The Erb Institute is joining the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, CA on September 12, 2018, to host a roundtable “Developing Climate-Business Strategies: Partnering with Universities for Science-Based Impact.” This invitation-only affiliate event will bring together senior-level business, academic and non-profit executives and thought leaders and will focus on how to build and leverage partnerships with universities—like the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute—to:
- strengthen employee skills in developing and implementing climate risk management initiatives, and in executing external partnerships;
- share ideas, methods and lessons learned for developing business strategies that both address climate change risks and are science-based;
- assess the benefits of business strategies and investments that will meaningfully address climate change risks; and
- support innovation and improve corporate strategy development and decision-making.
The Erb Institute will carry on the momentum built at this workshop over the coming year with outreach, research and educational activities geared toward implementing the ideas generated at the roundtable.
Erb Institute Faculty Director Joe Árvai shares his thoughts on the importance of this upcoming roundtable: “Take a look around you, wherever you happen to be; what do you see? Record heat waves. Wildfires burning out of control. Crop failures. The collapse of ice sheets. Declining air quality and public health. Economic insecurity. The list goes on.
Climate change is no joke, it shouldn’t be a political gambit, and it is most certainly not fake news. It is real, and it is creating risks that large swaths of society may never be able to recover from.
If I’m being honest, the time for real action on climate change was a decade, if not more, ago. That said, it’s not in my nature to quit even though we are behind.
It’s for this reason that the Erb Institute is participating in this important event. Governor Brown has brought together global leaders of all stripes not just to talk, but to commit to action aimed at mitigating the risks posed by what is now runaway climate change.
If we’re to do this, and I mean really do this, everyone is going to have to play their part. And that includes the private sector. Yes, lots of companies–including many of the Erb Institute’s closest partners–have made significant progress toward reducing their carbon footprint. However, the vast majority of companies are still part of the climate problem, not the solution: While they may talk about climate action over here, they continue to promote climate destabilizing production and consumption over there. That simply has to stop.
All of us at the Erb Institute look forward to participating in the Global Climate Action Summit, and to working with business over the long term to make meaningful climate action a reality. That includes new research on tools and strategies that will transform companies, markets and marketplaces; and it includes engagement with business that hammers home the simple fact that we will not beat back the risks associated with climate change by nibbling at the proverbial edges.
The world needs big and bold action on climate change. And it needs it now.”
For more information on the roundtable, click here.