Sustainability

After a brief reprieve during the COVID-19 pandemic, emissions continue to rise, and with each passing year, the work to slow climate change becomes harder. Time is running out, and we need innovation across all industry sectors — and in products, services and policy that paves the way for rapid adoption and deployment of decarbonized technologies.

The effects of climate change are everywhere, yet a coordinated and cohesive response to the biggest threat to life on Earth is nowhere to be seen. While the scale of the crisis leads many to paralysis, experts at this year’s Jefferson Innovation Summit worked to find solutions both dramatic and pragmatic, naming five key opportunities.

The holy grail of clean energy? For the first time, scientists achieved nuclear fusion ignition, a nuclear reaction that produces more energy than it consumes. Darden Professor Mike Lenox, an expert in innovation and sustainability, offers perspective on the breakthrough, its potential and the path emerging technologies take to widespread adoption.

Electric vehicles are on track to become the dominant technology over the next 10–20 years. But do we truly understand all the implications of this shift? Are we ready for it?

The U.N.’s report on climate change reflects a more dire situation than the world may have anticipated in the 2015 Paris Agreement. We need multistakeholder action — across industries — including government policies and the private sector’s commercialization of clean technologies. Here, Darden experts delve into practical action companies can take.

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its assessment report on the increasing urgency of addressing climate change. Here Ed Freeman connects with Mike Lenox on the urgency around climate change and why stakeholder engagement is vital to solving one of the toughest political, engineering and technological problems.

November was a big month for climate, with excitement around renewed talks at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and Biden’s signing of the U.S. infrastructure bill. Yet recent commitments made by governments may not be enough to avoid the inevitable disruption that will be experienced around the world due to global warming.

Zero access to electricity perpetuates the poverty cycle. In Zambia, one public-private partnership is a blueprint to providing power to rural communities and changing millions of lives. While developed economies rework a century-old, centralized grid infrastructure, developing economies can design electric grids with clean technologies in mind.

Professor Mike Lenox and Senior Researcher Becky Duff at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business talk with the Batten Institute’s Sean Carr about their new book on what it will take to decarbonize the economy. Not just one sector. Every sector. And their insights have big implications for every business leader, investor and policymaker

COVID-19 is a disaster for public health and the economy. Yet there may be a glimmer of a silver lining for the natural environment: By year end, the globe may see the biggest dip in carbon emissions on record. Investment in next-generation clean energy now could restore jobs, provide new ones, drive economic growth and lock in environmental gains.