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The award-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato has been called the “world’s scariest economist.” Why? She challenges us to reconsider capitalism as it exists today. Focusing on innovation-led, inclusive, and sustainable growth, Mazzucato examines the critical — and misunderstood — role that governments play in fostering innovation. Her latest book, The Value of Everything,...
Meet three disruptive business leaders — all part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network — who drive significant economic value by leveraging emerging technologies to create sustainable, inclusive, and efficient business models in drug delivery, banking, and community-focused finance. Putting values-based leadership first, they address societal needs and drive economic gro...
Every year, one-third of all the food produced on the planet is lost or wasted, an amount valued at about one trillion dollars. If just 25 percent of that waste could be avoided, it would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people. Expiration dates that have no meaning to food safety, a reluctance to sell fruits and vegetables with cosmetic blemishes, and retail over-stoc...
As the climate crisis deepens, so too must global investment and action on sustainable climate solutions. As RISE Climate turns one, join financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin and TPG’s Jim Coulter for a conversation on lessons learned about financing and scaling companies dedicated to climate innovation. While ESG comes under fire from critics like Elon Musk and Mike Pe...
Over the past few years, companies have come off the sidelines regarding major policy issues from gun violence to climate change. For Levi Strauss & Co and Patagonia, advocating for their values and modeling good corporate behavior is right up there with selling jeans and puffy jackets. Here’s a look behind their thinking.
Health systems contribute significantly to the forces driving climate change, given the vast quantities of energy they consume and the enormous volumes of waste they generate. In the US, the health sector produces eight percent of the nation’s total emissions, while Brazilian hospitals account for 10 percent of that country’s energy use. Health systems can reduce their car...
The world’s biggest banks and investors have pledged $150 trillion in assets to tackle climate change. But are these commitments actually getting us closer to net zero, considering that many of those making pledges are still profiting from fossil fuels? We know that climate change will require transformation at a scale never seen before; can the financial system propel us...
World order is never in stasis for too long. And indeed, we seem to be witnessing a historic shift now. The relatively stable decades after World War II saw gains for global democracies, rapid economic growth fueled by globalization, and the birth of the Internet. But they also saw the speeding of global warming, widening inequality, and the scourge of transnational terror...
Many of the people doing today’s most consequential environmental work — restoring America’s grasslands, wildlife, soil, rivers, wetlands, and oceans — would not call themselves environmentalists; they would be too uneasy with the connotations of that word. What drives them is their deep love of the land — they feel a moral responsibility to preserve their heritage and ens...
How the clothing industry can change to help the planet.
Population growth, shifting agricultural practices, and altered weather patterns are weighing on the food supply, a pressure that will only intensify over the next 30 years, when the planet holds an estimated 10 billion inhabitants. Rising temperatures will reduce crop yield and spawn more pests, higher carbon dioxide levels will lessen the nutritional value of food, and f...
Across the globe, shareholders, employees, and customers are demanding climate action from big corporations. And despite the United States bailing from the Paris Agreement last year, firms are responding, even leading the movement. From Silicon Valley to Wall Street, companies are stepping up by committing to emissions reductions, funding capital-intensive new technologies...
Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. Ahead of Aspen Ideas: Climate next week, we caught up with Dr. Hayhoe to discuss tips for talking about climate change with anyone, how her faith informs her climate activism, why environmental guilt-tripping never works, and how to develop real, muscular hope.
Aspen Ideas: Health Engaging Local Issues Series: In Roaring Fork Valley, the realities of climate change are never far from our lives. Pests and invasive plants are altering our ecology, warming trends are likely to ignite ever-larger fires, and an economy built around outdoor activities could be transformed. The term “climate anxiety” has been coined to suggest the inten...
There's no denying the world is already paying for climate change. The price is stronger hurricanes, bigger wildfires, and unpredictable heat waves. So, how can people living on a changing globe literally pay to mitigate the effects of climate change? One solution is to utilize the social cost of carbon, says economist Michael Greenstone.
With crop production increasingly threatened by unpredictable weather and a world population expected to grow 30 percent by midcentury, how are we going to feed everyone? The race to reinvent the global food system is on, and solutions you’ve probably never heard of are already in play. One company is tackling problems around industrial agriculture by growing cell-based me...
To help combat climate change, one entrepreneur is working to shift mindsets and change behavior around the way people eat.