YESS 1.0 Agenda

From Innovation to Practice: Scaling solutions for the world’s food, energy, and water systems

Above: The Yale School of Management’s Evans Hall

YESS 2015 will take place November 6-7 at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale School of Management.

The Yale Environmental Sustainability Summit (YESS) will engage Yale alumni, faculty, staff and students, as well as world-renowned experts, practitioners and scholars in the environmental realm, on new techniques and technologies to transform our use of Food, Energy and Water.

Download the YESS smartphone app for all event info at your fingertips

Login (case sensitive): YESS ; Passcode: 2015

Many YESS sessions will be live-streamed: please see below for links

Friday, November 6

Session Time Location Description
9:00 - 11:00 Various Locations

Early Bird Campus Tours: Explore some of the exciting work going on at Yale around sustainability and innovation

For full descriptions of the campus tours, please follow this link for tour details. Please note that pre-registration is required

11:00

Evans Hall
First Floor
Registration Opens

11:00 - 1:00

Evans Hall
Second Floor
Welcome Immersion: Student hosted exhibition showcasing a variety of food, energy and water innovations and themes

11:30 - 1:00

Evans Hall
Second Floor
Lunch Reception

1:00 - 2:10

Zhang Auditorium
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

Fireside Chat

  • Tom Steyer, President, NextGen Climate
  • Peter Salovey, President, Yale University

2:10 - 2:15

Zhang Auditorium
Evans Hall
Remarks by YESS Lead Sustainability Sponsor, Lynn R. Fusco, President, Fusco Corporation

2:15 – 3:15

Zhang Auditorium
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

Introductory Keynote: Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy & Finance for New York (Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo), Chair of the NYSERDA Board

3:15 – 3:30   Break

3:30 – 4:30

Zhang Auditorium
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

Innovation for the Future: How do we identify the ripest areas for scalable ideas in energy, food and water?

Moderator: Andrew Winston, author The Big Pivot, co-author Green to Gold

  • Helen Clarkson, Director, Forum for the Future US
  • Steven Swartz, Principal, Mckinsey & Company
  • Michelle Lapinski, President, SustainBiz, LLC

4:45 - 6:00

Concurrent
Sessions:
Emerging Ideas: Three panels exploring current innovations in food, energy and water

Burke Auditorium
Kroon Hall

LIVESTREAM

Food Moderator: Dan Pullman, Managing Partner, Fresh Source

  • Josh Brau, Food with Integrity Program Manager, Chipotle
  • Rafi Teharian, Executive Director, Yale Dining
  • Andy Cox, Director of Dining Services, Smith College
  • Chris Cooke, Manager, Technical Development, The Sustainability Consortium

Zhang Auditorium
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

Energy Moderator: Bryan Garcia, President and CEO, Connecticut Green Bank

  • Dan Gross, Managing Director, Pegasus Capital Advisors
  • Carlos Pineda, CEO & Co-Founder, Foresight Renewable Solutions
  • Jeffrey Schub, Executive Director, Coalition for Green Capital
  • Kyle Jones Baker, Senior Investment Banking Professional
  • Brenden Millstein, CEO, Carbon Lighthouse
Bowers Auditorium
Sage Hall

Water Moderator: Thomas J.P. McHenry, Partner, Gibson Dunn

  • Anupam Bhargava, CEO, Clearwater Systems Corporation
  • Jeff Albert, VP for WASH, Thrive Networks; Founder of Aquaya Institute
  • Jen Molnar, Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
  • Suzette Carty, Manager, Environ. Sustainability & Strategy, Brown-Forman

6:15

New Haven
Lawn Club
Welcome Reception

6:50 – 7:30

New Haven
Lawn Club

Remarks by Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund (Introduction: Sir Peter Crane, Dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies)

7:30 - 9:00 New Haven Lawn Club Dinner and Networking Social

Saturday, November 7

8:00 - 8:30

Kroon/Sage/Evans Continental Breakfast

8:30 – 9:30

Concurrent Sessions: Exploring Thought Leadership (Concurrent Discussions)
Bowers Auditorium
Sage Hall
  • Beyond the Metaphor: Measuring Natural Capital to Inform Sustainability, Eli Fenichel, Assistant Professor of Bioeconomics and Ecosystem Management, Yale F&ES
Beinecke Terrace
Evans Hall
  • Innovation in Complex Systems, Rodrigo Canales, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior, Yale SOM

Room 2400
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

  • From Niche to Mainstream: Does the state of sustainability metrics support scaling of green investments? Todd Cort, Lecturer in Sustainability, Yale SOM
Room 2420
Evans Hall
  • How to Raise Money: Do’s and Don’ts on the Fundraising Trail: Nancy Pfund, Founder and Managing Partner, DBL Investors
Room 2410
Evans Hall
  • Environmental Performance Index as a Tool: Dan Esty, Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy
Room 2430
Evans Hall
  • Yale Sustainability Strategic Plan Stakeholder Engagement Workshop: Brad Gentry, Associate Dean for Professional Practice, Yale F&ES; Ginger Chapman, Director, Yale Office of Sustainability; Lindsay Toland, Sustainability Metrics & Program Manager, Yale Office of Sustainability

Burke Auditorium
Kroon Hall

LIVESTREAM

  • Sustainability: The Road Map for 21st Century Action: Onaje Jackson, President, Sustainable Systems and Design International

9:45 – 10:15

Zhang Auditorium
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

Shifting Thought into Action- Campus as Your Canvas: How is Yale leading the way in institutional sustainability, and what more can be done to actualize new ideas?

  • Ginger Chapman, Director, Yale Office of Sustainability
  • Brad Gentry, Associate Dean for Professional Practice, Yale F&ES

10:20 – 11:15

Zhang Auditorium
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

Plenary Keynote: How do we scale-up investment in sustainability-driven companies?

  • Nancy Pfund, CEO of DBL Investors
11:15 – 11:30   Break

11:30 – 12:30

Concurrent
Sessions:
Strategies to get to Scale: How can we encourage entrepreneurship, what are the challenges in each sector, and how can they be overcome?
Room 2410
Evans Hall

The Craft of Entrepreneurship

Moderator: Stuart DeCew, Program Director, Center for Business and the Environment at Yale (CBEY)

  • Jim Boyle, co-founder, Managing Director, Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI)
  • Adrian Horotan, Partner, Safe Made
  • Jen McFadden, Associate Director of Entrepreneurship, Yale SOM
  • Kevin Czinger​, Founder and CEO, Divergent Microfactories
Room 2400
Evans Hall

Can technology change our relationship to food, water and energy?

Moderator: Mike Sesko, Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy, Climate Corporation

  • David Jaeckel, WaterSmart Software
  • Erin Barnes, Co-founder and Executive Director, IOBY
  • Darcy Pollack, VP Strategic Partnerships, Zig Zag Zoom Games
Room 2420
Evans Hall

Sea Change: The challenge of unifying narratives for action

Moderator: Paul Lussier, CEO, Me2You Media

  • Margie Alt, Executive Director, Environment America
  • Miranda Massie, Executive Director, Climate Museum
  • Freya Williams, CEO, Futerra North America
  • Michelle Wyman, Incoming Executive Director, National Council for Science and the Environment

Zhang Auditorium
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

Where have we succeeded and failed in innovating for food, water and energy?

Moderator: Holly Welles, Communications Manager, Princeton Environmental Institute

  • Chris Larson, Chief Investment Officer, New Island Capital Management
  • Victor Gonzalez, President, Windmar Renewable Energy
  • Thomas Emmons, Head, Renewable Energy Project Finance, Rabobank International
  • Emma Felipe-Fernandez, Corporate Director for Sustainable Development, AECOM
  • Michael Davies, Project Environmental Manager, Bechtel Corporation

1:00 – 2:00

Concurrent
Sessions:
Lunch and Nexus Keynote Panels: Tackling the challenge of scaling ideas at the intersection of energy, water and food
Bowers Auditorium
Sage Hall

Food-Water Panel Keynote Introduction by Frances Beinecke, McCluskey Fellow, Yale University, Former Director, Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC)

  • Peter Lehner, Senior Attorney and Director, Sustainable Food and Agriculture Program, Earthjustice
  • Timothy Searchinger, Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Senior Fellow, World Resources Institute
  • Rebecca de Sa, Food Technology and Supply Chain Consultant
  • Kirk Siegler, Reporter, National Public Radio

Burke Auditorium
Kroon Hall

LIVESTREAM

Energy – Food Panel Keynote Introduction by Eli Kintisch, Correspondent, Science Magazine

  • Jaime Carlson, SunEdison
  • Charlotte Kaiser, Deputy Director of NatureVest, The Nature Conservancy
  • Rosemary Ripley, Founder of NGEN
  • Robert Ames, VP Corporate Development, Elevance Renewable Sciences
  • Dhiraj Malkani, Partner, RockPort Capital Partners

Room 2400
Evans Hall

LIVESTREAM

Water – Energy Panel Keynote Introduction by William Reilly, Senior Advisor, TPG Capital, LP

  • Jordan Macknick, National Renewable Energy Lab
  • Anup Jacob, Partner, Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company)
  • Elliot Mainzer, Administrator, Bonneville Power Administration
  • Julie Zimmerman, Professor, Environmental Engineering, Yale

2:30 - 3:15

Burke Auditorium
Kroon Hall

LIVESTREAM

Preparing for Paris: Cassie Flynn, Climate Change Advisor, United Nations

3:20 – 3:45

Burke Auditorium
Kroon Hall

LIVESTREAM

Wrap-Up & Closing Remarks

  • Frances Beinecke, Former Director, Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC)
  • Eli Kintisch, Correspondent, Science Magazine
  • William Reilly, Senior Advisor, TPG Capital, LP

4:00 - 6:00

Burke Auditorium
& Knobloch Center
Kroon Hall

LIVESTREAM

“Speed Pitches” and Farewell Reception

Below: Kroon Hall, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies