Institute Executive Director Ed Church gave the Keynote presentation at the annual Real Estate Symposium at Menlo College in Atherton, California on August 10, 2017.  Titled “Changing Climate, Changing Real Estate,” his presentation outlined major issues for the built environment and our planet.

Because Menlo College is in Silicon Valley, Church spoke of “innovation: serving what we would or could do,” and contrasted it with climate change-driven “adaptation: serving what we must do.”  Opportunity for real estate, as well as other business sectors lies at the intersection of the two.

For an audience which frequently feels constrained by regulation and public policies, Church asserted that California climate regulations based on realistic appraisals of the need to reduce fossil fuel use give real estate professionals an advantage over areas of the country like the Southeast, who feel the brunt of climate change without acknowledging it with policies that can mitigate its effects.  Church showed how, in California, regulations can create value and a level playing field for buildings and energy use.

At the 15th Annual Housing Leadership Day at the College of San Mateo, IEE Executive Director Ed Church participated on an expert panel discussing the nexus of water and housing, with Richard Luthy, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University and Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment of Stanford, and Nicole Sandkulla, CEO of  the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency.

They explored methods for constructing new, multi-family housing to address the Bay Area housing shortage, along with new technologies to dramatically reduce the per capita use of water.  Adrienne Etherton of Sustainable San Mateo County moderated.

January 28-29, 2015, this conference, held at the TopLine Accelerator in Richmond, CA brought together thought leaders in the Renewable Energy Finance, International Solar Development, Cleantech, Commercial Solar Finance & Renewable Investments.

IEE Executive Director Ed Church was one of the featured speakers on a panel with cleantech investors, about the connection between finance, public policy and net-zero technologies.

The 8^th Annual Bay Area Economic Forecast was presented by the Bay Area Council’s Economic Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on January 16, 2015.  The event featured remarks by the Fed’s President, John Williams, by BAC VP Tracey Grose, Mary Hamilton of Accenture and Jerry Nickelsburg of UCLA Anderson Forecast.

IEE’s Executive Director Ed Church was part of a panel commenting on the forecasts.  With other panelists from the City of San Jose, Qualcomm and Microsoft, he addressed the question of smart cities and data from the lens of transitioning to the post-carbon society.

The Northern California Chapter of the US Green Building Council held its conference on Building Health December 11, 2014 at the University of California, San Francisco’s Mission Bay Center. IEE Director Edward Church moderated the panel on Community Design for Healthy Habits.

The panel discussed how walking is not “alternative transportation,” it is primary transportation! Walking and other movement also promotes better thinking and creativity. But much of our urban design is based on removing these basic processes from our everyday lives. The session gave participants concrete examples of design and behavioral changes in diverse communities to be able to walk more and move more.

At the International Living Future Conference in Portland, Oregon in May of 2014, IEE Executive Director Ed Church made a presentation on removing the financial, regulatory and behavioral barriers to life-affirming (“biophilic”) design in the built environment.  Ed’s presentation showed how the human systems which determine how and what we build are self-reinforcing.  Conventionally, that means building the environmentally and socially unsustainable which will not serve us in the decades to come.  He offered practical examples of emerging changes in finance and planning that can encourage a built environment that reduces energy and water, while enhancing human life.

The Ecocity World Summit was held in Nantes, France at the end of September, 2013.  Organized by the NGO Ecocity Builders, the week-long event was designed to facilitate exchanges among local, regional and governmental decision-makers, researchers and the civil society, and bring together all the different disciplines on sustainable cities.

IEE Executive Director Ed Church was asked to make a presentation at the conference, based on some of the findings of the research we did for Arup, called the Cities and People Project.  Although unable to attend, Ed made the presentation via video.

Climate change, extreme weather and depleting natural resources are forcing communities to rethink and rebuild critical infrastructure like water services, energy systems, and public transportation. Infrastructure investment has the potential to both provide sound returns for investors as well as create jobs and ensure a more sustainable world for future generations. How are innovative investors and companies making these investments within the current economic and political climate? What are the barriers to increased green infrastructure investment? In May, IEE Executive Director Ed Church joined featured panelists at the 2013 Ceres Conference to address these important questions and discuss how current success stories can be replicated and scaled.

On November 15, 2011, Amy Fraenkel, the Director and Regional Representative of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), presented at a meeting organized by the Institute for Environmental Entrepreneurship and co-hosted by IEE partner ARUP at their San Francisco office.  Ms. Fraenkel was there to engage with, and give information to, Bay Area businesses about the upcoming Rio+20 event.

Next year marks the 20^th anniversary of the historic 1992 Earth Summit. In light of this historic event, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (also known as Rio+20) will take place in Rio de Janeiro next June. The Conference seeks to: 1) re-invigorate political support for sustainable development, 2) look back and assess the progress to date, and 3) tackle emerging issues that have reached their “tipping points” such as food security and water. The Conference is also particularly focused on the creation of a Green Economy.

Ed Church, Executive Director of IEE, and Aidan Hughes, a Principal at Arup, convened the meeting, attended by representatives from PG&E, financial services, the Sustainable Business Alliance, Sustainable Industries magazine, and others. Ms. Fraenkel was especially interested in connecting with Bay Area businesses since much innovative thinking begins in the Bay Area, and thus it is critical to include the West Coast in the discussion.

Overall, the meeting brought together a range of people engaged in sustainable business and built a potentially long-lasting connection between UNEP and Bay Area green business experts.

It was one outcome of the process begun last November when Ed chaired and IEE staffed a Working Group to give input to the Conference.

IEE Executive Director Edward Church was a panelist at the 9^th annual Architecture and the City Festival, the nation’s largest architectural festival. The theme for 2011 is “Architecture of Consequence,” which hopes to demonstrate how progressive design and creative problem solving can address society’s current challenges and lead to a more sustainable future.

Dr. Church spoke on a panel about “Communities of the Future,” which examined how increased demands for water, food, energy and recreational space are shaping contemporary architecture.

IEE Executive Director Ed Church spoke at the Social Capital Markets conference held in October 2010 in San Francisco. Also known as SoCap10, it is an annual conference that attracts 1400 people from 40 countries. He was asked to speak as part of the learning track called Food Systems, on a panel devoted to “Creative Financing: Lessons Learned.”

SoCap is a multi-platform organization dedicated to the flow of capital towards social good. Their conferences connect leading global innovators – investors, foundations, institutions, and social entrepreneurs – to build this market at the intersection of money and meaning.