From Commitments to Measurable Action

About this episode

Joe Speicher discusses the complexities of sustainability in building design and the importance of actionable measures in climate progress.

The data says we're making real progress on climate. So why does the conversation still feel like we're losing, and what does it mean to finally separate the signal from the noise? Joe Speicher didn't arrive at Autodesk's Chief Sustainability Officer role through a conventional channel. Deutsche Bank, the Peace Corps in the Philippines, impact investing — each stop informed how he thinks about deploying capital and measuring what actually changes. That background matters now more than ever, because the sustainability conversation, he argues, has too often been happening at the wrong altitude. Organizations set targets, publish disclosures, and track compliance. Meanwhile, the real decisions — how a building gets designed, which materials get specified, how early-stage procurement choices lock in carbon for decades — happen elsewhere, mostly without sustainability in the room.

People in this episode

Host: Keith Zakheim

Guest: Joe Speicher

Topics covered

• climate progress
• sustainability
• capital deployment
• building design
• material specification

Keywords

• climate
• sustainability
• capital
• building design
• material choices
• carbon
• impact investing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Autodesk, Deutsche Bank, Peace Corps

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