MIT CLIMATE CONSORTIUM UNITES LAFARGEHOLCIM AND U.S. CORPORATE ELITE

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC), launched late last month, convenes an alliance of leaders from a broad range of industries and aims to drive solutions addressing climate change threats. Organizers characterize the group as uniting “similarly motivated, highly creative and influential companies to work with MIT to build a process, market, and ambitious implementation strategy for environmental innovation.”

Among inaugural MCSC members are LafargeHolcim Ltd.; infrastructure-geared technology developer Nexplore, a sister business of Turner Construction Co. under German parent Hochtief; plus, corporate America heavyweights Accenture, Apple, Boeing, Dow, IBM, PepsiCo and Verizon. With their intricate supply chains, MCSC organizers contend, members are among the best positioned to help lead the mission to solve climate change challenges and “recognize the responsibility industry has in the rapid deployment of social and technology solutions.”

Through a unifying, global effort the Consortium will strive to drive down costs; lower barriers to adoption of best-available technology and processes; speed retirement of carbon-intensive power generating and materials-producing equipment; direct investment where it will be most effective; and, rapidly translate best practices from one industry to the next.

“If we hope to decarbonize, we must work with the companies that make the economy run. Drawing its members from a broad range of industries, the MCSC will convene an alliance of influential corporations motivated to work with MIT, and with each other, to pilot and deploy the solutions necessary to reach their own ambitious decarbonization commitments,” says MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “By sharing solutions across companies and sectors, the consortium has the potential to vastly accelerate the implementation of large-scale, real-world solutions.”

“This new collaboration represents the incredible potential for academia and industry to work together on a shared mission to shape research, identify opportunities for innovation, and rapidly advance practical solutions with the sense of urgency needed to address our climate challenge,” adds MIT Climate and Sustainability Chair and School of Engineering Dean Anantha Chandrakasan.