PETER ADRIAENS
University of Michigan

CLEANTECH MEETS FINTECH: A DATA-DRIVEN e-SHIP DISRUPTION IN ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

The year was 2006, and after 20 years of process and technology development, as well as field testing of bioremediation, I took a split sabbatical at the Ross School of Business and LimnoTech, an environmental engineering consultancy. The motivation was my disappointment with the rate of market uptake of environmental technologies, and wanting to learn how business models affect the technology/service.

The year 2006 was also the beginning of the collapse of the markets due to excessive risk taking, resulting in an increased focus on risk management. New policies, new tools and new processes needed to be developed and promulgated to stabilize the financial system, and to better understand systemic and idiosyncratic (i.e. asystemic) risk and recognize opportunity. This includes climate and water risk.

PETER ADRIAENS has expertise is in environmental technology development, field implementation, and environmental finance. Since 2005, his work has focused on an emerging area in sustainability: How can the capital markets and financial technology be harnessed to stimulate industrial renewal and green growth? His areas of study include (1) Development of financial technology (waterVaR) for risk pricing of financial assets in the capital markets exposed to water constraints; (2) Financial network analysis and data-driven risk analytics for the design of multi-asset renewal funds (MARF) in support of emerging sustainable industries; (3) New business models to scale or diffuse technologies and companies engaged in the energy-food-water nexus space, smart mobility, smart grid, and green chemistry.

Professor Adriaens teaches Business Model Design, Entrepreneurial Business Fundamentals (for Scientists and Engineers), CleanTech Venture Assessment, Environmental Finance, and Water Risk in the Capital Markets. His service activities include: US National Science Foundation - Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems; International advisor to Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency of Innovation); Strategic consultant to the Asia Development Bank, the World Bank, and Islamic Development Bank.

For more info: http://uoft.me/LLE17-18

Websites of Interest

• University of Toronto
• Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
• Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry