Joel Makower

Oakland

Chairman and Co-founder at Trellis

Chairman, co-founder @GreenBiz, award-winning journalist, bestselling author, global speaker and advisor on sustainable business, climate tech, blah blah blah

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Articles

Google CSO Kate Brandt: ‘We need to expand how we're talking about this’

1 week ago | trellis.net | Joel Makower

The tech giant’s chief sustainability officer reflects on how she’ll make the most of this critical time, drawing upon the two decades she’s been working to advance sustainability, in the debut episode of Two Steps Forward, a biweekly podcast. Plus, we answer the question: Why are creative people more optimistic?
Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.: Let's turn 'cancer alley' into opportunity alley

1 week ago | trellis.net | Joel Makower

“I’m excited for this moment,” Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, an advocacy group that works for racial, economic and climate justice, told us right off the bat.
Introducing Trellis Impact 25 to usher in the next phase of sustainability

1 month ago | trellis.net | Joel Makower

The profession of sustainability is changing. It always has been, though this moment feels more fraught than any before it.
Sustainability leaders, do your best by 'holding back the darkness'

Feb 10, 2025 | trellis.net | Joel Makower

The following is adapted from my opening talk delivered today at GreenBiz 25. Eight years ago, at GreenBiz 17, three weeks after a U.S. presidential inauguration, I declared that “Donald Trump is sustainability’s stress test.” His election was a black swan event — low probability, high impact — that we didn’t see coming and weren’t prepared for. It was a moment of truth for us all. We muddled through. Yes, we lost precious time, there were regulatory setbacks and we exited the Paris Agreement.
The key to CSO success: become a 'corporate chameleon'

Feb 7, 2025 | businessgreen.com | Joel Makower

Nearly 90 per cent of CSOs are spending more time on regulatory compliance today than they did two years ago, according to a new report from the Weinreb Group Sustainability professionals, and chief sustainability officers in particular, have long been scrutinized. But this moment is different, with political, financial, regulatory, technological and other pressures...
be a 'chameleon'

Feb 6, 2025 | trellis.net | Joel Makower

Sustainability professionals, and chief sustainability officers in particular, have long been scrutinized. But this moment is different, with political, financial, regulatory, technological and other pressures giving new urgency — and uncertainty — to companies’ efforts to ensure a sustainable future. As a result, the past year has seen a profusion of reports, studies, surveys, report cards and other assessments.
David Crane's farewell to his Department of Energy colleagues

Jan 21, 2025 | trellis.net | Joel Makower

Editor’s note: In 2016, when he officially stepped down as CEO of NRG Energy, then and now a Fortune 200 company, David Crane published a farewell letter to his employees on this site, affirming his commitment to a clean-energy future. Today, his last day as Under Secretary for Infrastructure at the U.S. Department of Energy, we are again exclusively publishing his farewell to his team.
In 2024, sustainability professionals were shaken but resolute. The year ahead will be more challenging

Dec 17, 2024 | trellis.net | Joel Makower

It’s been an interesting year for corporate sustainability professionals. Regulatory mandates, both current and anticipated, have led corporate sustainability departments to focus on reporting and accountability, often detracting from the actual work of improving a company’s sustainability impacts. The political environment, especially in the United States, has led companies to temper, if not quash, their communications on sustainability issues.
Sustainability leadership in a time of crisis and despair

Nov 8, 2024 | trellis.net | Joel Makower

Aligning a company with meaningful sustainability goals has never been easy, despite some stakeholders’ assumptions that it’s merely a matter of snapping one’s corporate fingers and making it happen. But today, as we face a new era of reactionary, strongman leadership — in the United States and elsewhere — the mountain sustainability leaders must climb seems steeper than ever. Consider what lies ahead: a newly resurgent fossil-fuel industry with unfettered access to the corridors of power.
Gartner's 'hype cycle' applied to the business of sustainability in 2024

Oct 1, 2024 | trellis.net | Joel Makower

In July, Gartner, the tech research and consulting firm, published one of its infamous “hype cycles,” this one zeroing in on the world of sustainability. Hype cycles, if you’re unfamiliar, are Gartner’s assessments of technological trends. Introduced in 1995, they plot technologies along a horizontal, roller coaster-like curve, from their inception all the way through their maturity and commoditization.