This op-ed first appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer on May 21, 2013. by Daniel Vermeer, Executive Director, EDGE Earlier this month, a remote monitoring system in Hawaii recorded the first time in human history that the daily average for carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit over 400 parts per million. Crossing the […]
by Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE If water is so valuable, then why is it so cheap? Economists have long been fascinated by the water paradox – clean, abundant water keeps us healthy, provides our food, sustains our ecosystems, and keeps our businesses operating. Yet we have routinely undervalued water, and have been willing […]
by Carol Healy, MEM/MBA Class of 2014 and Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE Food security is back in the news. According to estimates, this summer’s drought is the second most costly natural disaster in US history, after Hurricane Katrina – including serious impacts on our country’s agricultural system. Agriculture feeds us, but increasingly it […]
by Josh Seidenfeld, MEM/MBA Class of 2015 and Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE For all the strident debates about energy in American politics (e.g. fracking, drilling on public lands, government incentives, etc.), no one disagrees that innovation will be critical in creating a better energy future. And North Carolina and Duke are well-positioned to […]
by Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE One of the more frustrating aspects of working the sustainability field is that every problem is mind-bogglingly complex, and can be framed at multiple levels. Take, for example, the heated debates and accusations about the causes and consequences of the Macondo well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. […]
by Dan Vermeer, executive director, EDGE In Thomas Homer-Dixon’s book The Ingenuity Gap, he describes a growing chasm between the world’s knotty problems and its lagging ability to develop robust and integrated solutions. An “ingenuity gap” emerges when a society’s ability to solve problems is outpaced by the scale, complexity, speed of change, and unpredictability […]
EDGE executive director Dan Vermeer spoke about energy efficiency as a business opportunity at last week’s ABB Automation & Power World 2011. You can read the recap at: “The real impact of energy efficiency on the bottom line” – ABB website, Apr. 20, 2011 “Finally, Energy Efficiency’s Day in the Sun: Discussing Existing and Future […]
Nike‘s Vice President of Sustainable Business and Innovation, Hannah Jones, share her thoughts on sustainability in this plenary dialogue from the 2011 Conference on Sustainable Business & Social Impact at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. With opening remarks by Blair Sheppard, Dean of the Fuqua School of Business, and moderated by Dan Vermeer, Executive […]
During his trip to the Middle East, EDGE executive Dan Vermeer spoke at the World Future Energy Summit and was interviewed for “Emirates 24-7” on Dubai One TV. The entire program (46 minutes) is online at: http://www.dubaimedia.ae/Media/view/94266. There is a long segment in the middle on the future of energy and sustainable development in the Middle […]
by Dan Vermeer, executive director, EDGE Following are Dan Vermeer’s opening remarks for the panel “Sustainable Cities: Planning and Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities” at the World Future Energy Summit, Abu Dhabi, UAE, January 18, 2011. As millions of people pour into urban areas every day, cities increasingly demonstrate both the challenge and the promise of […]