The Ways That Work

09 Mar 2008 Fred Krupp, president of the influential nonprofit organization Environmental Defense Fund, has been a leader in developing market-based environmental solutions.

Under his direction, Environmental Defense Fund helped launch the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, and created a series of innovative corporate partnerships with Walmart, FedEx, and McDonald’s, among others, to tackle serious environmental problems. The organization’s pragmatic and optimistic approach has led to a new slogan: “Finding the Ways That Work.”

Fred Krupp’s new book, “Earth: The Sequel—The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming,” written with Miriam Horn, shares that optimism, and showcases how the multi-trillion dollar energy sector is being transformed by a new generation of smart scientists and entrepreneurs.

It’s an important message of hope, focusing on the power of cutting-edge innovation and investment to save the planet, creating enormous wealth in the process.

In an interview with Kyoto Planet, Fred Krupp talks about the imperative for alternative energy, the need for market forces to grow the sector, and what government can and cannot do to facilitate the success of this burgeoning space.

Kyoto Planet: Your book highlights a cap-and-trade system on carbon bringing market forces to bear in alternative energy development. Obviously, having business on board is key, as the prior success with the limited institution of emissions trading has shown. But how can government facilitate this? As your book notes, the United States is currently set up to support and subsidize the petroleum and auto industry.

Fred Krupp: A market-based system itself will bring business on board, because companies are motivated by profits. Once it becomes expensive to emit carbon dioxide— and profitable to develop technologies that limit emissions—businesses will act with vigor.

How have we enlisted some companies before a cap is in place? Fortunately, a growing number realize the world is changing—and see that the countries and companies that act first will profit the most. More than two-dozen major corporations—from GE to Shell to the Big Three automakers—have joined the Environmental Defense Fund and other nonprofits in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership to push for a national cap on greenhouse gas pollution. And many companies, such as DuPont, are moving forward with their own individual efforts to save money by reducing energy use and carbon emissions.