Career
Prior to joining the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Esty was the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University. He held faculty appointments in both Yale’s Yale School of the Environment and Law Schools. He also served as the Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Business & Environment at Yale (CBEY).
Esty was a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in 1993 and 1994, served in a variety of senior positions on the United States Environmental Protection Agency from 1989 to 1993, and practiced law in Washington, D.C. from 1986 to 1989.
Esty spent the 2000–2001 academic year as a visiting professor at INSEAD, the European business school in Fontainebleau, France. In 2002, Esty received the American Bar Association Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy for “pioneering a data-driven approach to environmental decision making” and developing the global Environmental Sustainability Index. He served four years as an elected Planning and Zoning Commissioner in his hometown of Cheshire, Connecticut. He also served as an energy and environmental policy adviser on the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign and as a member of the Presidential Transition Team.
He has advised companies on energy, environment, and sustainability issues and serves as the Chairman of the Esty Group, a corporate sustainability strategy group based in New Haven, Connecticut. He sits on the board of directors of the Energy Future Coalition, Resources for the Future, and the Connecticut branch of The Nature Conservancy. [4]
Publications
Esty is the author or editor of ten books and a number of articles on environmental policy issues and the relationships between environment and corporate strategy, competitiveness, trade, globalization, governance, and development. His book published in 2006, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, argues that pollution control and natural resource management have become critical elements of marketplace success and explains how leading-edge companies have folded environmental thinking into their core business strategies. The book was followed by Green to Gold Business Playbook: How to Implement Sustainability Practices for Bottom-Line Results in Every Business Function. [5]
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The Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy is a joint initiative between the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale Law School.
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage is a 2006 book on sustainability by Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston and published by Yale University Press.
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Elizabeth Esty is an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Connecticut's 5th congressional district from 2013 to 2019. A Democrat, she previously was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, representing the 103rd Assembly District, which consisted of Cheshire and parts of Hamden and Wallingford. She also served two terms on the Cheshire Town Council. The 5th congressional district spans central and northwest Connecticut, including Waterbury, Danbury, New Britain, Meriden, Torrington, Litchfield County, the Farmington Valley, Newtown, and Esty's hometown of Cheshire.
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