Sustainability Leaders

The U.S. is a net importer of organic food, and demand for certified organic products represents an opportunity for domestic agricultural businesses. That was one of the main points to come from the latest episode of Sustainability Leaders, hosted by Emily Hobbs, Senior Advisor, BMO Climate Institute, and featuring Jessy Beckett Parr, Chief Program Officer, California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF).

"There is a strong and growing demand for certified organic products here in the United States. It's being driven by Millennials and Gen Z, but it's across all categories of age, demographic, geography," said Parr. "We have the power and the potential in American producers here domestically to meet the demand for organic.”

Renewable energy generation continues to grow and increase the need to store energy efficiently and economically for longer durations of time. In the latest episode of Sustainability Leaders, Jayen Veerapen, Senior Advisor with the BMO Climate Institute, explores how zinc-based batteries and storage assets could be an interesting alternative to lithium-ion battery chemistries. His guest is James Larsen, CEO of e-Zinc, an energy storage technology developer with projects in Canada and the US.

“At the stage we're at right now, the modest amount of renewable energy we actually have on the grid, it only really necessitates energy storage assets that have the ability to discharge energy for a few hours. But if you extrapolate out the curve and really think about what does 2030 look like, what does 2040 look like, and beyond, and think about the volume of renewable energy that's coming on line, it's going to create more and more significant imbalances between that supply and demand,” Larsen said.

In his New York Times-Bestselling book Cheaper, Faster, Better, Tom Steyer reframes climate change not as a crisis to fear, but as a once-in-a-century opportunity to build something better. In the latest episode of Sustainability Leaders, Melissa Fifield, Head of the BMO Climate Institute, and Grégoire Baillargeon, Vice-Chair BMO Climate Institute, sit down with Tom Steyer, Co-Executive Chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, to discuss his thoughts on investment opportunities and climate change.

Helium-3 is an important isotope for technological and energy innovation driving the net-zero transition. It's very rare on Earth but found commonly on the Moon. In the latest episode of Sustainability Leaders, Michael Torrance, Chief Sustainability Officer at BMO, catches up with Glen Martin, Chief Executive Officer of The Extraterrestrial Mining Company (XMC), to discuss mining Helium-3 on the Moon and how space exploration will be part of the energy transition on Earth.

In the latest episode of Sustainability Leaders, Emily Hobbs, Senior Advisor with the BMO Climate Institute, sits down with Matt Petersen, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. They discuss the role of startups and innovation in LA as communities rebuild after devastating wildfires. They also explored the importance of public-private partnerships as the second-most populous U.S. city prepares to host events such as the World Cup and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. “Los Angeles has an important role to play to reduce the impacts of the climate crisis and air pollution upon people's lives and health, while creating economic opportunity to help entrepreneurs and participants in the workforce to be part of the solution,” Petersen said.

Identifying the most promising innovations in clean energy and turning them into commercially viable solutions are not easy to do. In the newest episode of Sustainability Leaders, Michael Torrance, Chief Sustainability Officer with BMO, sits down with Tyson White, Director of Partnerships at world leading venture and catalyst investor Breakthrough Energy. Founded by philanthropist and investor Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy is a group of organizations that invests in clean energy innovations and climate solutions. The discussion covers promising innovations in the clean energy space, approaches to investment and how to lower the barriers to capital to foster more innovation.

It might seem obvious to say that the energy transition will require a lot of innovation to happen. But it's anything but obvious how a combination of technology, new thinking, and hard work will address our present-day energy challenges. In the newest episode of Sustainability Leaders, Michael Torrance, Chief Sustainability Officer, BMO hosts Denver Yu, an analyst with Los Angeles-based Generational Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm, to discuss his firm's investment theses. Joining Denver are three portfolio companies and their respective leaders: Mariah Francis Carter, CEO of Lumora Technologies; Josh Riedy, Founder and CEO of Thread; and Kevin Kong, Founder and CEO, Everstar.

In the latest episode of Sustainability Leaders, Melissa Fifield, Head of the BMO Climate Institute, discusses escalating water-related risks for businesses and the importance of public-private partnerships for water stewardship. She is joined by Jason Morrison, President of the Pacific Institute and Head of the CEO Water Mandate, an initiative of the UN Global Compact.

Addressing the increasingly complex problem of wildfires that threaten people, communities and economic assets, requires new ways of thinking and new technologies. That is the premise of Convective Capital, California-based venture capital firm that invests in companies trying to solve the global wildfire crisis. Jay Ribakove, Principal at Convective, joins Michael Torrance, Chief Sustainability Officer for BMO, on the latest episode of Sustainability Leaders to discuss some of the most promising fire mitigation and suppression innovations.

Agrivoltaics is an innovation in which land is simultaneously used for farming and solar energy production. The aim is to increase land use efficiency, produce income, and generate environmental and social value. In the latest episode of Sustainability Leaders, Melissa Fifield, Head of the BMO Climate Institute, sits down with Kathryn Beroš, Founder and Managing Director of KAP Industry, a global agrivoltaics solution provider, to learn how the technology could help address the challenge of water scarcity.