Mr. Schultz’ career has focused on climate change. He has worked in developed and developing countries worldwide, for local, regional, and national governments and in the private sector. Since 2003 he has been a consultant advising on technologies, markets, and partnerships to develop emission reduction and climate adaptation projects and on creating and managing project-based carbon credits. He is an expert in greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation and his current work focuses on climate adaptation economics and finance, climate change and cities, vulnerability reduction monitoring, evaluation, and crediting.
Mr. Schultz is creator of the climate vulnerability reduction credit (VRC™) mechanism for evaluating and sustainably funding climate change adaptation, and serves as the Executive Chairman of The Higher Ground Foundation, the organization that develops and manages the VRC Standard, tools and programs.
Ira Feldman is a US-based sustainability leader positioned at the leading edge of the convergence of sustainability, climate adaptation and ecosystem services. As a practitioner, policymaker, standards developer and academic, Ira has utilized an interdisciplinary skill set to lead a diverse range of environmental and climate initiatives. In the legal arena, Ira previously served as special counsel at US EPA headquarters and as chair of the ABA’s climate and sustainability committee.
His work has explored the role of ESG (environment-social-governance) factors in the financial sector; the implications of "soft law" or "private law" – especially international voluntary standards -- for business and government; the use of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) to advance sustainable development and resilience. With Adaptation Ledger, he also brings expertise on blockchain governance to the team focusing on the potential for “blockchain” technology to advance climate adaptation solutions and mobilize finance.
Tom has over 20 years experience and has worked with hundreds of organizations in the climate, cleantech, sustainability and digital space. In 2019 Tom was recognized as as a Top 100 Fintech for SDG Influencer.
Tom has co-founded several startups since 2007: ClimateCHECK, the GHG Management Institute (online training and capacity building with over 7000 members in over 160 countries), Collaborase (online collaboration software for Standards 2.0 and Nextgen governance), Xpansiv (Blockchain-enabled platform), and the Climate Chain Coalition. Tom is the International Chair of the ISO Climate Change Standards Committee (2014-2019), he's on the Faculty of the Blockchain Research Institute and Fellow of the Global Solution Networks.
Tom has 20 years' experience working with 100s of organizations in climate, cleantech, and sustainability. Tom’s focus is to innovate new technology-based solutions for more robust collaborative governance systems, knowledge management, capacity building and market operations to enable strategic solutions to sustainability issues.
Dr. Granquist’s research focuses on the environmental, legal, regulatory, and economic impacts of coastal shoreline change and coastal resilience strategies, the legal and policy frameworks that could facilitate local and regional resilience adaptation implementation, and the interaction of stakeholders in the adaptation decision-making context. She has advanced climate adaptation partnerships in academia and practice.
Dr. Granquist has worked extensively with international teams in disruptive adaptation technology and emerging markets business development and nonprofit management.
GARY LAWERENCE - STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Gary Lawrence has worked on sustainability problems and delivered sustainable outcomes within and between non-governmental, governmental, private/corporate and multilateral institutions locally and globally. As Seattle’s Planning Director he led the development of the world’s first sustainably focused municipal comprehensive plan. At the University of Washington he created and lead the first academic center for sustainable communities. During this period he was also a consultant to the US Conference of Mayors, National Association of Counties, PCSD, the OECD an was a negotiator for the US at Habitat II. After leaving the University of Washington he became a Principal and Urban Strategy Leader at The Arup Group where part of his responsibility was helping better integrate sustainability into Arup’s internationally renown design culture.
From Arup he went to AECOM as their first Chief Sustainability Officer. Working with corporate leadership and business leaders in all geographies, he led sustainability and CSR reporting as well as helping businesses win work through helping clients deliver more sustainable outcomes.
Since leaving AECOM he has worked on better integration of sustainability, resilience and adaptation strategies to reduce societal risk with some emphasis on disaster risk reduction activities within the UN system. He has also been active writing and speaking on the Sustainable Development Goals as well as how to embrace scientific doubt in societies for which certainty has become the political center.
DAVID GREENALL - STRATEGIC ADVISOR
David Greenall is the Founder and Managing Director of VIRIDI - a strategy and innovation consultancy focused on catalyzing novel solutions for a sustainable future. He is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of NovaSphere – a Canadian not-for-profit focused on advancing the application of disruptive innovations, technology and finance to address climate and sustainability challenges. He has extensive experience in advising public (sovereign governments, multi-lateral development institutions) and private sector clients (FI, Industry) on the financial, operating and strategic risks and opportunities of the clean energy, low-carbon and climate resilient transition. He specializes in assisting clients to integrate climate into business strategy and execution, investments, operations, and culture.
David is the National Focal Point (Canada) on behalf of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction for ARISE (Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies) initiative – Canada’s leading private-public collaborative platform for disaster risk reduction and climate resilience. ARISE Canada focuses on the standardization of climate and seismic disaster financial risk metrics, the mobilization of financial markets, accounting and regulatory bodies to adopt them, and the development of mechanisms for facilitating the rational allocation of climate risk-sensitive capital. In addition to his service on on numerous sustainability advisory boards and committees, David was the first Country Director of the Carbon Disclosure Project (Canada), where he led efforts by Canada’s leading pension funds, banks and institutional asset owners to leverage the power of measurement and information disclosure to improve the management of climate risk within Canada’s largest publicly traded companies.