Sustainability

Cary Coglianese of the Law School weighed in on the potential impact of proposed boating regulations in California, which some argue could negatively affect mom-and-pop sport-fishing and whale-watching businesses. “You could say society is subsidizing these businesses,” Coglianese said. “We are incurring the cost of this harmful pollution.”

Strella Biotechnology, a company housed in Pennovation and co-founded by then junior Katherine Sizov, a winner of the 2019 President’s Innovation Prize, is working to reduce food waste using biosensors to monitor ethylene, a natural gas that ripens fruits and vegetables. “If we don’t solve this food waste problem now, it will become a lot more expensive later,” Sizov said. “As our climate becomes more volatile, this is going to crop up more and more.”

Arthur van Benthem of the Wharton School said he’s reducing his carbon emissions by taking fewer flights, riding his bike more, buying less clothing, and heating and cooling his home more conservatively.

Robert F. Stambaugh of the Wharton School said that by driving up the price of green stocks investors may be inadvertently increasing the expected returns for less environmentally friendly stocks. Stambaugh co-authored a paper on the dynamic with Wharton colleague Lucian Taylor.

Christina Parajon Skinner of the Wharton School discussed how central banks like the Bank of England have shifted toward green investments. The U.S. Federal Reserve, she said, could have a significant impact on climate change: “People say, Well, we’ve got gridlock in Congress, and we have an effective institution that maybe could do something to bring us toward greener equilibriums. And that's really a fundamental question that is about climate change, but it's also about, you know, American democracy.”