To Slash Building Emissions, Biomaterials Are Our Friends
April 10th, 2024
Via Anthropocene Magazine, an article on new research that indicates swapping conventional insulation with straw or hemp, and firing up wood pellets or a heat pump for warmth could slash Swiss building emissions by almost 90 percent: Buildings should be front and center in efforts to tackle climate change. Buildings account for 40 percent of global energy […]
Read more »Investors Tap Into Demand For Electric Buses With New Funding Model
April 10th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, an article on a fund that will help finance the electrification of London’s iconic red buses: A group of investors has launched a £100mn fund to help finance the electrification of London’s iconic red buses. Insurer Aviva and Rock Rail, a UK-based owner and asset manager of rolling stock, have […]
Read more »When Climate Goals, Housing Policy, and Corporate R&D Collide, Social Good Can Emerge
April 10th, 2024
Via Harvard Business School, an article on how grants designed to improve housing can make homes more energy efficient and save money for low-income families, providing a powerful way to confront climate change: For almost four years, Omar Asensio and his colleagues have been studying the impact of federal energy programs on low-income neighborhoods. The intersection of […]
Read more »Green Steel: Structural Change
April 10th, 2024
Via Quartz, an interesting interview examining how steelmaking could be 95% cleaner with the use of hydrogen: Gabriela: Green tea has a variety of health benefits. Green houses use humidity, sunlight, warmth to grow plants. But green steel, I don’t know, is it steel, you’ve painted green? I’m actually just grasping at straws on that last […]
Read more »Mexico City’s Metro System Is Sinking Fast. Yours Could Be Next
April 10th, 2024
Via Wired, a report on how subsidence is causing parts of Mexico City to sink, and it’s happening at an uneven rate. That’s bad news for its sprawling public transportation system: WITH ITS EXPANSE of buildings and concrete, Mexico City may not look squishy—but it is. Ever since the Spanish conquistadors drained Lake Texcoco to make […]
Read more »Communist-Era Apartment Blocks Dominate Eastern Europe – Now They’re Being Transformed
April 9th, 2024
Courtesy of BBC, a report on how Communist-era apartment blocks in Eastern Europe are being transformed: From Prague to Plovdiv, engineers and architects are giving a second life to communist-built apartment blocks in Central and Eastern Europe, ready for the climate change era. One of the oldest residents of one of the tallest building in […]
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.