Lead The Change

New York City Takes on Big Oil - A conversation with Dan Zarrilli, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of New York. 

On January 10th, New York City became the first major US city to announce that the City’s $189 billion pension funds would divest City funds from fossil fuel reserve owners within five years.  Currently, the City’s five pension funds hold approximately $5 billion in securities from over 190 fossil fuel companies.

To learn more about this, Bard MBA’s, Cindy Wasser spoke with Dan Zarrilli, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of New York.

You can learn more about this and other steps New York City is taking to mitigate Climate Change by visiting www1.nyc.gov

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In the process, the utility has become the first to help its ratepayers go off the grid, the first to offer residential solar customers the Tesla Powerwall battery and the first and only utility to achieve B Corp certification. And consumers have responded. Green Mountain Power has grown from serving 88,000 customers in 2008 to serving over 260,000 today, with revenues of more than $640 million and $2 billion in assets.

Last month, the Bard MBA’s Meghan Altman talked with Powell about the company’s transformative vision and where she sees the future of the energy system.

Powell has served as president and CEO of Green Mountain Power since 2008 and she’s been the backbone of its comprehensive restructuring and service quality improvement. In 2014, Powell was recognized by POWER-GEN as the Woman of the Year. In 2016, Fast Company named her one of the 100 most creative people in business and in 2017 CEO Connection designated her one of the top 25 most influential women of the mid-market.

Transitioning to the Circular Economy: Thomas Singer Profiles Seven Companies Making the Shift

Thomas Singer felt that there was already plenty of good writing about the theory behind the circular economy. So, when he and his Conference Board colleagues thought about what they wanted to contribute to the conversation, they focused on case studies: “real, practical examples of companies that have been involved in these types of initiatives.”

The resulting 2017 report, Business Transformation and the Circular Economy: A Candid Look at Risks and Rewards, profiles the strategies and successes of seven companies at the forefront of the transition to an economy based on recovery, reunse and regeneration.

Bard MBA student Carolyn Pincus spoke recently with Singer about his work and what he learned about why companies like Philips and Waste Management are increasingly pursuing circular economy initiatives.

Thomas Singer is a Principle Researcher in corporate leadership at the Conference Board. His work focuses on CSR and sustainability issues, and he’s the author of numerous other publications, including the comprehensive sustainability benchmarking report, Sustainability Practices.

When “Made in America” Means “Made Sustainably”

Nick Silver — actuary, economist and onetime mainstream finance professional — understands the consequences of the financial system continuing in its current form. Which is why his new book, "Finance, Society and Sustainability: How to Make the Financial System Work for the Economy, People and Planet," argues that to avoid collateral damage to the economy, society and the environment, we need to re-engineer the system.

Silver is also the managing director of Callund Consulting, a specialist consultancy that advises developing country governments on social insurance. He has advised the U.N., U.K. and EU on carbon markets, climate finance in developing countries and managing risk from climate change. 

Bard MBA faculty member Kathy Hipple spoke recently with Silver about his background in finance and how it led him to write his book. Their conversation explores both the book and Silver's work with Climate Bonds Initiative, which Silver co-founded to mobilize the $100 trillion bond market for climate change solutions.