Climate Rising

Gabriel Serber, VP of Social Impact and Sustainable Development at Arcos Dorados, discusses how the company addresses climate change in Latin America. Topics include cultural diversity, McDonald's sustainability efforts, regional preferences, and water competition. Additionally, advice is given on integrating sustainability into business practices.

Paul Bodnar, Director of Sustainable Finance, Industry, and Diplomacy, discusses investors' approach to weighing climate priorities with fiduciary responsibilities. He shares insights on sustainable investing, climate risks, tracking capital expenditure, and opportunities in climate finance.

Sanchali Pal, Founder and CEO of Commons, discusses building an app to help consumers make climate-friendly purchasing decisions, tracking carbon footprint, utilizing location data, pricing, fundraising, and exploring the market for green energy.

Formerly Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Officer, and now Chief Sustainability Officer & Senior Managing Director at Haveli Investments, Lucas Joppa discusses the strategies and tools Microsoft developed to meet its ambitious carbon negative goals, including setting an internal price on carbon, restructuring their corporate governance, and funding innovative climate technology solutions. He also tells us why he thinks climate finance is entering its most consequential decade.----Climate Rising Host: Professor Mike Toffel, Faculty Chair, Business & Environment InitiativeGuest: Lucas Joppa, Chief Sustainability Officer & Senior Managing Director, Haveli InvestmentsFor transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org.

In this episode, Melissa Lott, Director of Research and Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Michael Webber, Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, discuss how companies can decarbonize their electricity when pursuing net zero climate goals, from increased efficiency to electrification to generating their own carbon-free electricity, and the pros and cons of these pathways.Climate Rising Host: Professor Mike Toffel, Faculty Chair, Business & Environment InitiativeGuests:Melissa Lott, Director of Research and Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia UniversityMichael Webber, Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

Today’s episode features Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer of the Science Based Targets Initiative explains how they help companies and financial institutions design verifiable and achievable climate targets, and how they assess and validate those targets. He also discusses how the SBTi is transitioning from focusing on technical assistance and assessments to a standard-setting organization.Company Resources:The Science Based Targets initiativeHow science-based targets workClimate Rising Host: Professor Mike Toffel, Faculty Chair, Business & Environment InitiativeGuest: Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Co-Founder and and Chief Technical Officer, Science Based Targets InitiativeFor transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org

For the second episode in our series on corporate net zero programs, we’re sharing an episode on airline decarbonization from the Climate Vision 2050 podcast produced by the consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. This episode sets up a scenario in 2050 where the industry relies on liquid nitrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, electric aircraft, and blending-wing body planes, coupled with present-day experts who explain the changes.Link to original podcast: BCG Climate Vision 2050 (“Sustainability at 36,000 feet” episode)Climate Rising Host: Professor Mike Toffel, Faculty Chair, Business & Environment Initiative

In this first episode in a new series on companies setting and meeting net zero climate targets, Ashley Orgain, Chief Impact Officer at Seventh Generation, discusses why this home care products company decided to set a real zero climate goal instead of net zero, and how they plan to achieve it. She also describes how Seventh Generation is going beyond a carbon footprint to measure its carbon fingerprints that touch every aspect of their business, from banking to creative services.For transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org.Climate Rising Host: Professor Mike Toffel, Faculty Chair, Business & Environment InitiativeGuest: Ashley Orgain, Chief Impact Officer, Seventh Generation

This bonus episode of Climate Rising features Harvard Business Review’s Cold Cast podcast with Brian Kenny interviewing HBS professor Shirley Lu on BMW Group’s decarbonization strategy, which is the subject of a new case study that Shirley wrote with HBS colleagues George Serafeim and Mike Toffel. They discuss why BMW is focusing on reducing vehicle lifecycle emissions, and why the company has so far avoided setting a phase-out date for internal combustion engine BMWs.For transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org.Guest/Host: ●      Brian Kenny, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Harvard Business School and host of Cold Call ●      Shirley Lu, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School

Today, as a bonus, we’re sharing an episode of the Skydeck podcast that features interviews with HBS alumni where they share lessons learned and their life experiences.We thought this episode of Skydeck would be particularly interesting to you because it focuses on carbon capture technology. This is one of three Skydeck episodes on this topic. And for even more, check out Climate Rising’s own episodes on carbon capture, released in the fall of 2022. To hear more about the Skydeck podcast visit www.alumni.hbs.edu/skydeckVisit climaterising.org for more information.Climate Rising host: Mike ToffelSkydeck host: Dan Morrell