It requires people across socio-economic backgrounds to have access to electric vehicles that are affordable. That needs EV charging stations to be in place throughout cities. And finally, Uber said to me, “We can set all the targets we want, but without actually changing the whole infrastructure, we can’t achieve those targets.” For Uber to electrify their entire fleet of cars by 2040 requires a lot of change beyond Uber. I was also working with their investors and employees to pressure the CEO into more deliberately confronting their effect on the climate. At the time I was working really closely with Uber to try to get them to set ambitious emissions reduction targets. JBA: In my last role I was getting very frustrated with the pace of change and individual companies setting one-off emissions reduction targets. Of the work you were involved in, could you speak more about any outcomes that you thought were particularly significant? PY: In recent years, you’ve been focusing on more technical goals like decarbonizing the transportation sector in San Francisco. That totally changed my mindset, that every issue I worked on needed to have a strong climate component. That was in 2008 and was the most profound set of experiences of my life: understanding the gravity of the climate crisis and learning that the local people already have their own solutions. Nothing about any work there is sustainable unless we addressed climate change. It wasn’t until I lived in Bangladesh that I realized no matter how much work we did with local communities to improve health outcomes, the place would still sink. I thought the most noble and important thing I could do with my life was to get health programs in place in developing countries or involve myself in humanitarian work. And that work took me to Bangladesh, where I would say was my pivotal moment. I started working at the US Agency for International Development on global health issues, including malaria, HIV, AIDS and infectious diseases. I shifted towards open-mindedness and decided that I wanted to work in foreign aid, looking at how I could use my privilege to support developing countries. It wasn’t until college that I began learning about issues related to the environment that changed my worldview. My family and grandparents all worked in coal and steel, very much Trump loving conservatives in Pennsylvania.
Jamie Beck Alexander: I come from a very conservative family in coal country. Was there a definitive moment in your life that fostered this care for the natural world, or was it a gradual progression of learning and activism?
Speakers include Miranda Massie, Executive Director of The Climate Museum, Hina Baloch, Executive Director of Sustainability and Environment at General Motors, Kizzy Charles-Guzman, Executive Director of the NYC Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, and Jamie Alexander, Women in Climate Tech+ Ambassador and Director of Drawdown Labs.Pauline Yanes: You’ve had an extensive career in environmentalism in both local and foreign humanitarian efforts, as well strategy and leadership in the business world. The crisis originates in and compounds systems of oppression and extraction including colonialism, racism, and sexism.Įxplore the meaning of these dynamics for our common progress toward just futures with women leaders whose experience spans policy advocacy, government service, international relations, corporate responsibility, engineering and technology, and cultural activism. Andrew Eil, Head of Climate Risk for North America, Tata, Consultancy Services will join Mark Rayfield, CEO of Saint-Gobain North America, Alan Steel, CEO President of the Javits Center, Andrew Kimball, President of New York City Economic Development in a conversation about how existing construction solutions can help make the planet a better home.Įngendering climate justice: women leaders on impacts and solutionsĬlimate impacts are distributed in a starkly uneven way across nations and communities-and, as is less well understood, within households. Our need for more houses and buildings, cities, and infrastructures, unfortunately also means higher carbon costs, energy dependency, and more irreversible environmental damage. The negative role of construction facing climate change and depletion of natural resources increases proportionally with rapid urbanization driven by strong population growth. What if the core solution to adapting to climate change and preventing a more significant natural threat was to thoroughly revisit how we build and renovate our cities, individual houses, and infrastructures? The built environment sector accounts for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. How the Built Environment Can Be a Core Solution to Climate Change
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