Carbon Realities
March 1, 2016 | 6:00-8:30 PM | CIC – Venture Cafe (5th Fl.), Cambridge, MA
Carbon plays a major role in causing climate change and, one could say, is underpriced. For now, anyway. Few, if any of us, are paying for the hidden costs of climate change that are resulting from carbon emissions. We are dedicating March 1st to talking about how we can be more effective in accounting for the impact of carbon emissions on our world and our futures and are excited to have several incredible speakers and contributors join us in this discussion.
Johanna Jobin, Director, Global EHS & Sustainability at Biogen, will share Biogen’s journey to carbon neutrality and talk about how companies are valuing carbon and taking it into account in their business strategies. No small feat for the largest MA company, this achievement follows an impressive multi-year effort to reduce energy intensity, invest in environmental projects and engage their suppliers. Before Biogen, Johanna was Head of Corporate Responsibility & Community Affairs of MilliporeSigma. She received her Master of Environmental Management degree, with a certificate in Energy and Environment, from Duke and is an ISO 14001 trained auditor. Johanna is also active with NAEM, USGBC, AIM, WPI, MSEP, the City of Cambridge Climate Protection Action Committee, and “e” inc.
State Senator Mike Barrett, D-Lexington, will bring his passion and mission to have Massachusetts lead the country by putting a price on carbon with bill S.1747, An Act combating climate change, which he introduced last year along with 46 Senators and Representatives. This website offers background. Mike represents nine MA communities and has just accepted a new appointment as Chair of the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, a special Senate body charged with examining the performance of Executive branch programs and agencies. Mike favors increasing the prices of fossil fuels to pay for the health and environmental harm they cause. Working with a growing circle of voters, environmentalists and business leaders, Mike has put the issue on the state’s political agenda.
Joe Lassiter, Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, will address the intersection of innovation and environmental regulation, particularly as it relates to climate and carbon. Joe has extensive experience studying and teaching how high-potential ventures attack the problem of financing and bringing to market innovations that develop clean, secure and carbon-neutral supplies of reliable, low-cost energy. Joe’s long career at HBS includes several distinguished appointments and many years of teaching undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from across the University and its affiliated hospitals about how to turn high potential ventures into high-performance businesses.
We are also grateful to Eric Grunebaum and Jamie Salo for setting the stage for our discussion. Eric advises startups and facilities owners on clean energy and efficiency projects. As a senior member of environmental accounting firm Trucost, Jamie works with businesses and investors to measure and value their environmental performance.
Please join us, our guests, and our co-hosts Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. for what will be yet another very cool evening. — Carol, Holly, Tilly.
BASG 