How to Get Big Tech to Pay Your Energy Bills
March 24th, 2026 Via The Washington Post, a look at how the most overlooked U.S. power plant isn’t a gas turbine or solar farm. It’s your house (and thousands of others), and firms are paying to use them to power [...]
Urban Forestry: Climate Infrastructure Hiding In Plain Sight
March 5th, 2026 Via Harvard’s Salata Institute, a report on how Boston and Cambridge treat trees as a public system, not decoration. Three contributors to these cities’ urban forest plans explain how heat [...]
Many State Flood Maps Are Not Up to Date. Connecticut Is Trying to Fix That
February 26th, 2026 Via Bloomberg, a look at a new tool offers the public detailed estimates of their flood exposure, but some worry risk disclosure will impact home values: Connecticut is taking an unusual step to [...]
Boston: Piloting a New Type of Heat Pump that is as Easy To Install as a Window AC
February 17th, 2026 Via WBUR, a report on how Boston is piloting a new type of heat pump that’s as easy to install as a window AC: Boston, like many cities in the Northeast, has a building problem. More [...]
Insurance: At the Eye of the Climate Storm
February 10th, 2026 Watch this breakout session from the 2025 Harvard Climate Symposium. Featuring Peter Tufano, Harvard Business School; Dave Jones, Climate Risk Initiative; Barney Schauble, greenthread; and Ishita [...]
Growing Greenery: The Rise of Urban Green Space
February 9th, 2026 Via Triple Pundit, a look at how green space provides abundant advantages to urbanites, from cutting air pollution and managing heat islands to increasing physical activity. Planners in major cities [...]

ABOUT
BLACK SWANS GREEN SHOOTS
Black Swans / Green Shoots examines the collision between urbanization and resource scarcity in a world affected by climate change, identifying opportunities to build sustainable cities and resilient infrastructure through the use of revolutionary capital, increased awareness, innovative technologies, and smart design to make a difference in the face of global and local climate perils.

'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.