- About the Lecture
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About the Lecture
Half the world’s population currently lives in cities, and that number is spiraling upward, as urban settlements gobble up most of the world’s natural resources and emit the most pollutants. No wonder that these panelists perceive the challenge (and opportunity) of sustainability as much bigger than getting people to switch from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescents.
The “latest craze in city governance,” says Judith Layzer is making your city as sustainable as possible. New York for instance, has vowed to plant one million trees, and convert its entire taxi fleet to hybrids. Chicago is covering its rooftops in green; Toronto composts. Layzer believes there are “good reasons to worry we’ll see symbolic commitments with not much done.”
Cities struggle to undertake systemic change, partly because they don’t control the supply and demand mechanism for energy resources such as oil, which helps drive commuting and mass transit behaviors. Cities have also historically supported unfettered growth to keep their tax base high, and when confronted with a sensible, pollution saving plan such as switching traffic lights to LED lightbulbs, cringe at the high upfront costs. Layzer thinks successful urban sustainability initiatives will depend on national governments pricing natural resources appropriately (e.g., eliminating subsidies on fossil fuels); effective local leadership that makes the case for often unpopular schemes like parking fees and congestion pricing; and major coalition building.
No amount of green construction will help with reducing greenhouse gases to desirable levels if today’s buildings aren’t altered to reduce their CO2 emissions, says
Milton Bevington. His brief with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) in 40 cities worldwide is to provide market-based solutions, not handouts or tax rebates, to get efficient heat and power into millions of residential and commercial buildings. A large part of Bevington’s job is educating landlords and others about new financing approaches for retrofitting old buildings. One example: a Chicago bank designed a loan enabling the owners of the city’s 550 thousand multifamily housing units to use an “energy performance guarantee” as collateral. Borrowed funds go into reducing water and energy use, and “every single dollar required to pay back the bank” comes from a reduction in energy use. Bevington would like to see more investor-driven financing for energy efficient projects, which he believes could spread swiftly in both rich and poor countries “to change a large sector of the built environment.”
There’s a dilemma brewing for most of the world’s big businesses, says Bill Sisson, who is United Technologies’ point man in a business consortium effort on energy efficient buildings. While firms recognize the importance of energy efficiency, only 13% are rising to the challenge. Sisson’s group seeks to create a roadmap for zero net energy use in buildings, involving technology, improved financial mechanisms, and behavior change. Says Sisson, this is “really about managing risk and directing the future of business in the right way; we see this aspect of buildings as critical for our growth and presence in the market.”Related Videos
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Creating a Game Plan for Transition to a Sustainable Economy
Jeffrey Hollender
November 17, 2009
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Sustainable Building Design @ MIT: Walking the Talk
Theresa Stone, Jason Jay, Adam Siegel and Anna Jaffe
September 19, 2008
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Re-Engineering Buildings: Innovations in Building Technology
John Ochsendorf, Sarah Slaughter and Alex (Sandy) Pentland
October 1, 2010
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- About the Speakers
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About the Speakers
Sarah Slaughter '82, SM '87, PhD '91
Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management
Associate Director for Buildings & Infrastructure, MIT Energy InitiativeSarah Slaughter focuses on issues of sustainability and disaster resiliency in infrastructure and the built environment. She currently coordinates the Sustainable Business Laboratory (S-Lab) and the Sloan Sustainability Initiative.
She was CEO of MOCA Systems, Inc., a company she founded based on research she conducted as a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. She was previously a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Lehigh University, and worked with the Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS). Slaughter is currently on the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment in the National Research Council, National Academies of Science, and Vice Chair of the Committee on Sustainable Infrastructure.Judith Layzer PhD '99
Edward and Joyce Linde Career Development Associate Professor of Environmental Policy, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
Judith Layzer focuses on the roles of science, values, and storytelling in environmental politics, as well as on the effectiveness of different approaches to environmental planning and management. Now in its second edition, Layzer’s book, The Environmental Case: Translating Values Into Policy (CQ Press, 2006) describes 16 prominent cases of environmental policymaking. She has also published Natural Experiments: Ecosystem Management and the Environment (MIT Press, 2008).
With JoAnn Carmin, Layzer co-directs the Environmental Policy and Planning group’s Society, Business and the Environment Project. She also directs the soon-to-be-unveiled Urban Sustainability Project @ MIT.Milton Bevington
Domain Director, Building Retrofit Program, Clinton Climate Initiative, Clinton Foundation
Bill Sisson
Director of Sustainability, United Technologies Corporation
Co-Chair, World Business Council for Sustainable Development Buildings Project - About the Host
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About the Host
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the world’s leading business schools — conducting cutting-edge research and providing management education to top students from more than 60 countries. The School is part of MIT’s rich intellectual tradition of education and research.
MIT Sloan began in 1914 as engineering administration curriculum in the MIT Department of Economics and Statistics. The scope and depth of this educational focus have grown steadily in response to advances in the theory and practice of management to today’s broad-based management school.
A program offering a master’s degree in management was established in 1925. The world’s first university-based executive education program — the MIT Sloan Fellows — was created in 1931 under the sponsorship of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., an 1895 MIT graduate who was then chairman of General Motors. A MIT Sloan Foundation grant established the MIT School of Industrial Management in 1952 with a charge of educating the “ideal manager.”
Video Player
Opportunities in Infrastructure and Built Environment
- Sarah Slaughter '82, SM '87, PhD '91
Judith Layzer PhD '99
Milton Bevington
Bill Sisson - September 19, 2008
- Running Time: 1:07:36
