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Sustainability

How Dr. Bronner’s Turned a Soap Company into a Blueprint for Regenerative Business

Darcy Shiber-Knowles ’13 has helped grow Dr. Bronner’s from a cult favorite to a force reshaping how industries think about sustainability.

Workers loading and transporting fresh fruit bunches
  • 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.
  • California’s Path to a Carbon-Neutral Grid

    Elliot Mainzer ’98, CEO of CAISO, explains how California is working to avoid another summer of blackouts even as the state transitions to a carbon-neutral grid.

    A power substation at the LS Power Group Gateway Energy Storage project in Otay Mesa, California.
  • Maintaining Momentum on Climate Change

    Tyler Van Leeuwen ’14 of Shell explains explains how his internal skunkworks team helps move Shell toward its decarbonization goals.

    An illustration of an electric car moving through a landscape of wind turbines
  • To Tackle Plastics Pollution, Embrace a Circular Economy

    To cut down on plastics pollution, says Matt Kopac ’09, sustainable business and innovation manager at Burt’s Bees, we need a fundamentally different approach to sustainability.

    Microplastic collected from the Sargasso Sea. Photo: Tom Gruber.
  • Transforming Energy Infrastructure

    We talked to Elliott Mainzer ’98, who recently began a role overseeing California’s electrical grid, about the progress he’s witnessed and the challenges that remain in creating a fully sustainable energy network.

    Power lines carrying electricity from the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River in Oregon. Photo: Natalie Behring/Getty Images.
  • A Climate for Change

    Judy Samuelson ’82, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program, explores whether this cataclysm will trigger lasting change.

    An illustration of people in business clothes marching with signs
  • Can We Make Recycling Work?

    The ubiquitous blue bin for single-stream recycling obscures a set of tradeoffs and challenges, including contamination that complicates processing and lowers the value of recyclable materials.

    A materials recovery facility (MRF) in Philadelphia in 2017. Photo: Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images.