Toronto’s Green Revolution: Harnessing Nature-Based Solutions for a Sustainable Urban Future
June 19th, 2023
Via Medium, a look at how Toronto is using nature-based solutions such as green roofs to build a sustainable urban future: Green roofs offer a multitude of environmental benefits. They serve as natural sponges, absorbing rainwater, reducing runoff, and mitigating urban flooding. By providing insulation, they help in reducing energy consumption and combatting the urban […]
Read more »As We Build harder, Hotter Cities: It’s Vital To Protect and Grow Urban Green Spaces
June 19th, 2023
Via The Conversation, an article on the importance of urban green spaces: Recent extreme weather events have provided a foretaste of how supercharged storms might threaten our future. So the release today of a new report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) is very good timing. Titled “Are we building harder, hotter cities? The vital […]
Read more »Air Conditioning Can’t Stop Climate Migration
June 19th, 2023
Via Bloomberg, commentary on how humans are being pushed out of our temperature comfort zone. It’s a good time to be in the air-conditioning business. As my colleagues at Bloomberg News write, an additional 1 billion cooling units are expected to be installed by the end of the decade. It’s one of the main ways in which […]
Read more »Hurricane Resilience: Hiding In Plain Sight
June 19th, 2023
Via Fast Company, a look at how leaders can explore and leverage green infrastructure to prepare for storm resilience? Preparation is an essential element of being a successful CEO. Preparation enables us to take advantage of opportunities, and it’s also essential to help our businesses withstand disasters of all kinds—including natural disasters. June 1 marks […]
Read more »Quantifying The Human Cost of Global Warming
June 19th, 2023
One in five people could live in dangerously hot conditions by the end of the century if global warming continues at its current pace, even if nations uphold their pledges under the Paris Agreement, scientists warned in a new peer-reviewed study. It’s the latest research published in recent days that points to the stark human […]
Read more »Is Green The New Black? Developers Rush To Make Offices Energy Efficient
June 19th, 2023
Via South China Morning Post, an article on how Hong Kong developers are rushing to make offices energy efficient to shrink carbon footprint, fight for tenants amid glut: Hong Kong’s government has set a goal to reduce buildings’ electricity consumption by 20 per cent to 40 per cent by 2050 from their 2015 levels Vacancies […]
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.