Center for Energy Efficiency & Sustainability

Roger Ballentine is an internationally-recognized expert and thought leader on how private sector leaders can incorporate environmental and sustainability strategies into business practices in ways that enhance competitive advantage and deliver value to customers, shareholders and stakeholders. He has advised U.S. Presidents, corporate CEOs, and private equity investors on the intersection of policy drivers, energy market dynamics and best business practices. Roger has served on the board of directors for more than a half of dozen public and private corporations and is a Venture Partner with Arborview Capital LLC.

George Bandy, Jr., is a global leader in environmental sustainability, circular economy, and social responsibility. He has been responsible for executing the comprehensive concepts and practices of sustainability for multinational corporations and NGO’s. He proactively identifies opportunities to position environmental, economic, and socially responsible solutions for both the organizations and their customers so that, together, they can demonstrate the type of sustainability leadership that will result in a brighter future for all.

George is currently supporting Darling Fibers, a leading US fiber manufacturer known for cutting-edge and innovative market leading sustainable solutions for the fiber, packaging, non-woven and fashion industry. George is leading Darling Fibers as its Chief Sustainability Officer. George also leads the newly established Darlington Green, where he is reimagining a 765-acre campus as a sustainable hub for textiles and packaging innovation, circularity, and bio creativity. Bandy has more than 25 years of experience in the sustainability field. His expertise will help Darling Fibers and Darlington Green reach its short-term and long-term sustainability goals.

Bandy most recently led the journey to a more Circular Economy at Amazon where he developed a strategy that assures the finite materials managed by Amazon remain in a technical or biological loop leasing the company to potentially become the Earth’s most circular centric company. 

Bandy is highly sought after as a presenter on key topics such as the business of sustainability, biophilic design, social sustainability, circular economy, greening the supply chain, health and wellness in the built environment and innovative smart and healthy design.

Bandy has received several honors for his work. He was recognized recently as a 2020 Living Future Hero. In 2018, he was a U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership Award recipient and was also honored with the inaugural Green Step People Award. 

Bandy is the former Chief Sustainability Officer for Mohawk Industries (2016-2020). Prior to that position, he was the Vice President of Sustainability for Interface (1999-2016). Bandy also served as the Sustainability Officer for the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston (1994-1999). Bandy is Vice Chairman of the board of directors for Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), an organization that independently recognizes excellence in green business industry performance and practice around the world. He has also been appointed to the Trane Technologies Advisory Council for Sustainability and most recently he has been appointed to the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute Board of Directors. George also is the former Chairman of the Board of the United States Green Building Council. 

A graduate of Morehouse College with a bachelor’s degree in English, Bandy also holds LEED Accredited Professional certification from USGBC. He is a native of Opelika, Alabama.

Marian Chertow is associate professor of industrial environmental management and has been director of the industrial environmental management program at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies since 1991. Her research and teaching focus on industrial ecology, business/environment issues, waste management, and environmental technology innovation.

Prior to Yale, Marian spent ten years in environmental business and state and local government. She is a frequent international lecturer and has testified on waste, recycling and other environmental issues before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. She serves on the founding faculty of the Masters of Science in Environmental Management Program at the National University of Singapore where she teaches “Business and Environment” and is a visiting professor at Nankai University’s National Center for Innovation Research on Circular Economy in China.

Stuart L. Hart is Professor in Residence at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. Hart was the founder of the Erb Institute’s dual master’s program in the early 1990s and then went on to hold faculty positions and launch centers for sustainable business at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management. Most recently, Hart was Professor and Steven Grossman Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business where he was co-founder and director of the school’s new Sustainable Innovation MBA Program.

A Fortune 500 consultant, Hart is one of the world's top authorities on the implications of environment and poverty for business strategy. His over 100 articles and nine books have received more than 50,000 Google Scholar citations. His article “Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World” won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in the Harvard Business Review for 1997 and helped launch the movement for corporate sustainability.  Hart’s best-selling book, Capitalism at the Crossroads, is amongst Cambridge University’s top 50 books on sustainability of all-time. His forthcoming book, Beyond Shareholder Primacy: Remaking Capitalism for a Sustainable Future, will be published by Stanford Business Books in 2024.

Katherine Sierra is an expert in sustainable infrastructure and climate change in developing economies, and provides advisory services to public and private sector organizations on these topics. Katherine is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, focusing on climate change and energy. Until June 2010, she was vice president for sustainable development at the World Bank, where she served for more than thirty years. She oversaw the bank’s global environment, infrastructure (including energy, transportation and water sectors), urban development and agricultural activities. She also led the World Bank’s climate change strategy – including creation of the $6.5 billion Climate Investment Funds and management of $2.5 billion in Carbon Finance funds. She was the Bank’s spokesperson on climate change, and represented it at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change high level meetings and at the G-8 and G-20 on climate and environment issues.

Katherine is a frequent speaker on the issues surrounding development and climate change. She has considerable country experience in East Asia, including managing the urban and environment programs for China, and in Latin America. She has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California; a Master’s degree in city and regional planning from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s General Managers Program.

Dr. Vermeer is an Associate Professor of the Practice at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he leads the Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment (EDGE). EDGE works at the intersection of global environmental and societal challenges and business strategy through education, research, and collaboration. His latest work is on climate strategy and ocean innovation. 

At Duke, Vermeer co-leads a national initiative called ClimateCAP, focused on integrating climate change into the business school curriculum. He is also co-founder of the Oceans@Duke initiative, which brings together diverse experts to develop innovative solutions to the world’s ocean sustainability challenges.

Vermeer joined Duke from The Coca-Cola Company, where he led the company’s Global Water Initiative. He plays a leading public role in advocating for sustainable development through speaking, research, and institution-building.

Andrew Winston is a globally-recognized expert on megatrends, sustainable business, and how to build companies that profit by contributing to a thriving world. Named by Thinkers50 as one of the top 50 management thought leaders in the world, his strategy books have sold over a quarter million copies in 15 languages. His bestsellers include Green to Gold – which Inc. Magazine included on its all-time list of 30 books that every manager should own – The Big Pivot, and Net Positive, which was co-authored with renowned CEO Paul Polman and selected by the Financial Times as one of the Best Business Books of the Year. Andrew writes regularly for the Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review, including the HBR cover story, “The Net Positive Manifesto” and the HBR’s “Big Idea” story, “Leading a New Era of Climate Action.”

His views on strategy have been sought after by the world’s leading companies, including 3M, DuPont, J&J, Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, PepsiCo, Trane Technologies, Unilever, and Walmart. He has been quoted in major media such as Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Time, BusinessWeek, New York Times, and CNBC.

Andrew is also a highly sought-after, dynamic, and inspiring speaker, reaching hundreds of audiences around the world. He delivers an entertaining message of practical optimism: the world’s challenges are great, but business has the tools, resources, and creativity to solve them and build a thriving world. He has spoken on five continents, bringing his inspiration to leadership meetings of the top executives of multinationals, to large industry conferences, and to high-profile events like the World Innovation Forum and TED.

Andrew’s work is based on significant business experience and education. His early career included advising companies on corporate strategy while at BCG and management positions in strategy and marketing at Time Warner and Viacom/MTV. He received his BA in Economics from Princeton, an MBA from Columbia, and a Masters of Environmental Management from Yale. He lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife and two sons.

Terry F. Yosie has served in executive level management positions and provided strategic counsel for national and multi-lateral governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and leading universities. His range of expertise has included business strategy, climate change, global plastics waste, economic development strategies, environmental protection, governance, emerging issues analysis and risk assessment. He currently serves as a Columnist for GreenBiz.com, a member of sustainability advisory councils for The Dow Chemical Company and Trane Technologies and serves on the external advisory board of the William K. Reilly Center for Environmental Policy at American University. He presently is a member of a US National Academy of Sciences committee advising the Environmental Protection Agency on priority emerging issues and technologies. 

Dr. Yosie’s executive level positions have included:

• Director, EPA Science Advisory Board
• Vice President, Health and Environment, American Petroleum Institute 
• Executive Vice President, Ruder Finn Consultants 
• Vice President, Responsible Care Initiative, American Chemistry Council 
• President & CEO, World Environment Center

Dr. Yosie has authored more than 100 professional publications and is the co-author of several books on environmental management and sustainable development, including a history of the US Environmental Protection Agency. He has served on numerous boards and advisory committees for the US government, the United Nations, and the US National Academy of Sciences. He has lectured at many of the world’s leading universities, has appeared on all major US television networks and the BBC, and periodically testifies before the US Congress. 

He received his pre-law degree in 1974 from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and his Doctorate in History and Social Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University in 1981. Each university has granted him its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.

He was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and resides in Washington, DC.

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Mike Jarnagin is the Vice President of Environmental, Health and Safety for Trane Technologies. His overall scope includes manufacturing, sales and services operations, which includes approx. 40,000 employees globally. Mike’s EHS involvement includes 27 years of EHS experience including global responsibilities in various manufacturing and service operations to include automotive, energy and private sectors. Mike's experience includes machine guarding, regulation guidance & interpretation, program creation/implementation, and wastewater treatment. Mike has been managing business level EHS programs for the last 20 years, with continued history of building sustainable teams and building risk reduction strategies to drive injury reductions and reducing overall workers compensation costs.

Jarnagin holds a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management from Tusculum University and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Milligan University.

Jarnagin’s hobbies and personal interests are many and varied. Working on the family farm and spending time with family. Horseback riding, hiking, running and bike riding along with boating and water sports. A special joy is watching his children become adults and start their careers.

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