March – June 2019: Susilo Partners with WBUR and Harvard on 5-Part Climate Change Series

Business is the main source of the greenhouse gases that are causing the Earth’s climate to change. Business is also the main source of new products, services and business models that may save us from wholesale climate calamity. This 5-part series, featuring leading thinkers from business, environmental advocacy groups and area universities, will explore what businesses are doing, can do and should do to confront climate change.

Part 1: Open for Business?

In deciding where to locate, managers take into account proximity to workers, customers, and infrastructure. But climate change—and associated sea level rise, extreme weather, drought, wildfires, and political and security risk—is changing the calculus of where businesses set up shop and how they manage their supply chains. What new costs is climate change posing for large manufacturers that buy inputs and sell products in a global marketplace? Will businesses of the future retreat from the coast to areas less prone to climate disruption? What will those shifts mean for coastal cities like Boston?

Part 2: Food, Diet and Climate

The food industry contributes a lot to the climate change problem, but it also offers solutions. From sustainable supply chains to plant-based burgers with the taste and texture of beef and meat-like protein grown in the lab, new foods are exploding onto restaurant menus and family dinner plates. What challenges are companies facing as they introduce these new foods into the marketplace? How fast can we expect these new foods to catch on? And what are companies that are known for serving traditional meat doing to reduce their carbon footprint? Is big agribusiness getting on board with these changes–or standing in the way?

Part 3: Climate Politics and Business

In the United States, business has controlled the policy agenda for addressing climate change at the federal level, and the result has been obfuscation and delay. Today more and more business leaders are voicing support of some form of carbon tax or other mechanism to put a price on carbon. What is driving industry action and where will it lead? What is the role for business leaders in climate policy?

Part 4: The Roadmap of the Future: Transportation

In Massachusetts, the transportation sector generated more greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector, and the pressure is on to make improvements. The specter of climate change is shaking up the business strategies of traditional automakers and giving a big boost to alternatives like peer-to-peer car sharing, biking, and scooters. What will the transportation system of the future look like? What are the barriers and how are upstart companies tackling them? How are big car companies responding?

Part 5: Energy Transitions

We cannot confront climate change without wholesale changes in our sources of energy. What companies are leading the transition to fossil-fuel-free energy, what barriers are they facing, and how are they tackling those barriers? How are traditional electric utility shifting their business strategies to accommodate or even promote new, cleaner sources of energy? And how are new entrants to this old sector disrupting the electricity industry with clean energy innovations?

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