What If Buildings Were Designed Like Trees?
August 6th, 2024
What if we designed buildings like trees? To emit oxygen, sequester carbon, fix nitrogen, create food, and distill water. Here is a recent presentation at the 15th Real Estate Development Summit—Europe which explored just that. Let’s use nature as a model and a tool so that our structures are as nurturing to the planet as […]
Read more »Your Future Air Conditioner Might Act Like A Battery
August 6th, 2024
Courtesy of MIT Technology Review, a report on new technologies that store cooling power for when it’s needed most: As temperatures climb on hot days, many of us are quick to crank up our fans or air conditioners. These cooling systems can be a major stress on electrical grids, which has inspired some inventors to […]
Read more »Can Chief Heat Officers Protect U.S. Cities From Extreme Heat?
August 6th, 2024
Courtesy of Grist, a report on chief heat officers: appointed officials who have the life-saving solutions the public needs to stay safe from rising temperatures. But they don’t have political power. Summertime heat in the United States has always put human health at risk. But the past few years have marked a departure from the […]
Read more »Four Lessons from Melbourne: How Cities Can Build Neighborhood Batteries That People Love
August 6th, 2024
Via Fast Company, a look at how Melbourne built public and political will for its work to develop local energy storage—and its success can be an example for other cities looking to do the same thing: Fossil fuel enthusiasts, when defending their carbon emitting industry, love saying that the wind doesn’t always blow, and the […]
Read more »Bronze Age Technology Could Aid Switch to Clean Energy
August 5th, 2024
Via Stanford’s School of Sustainability, a report on new research that finds the cost-effective thermal properties that make “firebricks” suitable for energy storage could speed up the world’s transition to renewable energy at low cost: Technology with roots going back to the Bronze Age may offer a fast and inexpensive solution to help achieve the […]
Read more »Heat Pumps Could Help Cut China’s Building CO2 Emissions By 75%, Says IEA
August 3rd, 2024
Via Carbon Brief, a look at the potential benefit of heat pumps in China: Wider adoption of heat pumps could accelerate decarbonisation of heating in China’s carbon-intensive buildings and light industry sectors, a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) says. The report, published in collaboration with Tsinghua University, finds that, by using heat pumps as part of China’s strategy to reach carbon neutrality […]
Read more »'Black Swans' are highly improbable events that come as a surprise, have major disruptive effects, and that are often rationalized after the fact as if they had been predictable to begin with. In our rapidly warming world, such events are occurring ever more frequently and include wildfires, floods, extreme heat, and drought.
'Green Shoots' is a term used to describe signs of economic recovery or positive data during a downturn. It references a period of growth and recovery, when plants start to show signs of health and life, and, therefore, has been employed as a metaphor for a recovering economy.
It is my hope that Black Swans / Green Shoots will help readers understand both climate-activated risk and opportunity so that you may invest in, advise, or lead organizations in the context of increasing pressures of global urbanization, resource scarcity, and perils relating to climate change. I believe that the tools of business and finance can help individuals, businesses, and global society make informed choices about who and what to protect, and I hope that this blog provides some insight into the policy and private sector tools used to assess investments in resilient reinforcement, response, or recovery.