Session Name: Clean Energy and Climate Change

In a panel discussion on clean energy and climate change, speakers Adam Durant, Chief Executive of SATAVIA, an aerospace intelligence company, Liz Madaras, CEO at Poliloop, a startup that focuses on curbing plastic pollution by working on integrating the plastic lifecycle, Mia Jafari, Incubator Manager at Intelak Incubator, an incubator developing teams, comprised of early-stage entrepreneurs within aviation, travel and tourism, Charles Blaschke, founder and CEO of Taka Solutions, an energy consulting company that helps buildings reduce their energy consumption, carbon and costs, and Joey Bertschler, CEO at Cool Japan Holdings, a fund promoting the measures and policies of Japanese products and services, discussed the state of clean energy in emerging markets.

They elaborated on governmental efforts to tackle the dangers and the different technologies being used to promote a faster adoption of clean energy. When asked how each panelist would describe “clean energy” in a tweet, Durant, answered promptly and stated, “Clean green energy is anything that does not emit carbon to the atmosphere,” and the rest, agreed more or less. 

Efforts to Tackle Climate Change

Each of the panelists briefly discussed how they, personally are contributing to clean energy and climate change efforts. Jafari, stated, “People have to care and then they have to start voting with their wallets; by buying from sustainable companies. Corporations also have to have a shift, a mindset shift. And they will have to see that if they do not care about the environment, they’re going to start losing money.” Adding to this, Durant said that as consumers, we can still retain a lifestyle that we enjoy, without having to give anything up. He gave the example of renewable energy and said that, “Consumers can still get electricity without having to burn things, because when you burn things, the air becomes damaging to our health.” 

“People have to care and then they have to start voting with their wallets; by buying from sustainable companies. Corporations also have to have a shift, a mindset shift. And they will have to see that if they do not care about the environment, they’re going to start losing money.”

Mia Jafari, Incubator Manager, Intelak Incubator

Furthermore, when asked how cross-sector collaboration can ignite climate change initiatives, Durant answered with an unanimously accepted answer saying, “There’s two aspects; one, is vision. We can create a vision to get everybody aligned to think about how we can be more sustainable in everything we do…and two, is act, do something. You can’t solve climate change, but you might be able to do something that makes a small positive impact.” 

Lastly, Blaschke, explained how renewable energy can save businesses money by reducing their energy bills. He suggested that companies could install different forms of renewable energy on their properties and use them to power their operations.