The Frontier State Conversations is a series where we host trailblazers across public policy, venture capital, and disruptive technologies. We aim to unpack competing ideas of fostering innovation, as seen across the private, public, non-profit, and academic spheres.
In this edition of The Frontier State series, we - in tandem with The Business & Government Professional Interest Council at Harvard Kennedy School - hosted Joe Curtatone, President of the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) and Elizabeth Turnbull Henry, President of The Environmental League of Massachusetts (ELM), to discuss The Frontier State of Environmental Coalitions.
We aimed to highlight ELM and NECEC and the State of Massachusetts’ focus on climate coalitions, the region’s developing nature as a ClimateTech ecosystem and the role accelerators and environmental coalitions play through this development, and lastly, the linkages between federal policy, state policy, and private capital for the next two decades of decarbonization.
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MCEC)’s 12-year climate growth map:
NECEC’s CleanTech Open 2023 is explained in the below infographic:
The event hosted a select live audience of students from Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among other graduate and undergraduate schools in Boston.
Speakers’ brief biographies:
Joe Curtatone
Before stepping into the role of NECEC President, Joseph A. Curtatone forged a reputation for being one of the most innovative mayors in the United States as the nine-term Mayor of Somerville, MA. That includes Somerville being named one of only 95 cities in the world to make the CDP Cities A-List for climate planning and action. He also spearheaded a comprehensive net-zero action plan for his city with a strong focus on equity. During his tenure, Curtatone embraced data-driven decision making, employed systems-based solutions to community issues and was an innovator in healthy city initiatives. He has forged regional coalitions to tackle issues around transportation, housing and COVID-19 pandemic response.
He also worked to establish Somerville as a leader in climate technology, recruiting Greentown Labs to the city, where it has been steadily growing since 2013. Thanks to his pursuit of cutting edge industries, Somerville saw its workforce increase by more than 40% during his tenure as the city became the home to billions of dollars of new economic activity.
Curtatone also did significant work to reshape the city. In 2014, Somerville opened the first new station in Greater Boston's core light rail transit system in 27 years, and soon it will open six more new stations as part of the first major expansion of that system since the 1980s. In addition, during his time in office Somerville built a network of more than 40 miles of bicycle lanes inside a city of just 4.1 square miles.
He is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, the New England School of Law and Boston College. A father of four, Curtatone also has been a longtime high school and youth sports coach.
Elizabeth Turnbull Henry
Elizabeth Turnbull Henry is currently the President of the Environmental League of Massachusetts. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Energy, Environment and ISO at Adidas. There, she was responsible for managing the Green Company Program, overseeing energy & environmental strategy & targets for adidas Group 'owned operations' globally, including offices, distribution centers and retail stores. She also designed, built and managed adidas Group's 3 project venture capital funds: greenENERGY Fund, lowWASTE Fund, and lowWATER Fund.
She holds an MBA/MEM from Yale University and a B.A. from Colby College.
