World Bank: Driving Incomes Up, Carbon Down Katherine Sierra, Vice President for Sustainable Development, World Bank Group Awais Khan, Lead, Clean Tech Venture Capital Practice, KPMG Greg Dalton, Founder of Climate One at The Commonwealth Club Are the world’s poor going to get shafted in the clean economy, just as they did in the dirty one? The World Bank is at the center of the great 21st-century challenge of reducing carbon while creating opportunity in emerging economies. When are those prior...
Jul 30, 2009•1 hr 7 min
Curtailing Suburban Sprawl in California Ted Droettboom, Joint Policy Director, Association of Bay Area Governments Laura Hall, Principal, Hall Alminana, Inc. Paul Campos, Vice President and General Counsel, Northern California Home Builders Association As California’s population has grown, so too has the state’s thirst for expansion and elbow-room. As a result, Californians are spending more time in their cars than ever before. Longer commutes equate to higher greenhouse gas emissions, with rou...
Jul 14, 2009•1 hr 7 min
Chevron + Sierra Club: Drilling for Common Ground Dave O’Reilly, CEO, Chevron Carl Pope, Executive Director, The Sierra Club Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal – Moderator Chevron and the Sierra Club both see renewable fuels as a growing part of our future. Yet as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy, they have different views on how that change should occur and who should bear the costs. Higher taxes? Voluntary conservation and efficiency? Government mandates?...
Jun 11, 2009•1 hr 6 min
The Road to Copenhagen: Are We on Track? Bill Reilly, Chairman, Climate Works Foundation; Former Administrator, EPA Larry Schweiger, President, National Wildlife Federation; Board Member, Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection John Bryson, Retired CEO, Southern California Edison; Co-founder, National Resources Defense Council Greg Dalton, Vice President, Commonwealth Club of California In six months more than 180 nations will gather in Copenhagen to hammer out one of the most far-reaching int...
Jun 09, 2009•1 hr 11 min
Rethinking Buying and Building: A New Sustainability Chain Andy Ball, CEO, Webcor Builders Beth Springer, EVP, Clorox Dave Steiner, CEO, Waste Management, Inc. Greg Dalton, Vice President, Commonwealth Club, moderator Companies and consumers are being asked to think more about the full life-cycle of the products they make and buy. Whether making consumer goods or constructing skyscrapers, companies are coming around to such a cradle-to-cradle mentality. This panel, which includes the CEO of the ...
May 18, 2009•1 hr 8 min
Clean Coal: Myth, or Reality? S. Julio Friedmann, Carbon Management Program Leader, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Ray Lane, Managing Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Bruce Nilles, Director, Beyond Coal Campaign at Sierra Club Joe Lucas, Senior Vice President, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity Jeff Goodell, Author, Big Coal – Moderator Coal-fired power plants are the largest U.S. emitters of CO2 and human-generated mercury, yet our nation is poised to build many ...
Apr 30, 2009•1 hr 8 min
Biologist Birute Mary Galdikas discusses the connection between Indonesian rainforests and climate change. In conversation with Greg Dalton, Commonwealth Club Vice President, founder of Climate One Deforestation in Indonesia, driven largely by large palm oil plantations, has caused that country to become the third largest emitter of greenhouses gases in the world. Galdikas, who studied under anthropologist Louis Leakey, has been studying orangutans in Borneo for nearly 40 years. She urges people...
Apr 29, 2009•25 min
Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution Auden Schendler, Executive Director of Sustainability, Aspen Skiing Company; Author, Getting Green Done What does the mechanic say when you ask him to put french fry oil in his $250,000 tractor? How do you actually make sustainability happen? Schendler will give us a peek under the hood of the green movement – what it means, in the trenches, to implement actual solutions to climate change. This program was reco...
Apr 07, 2009•1 hr
Andrew Vincent Alder, Senior Fellow, Institute for Environmental Security Holmes Hummel, Lecturer, Climate Policy, University of California, Berkeley Tom Spencer, Vice Chair, The Institute for Climate Security Greg Dalton, Vice President, The Commonwealth Club, Moderator What is the geopolitical context in which the “Carbon Quad” – The United States, European Union, China and India – are posturing regarding a global deal to reduce carbon pollution? What is the potential impact of the dwindling s...
Mar 16, 2009•33 min
Clean Tech for California: Emerging Winners Jennifer Billock, Founder, Over the Moon Diapers – Air, Water, and Waste Winner Tuyen Vo, Founder and CTO, Viridis Earth – Energy Efficiency Winner Michael Looney, CEO and President, BottleStone – Green Building Winner Allen Bronstein, Founder and CTO, Focal Point Energy – Renewables Winner Donnie Foster, CEO and President, Power Assure – Smart Power Winner Fraser Smith, CEO, ElectraDrive – Transportation Winner Betsy Rosenberg, Founder, EcoTalk - Mode...
Mar 04, 2009•1 hr 1 min
Driving Toward Sustainability Dan Sperling, Founding Director, Institute of Transportation Studies; Board Member, California Air Resources Board By 2020, the number of cars on the planet will double to two billion. Without big changes to our cars, fuels and personal habits, the carbon footprint from transportation will rise above its current 25 percent of total emissions. Can we break the cycle of “shock and trance?” Join energy expert Sperling as he reveals what is at stake if we refuse to move...
Feb 19, 2009•1 hr 6 min
Letter to President Obama: A Path to a Greener Future Linda Adams, Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency Carter Roberts, CEO, World Wildlife Fund U.S. Jim Wunderman, President and CEO, Bay Area Council Greg Dalton, Vice President Commonwealth Club Can President Obama heal the economy and turn it green at the same time? He says yes, he can – by pumping investment into modern infrastructure, renewable fuels and new technologies. Can he and his cabinet really do all that and also up...
Feb 13, 2009•1 hr 10 min
Alan Weisman, Author of "The World Without Us" Alan Weisman's reports from around the world have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Orion, Wilson Quarterly, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, Discover, Audubon, Condé Nast Traveler, and in many anthologies, including Best American Science Writing 2006. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presenc...
Feb 10, 2009•1 hr 11 min
Cars: Clean Them or Crush Them? Kate Blumberg, Research Director,International Center for Clean Transportation Cornie Huizenga, Vice-Chair, Clean Air Initiative, Asia Center Michael O’Hare, Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley Lee Schipper, Project Scientist, Global Metropolitan Studies, UC Berkeley Greg Dalton, Commonwealth Club Vice President, Moderator The number of cars in the world may double in twenty years to 2 billion if the emerging middle class in India and China get...
Feb 02, 2009•53 min
Getting Your Green Dream Job Nick Ellis, CEO, Bright Green Talent Liz Maw, Executive Director, Net Impact Jeff Horowitz, Founder, Avoided Deforestation Partners Peter Beadle, CEO, Green Jobs Joel Makower, Executive Editor, GreenBiz.com; Author, Strategies for the Green Economy – Moderator Want a green job? INFORUM will tell you how to get it. In an increasingly green society, eco-friendly jobs are popping up everywhere. You don’t have to be an eco-expert to take advantage of this new market. Whe...
Jan 30, 2009•1 hr 6 min
Climate Countdown: Can the World Cut a Deal? Tony Brunello, Deputy Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, California Louis Blumberg, Director, CA Forest and Climate Policy, The Nature Conservancy Aimee Christensen, Founder and CEO, Christensen Global Strategies Greg Dalton, Vice President, The Commonwealth Club; Founder, Climate One – Moderator In 2009, the world will try to craft the next comprehensive environmental treaty. To move forward, there must be multi-lateral consensus on the priorit...
Jan 22, 2009•1 hr 7 min
Energy Efficiency Unplugged Jim Davis, President, Chevron Energy Solutions Ralph Cavanagh, Co-director, Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor and Executive Editor Online, The Wall Street Journal – Moderator Can we “save” our way to energy independence? Many energy companies contend the cheapest energy is unused energy. Changes in the construction and management of buildings help com...
Jan 21, 2009•1 hr 3 min
City Planet Stewart Brand, Co-founder and President, Long Now Foundation Brand will discuss how increasing urbanization is accelerating economic development with remarkable speed. The consequences will be profound, he believes. Are we prepared? Brand has focused on such subjects as digital media, education and architecture. He’s perhaps best known for founding the Whole Earth Catalog. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club on June 14, 2007 Learn more about...
Jan 16, 2009•1 hr 6 min
Author, The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler is an author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger. He is best known for his books The Geography of Nowhere (1994), a history of American suburbia and urban development, and the more recent The Long Emergency (2005), where he argues that declining oil production is likely to result in the end of industrialized society as we know it and force Americans to live in localized, agrarian communities. This program was recorded in front of a live a...
Jan 09, 2009•1 hr 7 min
Renewable Energy for California: Challenges and Solutions Paul Douglas, Renewables Portfolio Standard Program Manager, California Public Utilities Commission Roy Kuga, Vice President of Energy Supply, PG&E Diane Fellman, Director of California Regulatory Affairs, FPL Energy Carl Zichella, Regional Director for California, Sierra Club Cliff Chen, Energy Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists - Moderator How fast should electric power companies change their game plans? Al Gore has challenged t...
Oct 22, 2008•1 hr 5 min
Is Big Oil Part of Our Energy Problem, or the Solution? John Hofmeister, Founder and Chief Executive, Citizens for Affordable Energy; Former President, Shell Oil Co. Big Energy is feeling the heat as skyrocketing oil costs and climate-change buzz fuel criticism from consumers and the media. But recently retired Shell chief Hofmeister will give a major speech addressing how the goals of consumers, the environmental movement and energy companies are actually closely aligned. He has just founded th...
Oct 17, 2008•1 hr 14 min
Global Climate Change in the Decades Ahead: Fact Versus Fiction Rob Dunbar, Professor of Earth Science, Senior Fellow, Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Dunbar takes a fresh look at the controversy surrounding the global warming crisis. He discusses unprecedented changes in the environment, focusing on air-sea interactions, tropical marine ecosystems, polar climate and the transfer of chemicals between organisms and environments...
Oct 09, 2008•1 hr 12 min
Where Would Google Drill? Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google Would “Drill, Baby, Drill” be part of Google’s vision for green energy? Yes, but not drilling for oil. CEO Schmidt says punching down into the Earth to capture natural and clean geothermal energy could help move the United States away from its dependence on petroleum. Google’s new energy plan also calls for a bold move into solar and wind power. It would cost $2.7 trillion through 2030. However, Schmidt says it would generate $2.1 trillion in e...
Oct 02, 2008•1 hr 4 min
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California In signing a landmark climate change law two years ago, Governor Schwarzenegger put California ahead of the parade to a low-carbon economy. “The global warming debate is over,” he declared. Public awareness has surged since then, but most of the hard work still lies ahead. How will California meet its goal of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020? Will offshore oil drilling be resumed? Who will pay for the transition to sustainabl...
Sep 27, 2008•1 hr 7 min
Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Director General, Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi Mary Nichols, Chair, California Air Resources Board (CARB) Ray Lane, Managing partner of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Greg Dalton, Commonwealth Club Vice President, founder of The Club's Climate One Initiative PANEL: Leading a transformation to a global low-carbon economy Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, Mary Nichols ...
Jun 28, 2008•1 hr 9 min
Rick Wagoner, Chairman and CEO, General Motors Can GM Really Be Green Motors? “We are looking forward to hearing what Rick Wagoner has to say on energy diversity and security,” comments Greg Dalton, Club VP and Director of The Club’s new Climate One Program, who orchestrated the program. “A lot of Californians want to know if US automakers are finally turning the corner on the role of cars as a major source of global warming.” Wagoner has held numerous high level posts at General Motors. Before ...
May 02, 2008•1 hr 6 min
Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defese Fund Fred Krupp discusses his new book Earth: The Sequel - The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming. The Environmental Defense Fund helped reduce acid rain in the 1990s by using market forces, and last year it played a role in the buyout of Texas utility TXU that reduced the number of planned coal-fired power plants. The advocacy group's president, Fred Krupp, believes business-friendly approaches such as carbon cap-and-trade systems are t...
Apr 24, 2008•1 hr 8 min
Adam Werbach CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi; Former President, Sierra Club; Commissioner, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission A lot has happened since Adam Werbach declared environmentalism dead in a speech to The Commonwealth Club three years ago. In 2007, Werbach's sustainability agency Act Now helped Wal-Mart engage its 1.3 million employees in one of the largest grassroots sustainability movements to date - the Personal Sustainability Project. In January 2008, Act Now was acquired by Saatc...
Apr 11, 2008•1 hr 6 min
ANATOMY OF A GREEN BUILDING Dave Deppen, Environmental Architect This program was recorded in front of a live audience on March 27, 2008 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 29, 2008•1 hr 4 min
HOW TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE WITHOUT SOAKING THE MIDDLE CLASS Peter Barnes, Tomales Bay Institute, Co-Founder of Working Assets Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 13, 2008•59 min
