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Sustainability

Putting a Price on Climate Risk

Yale SOM’s Todd Cort, an expert on corporate sustainability and sustainable finance, explains how AI is enabling new ways to price environmental and social risks.

A fire-damaged home reduced to charred walls, twisted beams, and rubble
  • When Companies Reverse Their Climate Commitments

    Companies announce climate goals with great fanfare—but all too often, they eventually scale back or fail to implement those pledges. We asked Yale SOM’s Todd Cort how significant these reversals are and what should be done to encourage companies to keep making progress.

    Climate protesters outside AIG headquarters in Manhattan in 2021.
  • Imagining Future-Ready Infrastructure

    Our aging infrastructure isn’t ready for climate change. David Gilford ’07 explains how new resilient, technology-enabled infrastructure can help us thrive in an uncertain future.

    A photo illustration showing highways overlaid with electronic readouts
  • What Can Other Companies Learn from Patagonia’s Model?

    Patagonia “is in business to save our home planet.” We talked with Vincent Stanley, the company’s director of philosophy, about the lessons for Patagonia’s peers in its approach to doing business.

    A woman using a machine in front of a Patagonia sign, with a reflection in a nearby window
  • Creating a Culture of Sustainability in Homebuilding

    Sustainably built homes cost more up front, but factor in resiliency, indoor air quality, and the costs to heat and cool, and the cost calculus looks quite different, says Aaron Smith ’16.

    A model net zero home
  • Green Investing Could Push Polluters to Emit More Greenhouse Gases

    One common approach to sustainable investing is to provide capital for companies with low carbon emissions and withhold it for high-emissions firms. Research co-authored by Yale SOM’s Kelly Shue shows this approach can backfire.

    An illustration of a person in a brown suit trying to move a lever toward green.
  • The Decades-Long Effort to Account for the Value of Natural Resources

    Yale School of the Environment economist Eli Fenichel helped develop a national strategy to integrate environmental and economic decision-making.

    An aerial photo of a forest with a house in the middle
  • How the Tools of Impact Investing Can Undermine Resilience in the Global South

    Impact investing advisor Clint Bartlett ’17 and Professor Todd Cort are working on innovative approaches in which businesses that create positive social outcomes get cheaper capital.

    A coffee farm in Uganda
  • How Satellites Can Help Win the Climate Fight 

    Satellites can track methane leaks and other greenhouse gas emissions back to the source. We asked Karen Jones ’89, senior technology strategist in the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation, what it will take to act on the insights offered by space technology.

    A NASA image showing methane plumes in Turkmenistan.
  • Will the Backlash from the Right Slow ESG Investing?

    A string of Republican-led states have pulled funds from firms that use environmental, social, and governance criteria in making investments. We asked Yale SOM’s Todd Cort what the political backlash means for the future of ESG investing.

    Texas State Senator Lois Kolkhorst questioning finance industry executives about ESG investing at a hearing in December 2022.
  • Your Packaging Is the Problem

    Caroline James ’22 , director of sustainability at Atlantic Packaging, says the current plastics recycling system is broken. She explains how new efforts by businesses and governments could move us toward a more sustainable and circular economy.

    Bundles of crushed plastic containers