Joel Makower @ Greenbiz
- 09 OCT 2024
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- Climate Rising
This is the fourth episode in our series on business and climate change in the media
and entertainment industry, where we’re diving into the business of news and storytelling
around climate change. Our prior episodes featured CNN, Netflix, and Sustainable Entertainment
Alliance. In this episode, we are hosting Joel Makower, the co-founder and Chair of
Trellis, formerly known as GreenBiz. Joel has been a pioneer in the climate media
space since he founded The Green Business Letter in 1991. Today, Trellis stands as
a leading independent media platform focused on the intersection of business, technology,
and sustainability. In this conversation, Joel will share insights into his journey,
the business strategy of a niche climate-focused digital media and event platform,
and the critical role of a media platform in advancing climate action. With a career
spanning over three decades at the intersection of media, business and climate, Joel
also offers valuable advice for those who are looking to make impact in climate.
This is the fourth episode in our series on business and climate change in the media
and entertainment industry, where we’re diving into the business of news and storytelling
around climate change. Our prior episodes featured CNN, Netflix, and Sustainable Entertainment
Alliance. In this episode, we are hosting Joel Makower, the co-founder and Chair of
Trellis, formerly known as GreenBiz. Joel has been a pioneer in the climate media
space since he founded The Green Business Letter in 1991. Today, Trellis stands as
a leading independent media platform focused on the intersection of business, technology,
and sustainability. In this conversation, Joel will share insights into his journey,
the business strategy of a niche climate-focused digital media and event platform,
and the critical role of a media platform in advancing climate action. With a career
spanning over three decades at the intersection of media, business and climate, Joel
also offers valuable advice for those who are looking to make impact in climate.
Hurricane Helene Spotlights Rising Prices for Home and Flood Insurance
Re: Ishita Sen
- 30 Sep 2024
- |
- ABC News
A Better Way to Measure Social Impact
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2024
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- Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
All impact investors report the financial returns from their funds and investments, and many provide metrics on intended social outcomes, such as numbers of individuals served, or quality jobs created. But investors do not supply metrics about their impacts on individuals’ and families’ lives, and until they do, social impact reporting is unlikely to approach the level of robustness associated with financial and environmental reporting. The authors of this article describe how Bayer’s Crop Science division has developed reliable stakeholder reported measures of the social impact of its inclusive growth projects based on an approach first pioneered in the healthcare sector.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners: Leading the Energy Transition
- SEPTEMBER 2024
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- Case
A leading global infrastructure fund debates whether and when to become engaged in the electrolysis and distribution of hydrogen, as part of the hydrogen economy and the global transtion to a net zero energy world. The proposed billion dollar project consists of wind and solar resources to generate electricity, as well as an electrolyzer component that could use that electricity to convert water to its base gases, hydrogen and oxygen. Obstacles in the program include both the usual risks and uncertainties of large project finance and public private partnerships for infrastructure, a gamble on future market prices for both electricity and hydrogen, and also the technological challenges of isolating, transporting, storing, and converting hydrogen back into useful energy. Considering the current and future capital and operating costs in the levelized cost of hydrogen, should the developers go ahead with the entire project, only build the wind and solar component, or scrap it and wait for technology to advance and more stable market prices to be discovered?
Aramco: Navigating the Energy Transition
- SEPTEMBER 2024
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- Case
In March 2024, Amin Nasser, president, and CEO of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco), had just delivered a speech about the future of energy at a global energy conference. The world was behind schedule in meeting long-term climate change goals. The global shift from fossil fuels to new energy technologies was fraught with challenges, yet filled with opportunity. Developed countries were pushing for a direct transition to new technologies by phasing out oil and gas, while developing nations focused on meeting growing energy demands and highlighting affordability in the transition. Amid these uncertainties, Aramco was working towards to achieve its sustainability goals and reducing its own direct and indirect carbon emissions. Aramco, the backbone of Saudi Arabia’s economy and its talent powerhouse, had to contend not only with playing a leadership role in the global energy transition, but being cognizant of the need to support Saudi Arabia’s ambitious societal reform project, Vision 2030, which sought to achieve economic diversification away from purely being oil-centric.
It’s Time to Unbundle ESG
- SEPTEMBER 20, 2024
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- Harvard Business Review (website)
ESG is at an inflection point. It has come to represent a broad and inchoate aspiration for what business should be doing beyond maximizing shareholder value. With ESG advocates on the defensive, business leaders need a new roadmap to determine which factors to incorporate into their business strategies and operations – and their political advocacy – and how they will communicate this to their stakeholders. Leaders should adopt a two-pronged approach: 1) Identify the sustainability issues that have the most potential impact on the bottom line and solve for them; and 2) Identify the most material negative impacts your firm is having on society and solve for them. Both of these require scanning for the biggest opportunities and threats that environmental, social, and governance issues pose to your company’s short- and long-term competitiveness.
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As we increasingly experience the effects of climate change – predicted by scientists over 50 years ago – business is vital.