Ep 66: The Financial Materiality of Climate Risk: Industry Perspective with Sotiria Anagnostou

Renewable Rides

What does it take to navigate climate challenges and create meaningful change? In this episode, Sotiria Anagnostou, Executive Director of AZ CleanTech, shares her journey from academia to corporate sustainability and her mission to build a cleantech ecosystem in Arizona. Sotiria discusses how she combines innovative tools like AI and digital twins with collaborative approaches to address climate risks, from water scarcity to supply chain resilience. You’ll hear about integrating sustainability into real estate, the rising importance of climate risk insurance, and how tying sustainability to business metrics fosters stakeholder buy-in.

Listen in as we dive into Sotiria's passion for direct air capture technology and her vision for making sustainability a core part of financial decision-making. You'll learn how mid-sized companies are adapting to investor demands, why business continuity plans must include climate risks, and how Arizona’s unique environment serves as a hotbed for clean tech innovation.

What You’ll Learn in Today’s Episode:

• Sotiria’s journey from academia to corporate sustainability.
• How Arizona fosters cleantech innovation through collaboration.
• The importance of business continuity plans for climate resilience.
• Why climate risk insurance is increasingly vital for businesses.
• The role of AI in optimizing sustainability.
• How to tie sustainability efforts to financial metrics.
• The challenges of integrating sustainability in real estate.
• The economic and practical impacts of Scope 3 emissions reporting.
• Sotiria's perspective on direct air capture technology.
• Key resources for climate tech and sustainability professionals.

Resources In Today's Episode:

• Sotiria Anagnostou: LinkedIn
• Gareth Evans: LinkedIn
• Dan Roberts: LinkedIn
• VECKTA: News
• AZ CleanTech
• Arizona State University (ASU)
• NSF Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SwSIE)
• SASB

You can view a video of the conversation on VECKTA's website here: https://tinyurl.com/4upkrcxe