Healthy Buildings & Smart Cities: Envisioning the Future of Urban Infrastructure

The world's cities are the main contributors to the climate crisis as approximately 70% of greenhouse gases are linked to the construction and operation of city infrastructure. In addition to this, the modern global workforce spends about 90% of their time indoors, and the buildings we reside in impact our health, safety, security and performance on a daily basis.

To mitigate climate change and build a path towards a healthier future, the way forward is resilient, sustainable "smart cities." A Smart city integrates advanced technologies into its networks, services, buildings, and infrastructure to be more inclusively managed and better prepared to navigate the future. The biggest challenge to implementing these projects at city scale, is a lack of financing support. 

In this webinar, host John Sviokla welcomes John Macomber, a senior lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School. His work focuses on climate adaptation and the future of cities, particularly as aided by the private finance and delivery of public infrastructure projects. 

Together they will discuss trends driving the adoption of sustainable, smart cities and how public/private partnerships can help the future of infrastructure development.

SPEAKER BIO

John Macomber is a Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School. His professional background includes leadership of real estate, construction, and information technology businesses. At HBS, Mr. Macomber's work focuses on climate adaptation and the future of cities, particularly as aided by the private finance and delivery of public infrastructure projects in both the developed and emerging worlds. 

His teaching combines infrastructure finance (including public-private partnerships), investing in resilience (notably in the face of sea rise in some areas and drought in others), economic development, and the impact of new technologies in delivering new infrastructure and making old infrastructure more efficient.  His most recent book is Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity (Harvard University Press, 2020)

Mr. Macomber is the former Chairman and CEO of the George B H Macomber Company, a large regional general contractor. He remains a principal in several real estate partnerships. He serves or has served on the boards of Young Presidents Organization International (YPO), Boston Private Bank, Mount Auburn Hospital, and the WGBH Educational Foundation.

Mr. Macomber is a graduate of Dartmouth College (Mathematics in the Social Sciences) and Harvard Business School.