Sustainability and Collaboration Expert Eric Lowitt Comments on President Obama's State of the Union Address by Providing a Collaborative Process to Create Solutions to Climate Change

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Feb 15, 2013, 08:30 ET

BOSTON, Feb. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston-based sustainability and collaboration expert Eric Lowitt responded to President Obama's State of the Union Speech call to action about climate change and infrastructure. "There is an urgent need for a collaborative Commander-in Chief," said Eric Lowitt. He further stated, "President Obama started his speech by quoting President Kennedy. I wish he took another page from the Kennedy playbook and committed the country to a grand vision, on the scale of the Man on the Moon vision, to address our most vexing challenges, including climate change, water, food, energy, and materials reclamation. He should be setting goals such as 'We will lower carbon emissions by XY percent by the end of decade by doing this, this, and this.'" Lowitt further stated, "It is great to beat the climate change drums but the problem deserves a holistic yet concrete plan to move forward. If President Obama believes, as President Kennedy did, that the private, public, and civil sectors are not rivals but partners, then action must be the policy. Urgency must be the pace. Our divided house - politically, socially, and economically - must be put back together."

Lowitt believes that mitigating the pace of and adapting to the realities of climate change requires longer-term investments in infrastructure upgrades and innovation efforts. Lowitt and his clients see a clear connection between climate change action and economic development. Lowitt advocates a three-step plan to move forward:

Operate by coalition with bipartisan understanding and support. All need to understand that climate change initiatives are in everyone's best interest and the solution will only come from a team working for the common good. Leverage the existing collaborations that consist of entities from private, local, public, and civil sectors already strengthening our water, food, energy and materials recycling systems.
Set real goals and approve a budget to back up the plan. Climate change action must be recast as the foundation of our country's future economic development.
Think system. Redesign the system that is causing climate change and avoid the temptation of discreet actions. The health of our water, energy, food, and materials recycling systems both affect and are affected by climate change and all must be addressed. Lowitt says, "Every sector, private, public, and civil, is affected by the reliability and resiliency of each of these systems. Therefore, to solve climate change, we need to involve everyone."

About Eric Lowitt:

Eric Lowitt is known and widely appreciated for his thought leadership in and pragmatic solutions to the sustainability and collaboration space and for his ability to connect the dots---influencing change and implementing solutions by pulling the right people together to solve specific problems. Lowitt's best-selling business book, The Future of Value, and his new book,The Collaboration Economy, were written based on first-hand work providing solutions to address global challenges in a way that kick-starts inclusive economic development for the private, public, and civil sectors. Lowitt publishes in the Harvard Business Review, The Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, and has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, interviewed by Fortune Magazine and CNN, and advised country leaders in the United States, Brazil, and Finland. His work is better known than his name, but CEO's in America's largest corporations keep him close in his role as founder of Nexus Global Advisors, a leading strategy, collaboration, and sustainability advisory firm.