Expert Columns

While there clearly has been progress in higher education to help deploy climate and clean energy solutions, the key question now is, “Is the sector doing enough?” In this column, Tim Carter and Bridget Flynn of Second Nature explore how leveraging academic and educational resources could expand campus climate solution activity beyond its own needs and could allow new cross-sector partnerships to emerge.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of food retail chains that collect sustainability data and publish sustainability reports. However, there is much room for improvement in how companies measure sustainability and use data-driven insights to inform operational improvements. In this column, Peter Cooke and Jonathan Tan of Ratio Institute review common problems and offer new approaches for successful sustainability reporting.

In this letter to the Clean Energy Industry, Amy Bond of T-Mobile and Cheryl Comer of Duke Energy introduce Diversity in Clean Energy (DiCE), an action-based coalition working to advocate, utilize, and open doors of opportunity for diverse-owned businesses that operate within the clean energy value chain through collaborative efforts and collective influence. 

Better Buildings Challenge partner The Catholic University of America (CUA) isn’t just increasing energy efficiency: they’re also working to foster next generation of the buildings and decarbonization workforce. In this column, the Better Buildings Beat Team describes bringingtogether speakers from government, industry, universities, and nonprofits to cultivate connections among students, professionals, and university members.

Recognizing the importance of weaving equity and impact into its business and climate strategy, technology company Okta met with climate justice, social enterprise, environmental organizations, and funders as part of a “listening and learning” tour. In this column, Okta's Alison Colman and Lindsay Ward share their learnings to help other companies on their sustainability and climate equity journeys.

While electric vehicles presently only amount to a small percentage of new vehicles purchased in the US, now is time to make plans for how to charge all these EVs once they become the dominant form of transportation. Dr. Wolfgang Bauer of Michigan State University offers a solution: swappable batteries.