Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Friday, October 20, 2023

Hope you remember your slightly obscure political figures, because today’s puzzle is a tricky one. If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Friday, October 20, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings…

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Climate challenges and solutions: The talks from the TED Countdown London Session 2022

Countdown, TED’s climate action initiative founded in partnership with Leaders’ Quest, launched three years ago with a focus on accelerating solutions to climate change. The goal: to build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in the race to a zero-carbon world — a world that’s safer, cleaner and fairer for everyone.

Countdown set off to London to tackle the many challenges of confronting climate change — but also to present the many solutions. Nine speakers (and two performers) took us inside their innovative work, from the power of socially engaged art and the importance of centering Indigenous expertise to the latest on direct air capture technology and the potential of establishing a multi-billion-dollar carbon removal industry.

The event: Talks from TED Countdown London Session 2022, hosted by TED’s Bruno Giussani and Logan McClure Davda

When and where: Monday, October 3, 2022, at the Barbican Centre in London

Speakers: Xavier Cortada, Jade Begay, Colin Averill, George Monbiot, Huma Yusuf, Heidi Sørensen, Ksenia Petrichenko, Jan Wurzbacher, Stacy Kauk

Music: From artists MyVerse and Kristen Warren, who perform their original song “Mother’s Mind” — a rousing message told from the perspective of Mother Earth.

The talks in brief:

Xavier Cortada, eco-artist

Big idea: Art can help people engage with the future consequences of climate change.

How? It took a voyage to Antarctica for artist Xavier Cortada to appreciate just how dire the situation was in his home city of Miami. When he returned home, he founded the Underwater Homeowners Association: an art project designed to get his fellow Miamians to think about where all that melting Antarctic ice is going to end up. Using Cortada’s “ice paintings” as a backdrop, participants created signs displaying their homes’ height above sea level. These weren’t political signs — they were simple elevation markers — yet their unsettling message quickly excited controversy. Many realtors and homeowners were terrified the signs would affect property values. Even when the city reconsidered its support for the project, the Underwater HOA continued to meet and strategize. Cortada’s work provides a blueprint for how socially engaged art can generate a sense of collective responsibility and agency.

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Jade Begay, Indigenous rights expert

Big idea: Our obsession with carbon footprints isn’t getting us any closer to net zero emissions. Climate work should focus on people and communities, not carbon.

Why? Jade Begay works with the people affected “first and worst” by the climate crisis: Indigenous communities from the Arctic to the Amazon. And these communities tell her that the carbon markets aren’t working to reduce the devastating impacts of climate change. Begay wants to better align the climate solutions designed in corporate buildings and government halls with the needs of those on the frontlines. She offers two starting points. First, we must understand how climate change impacts Indigenous peoples’ lives and identities and conduct surveys to fill in gaps in our understanding. Second, we should allow Indigenous expertise to guide our climate actions in a way that builds trust and centers native voices without co-opting their knowledge.

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Colin Averill, forest microbiologist

Big idea: If we want to understand the environment, we should be looking deeper underground. 

How? Most trees have a symbiotic partnership with what’s known as mycorrhizal fungi — microscopic networks that help plants access soil resources with their roots. If we knew which of these fungi were most beneficial to forest health, explains Colin Averill, we could reintroduce the necessary microorganisms into forest soil, enhancing tree growth and helping fight climate change. Averill has been studying soil microorganisms for years, using DNA sequencing to understand what lives in the soil of various forests and how that life relates to forest health, particularly tree growth rate and carbon capture. After identifying which fungi are most likely to enhance these metrics, his team started a randomized controlled field trial in Wales, with 27 acres of newly planted trees. Since planting in spring 2021, they’ve found that adding a small handful of soil that’s rich with high-performing fungal communities upon seeding has helped to accelerate tree growth and carbon capture aboveground by 30 to 70 percent, depending on the tree species. These results are early, but the data suggests that there’s potential to increase yields and carbon capture in managed timber forestry systems, as well as food agriculture systems. By rewilding the soil with its natural fungal biodiversity, we could improve our management of the land and, in the process, help fight climate change.

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George Monbiot, journalist

Big idea: By ending our dependence on traditional (and destructive) farming practices, we can solve two of our great existential problems: mass extinction and the risk of global food collapse.

How? Can we find a way to feed ourselves that won’t destroy the planet? Environmental writer George Monbiot says we can, but we’ll have to radically reimagine food production. Currently, crops and pasture for farmed animals occupy 38 percent of the planet’s land — in contrast, all of our homes, businesses and infrastructure occupy just one percent. This makes farming the single greatest cause of habitat destruction, wildlife loss and extinction. Our global food system isn’t just bad for the planet, Monbiot says — it’s also vulnerable to collapse. Four corporations control 90 percent of the global grain trade, by one estimate, and much food trade passes through vulnerable chokepoints like the Suez and Panama Canals. The good news is there are solutions: developing technologies that can improve our food system’s resilience and reduce environmental impact. One of the most promising, according to Monbiot, is a technique called precision fermentation: a refined form of brewing that can produce protein-rich foods using a tiny fraction of the land, water and fertilizer required to raise either crops or animals.

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Huma Yusuf, columnist

Big idea: Pakistan is drowning in the wake of catastrophic, biblical flooding. We need a new era of climate diplomacy and a new recognition that we, as a global society, are in this together.

How? One-third of Huma Yusuf’s native Pakistan is currently underwater due to climate injustice: an exceptional monsoon coupled with flash-flooding due to the accelerated melting of Himalayan glaciers has led to vast devastation. To put it in perspective, the area that’s now underwater is larger than the entirety of Britain. Three million people have been stripped of homes and livelihoods. Hundreds have died, and survivors are dying from disease. What does the future hold? Food insecurity, famine, climate migration and conflict, says Yusuf. Pakistan needs billions in relief funds, and G20 countries (responsible for 80 percent of global greenhouse emissions, compared to Pakistan’s less-than-one-percent contribution) that have profited from fossil fuel development should be the ones to foot the bill when climate disaster strikes climate-vulnerable countries. “Let’s be clear: developing countries are not asking for charity,” says Yusuf. “Having polluted only marginally, they are climate creditors, and that credit is now due.” To move in the direction of justice, an expanded definition of reparations is the only logical, albeit politically complicated, way forward. But in order to truly make headway, the global south must acknowledge its own shortcomings and struggles with poor governance, inadequate planning, corruption and lack of infrastructure and accountability. Together is the only way to make progress, and it will take countries rising to the occasion to achieve true climate justice. ”Are we ready for a new social contract within countries and between countries?” Yusuf asks.

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Heidi Sørensen, climate bureaucrat

Big idea: Confronting climate change is about creating better cities for everyone.

How? Picture a construction site, except without the noise pollution because the machinery and the trucks are all electric. That’s what a climate-conscious worksite sounds like in Oslo, Norway. With the goal of removing 95 percent of carbon emissions by 2030, Heidi Sørensen is spearheading Oslo’s green future, making sure the necessary infrastructure and policies are in place. From a carbon-capturing facility set to launch in 2026 to electric transport, Sørensen details the measures taken so far and shares five lessons to becoming an emissions-free city. First, climate measures upgrade quality of life for everyone. Second, set ambitious goals. Third, keep all stakeholders accountable. Fourth, never underestimate what you can change as a demanding customer — the market is adaptable. And last, incentivize green mobility. Sørensen invites all cities to join Oslo in creating a future of cleaner, better cities.

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Ksenia Petrichenko, energy efficiency policy analyst

Big idea: Buildings are responsible for more than one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions, but we can transform how buildings consume energy to reduce their high environmental impact.

How? Ksenia Petrichenko has a three-tiered strategy for reducing direct emissions from the buildings where we live and work. First, she says we need to improve our buildings’ energy efficiency through better insulation, more efficient windows and appliances that require less energy for heating, cooling, cooking and lighting. Second, we need a massive shift towards electricity. And, third, of course that electricity needs to be clean, powered by wind, solar and other low-carbon energy sources. Petrichenko envisions a future where energy resources aren’t concentrated around a single power plant, and where buildings have roof-top solar panels or wind turbines that help produce some of the energy they consume. We have the technology to create smarter grids, implement peer-to-peer electricity sharing and start improving buildings’ efficiency, she says. Next up? “We need the policies, the investments, the will and a new way to look at buildings not as passive energy users but as active players in the energy system,” she says.

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Jan Wurzbacher, carbon removals entrepreneur

Big idea: The carbon removal industry is still in its infancy, but think of early smartphones — technology that started out clunky, inefficient and expensive ultimately became sleek, affordable and ubiquitous, changing everything. Jan Wurzbacher thinks nascent carbon capture technologies could be on that same trajectory.

How? While it still needs to scale by many orders of magnitude in order to make a significant impact, carbon capture plants like Orca in Iceland, built by Jan Wurzbacher’s company Climeworks, will become a crucial part of our carbon reduction toolkit. The technology is relatively easy to understand — suck in a bunch of air, filter the carbon out, store it (for now, mostly in rocks underground) and then put the carbon-free air back into the atmosphere. This is expensive, and there are other obstacles to scaling and implementation. CO2 is present in low concentration in the air — one CO2 molecule out of every 2,500 in the atmosphere. And materials used to absorb carbon are also tough to find, and they need to last a long time. Nature offers us some solutions — forests and oceans — but it needs help, and there isn’t enough area to plant entire continents of forests. Carbon removal technology is a “must-have” tool to scrub carbon from our atmosphere.

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Stacy Kauk, innovation accelerator

Big idea: We need to make carbon removal a multi-billion-dollar industry.

How? How much money does removing carbon from the atmosphere actually cost, and how do we create a profitable carbon removal market? As the lead for sustainability at Shopify, Stacy Kauk wanted to not simply pay “carbon credits” that force someone to pollute less to mitigate the mess someone else already created. In addition to cutting emissions, we must also take carbon out of the atmosphere. But creating a global carbon removal industry is incredibly expensive. Borrowing an idea created by the vaccine industry, Shopify (in partnership with Meta, Alphabet, Stripe and McKinsey) have created Frontier — a $925 million Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) to grow future carbon markets through purchase guarantees. This approach faces obstacles: clean power currently doesn’t exist at the scale to accompany carbon removal; there hasn’t been much deployment at this stage of carbon removal technology; and existing manufacturing facilities for the technology can’t keep pace with the scale the market requires. Nonetheless, Frontier is an important first step to making carbon removal a future multi-billion-dollar industry.

What’s next for climate action? The talks from the TED Countdown New York Session 2022

Countdown, TED’s climate action initiative founded in partnership with Future Stewards, launched three years ago with a focus on accelerating solutions to climate change. The goal: to highlight possible pathways forward and weave a story of how we can help build a safer, cleaner, fairer and net-zero future for all.

After creating more than 100 climate-focused TED Talks, supporting over 1,000 TEDxCountdown events and attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in climate investments, Countdown returned to New York City to explore some of the innovative solutions bringing us closer to achieving a zero-carbon world. Eight speakers (and two performers) shared exciting developments, the challenges that lay ahead and how everything from decarbonization and biochemicals to TikTok and hip-hop can be vehicles for climate action.

The event: Talks from TED Countdown New York Session 2022, hosted by TED’s Bruno Giussani and Logan McClure Davda

When and where: Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at the TED World Theater in New York City

Speakers: Zahra Biabani, James Irungu Mwangi, Olivia Lazard, Samir Ibrahim, MyVerse, Kristen Warren, Patricia Villarrubia-Gomez, Miguel A. Modestino, Yuval Noah Harari, Peggy Shepard

The talks in brief:

Zahra Biabani, climate activist

Big idea: Using the power of social media, we can promote climate optimism and avoid the hopelessness that leads to climate inaction.

How? When Zahra Biabani learned that 56 percent of Gen Zers believe humanity is doomed, she began posting “Weekly Earth Wins” videos that combine feel-good TikTok dances with positive climate news. Her goal? To combat “climate doom-ism,” an obstacle she says now rivals climate denialism in the fight to save Earth’s climate. Her comments section quickly filled up with grateful messages from young people who were losing hope. Today, Biabani is part of EcoTok, an online activist collective that uses social media to break the cycle of doom and gloom. Climate optimism, Biabani says, isn’t about ignoring the existential threat the climate crisis poses to life on Earth. It’s a way to cultivate hope so people continue fighting for change and don’t give in to “the very entities that have gotten us into this mess.”

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James Irungu Mwangi, strategist, social entrepreneur 

Big question: By themselves, cuts in emissions will not mitigate the looming disaster of climate change — and while we might be able to accelerate Mother Nature’s innate abilities to scrub greenhouse gasses, that alone won’t save us either. As the climate clock ticks, James Irungu Mwangi sees increased investments in carbon sequestering technologies like DAC (direct air capture), BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) and BiCRS (biomass carbon removal and storage). But will these investments be enough to save us?

An answer: To date, carbon-sequestering tech has removed only 100,000 tons of CO2 from our atmosphere, a far cry from the billions of tons we must remove to reduce global warming. And scaling these technologies in places that already have a huge fossil fuel footprint will have no impact without a difficult transition to fully renewable energy. But there are places where we can sequester carbon and build a renewable power grid at the same time — places like Kenya, with plenty of forest and basalt rock, plenty of renewable energy potential and no current emissions that would need to be displaced. As humanity embarks on its biggest energy transition ever, Mwangi calls on the world to recognize and prioritize Africa’s climate action potential.

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Olivia Lazard, environmental peacemaking expert

Big idea: A fossil-fuel-free future is crucial to world peace and the resolution of future conflict, and renewables are the path to this future. But they require materials — minerals such as lithium, which must be mined. The countries controlling these resources and their processing (such as China) will find themselves at the center of the global stage.

How? The nations sitting on the natural resources crucial to renewable development are at the epicenter of a new geopolitical reality, as the recent invasion of mineral-rich Ukraine highlights. And while countries in Central Asia, Latin America and Africa could reap great economic benefits from their resources, these resources also put them at risk for exploitation. To avoid this, we must extract resources safely, fight corruption and invest in sustainable economic models. Our ticket to green growth is hidden deep within the environment, Lazard says — this time, let’s make sure we don’t make the same mistakes that got us here.

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Samir Ibrahim, climate entrepreneur, with artists MyVerse and Kristen Warren

Big idea: Hip-hop can make climate action mainstream.

How? The climate crisis is urgent, says Samir Ibrahim, but talking about climate change is generally boring — not to mention depressing. As a climate-positive CEO and a lifelong hip-hop lover, Ibrahim’s got an off-beat idea for inspiring climate action through hip-hop. In 1993, Snoop Dogg’s hit “Gin and Juice” led to a 20 percent increase in sales of Seagram’s Gin (the brand named in the song). Ibrahim believes that future hip-hop artists can do for the climate crisis what Snoop Dogg did for his song’s eponymous mixed drink. He points to the long history of hip-hop artists leveraging their cultural capital to influence society’s views and engagement with topics like mental health and suicide. He says hip-hop can also bring climate vernacular to the masses. As a proof of concept, he invites MyVerse and Kristen Warren onstage to perform their original climate-focused rap.

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Patricia Villarrubia-Gomez, plastic pollution researcher

Big idea: Swapping plastic grocery bags for canvas totes won’t solve our plastic problem. If we want to address the climate consequences of producing and consuming plastic, we need to consider plastic as more than a waste management issue.

How? Plastic now touches even the most remote areas of the planet — from the snowy caps of Mount Everest to the deepest sea trenches to unborn babies in the womb. According to Patricia Villarrubia Gomez, the total mass of plastics is now double the total mass of all living animals on the planet. And all of this plastic spells trouble for our planet’s future. Villarrubia Gomez breaks down the consequences of plastic production at every stage, from fossil fuel extraction to the disposal of single-use plastics in landfills, incinerators and our planet’s precious waterways. Even after it’s thrown away, plastic continues to wreak havoc, releasing greenhouse gasses and other toxins. To deal with this staggeringly complex problem, Villarrubia Gomez says, we need to address plastic’s entire lifecycle, including its production, design and disposal.

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Miguel A. Modestino, sustainable engineering researcher 

Big question: Modern industry is the foundation of not only the world’s economies but also of the human way of life. Yet without crucial reforms to chemical manufacturing, global industry could be central to society’s downfall. Its massive carbon footprint (and that of the fossil fuels that lie at its heart) has already contributed to the loss of natural wonders such as the tropical glaciers in Miguel A. Modestino’s native Venezuela. How might industry contribute to a sustainable future?

An answer: Modestino’s research team at New York University studies electrochemical engineering — chemical reactions that source their energy directly from electricity, as opposed to fossil fuels. They’re working to develop new reactions that aim to increase efficiency and decrease the emissions impact of chemical manufacturing, supply chains and transportation. These innovations, in tandem with retrofitting chemical plants to run on renewables and sequestering carbon before it hits the atmosphere, could transform not only the chemical industry but also the face of the planet.

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Yuval Noah Harari, historian, scholar 

Big idea: Nobody really knows how much it will cost to dodge the worst impacts of climate change. Yet Yuval Noah Harari’s research indicates that humanity might avert catastrophe by investing only two percent of global GDP into climate solutions. In other words, solving climate change will not require major disruption — we just need to change our priorities.

How? Researchers may quibble about the exact number, but the truth is simple — only a small amount of global GDP would be required to avoid the most apocalyptic climate change scenarios. And this money will not be sacrificed, but rather directed towards investments in new infrastructure and energy sources that will not only save the planet but also establish new (and sustainable) vectors of global posterity. A slight shift of political priorities spearheaded by citizens and politicians is all we need to redirect our resources. “As the climate crisis worsens, too many people are swinging from denial straight to despair,” Harari says. “But we should not lose hope. Humanity has enormous resources under its command, and by applying them wisely, we can still prevent ecological cataclysm.”

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Peggy Shepard, environmental justice leader

Big idea: To achieve environmental justice, we must address the disproportionate impact of pollution and environmental hazards on Black and brown communities.

Why? Everyone has the right to live in a clean environment, says Peggy Shepard. But in the United States, the complex legacy of racism, housing segregation and zoning laws have long determined where people of color can live. As a result, many Black and brown families often reside in what Shepard calls “sacrifice zones”: communities on the frontlines of pollution and environmental hazards like landfills, incinerators or petrochemical plants. By raising awareness about the health consequences of contamination and mobilizing those most affected, Shepard explains, the environmental justice movement aims to turn high-risk areas into some of the world’s first “green zones.”

Recalibrate: The talks of TED@BCG 2021

As the world opens up and we move out of crisis mode, the most important lesson might be that change and disruption will continue to happen frequently and dramatically. So the question becomes: How can we adapt? In a day of talks and performances, a range of speakers explore how to harness creativity and imagination to redefine tech, business, government and society for the better.

The event: TED@BCG: Recalibrate is the eleventh event TED and Boston Consulting Group have co-hosted to spotlight leading thinkers from around the globe. Hosted by TED’s Head of Partnerships Lisa Choi Owens, with opening remarks from Rich Lesser, Global Chair of BCG.

Music: A serene, smoldering performance from the French band Kimberose along with the East-African retro-pop sound of singer-songwriter Alsarah.

The talks in brief:

Warren Valdmanis, private equity investor

Big idea: Good jobs make for committed employees, profitable companies and interested investors. 

How? Oftentimes, investors pride themselves on leaning out a company to boost its profit — but Warren Valdmanis believes that there is another way. By shifting the focus to creating good jobs, rather than cutting labor costs, companies have the opportunity to create a thriving environment that attracts employees, customers and investors. But what is a “good job”? Valdmanis breaks it down to four parts: Fair treatment, a promising future, psychological safety and a sense of purpose. When all these elements come together, mission-driven companies take care of the people bringing that vision to life and, in turn, they get creative, profitable returns. “Good jobs aren’t just good for society,” Valdmanis says. “They are good business.” 

Karen Lellouche Tordjman, customer experience professional

Big idea: There are two key challenges to crack in order to usher in the age of smart digital assistants.

How? From Siri to Alexa, digital assistants already permeate our lives. But, according to Karen Lellouche Tordjman, engineers must still overcome two crucial obstacles before digital assistants start to feel like a truly indispensable part of our lives. Obstacle one: voice. Currently, digital assistants have a relatively limited level of fluency, struggling with such things as accent, background noise and the different meanings of words within different contexts. But, with 10,000 Amazon employees working on Alexa’s voice technology alone, we could soon see leaps in the performance of voice interfaces. Which brings us to obstacle two: breadth of recommendations. Right now, most recommendation algorithms stay in one lane, specifically recommending things like videos, music, clothing items and the like. The next generation will be able to do everything, Lellouche Tordjman says, offering an integrated and wide range of recommendations across product categories. Once that happens, smart assistants may soon feel as necessary as our smart phones.

Massimo Russo, data cooperation expert

Big Idea: Sharing data can help us solve climate change. Here are three research-backed ways for companies to actually do it. 

How: We are in a dilemma, says Massimo Russo. If we want to defeat climate change, we need to optimize our cities and systems — and that requires sharing data. (In researching the most effective climate change solutions, Russo and his team found that 85 percent of the best plans require more data sharing.) But the companies that have this crucial data are often reluctant to share it, falling susceptible to what he calls “FOMA”: fear of missing out on competitive advantage. But there is a ray of hope — companies are more likely to share their data when it serves a greater common goal, like solving climate change. Russo offers three ways for companies to jumpstart an altruistic cycle of innovative data sharing: first, companies should look for new, unexpected sources of and partners for data. For example, farmers could look to satellite information systems to help them decide when and what to plant. Second, companies should quickly develop new sustainability solutions, which includes hiring climate scientists to use data and digital innovations together to create effective solutions. Finally, companies should act together for change. In cities, this could look like transportation hubs and utility companies sharing data so each can optimize their operations. We need data to find our way out of climate change — and the quickest way is to share.

Richard Thompson Ford, civil rights and gender equity lawyer

Big idea: Let’s try to check our biases before calling the fashion police.

Why? The fashion police are real — or, at least, the laws and policies that empowered them, which still echo and influence modern biases everywhere from school to the workplace. Richard Thompson Ford takes a fascinating historical walk through the rise and power of fashion, and how it’s more about status than statement when what’s considered appropriate is often clouded by stereotypes, snap judgements and limited experiences. But dismissing dress codes doesn’t instantly dissolve the tensions around who should wear what, Ford explains. There’s nuance to be understood when it comes to culture, self-expression and archaic beliefs of what constitutes professional dress. And while no tailor-made solution exists to divest society of such haute judgment, he encourages everyone to outfit themself to think twice about clothing and the people in them.

Zoe Karl-Waithaka, development visionary

Big Idea: Marketing can dramatically improve the lives of African farmers.

How? The development community (NGOs, philanthropies and international development agencies) traditionally focuses on helping African farmers grow their foods — but they should help them grow their markets, too. Zoe Karl-Waithaka points to the success of avocado and milk campaigns in the United States as examples of how marketing created a whole generation of guacamole eaters and milk drinkers. She says there are three ways marketing can help African farmers grow a market for their products. First, the development community can fund world-class marketing campaigns to promote African foods, both in domestic and international markets. Second, as a large procurer of food, African governments can provide a consistent market for farmers’ goods. And finally, farmers should band together to promote their crops, like jointly funding marketing campaigns through cooperatives. By pooling their resources together, farmers would be able to make a bigger marketing splash. These principles of marketing don’t just apply to African farmers, says Karl-Waithaka. They could be used to promote healthier and more climate-friendly foods, too!

Dustin Burke, supply chain expert

Big idea: We’re overdue for a true streamlining of supply chains to create real resiliency in the face of major crises.

How? Supply chain challenges are real, but they’re not new, says Dustin Burke. Some chains are simple — like buying strawberries from a local farm — but others are complicated, such as the approximately thirty thousand parts from numerous separate manufacturers that it takes to build a car. Even in light of disruptions ranging from natural disasters to pandemics and political instability, Burke asks why companies have yet to make their supply chains more resilient. The answer is straightforward: steep competition and clashing priorities always win when there’s no apparent crisis. Burke suggests developing better ideas that could potentially beat out those constant pressures, which boil down to sharing risk, radical transparency and automated recommendations. He believes that with the assistance of AI and machine learning today, companies (paired by need) could share resource costs and help create a more resilient, efficient tomorrow.

Charlotte Degot, green technologist

Big Idea: To reduce emissions, companies need to measure them accurately — and AI can help.

How? Colorless, scentless and invisible — greenhouse gases are hard to measure, explains Charlotte Degot. But getting an accurate estimate of pollution is vital to setting meaningful goals to reducing it. Enter: artificial intelligence. AI can help process and optimize massive amounts of data to help wean out misinformation and turn the data into useful patterns. For example, Degot points to an international wine and spirits company — from the glass that makes up their bottles to the liquid inside them, they have countless processes to track. Without AI, most of the information is inaccessible to the corporation. But, by having more reliable figures instead of rough estimates, corporations can set meaningful climate targets, identify concrete initiatives and recalculate emissions over time. To put it simply: “You cannot reduce what you cannot measure,” Degot says. 

James Rhee, goodwill strategist

Big idea: Goodwill and kindness can reshape a business for the better. 

How? Lots of people are demanding that we rethink capitalism — how we treat our employees and one another. But are we focused on the right things? What really creates value? James Rhee, the former CEO of the fashion brand Ashley Stewart, shares the story of how he pulled the company back from the brink of bankruptcy by cultivating the transformative power of kindness at work. By creating a culture of goodwill, inviting customers into marketing and creative efforts and centering people over profits across all operations, Rhee shows the true value of not only investing dollars, but also time and heart. 

Martin Reeves, business strategist

Big idea: Play isn’t just about fun. It’s also a helpful and advantageous business exercise in imagining what could be. 

How? Martin Reeves shows how in business, play is not only possible but urgently essential in a world that demands companies reinvent themselves in order to stay afloat. He invites the audience to play a series of games that he uses to get executives to stretch their thinking. These thought experiments inspire a fresh look at business-as-usual by flipping it on its head in ways that both humble and motivate the thinker in the direction of new possibilities. Failures to imagine in business are really failures in leadership, Reeves says. By unlocking and harnessing the innate creativity within, companies have the opportunity to uncover new disruptive strategies and keep a foothold on the future.

Larry Irvin, TED Fellow and education innovator

Big idea: Representation and diversity in teaching is vital to a student’s education. In the US, Black men make up less than three percent of teachers in schools — and this needs to change.

How? While teaching a summer program, Larry Irvin wanted to gain a better understanding of his students. So he asked them the age-old question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The answers he heard from his young students of color existed within the confines of outdated narratives that Irvin is committed to changing by working to increase teacher diversity. He created a program called Brothers Empowered to Teach that provides education, opportunity and job placement through a holistic, people-centered approach. By recruiting and training more Black teachers, educators provide a mirror to their students — and vice versa. “Just one Black male teacher in third, fourth or fifth grade for a low-income Black boy substantially reduces his chances of dropping out of high school by almost 40 percent,” Irvin says. 

Debbie Lovich, work futurist

Big idea: We have an opportunity to create a future of work that is more engaging, productive and humane.

How? Over the past 18 months of the pandemic, there’s been no shortage of conversations about the future of work. To Debbie Lovich, it’s abundantly clear that going back to a work life dictated by a fixed time, place and job description doesn’t make any sense. Employees have enjoyed unprecedented autonomy during the pandemic, and they’ve developed great work practices along the way. Now’s the time to bottle those practices and do away with the rigid, sluggish, bureaucratic ways of the past. To get the future of work right, Lovich says we must do three things: first, trust your people (they’ve proven they deserve it); second, be data-driven (survey people to see what they like about the new way of working, and experiment based on that feedback); and third, think beyond the schedule (reimagining, or even eliminating, things like long commutes, recurring meetings and silo work). If we do all this, we can stop contorting our lives around work — and instead reshape work to better fit our lives.

Axel Reinaud, biochar entrepreneur

Big Idea: Biochar is an exciting climate, agricultural and a renewable energy solution that can help farmers increase crop yields while reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. 

How? Photosynthesis is the most effective form of carbon sequestration … but what happens when plants and trees are burned? All the carbon that was captured by the plants is released back into the atmosphere. Enter: biochar. Biochar is a form of carbon made when organic ingredients are superheated without oxygen. It remains stable for hundreds of years and when sown into soil, its porous structure helps plants retain the important water, nutrients and microbes they need to thrive. Moreover, the production of biochar produces an abundant renewable source of energy. So why isn’t biochar more popular? Axel Reinaud explains that the price of biochar is too high — but things are changing. He outlines three ways to bring biochar to scale: first, improve access to the biomass needed to produce biochar; second, develop more efficient production systems that can create biochar and power a renewable energy grid 24/7; and third, encourage farmers to use biochar more, which would help reduce the amount of damaging fertilizers used and increase crop yields.