 on Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday, children with crayons in Kazakhstan drew his face on the sidewalk. At the UN, Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan, who has been shot in the head by the Taliban, says Mandela has influenced her and she forgives her shooters. Later that year the world mourned his death but we still harvest lessons from this monumental man who has taught us so much, and left so much more to do.
We can’t completely predict what our world will look like in 25 years, but we constantly study trends to anticipate the rapid changes taking place in our industry. By 2040 it is estimated that: Global population will exceed nine billion; 40 cities will have populations over 10 million; Renewable energy will account for half of installed capacity and a third of electricity generation worldwide. Add shifting consumer attitudes about vehicle ownership to these insights and it is why I believe the auto industry is changing more today than it has in the past 50 years. (Sept./Oct. 2017)
