Julie Newman | Director of Sustainability, MIT

John E. Fernández | Professor, MIT Department of Architecture

Nancy Kete | Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation

This panel will discuss how cities enable the collaborative economy. We will look at ways in which new companies, equipped with innovative business models, disrupt traditional notions of urban planning and economic development. While the benefits of increased sharing are clear, we will dig deeper to understand what tradeoffs cities must make in order to accommodate the growing collaborative economy, and what impacts these business have on social and economic equality.

Jordan Sale | DIGITAL MARKETING DIRECTOR, Fundrise

Leigh Hafrey | SENIOR LECTURER, MIT Sloan

Corey Zehngebot | SENIOR URBAN DESIGNER AND ARCHITECT, Boston Redevelopment Authority

In developed countries, transportation accounts for approximately 25% of total energy consumption and contributes to one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. The urban transportation system is complex, monolithic, and fragile to the changing climate. As cities struggle to meet the growing travel demand while strengthening their transportation systems’ resiliency, promising innovations have emerged to offer cleaner cars, new mobility options, and incentives for altering travel behaviors. What opportunities and challenges rest in collaboration between the institutional and newer players? Join experts from various organizations in exploring ways to integrate their respective strengths to re-envision and reshape a more sustainable urban mobility.

Ryan Chin
RESEARCH SCIENTIST, "CHANGING PLACES" GROUP, MIT Media Lab

Thomas Abdallah
CHIEF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER, MTA NYCT

Phil Goff
NORTHEAST REGIONAL MANAGER, Alta Planning + Design

Brian Harrington
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, Zipcar

Michael Amabile
TRANSPORTATION PLANNER, Arup

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that between 1985 and 1995, municipal solid waste recycling increased dramatically. Since this time, the rate of recycling increase as a percentage of waste generation has leveled. The Waste Management session brings together recycling business innovators and the public sector to discuss the amount of recyclable materials that are being disposed of, explore the innovative ways businesses and regulators are encouraging increased diversion from landfills, and examine market drivers and inhibitors. The session will seek to illuminate the future of waste diversion and the business opportunities within it. Participants will learn about opportunities to capitalize their recycling efforts and the economic and regulatory forces that may shape their waste management behavior in the future.

Shanker Sahai
FOUNDER AND CEO, Greenbean Recycle

Amy Perlmutter
PRINCIPAL, Perlmutter Associates

Johnny Gold
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NEWARK RECOVERY AND RECYCLING, North Shore Recycled Fibers

Shawn Rosenmoss
SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIALIST, San Francisco Department of the Environment

Aisa Tobing
SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE GOVERNOR, City of Jakarta

Thanks to careful planning, coastal cities around the world can leverage the inherently built-in advantage of their prime location. By taking action to increase the desirability of their coastal landscape, they can create opportunities for economic development through tourism, real estate and commercial developments. This panel will examine how to take into account past cases to reach the compromise between economic development and urban resiliency. The panel will explore the current measures to guard against and recover quickly from natural disasters, while promoting vibrant and attractive waterfront neighborhoods in the future.

Helen Lochhead
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority

Kian Goh
PARTNER AND ARCHITECT, Super-Interesting!

Terry Bennett
SENIOR INDUSTRY PROGRAM MANAGER, Autodesk

Miho Mazereeuw
DIRECTOR, Urban Risk Lab at MIT

John Dalzell
GREEN BUILDING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES, Boston Redevelopment Authority

Kobi Ruthenberg
DESIGN ASSOCIATE, Center for Advanced Urbanism

Coastal cities have for centuries been hubs of the supply chain and logistic networks that are crucial to human economic activity and development. Major highways, sea- and airports are located in coastal cities, and serve as crucial links in the movement and distribution of goods. As crucial as the role costal cities play in the global supply chain is, there are major challenges to face as coastal cities struggle to balance commerce growth with infrastructure resiliency and environmental concerns. How will the future of supply chain technology address capacity, resiliency, efficiency and environmental concerns in coastal cities? What are current and future trends in supply chain design and what role do coastal cities play in these designs? What are the economic, social and environmental implications of these trends for coastal cities? This session pulls together a multi-disciplinary panel that draws experts from academia, government, and the private sector to explore these ideas. This session will illuminate the coastal city’s role in a sustainable supply chain as well as the challenges to achieving that vision.

Richard Kelly
CHIEF CATALYST OFFICER, Li and Fung Ltd., Hong Kong

Néstor Roa
CHIEF OF THE TRANSPORT DIVISION, Infrastructure and Environment Department, InterAmerican Development Bank

Leo Bonanni
CEO AND FOUNDER, Sourcemap

Daniel Merayo
SALES MANAGER, GEFCO

Community Energy, Recycling and Organics (CERO) is a worker-owned cooperative based in Roxbury, focused on collecting organic food waste, recyclables, and other waste streams from restaurants. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the approach and methods of CERO, while also helping CERO develop a model for a data collection app that lets truckers, composters, and the sales force measure waste in real time. (Note: no technology experience is necessary: only interest or curiosity about waste or worker-ownership!)

Currently, there is a growing discussion about expanding infrastructure for urban resilience. Traditionally, major infrastructure projects have been primarily funded by government institutions, but the private sector is playing an increasingly important role. What Is the business opportunity in these inherently risky regional projects? Leaders in infrastructure investment, climate insurance, and asset management will gather to share their current approach and their expectations of future trends in infrastructure development. In this session we will explore how infrastructure is funded now and in the future and how that could ultimately impact our everyday levels of utility services and costs.

Jason Jay
SENIOR LECTURER AND DIRECTOR, SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE, MIT Sloan School of Management

Graham Sinclair
PRINCIPAL, SinCo

Wallace Ebner
PRINCIPAL TECHNICAL SPECIALIST, AIG

Genevieve Sherman
SENIOR MANAGER, Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority

The sea has always been a vital resource in the context of a global economy, while ensuring the livelihoods of countless coastal communities. With the expansion of global trade and the rise in coastal populations, we now ask more of the sea than ever before. How are traditional coastal industries evolving as new industries establish their footholds, and what systemic strategies exist for managing coastal development? This panel examines from the perspectives of industry players along the coast as well as port regulator / operator with the attempt to find that balance amongst busineses, food production and even the provision of water while protecting our oceanic resources.

Nicholas Ashford
PROFESSOR OF TECHNOLOGY AND POLICY, MIT School of Engineering

Michael Velings
FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, Aquaspark

Edward C. Anthes-Washburn
DEPUTY PORT DIRECTOR, Port of New Bedford

KC Hardin
FOUNDER AND CEO, Conservatorio

My City Gardens (MCG) connects landholders who would like a hand working their outdoor spaces with neighbors who want to roll up their sleeves and start gardening. Local governments have promoted the site as a solution to the growing demand for community gardens.
This session will dig into how MCG started and what they're doing. Workshop participants will brainstorm potential solutions to current MCG challenges including financing models, models for land holder/gardener cost-sharing and the current cultural love affair with grassy lawns.

Join Ryan Chin, research scientist at the MIT Media Lab, to hear about the Media Lab’s Changing Places group and tour their lab. Understand how new strategies for architectural design, mobility systems, and networked intelligence can make possible dynamic, evolving places that respond to the complexities of life.

Ryan Chin
RESEARCH SCIENTIST, "CHANGING PLACES" GROUP, MIT Media Lab

The livelihood of a city depends heavily on its ability to deliver safe and reliable power to the community. The challenge is especially great where coastal cities are concerned. The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan in 2011 and the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 both highlighted how coastal cities are especially fragile. This panel examines where and how resilience can be built into the energy system, and how private and public institutions can create and capture value along the chain. Recognizing that a low-carbon economy is a key solution for mitigating the effects of climate change, panelists will also explore opportunities to drive green development in coastal cities and beyond.

Mark Rodgers
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, Cape Wind

Richard Schmalensee
HOWARD W. JOHNSON PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT, EMERITUS, MIT Sloan School of Management

Kerry Cheung
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, Department of Energy

Pia Kristiansen
PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, EnerNOC, Inc.

Erik Granskog
VP OF COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT, Atlantic Power Corporation

Coastal cities benefit from entrenched economic power but now face new environmental challenges. How can these cities continue to evolve in order to maintain their inherited advantages and be leaders in the new economy? How does the interrelationship of environmental, economic and social challenges transform the way we conceptualize the planning, design, and management of cities? What new economic opportunities can be realized by tackling complex urban problems?

Laurie Zapalac
PH.D. CANDIDATE, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Anne Haynes
FOUNDER, Economic and Community Development Ventures

Ernest Andrade
PRINCIPAL, Andrade Economics

Chris Sherman
PRESIDENT, Island Creek Oysters

Join Daniel Aronson and Gil Friend, CSO of Palo Alto, for a demonstration of a newly developed tool that helps cities set science-based climate reduction targets. Setting a science-based carbon target is difficult, requiring taking into account the city's contribution to global GDP, its growth rate, and other factors. This model makes the process of setting carbon targets based on science dramatically faster and easier, without sacrificing the ability to set a strong goal. This means that targets can be set by municipalities without requiring a lot of time or a large budget, bringing real carbon targets within reach for cities around the world.

Daniel Aronson
FOUNDER, SustainabilityOS

Brian Swett
CHIEF OF ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, City of Boston

This panel seeks to provide local context to the global issues of resiliency and opportunity discussed on Day 1 of the conference. Leaders from the City of Boston and Cambridge will shed light on the challenges they face in preparing their jurisdictions for the impacts of climate change. The panel will discuss Boston’s Climate Prepardness Plan, the Complete Streets initiative, and Cambridge’s “Getting to Net Zero Task Force” to understand the unique ways in which our local community is responding to threats of sea-level rise, heat waves, and increases in storm intensity.

Vineet Gupta
DIRECTOR OF PLANNING, Boston Transportation Department

Brian Swett
CHIEF OF ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, City of Boston

Susanne Rasmussen
DIRECTOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND TRANSPORTATION PLANNING, City of Cambridge

Larry Susskind
PROFESSOR OF URBAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING, MIT

The New England Climate Adaptation Project (NECAP) is collaborating with four at-risk coastal New England communities—Barnstable, MA, Cranston, RI, Dover, NH, and Wells, ME—to assess local climate change risks, identify key challenges and opportunities for adaptation, and test the use of role-play simulations as a means to educate the public about climate change threats and to help communities explore ways of decreasing their vulnerability and enhancing their resilience to climate change impacts.

This intensive role-play simulation will engage the Summit audience to actively explore research questions such as: What are the climate change risks facing coastal communities? What can these communities do to manage or adapt to these risks? What will it take to build informed agreements in each community about the appropriate steps to take? How can “playing of tailored role play games” build a shared sense of the collective risk management steps that should be taken?

We anticipate that this workshop will provide valuable insights into techniques for engaging communities in public learning, risk management, and collaborative decision-making. We also hope that participants will be able to build on what we learn as they help their own local communities prepare for climate change.

Join Summit participants on a tour of the Harpoon Brewery, a leading energy efficient brewery in the Seaport District in downtown Boston. Learn all Harpoon’s sustainability strategy and get an up close and personal view of the brewing process.