Jonathan J. Halperin
Jonathan J. Halperin
Designing Our Future. Together.

Are you Handling or Mishandling the Climate Challenge?

The issue of our time is framed for failure. Climate change is the norm and everyone experiences it daily; the weather changes. Climate stability, however, is the goal – for people, business, and global ecosystems. We need predictable climatic conditions to make good decisions – whether to make major capital investments or whether to carry an umbrella.

And the climate is not an environmental issue but rather the connective tissue that ties energy together with business, development and poverty with agriculture, and health with the environment. No mere question of semantics, the fundamental definition of the challenge has immense impact on how we work to develop solutions.

The challenge is not fundamentally science, finance, or even policy. Rather, we lack the thinking and the institutions capable of effectively responding to an issue that cuts across so many traditionally distinct areas of expertise – especially when compounded by issues of risk allocation and intergenerational financial equity.

Are you handling or mishandling the climate challenge?

Jerusalem

When I began to unhook from SustainAbility in 2008, after 20+ years, to co-found Volans, Jonathan was working with the US end of SustainAbility — and sent the London end of the Volans team a large cardboard box of multi-colored felt rocks, which initially I couldn't make head nor tail of. I thought he was mad, or overly American.

But I have to say that, over time, those felt rocks have become a central feature of the Volans culture, thrown by team members at other team members (or guests) on the slightest provocation. That aside, he's a consummate professional, creative collaborator, skilled communicator, and keen intellect—and I am delighted both to have had Jonathan as a colleague and to now count him as a friend.

more testimonials >

Jonathan J. Halperin's Vimeo Channel

 Jonathan J. Halperin Vimeo Channel