EDF Climate Corps Blog
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Invest to Grow: EDF’s newest report highlights the opportunities created by the strategic investments behind California’s landmark emissions reduction program
EDF Staff | July 16, 2012
Over the past 20 years, the unprecedented growth and resiliency of California’s clean and efficient economy has continued throughout economic recessions and budget crises – even while many other sectors of the economy have shrunk. This growth has created a statewide infrastructure of companies providing the products and services that are at the heart of the transition towards a lower carbon economy envisioned by California’s landmark climate law.
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Help Wanted: Private Equity Firms Add Staff to Manage Environmental Risk and Opportunities
EDF Staff | July 13, 2012
A growing number of private equity firms are hiring in-house professionals and engaging outside experts to better manage environmental, social, and governance risks and opportunities. Private Equity International's Responsible Investment Handbook 2012 highlighted this trend earlier this year. In particular, the handbook spotlighted the fact that private equity leaders are adding new and much deeper social and environmental capabilities to their in-house teams.
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Fighting the Same Fight: EDF Climate Corps Crosses Paths with C40, BBC, Others
Katie Ware | July 13, 2012
By Katie Ware and Andrew Willens
Heat waves. Droughts. A disappointing climate summit. This summer’s headlines have been less than encouraging for the fight against global warming.
Nonetheless, the EDF Climate Corps team sees reason for optimism. Rio+20 did not produce the binding international climate commitments many had hoped for, but it did demonstrate "big power shifts around the world."
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An EDF Climate Corps Fellow’s Take on Business Model Innovation
EDF Climate Corps fellow | July 12, 2012
Fellow: Alicia Cushman, 2012 EDF Climate Corps Fellow at The JBG Companies, MBA Candidate at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business
Organization: The JBG Companies (JBG)
Opportunity: 9.2 million square feet of commercial real estate space and one eager MBA student
Summary: “A Whole Different Kind of Innovation (Wall Street Journal, June 18th)," declares that business model innovation is "crucial to meeting the challenges associated with energy use," perhaps even more so than technological innovation. Naturally, as an EDF Climate Corps fellow working with The JBG Companies this summer, I had a few thoughts of my own on the matter.
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Eight Ways National Geographic is Engaging Employees to Cut Costs
EDF Climate Corps fellow | July 11, 2012
Fellow: Katie DeWitt, 2012 EDF Climate Corps fellow at National Geographic Society, MBA candidate at University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business
Organization: National Geographic Society (Nat Geo)
Opportunity: 1,307 passionate employees
Summary: Though the National Geographic Society is best known for inspiring people to care about the planet through educational materials and breathtaking images, its internal environmental activities are equally impressive…though less visible to the public. This summer, I'm getting an inside view of those activities and writing to tell you what I see.
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Partnering for a Better City: Au Bon Pain Fellow Invited to Boston Sustainability Conference
EDF Climate Corps fellow | July 11, 2012
Fellow: Jana Holt, 2012 EDF Climate Corps Fellow at Au Bon Pain, Dual MBA/MEM Candidate at The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. Organization: Boston’s A Better City Challenge for Sustainability (ABC) Opportunity: “The private sector has the ability to influence social change on the larger community quickly and efficiently. A Better City Challenge for Sustainability is designed to leverage this ability and make Greater Boston a leader in sustainable business practices.” – ABC’s Web site Summary: Jana Holt presented EDF Climate Corps and the wisdom of energy efficiency to members of Boston's A Better City Challenge earlier this month. Her favorite part? The two-way street of sustainability education she's now a part of.
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Finding the Silver Buckshot: EDF Climate Corps fellows focus on lighting
Andrew Willens | July 10, 2012
Turning profits from energy efficiency can be tricky, often because there's an encyclopedic menu of investment options available to organizations but no clear method for prioritizing them. As energy guru Amory Lovins puts it, "there's obviously no silver bullet – but there's a lot of silver buckshot." This blog post is the first in a series we will run throughout the summer, highlighting the pieces of silver buckshot identified by EDF Climate Corps fellows.
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"Superior Energy Performance" Accreditation: The Future of Industrial Efficiency?
EDF Climate Corps fellow | July 2, 2012
Organization: Ingersoll Rand
Opportunity: 72 facilities worldwide
Challenge: Acquiring Superior Energy Performance (SEP) accreditation
Summary: Ingersoll Rand is seeking Superior Energy Performance (SEP) accreditation at its Trane plant in Tyler, Texas. The company brought me on board as an EDF Climate Corps fellow this summer to focus on bringing this project to fruition. Before I got started, I needed to figure out just what exactly SEP is and why it’s so important.
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QTS 2012: Continuing the Quest for Data Center Energy Efficiency
EDF Climate Corps fellow | June 27, 2012
Organization: Quality Technology Services (QTS)
Opportunity: 3 million square feet of data center space
Challenge: Data centers require plenty of energySUMMARY: QTS announced yesterday it hired Sukrit Sehgal, QTS’s 2011 EDF Climate Corps fellow, as its first ever director of sustainability. Even more exciting (for me!), is that QTS hired me as its second EDF Climate Corps fellow to drive further steps toward energy efficiency this summer. In addition to conventional data center energy challenges, QTS also faces entirely unique challenges due to the nature of its service as a multi-tenant data center (MTDC) provider.
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EDF Climate Corps Trains its Biggest Cohort to Date
Andrew Willens | June 15, 2012
Nearly a hundred enthusiastic Generation Y professionals recently gathered in Charlotte, NC to soak up decades of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) expertise at the fifth annual EDF Climate Corps Training. After a week of lectures, group exercises and building tours, these fellows are now scattered across the country, championing the financial and environmental benefits of energy efficiency in 88 companies, cities and universities.
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