Business Innovation and Climate Change Initiative Panel Calls for Stronger ‘Green Finance’

In late May just one week before President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation launched its Business Innovation and Climate Change Initiative to address one of the most singular global challenges of the 21st century.

Multi-faceted in its approach, one of the project’s goals is strengthening Darden’s connections with Washington, D.C.’s phalanx of policymakers, elected officials, think tanks, nonprofits, academics, entrepreneurs, and other change agents who are pivotal to tackling the climate change issue in a realistic and effective way.

The initiative was made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous donor. To mark the project’s launch, the Batten Institute brought together more than 60 Darden alumni, friends and guests at the Rosslyn, Virginia, offices of Sands Capital Management.

Professor Greg Fairchild (MBA ’92), Darden’s associate dean for Washington, D.C., Area Initiatives, kicked off the event by noting that, “Washington is a city of ideas. Tonight’s conversation, like this city, is about ideas. It’s about innovation. It’s less about the problem itself, and more about viable solutions to the problem.”

Dean Scott Beardsley drove that point home in a video address underscoring Darden’s mission to “teach [that] business has a responsibility to serve all stakeholders, not just investors.” Climate change presents “an opportunity for business leaders to help improve the world,” he said, emphasizing Darden’s desire “to help lead the way as business reimagines itself to solve one of the most significant problems facing society.”

Following Fairchild and Beardsley’s introductory remarkes, subject experts shared their perspectives in a panel discussion moderated by Professor Mike Lenox, author of the forthcoming book Will Business Save the Earth: Innovating our Way to Sustainability.

Experts on the panel included Stephen Harper, global director of environment and energy policy at Intel Corp.; John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer at United Technologies Corp.; and Kevin Fay, vice chairman and CEO of Alcalde & Fay. The panelists discussed investments made as well as the innovative strategies and initiatives pursued by the business community in response to evolving environmental realities. More important, each shared impressive results, eye-opening statistics, and cutting-edge advancements in sustainability that have emerged from ongoing broad innovation efforts.

Looking to the future, the panelists shared their extensive experience as they talked about the impacts of technology and innovation, global mega-trends like population growth and urbanization, federal policy and government’s regulatory role, the symbiotic relationship between startups and big business, the explosion in data, and the need for a standardized “green” finance system.

Lenox brought the evening to a close by asking the panelists for their thoughts about the most important factor or opportunity Darden should consider as it moves forward with the new Business Innovation and Climate Change Initiative:

The message from the evening’s discussion was clear: The business community has an obligation to society that transcends the bottom line, and Darden has a clear role helping businesses lead the way developing technology solutions, new business models and partnerships that tackle climate change. In the face of urgent environmental threats, many business leaders today are not only advancing their organizations’ economic interests but also promoting greater societal interests through investments across a broad spectrum of sectors. And as the private sector leverages its innovative business-based approaches to create climate change solutions, the people of the nation and the world stand to receive the biggest return on that investment.