It’s not every fundraising event where the crowd presses the keynote speaker to go overtime in his speech – and gives him a standing ovation for his remarks about the clean energy potential of building codes! Leave it to Hal Harvey, CEO of Energy Innovation, to captivate the room.
When planning for our dinner this year, we wanted it to be extra special, to build on the momentum of November election results in Oregon, and to allow everyone to share in the feeling of more hope, greater determination and strong collective action. In these times we know we all need those sources of inspiration.
At our dinner in Portland last week Hal discussed “four zeroes—” the four major carbon-emitting sectors we need to address to reduce emissions to stable levels: 1) a zero-carbon grid; 2) zero-emission vehicles; 3) zero-net energy buildings; 4) zero-waste manufacturing.
Clean power, clean cars, clean manufacturing and efficient buildings make everything we want to achieve in our society easier. They can lower our health care costs, cut heating bills, drive 21st-century innovation, foster decent jobs, mitigate climate change, create more competitive export industries, weaken petro-dictators—and enhance U.S. national security and moral leadership. Watch Hal's remarks in their entirety:
Hal’s speech made this week extra-special for us. To accelerate climate solutions fast enough, we need the resources to do the work. We set a big fundraising goal to kick off our Week of Climate Champions, starting with Giving Tuesday and ending with our Annual Dinner last night. We are thrilled to report that to date, through dinner sponsorships, registrations, night-of donations, and gifts via #GivingTuesday, we raised well over our original $120,000 goal. If you weren't able to attend, or have not made a gift to Climate Solutions but would like to support our critical work, you can donate here to help us reach our stretch goal of $150,000.
Events like our dinner take a community to make them happen, so we want to extend appreciation to these supporters of our event:
- Keynote speaker Hal Harvey—Thank you for sharing your wisdom and passion on how we can solve the climate crisis through focused and effective advocacy. Here’s to policy wonks saving the world!
- KC Golden—What an inspiring pitch you made for climate action: yes we can! You consistently instill generosity, compassion, and vision into all your efforts. We are so grateful for your devotion to Climate Solutions over these last 16 years. You will be missed when you retire from our fold at the end of this year.
- Emcee Amy Hillman—Thank you for being such an incredible host at the dinner, year after year. Can’t wait to have you speak at our 2019 event!
- Our sponsors, table hosts, table captains, public officials, donors, guests, and volunteers in the room for making events like our dinner possible.
- Andie Petkus for photographing the event and Shew Design for the beautiful design of our printed materials.
- Guenther Creative and Purpose Climate Lab for working with us to produce the inspirational videos.
Thanks again to our sponsors!
Climate Protection Sponsor
Lisa Adatto
Busch Systems
EDF Renewables
Avangrid Renewables
BlueGreen Alliance
Beneficial State Bank
Connolly & Malstrom
Marc Daudon, Climate Solutions Board of Directors
Elephants Delicatessen
Energy Northwest
Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2)
Forth
KC Golden
Lavinia Gordon, Climate Solutions Board of Directors
The Portland Clinic
Mitch Rofsky, Better World Club
