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Public transportation has been ever-present in my life for as long as I can remember — from taking it to get to school as a student, to traveling across multiple transport modes and cities to get to my first office job. It was often the most efficient choice, whether I was running errands or even lugging home pieces of furniture that were just too good to pass up (much to the chagrin of my fellow passengers). Access to public transportation and its transformational power always got me where I needed to go.

We know that as economic and social progress has increased over the last century, so has the environmental impact of our global population.  According to the United Nations, our lifestyles are responsible for an estimated two-thirds of global emissions, most largely driven by how we choose to get from point A to point B. Since 2017, transportation has overtaken electricity generation as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

We also know that across communities, the generation of these transportation-driven emissions is not distributed equally. Earlier this month, the Mastercard Economics Institute published a study that analyzed the economic characteristics of transit deserts, or areas where people have little to no access to public transportation, and the impact on their populations in over 27,000 ZIP codes across the United States. 

The data showed that the lowest-income areas who do not have access to public transportation tend to spend roughly 36 percent of card-covered consumption on automotive fuel. In other words, low-income populations have limited choice but to spend their money on the most expensive and environmentally detrimental form of transportation: personal automobiles. By contrast, populations in areas with more public transportation spend a much lower amount on fuel and generate lower emissions from automobiles. 

This is a pervasive trend. Many people living in growing urban populations struggle daily to find the most cost-effective, seamless and sustainable ways to get around. 

As cities aim to transition to a low-carbon economy that serves everyone, increasing accessibility and ridership of public transportation and enhancing micro-mobility solutions can be an effective area to direct resources. We have a tremendous opportunity to focus our efforts on matching growing rider demand with transportation options that are both highly accessible and serve every type of rider. 

At Mastercard, we are embracing innovation to simplify the user experience and make the more sustainable transit choice the more accessible, seamless transit choice. As a technology company in the payments industry, we understand the revolutionary potential of frictionless public transportation and its ability to sustain and increase ridership. Our micro-mobility efforts are centered on the notion that ensuring ease of access for first- and last-mile transit will significantly increase ridership and yield lower impact on the environment when compared to driving in a vehicle with an internal combustion engine. 

In 2022, we helped to support  our partner Freebike, launch a tap-and-ride system for 1,100 e-bikes in Helsinki, Finland, to promote sustainable and interoperable mobility.. As more individuals opt for public transportation, bikes and scooters, we will see reduced congestion in cities and reduced carbon emissions more generally. This program effectively opened the door to expansion of the tap and ride program that was launched in Lahti, Finland last month. 

As transit networks become more efficient and reliable, they also contribute to economic growth. People who experience limited, unreliable, or inadequate access to transportation networks disproportionally face difficulty gaining and retaining access to job opportunities, vital services, or professional commitments. In this way, transportation networks — when efficient, reliable and diligent — are a powerful tool that can broaden opportunity and promote economic growth.

Increasing financial inclusion and connecting people to economic growth opportunities is central to Mastercard’s mission of powering economies and empowering people. And we recognize that the path to true financial inclusion often begins with strengthening physical inclusion. That’s why we are committed to expanding our urban mobility solutions, so all communities can benefit from economic prosperity and improved environmental sustainability. By increasing access to urban mobility options, we can better meet our global sustainability goals and contribute to an inclusive, resilient global economy.

On a personal note, as I raise my children in a world where driving is quite prevalent, I find myself encouraging the practice of opting for public transport. In showing my kids how to read a schedule, how to tap, the importance of sustainability, and the impact we’re having on the climate, I watch their sense of independence grow with every journey. One day, they’ll be lugging home furniture or groceries I am sure, but for them at least, it will be just a tap — and not a quest — to find that last quarter.

This article series is sponsored by Mastercard and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

"Nos sentimos como los olvidados," or "We feel like the forgotten ones," is the sentiment expressed by residents of Pajaro, California. The community is systematically underfunded, underdeveloped and ignored. A lack of funding for infrastructure and upkeep led to a levee break that flooded Pajaro last year, Vladimir Carrasco, the deputy director of external affairs at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), told TriplePundit. 

Worse yet, government officials knew the levee could fail, the Los Angeles Times reports. One of the reasons the repairs met long delays was because “it’s a low-income area. It’s largely farmworkers that live” in the community, an unnamed official told the news outlet. 

CHIRLA is a part of a network of climate refugee and immigrant rights organizations fighting for those most impacted by the climate crisis called the Climate Justice Collaborative. The organization faces an uphill battle as it advocates for recovery funding for Pajaro. 

A slow response to aging infrastructure

The response to the flood and its aftermath wasn’t any better. “When the flooding did happen, community members were warned by fire trucks at two or three in the morning — in English only,” Carrasco said. This was hardly an effective strategy considering that Pajaro is home to a majority Mexican immigrant population, many of whom only speak Indigenous languages like Mixteco. 

“A well-resourced community would have had some alert system and language accessibility and a lot more than just the fire department doing outreach to community members for evacuation,” Carrasco said.

It wasn’t just the local and state governments that failed the people of Pajaro, the federal government was also slow to respond. Whereas the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other agencies were quick to bring services to nearby Spreckels, California, when it flooded a few months prior, Pajaro residents had to depend on local nonprofits like CHIRLA for assistance and advocacy.

The rapid response for other communities wasn’t a one-off. “Up the road from Pajaro is Santa Cruz,” Carrasco said. “Santa Cruz had been recently hit by some disaster or climate impact, and their recovery happened quite rapidly, while Pajaro was ignored for months. So the community certainly feels like this has been an unjust amount of time.”

Government officials appeared to be dragging their feet at every step. The weather conditions that brought the heavy rains and flooding that culminated in the levee break on March 11, 2023, began on February 21. Emergencies are often declared within a matter of days, but in this instance, the President Joe Biden didn’t sign the Major Disaster Declaration until the evening of April 3, and a temporary Disaster Recovery Center wasn’t opened for another 10 days. California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, was responsible for requesting the declaration and resulting federal aid. He didn’t do so until March 28. 

Advocating for a forgotten community

The eventual government action didn’t happen without community intervention. “It was alongside the [Pajaro Disaster Long-Term Recovery Alliance] that we were able to do outreach to elected officials in Sacramento and the county, and to elevate the voices of the community members and the needs that they were elevating,” Carrasco said. 

This advocacy prompted the state to make the necessary disaster request. “That resulted in the emergency declaration, and that comes from President Biden, which then allows the state to declare a state of emergency and allows FEMA to come in,” he said

While these were necessary steps, the emergency declaration only did so much. The majority of the population was unable to access FEMA assistance and recovery due to their undocumented status, Carrasco said.

“It really highlighted how our communities are often left behind,” he said. “We're on the front lines of the climate crisis as immigrants, as BIPOC communities, but often left behind and not recognized once the recovery happens.”

CHIRLA didn’t stop advocating for the residents of Pajaro once the disaster was declared. With so many community members left ineligible for FEMA’s financial assistance, the organization continued its fight at the legislative level. The advocacy resulted in the Storm Assistance for Immigrants program and a $20 million recovery fund allocated by the California State Assembly, Carrasco said.

“[Storm Assistance for Immigrants] was created by Governor Newsom, and it was a one-time allocation,” he said. “It was the first time ever that there was a fund, a disaster recovery fund, specifically for undocumented folks.” The fund is limited to the communities that were flooded in March 2023. 

Ensuring disaster recovery promises are upheld

“It was a big victory because we finally got the recognition that federal recovery is not inclusive of undocumented immigrant folks,” Carrasco said. “The state did provide that assistance, but it made it only a one-time assistance.”

The organization will have to fight for funds again after the next flood, whether it affects Pajaro or another similarly overlooked immigrant community. And substantial advocacy is still needed to secure the distribution of the promised $20 million. It remains unallocated.

The Board of Supervisors of Monterey County, which is in charge of distribution, wanted to limit the direct assistance to $6 million and use the remaining $14 million to restore public buildings and other damaged infrastructure. CHIRLA and the Pajaro Disaster Long-Term Recovery Alliance fought to ensure a fair portion of the money goes to individuals who lost their homes, vehicles and belongings.

“We came together,” Carrasco said. “We mobilized both community members and business leaders — like local small business owners in the community — to provide lengthy public comment, and elevate their testimony, and urge the county to raise it to at least $12 million … We didn't get that, but we did secure $10 million to direct assistance.”

Advocacy isn’t optional

Both the community and the advocacy organizations involved feel the recovery response is taking an unjust amount of time, from the emergency declaration to the funds they’re still waiting for, Carrasco said. And that’s despite the devastation appearing all over the media.

“We are going to be at the front line of the climate crisis, but we're going to be the last to be considered for recovery and assistance,” he said of immigrant and BIPOC communities. “Now what we're hoping is that this serves as an example to show other communities, both across the state of California and in the United States, that we need to start being active about our climate resilience and mitigation advocacy because our communities are going to get hit first and ignored, as well. Once the crisis gets worse and worse, that means the resources that do exist are going to be going to the most privileged.”

This story is part of a solutions journalism series exploring how nonprofits and advocacy organizations are bringing immigrant communities together in support of climate justice. Follow along with the series here. 

Access to financing enables business owners to significantly expand their businesses, but 83 percent of startups don’t access bank loans or venture capital, according to an Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation report. Instead, nearly 65 percent use personal and family savings. In addition to wealth and demographic barriers when accessing capital, entrepreneurs entering the traditional venture capital arena may risk losing full control of their businesses.

Since 2022, Momentus Capital has tested a new impact investment approach to support growth-stage, social impact businesses in underserved communities. The organization’s $171 million impact investing fund, the Equitable Prosperity Fund, provides purpose-driven businesses with non-dilutive capital, so business owners can keep full ownership of their companies. The fund aims to exit after three to five years of supporting the company's growth.

The Momentus family of organizations has over 40 years of experience in small business lending and recently learned that traditional debt products don't meet the needs of small businesses — especially those that are serving underserved communities, Yrenilsa Lopez, managing director of investments at Momentus Capital, told TriplePundit. And small businesses are typically not inclined to give up equity. 

Investment in action

One of the differentiating features of the Equitable Prosperity Fund from traditional venture capital options is its focus on businesses that are growing past the startup stage and prioritize social impact instead of solely pursuing profits.
To date, Momentus Capital has invested in 10 companies improving access to healthcare, insurance, healthy and affordable food, and growing the number of cooperatives and employee-owned companies. 

One of the fund’s investments includes BB Imaging, a medical imaging company increasing access to high-quality ultrasound services. The Equitable Prosperity Fund enabled the company to develop a telecast technology that allowed it to expand in underserved areas, Lopez said. Now, BB Imaging photographers can conduct imaging tests remotely, without needing to be physically present with patients.

Another investee is 4P Foods. Tom McDougall, its CEO and co-founder, connected with Momentus Capital during the COVID-19 pandemic. 4P Foods faces challenges like needing to change the traditional food system and accessing infrastructure, including warehouses, refrigerators and trucks, McDougall told 3p. Capital support from the fund allowed McDougall to invest in infrastructure and technology, cover costs, and expand his business with farmers.

"Momentus has been a great partner in our journey, in terms of wanting to understand what our impact is, on an ongoing basis, where our challenges are on an ongoing basis. And how they might adapt the tools they provide to sort of fit our evolving shape and size," said McDougall. 

Flexible financing keeps the focus on social impact, innovation and growth

Each investment from the fund is tailored specifically to the investee due to the fund’s overall flexibility, Lopez said. "Because it's a growth product it's meant for companies that are taking that next level in their operation, so it's not working capital,” Lopez said. “We are looking for companies that really want to grow, whether that means they want to open a new branch, a new location, whether they want to invest in infrastructure, invest in people, invest in new technologies that will specifically result in growth." 

The investment does not operate like traditional debt. There are no collateral or guarantee requirements, and redemption periods are aligned with each company's growth. To qualify for investment, companies must generate annual revenues of over $4 million.

The energy transition isn’t happening as quickly as it could be, and a shortage of workers with the necessary green skills is at the root of the slowdown. Jobs requiring those skills rose by an average of 9.2 percent each year from 2018 to 2023, according to LinkedIn’s Economic Graph. But the number of workers in possession of them only went up 5.4 percent per year in the same period.

The skills gap can benefit workers

TriplePundit spoke with Greg Manning, the vice president of human resources at DSD Renewables, about how the renewable energy company is approaching the skills shortage and what other businesses can do to work through it.

“The demand is exceeding the industry's capabilities right now,” he said. “So that's a great proposition for workers or folks who want to come and work in this industry.”

Green skills don’t just include hard skills like engineering, construction and technical know-how. They include a variety of knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes necessary to develop a sustainable economy, like operations management and monitoring. For solar developers and financiers like DSD, green skills are required in legal and financial roles to create contracts and ensure profitability, Manning said.

Although the solar industry has been experiencing a growth spurt for quite some time now, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) spurred the industry on at an even faster rate, Manning said. It caused an influx of investment and created an even greater need for workers with this expertise. As a result, the industry is an employee’s market. 

“There's been a real need to get people who can hit the ground running,” Manning said. “The flip side is that you pay more for people who have applicable experience in this industry, especially with how much it's grown … Every hiring manager wants somebody that's done 20 years of doing the exact thing that we're trying to do. It's not feasible. So how do you fill in those cracks or bridge the skills gap?”

Shrinking the gap with internships and on-the-job training

DSD tries to hire people from the solar industry as much as possible, but that’s often not an option with the growing gap between the number of qualified candidates and the sheer number of available jobs, Manning said. That’s why the company is focused on solving the shortage by incubating green skills in college students and workers from other industries through internships and on-the-job training.

“A lot of renewable companies and solar companies have seen an increase in attrition since the IRA because more chairs got added to the musical chairs,” Manning said. “We need to fill those chairs … Whether it's on-the-job training, whether it's leadership training for soft skills, managerial skills, influencing skills, just working with lots of different entities to get the job done. Those are all important.”

Though he referred to on-the-job training as critical, Manning also noted that not all workers can be transitioned into green jobs. Filling all of the new roles isn’t as simple as transitioning fossil fuel workers into solar. More often than not these shifts are successful, but not everyone is flexible enough to make the switch, Manning said. 

Higher education partnerships are invaluable to DSD. The company teamed up with Cornell University and Columbia University to launch internships that teach the necessary green skills for structured finance, engineering and project development at the company, Manning said.

“Most of the people who come and intern with us end up sticking on even part-time once they go back to school,” Manning said. “We've had people who've done that and then ended up taking a full-time job because they were rapidly able to demonstrate as an intern that they can learn fast, and they're flexible, and they're getting it. That's been very helpful, and I think we want to continue to do more there.”

DSD’s internships are all paid, and it’s important for the company to abide by the most stringent labor laws, Manning said. And there’s the added benefit of opening up a larger pool of potential candidates by doing so. 

The skills gap runs deep

Internships and on-the-job training are helping DSD fill positions, but of course, neither can make it immune to the effects of the skill gap. Much of the problem is outside of the company’s control, due to a concurrent lack of skilled workers in the trades.

“The amount of time it might have taken to do a certain megawatt installation five years ago might be longer now,” Manning said. “And this goes to the construction partners that we use … If there were more qualified metal workers, if there were more qualified electricians that could work for these construction partners, then that would create for us, and for the other people in this industry, likely smaller lead times from when the project starts.”

Seventy-five percent of Americans intend to include sustainability among their priorities when traveling, according to a new report from Washington State University (WSU). But not everyone follows through. Understanding why could help sustainable hospitality businesses increase their share of bookings and encourage a greater portion of the industry to follow suit. This would likely lead to a reduction in the travel industry’s share of emissions, which were estimated to make up 8 percent of the world’s emissions in 2023 and are expected to increase exponentially by 2050 if the right steps aren’t taken. 

Travelers need more information to make sustainable choices

“There is almost always a gap between what consumers say and do, especially when it's about green consumption,” Christina Chi, a professor at WSU’s School of Hospitality Business Management, told TriplePundit. This can happen for several different reasons, including the tendency for survey respondents to choose the option seen as socially desirable. 

“Customers have different experiences and perceptions with green products and services, which can affect their green actions,” Chi said. Those perceptions influence what consumers consider sustainable, and could explain why the choices they intend to make don’t necessarily line up with the greatest emissions reductions. For example, instead of choosing low-emission flights, green-certified accommodations, or using public transportation systems as actions they were likely to take when traveling, survey respondents prioritized activities with less potential to affect their carbon footprint.

“The top four answers there [were] purchase goods from local businesses and sellers, avoiding tourism activities or behaviors that would harm wildlife or the environment, dining at establishments that get ingredients from regional farmers and producers, and doing what you can to avoid contributing to over-tourism of popular areas,” Debbie Compeau, the interim dean of WSU’s Carson College of Business and Research, told 3p. “What that says to me is, behaviorally, the way they are defining sustainability is around supporting the economy of different places and avoiding harm.”

While these steps are all integral to responsible travel, incentivizing and educating consumers on the importance of lower-carbon transportation and accommodations is imperative to making the industry more sustainable. But that’s not happening. Having a green certification doesn’t lead to more bookings or higher revenue for hotels, according to another study led by Chi. She noted that hotels have largely removed certifications from their websites and many no longer advertise their efforts. 

“Hotel greenwashing has eroded customers' trust of hotels' green claims and caused them [to be] less willing to participate in hotels' sustainability practices,” Chi said. Likewise, airlines often fail to disclose emissions details, which would allow passengers to choose flights with the lowest carbon footprint. “Tourism and hospitality businesses that are environmentally friendly often fail to provide essential information,” she added. 

A priority, but not a top priority

While 75 percent of survey respondents cited sustainability as a travel priority, not everyone said it was a top priority. Only 13 percent listed it as such. Meanwhile, 33 percent categorized sustainability as an important travel priority and 29 percent said it was a secondary priority, which is considered a minor influence, Compeau said.

Although three out of four people may consider sustainability in their travel plans, it’s likely that only a small percentage are putting it into action. Compeau said she assumes there is less of a gap between what people say and what they do in the 13 percent who categorize it as a top priority. 

Priorities vary by generation

“We revealed numerous generational differences regarding sustainability in this survey,” Chi said. “For example, Gen Z and millennials are significantly more likely than older generations to say sustainability is a ‘top priority’ when traveling — 20 percent and 18 percent, respectively.”

Their choices of travel practices reflected that prioritization, with almost a quarter of Gen Z and millennials listing “flying with airlines that are committed to greener operations” as important. That’s compared to just 9 percent of Gen X and 7 percent of baby boomers who said the same.

That dichotomy held for low-carbon local transportation, as well. And while a mere 5 percent of Gen X and 4 percent of baby boomers thought it was important to stay in green-certified accommodations, 13 percent of those in the younger generations considered it a priority. 

Parents of young children also reported a greater affinity for sustainable travel than parents of adults or people without kids. Thirty-four percent of parents agreed with the statement “I feel a responsibility to plan and act sustainably when I travel.” 

“Honestly, age may be an important variable here, at least to some degree,” Chi said. “The parents in the survey … are generally younger, making them millennials themselves … Perhaps they have their children, and their children’s future world, on their minds.”

The future of travel depends on acting on sustainable travel intentions

Everyone can take steps to travel more sustainably. From booking lower-emissions flights and accommodations with lower carbon footprints to choosing public transportation at destinations, there are plenty of ways to do so. That might mean doing more research during the planning phase of a trip, such as searching for LEED-certified lodging, checking carbon emissions on Google Flights, and learning about the local public transportation system before arrival. It can also mean choosing hostels and guesthouses — which have smaller footprints due to their smaller size and maximized communal spaces — and focusing on direct flights whenever possible.

Sustainable travel options should increase as more consumers prioritize them, with venues and airlines more likely to advertise their certifications and emissions savings as they see a financial benefit. Moreover, the climate crisis threatens tourism around the planet. Islands and beaches are at risk of rising seas, extreme heat and weather pattern changes can destroy the viability of destinations, and so on. It is imperative that both travelers and the travel industry take the right steps to drastically reduce emissions and embrace sustainability.

A detailed plan for upending the federal government is easily available for public view on the Heritage Foundation’s website. Known as Project 2025, the document has sat there for months, flying largely under the media radar. Actress Taraji P. Henson finally called attention to the draconian plan in a fiery speech while hosting the annual BET Awards show, and now everyone is talking about it.

Why is everyone suddenly talking about Project 2025?

Project 2025 previously received some attention from the Union of Concerned Scientists and other climate experts. However, in terms of raising widespread public awareness about it, Henson provided a compelling, effective spark that broke through the media clutter, and BET Networks later posted a clip of her speech to YouTube.

“Pay attention,” Henson urged, looking straight into the camera. “It’s not a secret. Look it up … The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!” 

CNN, Forbes, the Associated Press and the BBC are among the many media organizations to report on Project 2025 following the BET Awards, along with a wave of conversation across social media. Despite the sudden spotlight, the Project 2025 agenda is still available online from the Heritage Foundation in a free PDF format as part of the organization’s Mandate for Leadership series. It is also for sale in book form.

“The Heritage Foundation is once again facilitating this work, but as our dozens of partners and hundreds of authors will attest, this book is the work of the entire conservative movement,” the organization’s website reads. “It is not enough for conservatives to win elections … we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration.”

What Project 2025 means for business

The Project 2025 agenda spans 922 pages, much of it spelling out steps to mandate government-enforced social control at a granular level, with a knock-on impact that could undermine corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“The next conservative president must get to work pursuing the true priority of politics — the well-being of the American family,” the PDF version reads. “The Dobbs decision is just the beginning,” it continues, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that effectively overturned federal protections for abortion. 

That’s just the first of four topic areas described in Project 2025. The others deal more directly with policies impacting economic activity.

For example, an op-ed authored by former Microsoft executive Jeff Raikes and published by Forbes sums up the entire document as a policy agenda that will “likely plunge the American economy into a death spiral.” In an echo of Henson’s warning, Raikes advises taking  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s extremist statements on the campaign trail literally.

“It'd be natural to think that Trump is just mouthing off again, except, this time, he has a playbook in hand to accomplish his goals as soon as he gets into office,” Raikes wrote.

He also drew out the connection between a healthy economy and a functioning democracy, adding to a growing body of commentary on the business case for democratic representation. 

“Unfortunately, this Project 2025 agenda is brimming with extremely outside-the-mainstream ideas that threaten to roll back many Americans' fundamental rights and cause grave and perhaps permanent damage to our democratic system of government,” he wrote.

The 800-pound climate change gorilla in the Project 2025 room

Early signs of Raikes' “death spiral” warning have already emerged as the U.S. insurance industry grapples with the impacts of climate change. Raikes notes that Project 2025 refers dismissively to the “climate change alarm industry," but the economic impacts are all too real.

“Climate change is already costing the U.S. $150 billion a year, and those costs are expected to grow substantially in the years to come if left unchecked — which is what this report argues for,” Raikes wrote, referring to a 2023 report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Indeed, insurers are already pulling out of Florida and other markets on the front lines of climate change-related impacts.

“Industry leaders note that insurance companies have been hammered by heavy payouts … and say they simply can’t afford to provide coverage in the areas that face the highest risk,” Alex Brown reported for the nonprofit news organization Stateline last month.

Despite the looming threat of a full-blown climate crisis, rapid decarbonization and adaptation will reduce risks and limit the damage, according to the NOAA report. With that, the choice on Election Day this year is clear and binary: Support the climate policies of the Joe Biden administration, or go down with the Project 2025 ship.

The impact of climate change falls most heavily on disadvantaged communities, including many Black communities in the southern United States. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are “uniquely positioned to lead” in the struggle for climate justice and environmental resilience, according to a report from the United Negro College Fund. 

“HBCUs are particularly well suited to lead efforts in climate justice due to their deep-rooted connections to communities that they already have,” Kendra Sharp, a strategist for the fund’s Institute for Capacity Building, told TriplePundit. “They have been disproportionately affected by environmental injustices for so long that they now can use that setback as a strength to help influence the conversation.”

The report analyzes existing climate and sustainability practices at HBCUs and, with support from the climate-solutions-focused Waverley Street Foundation, charts a course for launching a network of HBCU Climate Action Hubs.

The long histories of HBCUs advocating for social justice and equality means they are “natural leaders” in addressing the “compounded issues of environmental and racial injustices as it relates to climate and sustainability overall,” Sharp said. “HBCUs are uniquely positioned to take their mission, which is obviously to serve under-resourced students and communities, and pair that up with this urgent need for climate action as it relates to our communities … Leveraging this expertise can definitely drive meaningful change.”

Black communities are heavily concentrated in regions that overlap with severe climate risks, primarily in southern states, according to a November 2023 report by the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility. Roughly half of Black Americans live in the Southeast where exposure to heat, hurricanes and flooding is high. Consequently, Black populations are more likely to be exposed to these dangers. 

The United Negro College Fund’s report surveyed 20 HBCUs representing a mix of public and private schools located in urban, suburban and rural settings. The findings revealed that HBCUs have already had a strong commitment to climate, climate justice and sustainability for quite some time, Sharp told 3p.

Eighty-five percent of HBCUs already run green programs, highlighting their commitment to sustainability. These initiatives include curriculum enhancements, incorporating solar panels, forming student-led environmental groups, establishing community gardens, and promoting biking and walking trails. And 44 percent of the schools rated climate and sustainability initiatives “extremely or very important” compared to other priorities, indicating a strong commitment to addressing these issues. 

As a result, HBCUs are molding a new generation of environmental leaders through innovative sustainability education. Half of the surveyed schools offer degree programs or certifications in fields critical to sustainability.

“Another thing that the survey revealed was the particular, special space for HBCU presidents and how they are viewed at such a high stature in the black community,”  Sharp said. “HBCU presidents are well suited to use this influence to enhance climate and sustainability agendas at their institutions and in the communities where these institutions sit.” 

And they’re prepared to drive transformative environmental justice and climate action for their communities. Eighty percent of the institutions surveyed participate in continuing education on climate and sustainability, including student-led projects, festivals, conferences, and engagement campaigns that are open to the public.

Despite these positive factors, just 15 percent of HBCUs have a specific budget allocated for climate and sustainability projects, highlighting the scarcity of financial resources available in these critical areas.

“Persistent underfunding significantly hampers the ability for HBCUs to be innovative and to advance their sustainability efforts,” Sharp said. “It creates a space where they have limited access to state-of-the-art technology and to research opportunities, although there is research happening. Another big piece that may not be as highlighted is having skilled personnel and experts in this space.” 

HBCUs that want to lead on addressing climate justice know the importance of forging strategic relationships with governmental agencies, nonprofits, and the private sectors that focus on climate and sustainability work, Sharp said. Some HBCUs are engaging in fundraising campaigns specifically targeted at supporting climate and sustainability initiatives and working with alumni who are passionate about these issues to push those agendas forward. 

Ceres, the nonprofit sustainability organization, recently released guidance to help companies take the next step in their climate strategies. Released in June, it’s aimed at corporations developing and evaluating a climate transition plan. The document provides a step-by-step path for corporate decarbonization strategies and aligns with the International Sustainability Standards Board reporting requirements.

“That was the impetus for this report,” said Laura Draucker, senior director of corporate climate action at Ceres and lead author of the report. “How do you understand what you're currently doing as a company, and move it towards what we call a ‘leading transition plan’ where it's fully integrated into a company's strategic plan?”

Climate plans differ from climate disclosures. Climate disclosures are snapshots in time or backward-looking statements. They identify risks and opportunities in the current moment, as well as the environmental impacts of a company’s activities. 

Climate transition action plans are forward-looking statements that lay out goals and targets for decarbonizing a company’s value chain and its plans for managing the risks and opportunities that climate change presents.

Investors want to see corporate climate plans

In the face of climate change, businesses are exposed to physical and transition climate risks. How storms or weather patterns affect capital assets and production are categorized as physical climate risks, while transition climate risks cover how companies have to comply with the evolving regulatory landscape.

Climate risks affect financial performance, and investors want assurance that companies are prepared for and managing these risks appropriately.

“Investors want evidence of implementation,” Draucker said. “They want to feel confident that their climate targets cover the company’s full emissions and that the actions they're taking, or planning to take, are going to move them towards meeting that goal.”

Over 600 investors managing $42 trillion in assets called for public disclosure of independently verified corporate climate plans in 2022.

What if you don’t have a perfect climate transition plan?

When it comes to building a climate transition plan, a lot of companies don’t know where to start, are overwhelmed by the size of the task, or fear they are going to do it wrong — all of which can lead to hesitation or inaction. Fear of failure was brought up during a workshop led by Ceres at the recent GreenFin 2024 sustainability finance conference in New York.

A representative from General Mills spoke about this fear, and how the company was unsure whether to publicly share that they have a large gap in their emissions and don’t know exactly what to do with it, Draucker said. 

“They went through a stakeholder process with Ceres,” Draucker said. “All of their peers, investors, and other stakeholders said, ‘please report that information because none of us know exactly how we’re going to do everything we need to do.’”

One of the important things for business leaders and sustainability professionals to keep in mind is that nobody, not even regulators, expects perfection when it comes to climate plans. What they expect is honesty, transparency, and a commitment to responsibly managing climate impacts and risks.

A climate plan evolves with time as new information and technology become available. Sustainability leaders don’t need to get everything right from the start.

“If in 2024 a company has to say, these are the things we can do now, and these are the areas of emissions that we don’t know how to address yet, that’s fine,” Draucker said. “When they update their plan in 2025, or 2026, or whenever they decide to do it, maybe then they have more information and can start to fill in those gaps.” 

How to start a climate transition plan

The Ceres guidance document is a useful reference for companies that need to develop a transition plan and for companies that want to evaluate their existing plan.

The guidance walks through the different aspects of a climate transition plan by outlining how to set goals and targets, how to decarbonize, how to track and report progress, as well as how to ensure a just transition and advocate for public policy. When it comes to developing a forward-looking climate plan, it all starts with buy-in from executive leadership.

“Executive buy-in is critical,” Draucker said. “There’s a lot that sustainability teams can do in the absence of leadership, but it's going to be difficult if leadership is making decisions without considering the climate impacts.”

The path to decarbonization starts with determining the largest sources of emissions across a full value chain, according to Ceres. The company can then identify strategies to reduce those emissions, estimate the expected emission reductions, and select meaningful metrics to set goals and track progress.

While there will certainly be some bumps in the road, the sooner companies start developing their climate transition plans, the more prepared they will be for regulations that require climate plan disclosure, like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

There are, however, real advantages to implementing a strong climate plan beyond regulatory compliance and environmental stewardship. 

“Unilever and Mars, which are both leaders in this space, talk about the competitive advantage they see in having a transition plan and actually implementing it,” Draucker said. “Companies should use this guide to help them get that leadership buy-in and move from just having a climate disclosure to a leading transition plan.”

Stretching back to 6000 B.C., wine is one of our oldest alcoholic drinks. Steeped in tradition from location to religious rites, it doesn’t exactly inspire thoughts of innovation. Yet the wine industry is adapting. 

As the impacts climate change reach across our planet, wineries are caught in the crosshairs. An astounding 70 percent of the world’s wine-producing regions may become unsuitable if global temperatures rise above 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels, according to recent research.

To add insult to injury, increased disease is another potential impact of global warming. Unfortunately, vineyards are already plagued with expensive fungal diseases, costing at least $1.5 billion per year to replace dead vines globally.

Yet there’s an underdog in the wine world ripe for saving the day: hybrid grapes. Once passed over for more traditional wines like merlot or malbec, these grapes are coming into their own. Resistant to many diseases, could hybrids be the key to a more sustainable, wine-forward future?

Hybrid wine 101

Hybrid wines are a little different than their purebred counterparts. The familiar varieties of wine — like chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and riesling — all come from the European grapevine Vitis vinifera.

Yes, that stunning array of wines in the supermarket aisle is just one species. Hybrids are a cross between two different species, usually the European Vitis vinifera with the North American species Vitis labrusca or Vitis riparia. 

Hybrids have several advantages. Besides disease resistance, they flourish in colder climates. If you’ve gone wine-tasting in a region like New York or Michigan, you may have tried varieties like chambourcin, traminette or vidal blanc. 

While hybrids are nothing new, they haven’t always been in favor. They were banned in certain European wine regions until 2021. Despite that, some areas have grown hybrid wines for centuries.

“In Germany, we've always had quite a long history with crossbreeding because we have a cool climate region here, which means that we have a lot of problems with fungi, a lot of pressure on the grapes with sickness,” said Florian Koch, head of education at the German Wine Institute. “You can look back even to the beginning of the 19th century, the first cross-breedings were introduced simply with the goal of increasing the resistance to fungi and different diseases.”

The rest of the world is wising up to hybrid wines’ appeal for a good reason: pesticide use.

Pesticides in your pinot 

Your favorite cabernet might bring dark fruit and chocolate to mind, but unfortunately, pesticides are probably in there too. For instance, a recent study found 25 different pesticide residues in wine. Fungicides and insecticides were the most common.

That’s not surprising given French vineyards are sprayed 20 times per year with pesticides. This helps ward off diseases, insects, and weeds but also damages soil biodiversity, pollutes water, and harms wine growers, workers and neighbors. These chemicals can end up at the consumers’ door (or lips). Even organic wines use copper sulfate to combat diseases, which can harm the soil if used in excess.

Things aren’t looking rosier as climate change intensifies. Wine is particularly sensitive to climate change, with water scarcity and heat already threatening the industry. But that’s not all, diseases are looming on the horizon. While global predictions for major grapevine diseases — including downy mildew, powdery mildew and gray mold — are uncertain under climate change, some regions are bracing for an impact. For instance, New Zealand could lose up to $100 million per year from increasing fungal infections.

Hybrid grapes as a sustainable solution

Despite this bleak outlook, hybrid grapes, which are resistant to many fungal and bacterial diseases, are a promising solution. Switching to hybrid grapes from traditional ones can decrease pesticide use by up to an astounding 90 percent, Koch said. They also fit squarely into the new set of agricultural policy initiatives in the European Green Deal.

“In Europe, we have the Green Deal, which [includes] an agreement of the European states to reduce the use of [pesticide] sprayings by 50 percent overall,” Koch said. “So this is a big help for us if we've got grape varieties where we can drastically reduce the use of sprayings. Also, we've got a plan to go organic by 30 percent of our acreage.”

In addition, Koch explained that hybrids can have other advantages such as withstanding intense sunlight, being easier to harvest and having looser clusters — which further reduces susceptibility to fungus. Many hybrids can also withstand extreme weather and are ideal for producing dessert, ice wines. 

Hindrances to hybrid adoption

In spite of their benefits, hybrid grapes are still novel. They’re planted in less than 5 percent of vineyards globally for a variety of reasons. For starters, marketing a new, unknown wine can be challenging since grape variety is critical in wine choice. 

“The huge problem is that we do not have the profile of [hybrid grapes] as of now because the winemakers only knew about these varietals for 10 to 15 years,” Koch said. “When you're thinking of riesling, you think high acidity, very aromatic, lemon tones, green apple, honey. But when you're thinking of johanniter, you have no idea what it's going to be like.” 

Then there’s the critical factor in wine taste: terroir, or the environmental factors of the region that influence production.

“Riesling or silvaner, for example, are heavily influenced by the terroir, by climate, by soil, by the rocks that you have, by yeast, by sunshine hours,” Koch said. “And we do not know yet how this will affect stuff like vidal blanc. We’ll have to wait and see. We've got 2000 years of experience with riesling but two years of experience with cabernet blanc.”

Koch pointed out that wine name also matters. For instance, the German name for hybrid grapes, pilzwiderstandsfähige reben, translates to “fungus-resistant grape varieties,” hardly the most appealing moniker. And laboratories have created other, difficult-to-pronounce names for hybrid wines.

Future of wine

Despite this fledging market, interest in sustainable wine is on the rise, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom. While the overall wine market in the U.S. is predicted to decline over the next few years, the organic, natural, sustainable and biodynamic segment is poised to grow. Nearly half of American drinkers consider sustainability in their purchasing decisions, while hybrids are among the fastest-growing wine varieties in Germany.

“Everyone is trying to do their best,” Koch said. “This is our version of it. We see the results and they're great, actually. I mean, reducing [pesticide] sprayings by up to 90 percent is immense — thousands of tons of sprayings in Germany alone. And it still produces amazing wines.”

Next time you’re in the wine aisle, try a bottle with a little hybrid vigor. After all, sustainability is always the perfect palate.

Despite improvements globally, 2 billion people in the world still lack access to drinking water services, and approximately 3.6 billion people — 46 percent of the world’s population — lack adequate sanitation, according to a United Nations World Water Development Report. 

Orianna Bretschger can relate. Growing up with parents who moved around frequently, she lived in remote places like a ghost town outside of Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and off the grid at the base of the Cascade mountains in Oregon. Bretschger often lived without consistent access to running water or electricity, with gas lamps and fire for light and heat and an outhouse for sanitation.

From those experiences and a lot of science, she co-founded Aquacycl, a San Diego startup that provides sustainable and cost-effective industrial wastewater treatment services on-site using an innovative bacterial process. The process addresses industrial wastewater with a high biological oxygen demand (BOD). BOD is used as an index of the degree of organic pollution in water, according to the United States Geological Survey.

“The greater the BOD, the more rapidly oxygen is depleted in the stream [where the treated wastewater is ultimately discharged],” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “This means less oxygen is available to higher forms of aquatic life.” 

How the technology works

Aquacycl focuses on industrial discharge, which accounts for 30 percent of untreated global wastewater because it is the most challenging to treat. The firm addresses the wastewater problems of major brands operating large production facilities in smaller cities, where the municipalities’ existing facilities may find it difficult to deal with the discharge. 

Aquacycl’s BioElectrochemical Treatment Technology relieves the local utility from processing industrial wastewater. This avoids the potential for discharge that has not been appropriately treated to end up in waterways where it could disrupt ecosystems. It also helps reduce infrastructure expenses and maintain fair pricing for all ratepayers in the municipality.

The system uses natural, locally-sourced bacteria to accelerate wastewater treatment rates, remove BOD, and eliminate and minimize sludge while simultaneously producing electricity.

The work starts in a little black box called a reactor. Each reactor is about the size of a standard car battery. Wastewater flows into the reactor, where the the locally-sourced microbes can consume the organics in the water. At the same time, the microbes are producing electrons as part of their natural metabolic and respiratory processes. Those electrons are captured by the reactor to generate power. The faster the electrons are removed, the faster the microbes eat.

The reactors are stacked together like building blocks inside a 40-foot shipping container. As the wastewater flows through each reactor, the microbes remove more organic carbon. Each shipping container can remove up to 3,000 pounds of BOD per day, according to Aquacycl.

The electrical current produced by the bacteria can power the treatment equipment. Each reactor, and all of the integrated sensors, are monitored and controlled remotely from Aquacycl’s headquarters. The process saves municipalities energy and produces 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional treatment systems. 

At a PepsiCo installation in Fresno, California, Aquacycl’s installation exceeded the required standards for BOD removal and for total suspended solids, which can reduce the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants, according to the the Environmental Protection Agency. Ben Duncan, PepsiCo’s Fresno manufacturing leader, told the Fresno Business Journal that the technology will be a game changer for companies in the future, and Aquacycl is at the forefront of the clean wastewater initiative.

Other client successes include removing hydrocarbons from tank terminal wastewater, treating discarded beverages for a major food and beverage company, and treating sugar-laden wastewater from a confectionery plant. 

Where it all began  

Aquacycl’s award-winning technology had its beginnings at the University of Southern California, where Bretschger was first introduced to the concept that bacteria can generate electricity and clean water at the same time.

That work took her to the J. Craig Venter Institute, a research organization focused on advancing the science of genomics, where she expanded her understanding of how communities of organisms communicate electronically. There, she and her team explored how to build a practical technology for wastewater treatment. With a $5 million grant from the Roddenberry Foundation, Bretschger and her team brought the technology to field trials to learn if it could scale.

The first pilot treated manure on a pig farm at a high school in Escondido, California, and is still working today. The second was in Tijuana, Mexico, at a demonstration site called EcoParque, treating residential wastewater to irrigate hillside landscapes and vegetation.

The Escondido and the Tijuana pilots validated the water quality outputs and the overall scalability of the concept. As a result, Bretschger co-founded Aquacycl with Sofia Babanova, the company's chief technology officer, in November 2016 and the company has grown to employ over 20 people with over $20 million in investment.

What's next for Aquacycl

The firm now operates systems for clients in California, Nevada, Colorado and Texas, and tested pilot systems in Tennessee, Hawaii and Oregon. It will soon serve a tequila distillery outside Guadalajara, Mexico. Europe is an important potential growth area, and Aquacycl opened its first international office in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, last year.  

“As regulations in Europe and around the world continue to get stricter, and companies are forced to disclose, mitigate, and pay for emissions, solutions like ours provide a win-win, providing sustainability and operational benefits,” Bretschger said. 

Bretschger’s heart remains true to Aquacycl’s mission: sanitation and water for all.

Sanitation projects around the world have historically failed, she said. “The World Health Organization has invested a lot of money in sanitation, but if there is no infrastructure …  if there are no trained personnel, if there is not a whole network to support safe treatment and discharge, you are just digging another hole in the ground.”

“Our hope is to provide not only a technology but a different model to see real improvement in sanitation, not just band-aids.”