Since 2009, I’ve been working with UC Berkeley and UCLA Schools of Law on an initiative to find business solutions to combat climate change, with a focus on implementing California’s world-leading climate change laws.  Bank of America has been our steadfast partner and sponsor; the Bank is interested in the industries that will grow in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with California as the perfect laboratory.

In that time, we have:

• produced 18 policy reports;
• held multiple conferences, workshops, webinars, lunch briefings (from Fresno to L.A. to Sacramento to Washington DC);
• written numerous op-eds;
• testified in multiple legislative hearings;
• launched a new website to house all of our research and solutions; and
• had our work covered in media outlets from the New York Times to local television and radio.

While the work is rewarding in and of itself, we ultimately do it to help get climate policy right in California and to show that smart climate policies are good business, too.  After all, if it can work in California, it can work anywhere and inspire other jurisdictions to follow suit.

So in a recent LinkedIn piece, I decided to describe some of this work, the impact it has had on policy, and the resulting economic and job benefits from key policies.  As more of the world turns to California for climate leadership, my hope is that the resources in this initiative will be helpful not just here in our state but to the world beyond.