Archive for the ‘Energy’ Category

Motivating Behavior Change: Where the rubber hits the road in health care and sustainability

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

The panel at this morning’s conference entitled Sustainability: Don’t Market to Key Audiences- Motivate Them! was amazing. Panelists, whose work focuses on sustainability, shared lots of interesting details about what works and why.

Sustainability and health care on parallel tracks

For me, the biggest takeaway was that sustainability professionals face the same challenge that is starting to top the list at health care institutions.  That is, motivating lots of individuals to change their behavior.

In health care, the focus is on motivating patients to comply with their treatment plans.  In sustainability, it means motivating employees to make lots of small changes such as re-using and recycling both at work, and at home.

Clean energy technology: Building an ecosystem in New England

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Peter Rothstein, President New England Clean Energy Council and moderator of today’s Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s breakfast seminar entitled Building the Cleantech Ecosystem in New England, kicked off today’s program by noting that venture capital firms investment in clean tech has increased dramatically over the last five years, from 2% then to 17% today.  He added that VCs financed more deals in New England than any other state, although our region came in third in terms of total dollars.

Want to develop smarter, greener cities? Maybe the key is compelling communications

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Believe it or not, I think the answer to smarter, greener cities may be more compelling communications. I reached this conclusion after hearing a number of experts propose other solutions. This post explains why.

Background

This morning, I had the good fortune to attend Building the Future: Opportunities for Energy Innovation and Efficiency hosted by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council at Foley Hoag’s Emerging Enterprise Center. The keynote speaker was Dr. Joan Fitzgerald, Northeastern University Professor and author of Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Development. The other panelists were Cambridge, MA urban planner Iram Farooq, Architect and Autodesk Industry Programs Manager Erin Rae Hoffer, and entrepreneur and developer Kenneth H. Smith. Attorney Adam Wade from Foley Hoag moderated the discussion.