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Daniel Esty | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Commissioner of theConnecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection | |
| In office 2011–2014 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1959-06-06)June 6, 1959 (age 66) Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Henderson |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) Balliol College, Oxford (MA) Yale University (JD) |
Daniel C. Esty is an American environmental lawyer and policymaker. He is the Hillhouse professor at Yale University with appointments atYale Law School and theYale School of the Environment. From 2011 to 2014, Esty served as Commissioner of theConnecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. He launched a series of renewable power andenergy efficiency finance programs, including Connecticut's first-in-the-nationGreen bank and statewide property assessed clean energy (C-PAC) finance system.
Esty is a commentator on business, energy and climate change issues, and has been quoted in publications such asThe Financial Times,The Wall Street Journal,The New York Times,Harvard Business Review,Nature,The Economist,HuffPost, andScientific American.[1][2] He has been a commentator onNPR and has appeared onThe Colbert Report,The O'Reilly Factor, and theGlenn Beck Program to speak on issues of business innovation and the environment.
Esty earned aBachelor of Arts in economics fromHarvard College andJuris Doctor fromYale Law School. He also studied as aRhodes Scholar atBalliol College, Oxford, from which he received aMaster of Arts inphilosophy, politics, and economics.[3]
Prior to joining the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Esty was the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy atYale University. He held faculty appointments in both Yale’sYale School of the Environment andLaw Schools. He also served as the Director of theYale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Business & Environment at Yale (CBEY).
Esty was a Senior Fellow at thePeterson Institute for International Economics in 1993 and 1994, served in a variety of senior positions on theUnited States Environmental Protection Agency from 1989 to 1993, and practiced law inWashington, D.C. from 1986 to 1989.
Esty spent the 2000–2001 academic year as a visiting professor atINSEAD, the European business school inFontainebleau,France. In 2002, Esty received theAmerican Bar Association Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy for “pioneering a data-driven approach to environmental decision making” and developing the globalEnvironmental Sustainability Index. He served four years as an elected Planning and Zoning Commissioner in his hometown ofCheshire, Connecticut. He also served as an energy and environmental policy adviser on theBarack Obama 2008 presidential campaign and as a member of thePresidential 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 inNew Haven, Connecticut. He sits on the board of directors of theEnergy Future Coalition,Resources for the Future, and the Connecticut branch ofThe Nature Conservancy.[4]
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 byGreen to Gold Business Playbook: How to Implement Sustainability Practices for Bottom-Line Results in Every Business Function.[5]
He is married toElizabeth Esty, former U.S. Representative forConnecticut's 5th congressional district and former member of theConnecticut House of Representatives.[6] They have three children, Sarah, Thomas, and Jonathan.[7]
