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Sustainability

What Does It Take to Build a Zero-Emission Hotel?

When real-estate developer Bruce Becker ’85 set out to convert New Haven’s historic, Marcel Breuer-designed Pirelli Building into the boutique Hotel Marcel, he realized that exclusively using renewable sources of energy would make the project more financially sustainable.

The Hotel Marcel in New Haven, Connecticut
  • Tallying the Social Cost of Carbon

    Casey Pickett ’11, director of the Yale Carbon Charge, explains how to put a dollar value on the myriad choices that make up our response to the climate crisis.

    A resident walking through flooding from Hurricane Ida in LaPlace, Louisiana, on August 30, 2021
  • Is Climate Risk More than Markets Can Handle?

    Yale SOM finance professor Stefano Giglio lays out the unique complications of grappling with climate risk, and explains his own work on stock portfolios that hedge climate change.

    A satellite image of Miami, Florida
  • Is Seattle Prepared for Climate Change?

    Ann Grodnik-Nagle ’06, climate policy advisor for Seattle Public Utilities, says that Seattle is focusing on both mitigation and adaptation, prioritizing vulnerable communities of color.

    Seattle's Space Needle obscured by smoke from wildfires in September 2020.
  • Better Data Is Letting Companies and Investors See Trillions in Climate Risk

    A growing pool of ESG data enumerates companies’ exposure to climate risk. Yale SOM’s Todd Cort explains how the data helps investors target capital toward the companies that are responding.

    ESG data is exposing climate risk
  • Uncovering Healthcare’s Hidden Climate Impact

    The healthcare industry produces 8.5% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions as well as other forms of air pollution. Yale's Dr. Jodi Sherman says the first step to making healthcare sustainable is to understand the scope of the problem.

    An anesthesia mask from the point of view of a patient in surgery
  • What Does It Take to Create Financial Products That Can Save the Planet?

    Investors are increasingly eager to contribute to solutions for climate change and other environmental problems. Charlotte Kaiser ’07 of The Nature Conservancy’s NatureVest explains how the company builds financial products that attract mainstream capital while delivering conservation impacts.

    An overhead image of Ille Pierre Island in Seychelles.
  • How Trust Can Power Renewable Energy

    Lily Donge ’97 talked with us about how building trust is critical for any kind of real innovation—and how it’s helped her develop new models for scaling renewable energy.

    A wind farm in Rio Vista, California, with a path winding toward the turbine in the foreground
  • How Patagonia Learned to Act on Its Values

    Vincent Stanley, Patagonia’s company philosopher, chronicles the company’s efforts to bring environmental and social values to the heart of what the company does.

    A Patagonia store with "Demand Fair Trade" and "Buy Less, Demand More" in the window.
  • Study: Rising Seas Aren’t Causing Coastal Property Values to Decline

    Climate change is causing sea levels to rise, threatening expensive waterfront properties. But according to a new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Matthew Spiegel, prices are not falling in the areas most likely to be affected.

    A row of coastal houses
  • Skilled Workers Flee from Polluted Cities, Hampering Economic Growth

    In China, highly educated people are more likely to move away from areas with poor air quality. Reducing pollution could substantially increase GDP there and in other countries, according to a new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak.

    A cyclist in Beijing on a day of heavy pollution in December 2015.