EDF Climate Corps Blog: all
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A Conversation with National Geographic’s Sustainability Trailblazers
EDF Climate Corps fellow | July 26, 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 (Nat Geo)
Opportunity: A decade of experience in sustainable and energy-efficient operations
Summary: On my first day at National Geographic (Nat Geo), I was given a tour of the company's extensive sustainability infrastructure. It was immediately clear that my challenge as an EDF Climate Corps fellow wasn't to convince the operations staff the value of energy efficiency, but to identify additional eco-business opportunities for Nat Geo.
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Shorenstein Fellow Reflects on Returning to EDF Climate Corps for Year Number Two
EDF Climate Corps fellow | July 23, 2012
Fellow: Jaxon Love, 2012 EDF Climate Corps fellow at Shorenstein, MBA/MAcc Graduate at Lundquist School of Business, University of Oregon
Organization: Shorenstein
Opportunity: Jaxon Love began his 2012 EDF Climate Corps fellowship a year ahead of the pack
Summary: Jaxon Love is one of three 2012 EDF Climate Corps fellows participating in the program for a second year in a row. He was a fellow at Shorenstein in 2011 and is currently halfway through his second fellowship at the firm. We caught up with him to ask what brought him back.
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Shorenstein Fellow Reflects on Returning to EDF Climate Corps for Year Number Two
EDF Climate Corps fellow | July 23, 2012
Fellow: Jaxon Love, 2012 EDF Climate Corps fellow at Shorenstein, MBA/MAcc Graduate at Lundquist School of Business, University of Oregon
Organization: Shorenstein
Opportunity: Jaxon Love began his 2012 EDF Climate Corps fellowship a year ahead of the pack
Summary: Jaxon Love is one of three 2012 EDF Climate Corps fellows participating in the program for a second year in a row. He was a fellow at Shorenstein in 2011 and is currently halfway through his second fellowship at the firm. We caught up with him to ask what brought him back.
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Finding the Silver Buckshot: Change that Sticks
Andrew Willens | July 20, 2012
A good idea taken to scale can be surprisingly powerful, and EDF Climate Corps fellows are bursting with good ideas. Making sure these ideas are brought to fruition, however, can be tough.
"One common theme for all of us is the need to make change sustainable after we leave our organizations," Patrick Murphy, EDF Climate Corps fellow at Commonwealth Financial Network, said.
EDF Climate Corps fellows' solutions for this tend to fall into two categories: cultivate culture or appoint an advocate.
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Big Data – Launch Pad For Big Ideas
EDF Staff | July 20, 2012
By: Andy Darrell
When the internet came along, it transformed our relationship to big data – unleashing innovation, markets and, yes, funny dog videos at a global scale. “Big data” is all the rage these days in the energy sector, as investors, utilities and consumers wake up to what smart use of data can do for them.
A few weeks ago, I posted about Clean Heat – a project in which organizing data about buildings attracted nearly $100 million to finance upgrades to cleaner heating systems. If we can cut soot pollution from heating oil in New York City 50% by 2013 with the power of open data … what opportunities might be out there at even bigger scales?
This week, EDF teamed up with the White House, Google and HonestBuildings to pull together a “data jam” at Google’s New York City headquarters in the impossibly hip meatpacking district of Manhattan. Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, kicked of a brainstorm among tech entrepreneurs, energy experts, finance whizzes, web designers and government agencies, to answer this question: if government makes its energy data open and computer-friendly, what could entrepreneurs invent to “improve energy outcomes for families and businesses?”
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Need New Strategies to Improve Energy Efficiency? Search our database
Katie Ware | July 19, 2012
Now you can simplify your search for energy efficiency. EDF Climate Corps is opening its database to readers like you who want to cut costs and reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Sort through case studies by project or facility type, search participating organizations by industry or location, and view fellows by school.
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Are We Entering the Post-Green Team Era?
EDF Staff | July 16, 2012
Are we on a path that moves us beyond volunteer green teams onto one in which sustainability is so deeply embedded into corporate culture, goals and business practices that every job is a “green job”? Or is employee engagement just another “to do” for already over-stretched sustainability teams?
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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."