Bloomberg Green Festival Delivers on Its Promise
Why did Adrian Grenier choose to spend his birthday at the Opening Night of the Bloomberg Green Festival?
You may wonder sometimes: Do events really catalyze action? For climate and sustainability event organizers there's a heightened sense of urgency to show results because they are acutely aware that every gathering of people (still) carries an inevitable carbon footprint. But it was none other than Adrian Grenier (who's so deeply committed to this work that chose to spend his Birthday evening with all of us at the inaugural event) to remind us that rather than getting paralyzed by over-analysis and getting stuck in inaction, real change comes when we all lean into expanding our environmental handprint.
Herein lies the biggest takeaway from the #BBGGreenFestival, exquisitely curated by the Bloomberg Live team, that no matter what walk of life or industry one may be in, when we "place LIFE at the center of every action and every decision" - in the words of Paul Hawken - and shift our focus to positive action in collaboration with others, change turns from linear to exponential and the impossible becomes possible.
In this newsletter, I focus on ACCELERATING RESULTS, and here are the KEY ACCELERATORS for climate and sustainability coming from the Festival:
SCIENCE: urgency is palpable amongst the world's leading scientists - in the TED Countdown section of the event, Professor Dr. Johan #Rockström, Director of PIK - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, showed us how to turn this urgency into focused action.
GOVERNMENT: rather than hinging on any one election result, we must utilize every layer of government to continue the critical work in this decisive decade. Read more below on how Governors, Mayors, and City Officials are stepping up.
CORPORATIONS: with Amazon leading the way, corporations are dismantling barriers and making their proprietary processes publicly available to accelerate progress (see below the major announcement from Amazon).
EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE! From artists, filmmakers, and musicians to event managers, elite athletes, and the #Paris2024 Olympics.
SCIENCE: TED Countdown at Bloomberg Green Festival
TED's Global Climate Initiative, TED Countdown, at Bloomberg Green Festival
Hosted by Logan McClure Davda and Manoush Zomorodi, TED’s signature mix of talks, conversations, performances and short videos, dove into the current state of climate, big-picture thinking about the economy, solutions for heavy industry, the interplay of climate and democracy and more.
Professor Dr. Johan Rockström, recipient of many prestigious awards and named to TIME's 100 List for 2023, underscored the importance of operating within Earth's planetary boundaries. Other speakers included Deb Chachra, Professor of Engineering, Olin College of Engineering; Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir, Author, Speaker, Filmmaker & Sustainability Leader; Gaya Herrington, Vice President of Sustainability Research, Schneider Electric; Akshat Rathi, Senior Reporter at Bloomberg Green; Aline-Sousa, President & Director, CENTCOOP/Brazil; Representative, National Movement of Waste Pickers (MNCR-DF), and Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder & Executive Director, Environmental Voter Project.
GOVERNMENT: 2024 Green Champions & the City of Seattle
2024 Bloomberg Green Champions meet the Mayor of Seattle, Bruce Harrell
Five years ago, former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg named Seattle the winner of the American Cities Climate Challenge and the work has permeated throughout the entire ecosystem. Today, Mayor Bruce Harrell continues the work. I was particularly impressed with the thoughtfulness and competence of Jessyn Farrell, Director of Sustainability & Environment for the City of Seattle, who spoke in a session on mitigating climate risks about the challenges and opportunities in decarbonizing buildings.
In a master class on building consensus, Jessyn demonstrated the importance of systemic thinking and inserting flexibility into key legislative initiatives to allow wider adoption by a variety of stakeholders, all while being intentional about service, inclusion, and progress.
Bloomberg Green Champions
Green Champions are a global collective of public and private sector innovators and thought leaders focused on building new solutions for the climate crisis, assembled at the Bloomberg Green Festival to showcase their work and initiatives and collaborate on new ideas with other Festival attendees. Humbled to be named among the Green Champions, I had an opportunity to meet some incredible, inspiring, and deeply caring people:
Naza Alakija from the Evoca Foundation,
CORPORATIONS: Amazon, Alaska Airlines, and many more
In his opening remarks, Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy announced that the company has reached its goal to match 100% of the electricity used across all its operations with renewable energy sources 7 years AHEAD of schedule, which resulted from Amazon being the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world for four years in a row.
But Amazon is not acting alone and through the The Climate Pledge, its' marquee sustainability initiative, the company engages over 500 global companies to commit to reaching net zero 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement by 2040.
Major Announcement: Launching the Amazon Sustainability Exchange
In order to accelerate supply chain decarbonization and help businesses of all sizes decarbonize faster, Amazon is unlocking its proprietary information and making its processes available to everyone for free through its newly launched site Amazon Sustainability Exchange. The site contains a wealth of information, case studies, and insights across 7 major areas of focus that the Amazon sustainability team, led by CSO Kara H. Hurst, has been meticulously putting together in an effort to foster collaboration and transparency.
The 7 major areas of focus are: buildings, carbon-free energy, carbon neutralization, human rights, transportation, waste & circularity, and water stewardship.
EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE
From artists to storytellers, filmmakers, musicians, and activists - we all play a role - as the incomparable Oliver Jeffers offered in his hugely impactful talk.
Mitigating Climate Risk in Your Operations - Breakout Session
Lina Taylor talking with Jessyn Farrell in the background
Donnel Baird, Kara Hammond Brooks, Jessyn Farrell, and Lauren Kiel explored the variables to be considered in adaptation of physical infrastructure to meet sustainability goals. This discussion highlighted the interconnectedness between healthcare and our physical surroundings - from buildings to air pollution from transportation, pointing the focus of looking at cost of required updates through the lens of savings generated when improving the health of communities in depressed areas.
Better Together: Unlocking the Power of Climate Partnerships
This session aimed at providing a roadmap to successful partnerships. Sally Fouts (Zwartjes), Global Leader of The Climate Pledge and Meg Szabo, Managing Editor, Bloomberg Green & Sustainability Events opened the session inviting us to think across sectors to find successful partnerships.
"You need great people to build big things." - Becky Ferguson, CEO of Salesforce Foundation
Rebecca Ferguson, CEO, Salesforce Foundation; Senior Vice President of Philanthropy, Salesforce and Gina McCarthy, First White House National Climate Advisor; Former US EPA Administrator; Managing Co-Chair, America Is All In Coalition talked about how to drive climate performance and business value.
Chris Roe, Chris Granger, Zoe Bergman and Meg Szabo
This informative panel with Zoe Berman, Chief Operating Officer of Sound Future, Chris Granger, President, Oak View Group, and Chris Roe, Director, Worldwide Carbon, Amazon shared examples of the work they are doing, like the Climate Pledge Arena.
"Don't let a good 'No' go to waste," said Chris Roe, "use it as a way-finder to innovative solutions."
I will be highlighting many example of these kinds of cross-sector collaborations that benefit communities and our planet when I am at the Olympic Games in Paris, starting next week!
Eiffel Tower Stadium, home of the Paris 2024 Olympic Beach Volleyball competition
Be sure to join me on a daily quest across Paris to discover what's possible when we all join forces to transform our society for the better. I wholeheartedly believe that sports and entertainment can help us close the gap between climate ambitions and widespread societal adoption of new norms and behaviors.
