Category Archives: Industry Insights

Crossing the Climate Line

This op-ed first appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on May 21, 2013. by Daniel Vermeer Earlier this month, a remote monitoring system in Hawaii recorded the first time in human history that the daily average for carbon dioxide … Continue reading

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Three Stages in Corporate Sustainability Strategy

by Daniel Chow, MEM Class of 2014 At Duke, students are taught why companies across all industries are pursuing sustainability, what barriers exist for different businesses, and what tools are necessary for organizations to achieve their goals. Kristina Ronneberg (MEM … Continue reading

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Why companies should value water

by Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE If water is so valuable, then why is it so cheap? Economists have long been fascinated by the water paradox – clean, abundant water keeps us healthy, provides our food, sustains our ecosystems, … Continue reading

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Food vs. Fuel: State of the Debate

by Carol Healy, MEM/MBA Class of 2014 and Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE Food security is back in the news.  According to estimates, this summer’s drought is the second most costly natural disaster in US history, after Hurricane Katrina … Continue reading

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The New Convergence: Smart Grid, Efficiency, and Renewables

by Josh Seidenfeld, MEM/MBA Class of 2015 and Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE For all the strident debates about energy in American politics (e.g. fracking, drilling on public lands, government incentives, etc.), no one disagrees that innovation will be … Continue reading

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On Extreme Energy, Risk, and Culture

by Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE One of the more frustrating aspects of working the sustainability field is that every problem is mind-bogglingly complex, and can be framed at multiple levels.  Take, for example, the heated debates and accusations … Continue reading

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Ratings Move Companies as Well As Consumers

A recent paper–“How Firms Respond to Being Rated”–by Duke faculty Aaron Chatterji and Harvard’s Michael Toffel provides insights into how ratings affect corporate performance. Ratings by companies like Moody’s, Michelin, and Consumer Reports have long swayed the behavior of consumers … Continue reading

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CFO Survey: Rising Fuel Costs Spur Companies to Embrace Green Solutions

Among the findings of June 2011 Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook survey of chief financial officers (CFOs): eighty percent of CFOs in the U.S. say the high price of oil is negatively affecting their firms, with 61 percent describing … Continue reading

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Connecting the Dots on Agriculture, Water, and Energy

In Thomas Homer-Dixon’s book The Ingenuity Gap, he describes a growing chasm between the world’s knotty problems and its lagging ability to develop robust and integrated solutions.  An “ingenuity gap” emerges when a society’s ability to solve problems is outpaced … Continue reading

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Dan Vermeer speaks on the opportunities inherent in energy efficiency

EDGE executive director Dan Vermeer spoke about energy efficiency as a business opportunity at last week’s ABB Automation & Power World 2011. You can read the recap at: “The real impact of energy efficiency on the bottom line” – ABB … Continue reading

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