Michael Lenox is the Tayloe Murphy Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business at University of Virginia and author of the forthcoming, Will Business Save the Earth? The Prospects of Innovating Our Way to Sustainability (Stanford University Press).

To focus on promoting innovation within the US, which Trump has called for, Michael believes:

  • Most policy discussions have focused upon price manipulations, such as solar subsidies or carbon taxes, to incentivize innovation. These demand-side policies would help drive research and development but are controversial.
  • Less appreciated are numerous supply-side policies to promote green innovation. Federal technology policy, such as the funding of basic and applied research and protecting the resulting intellectual property, can be a critical driver of new ideas and technologies.
  • Another way to drive innovation is through state and local policies that foment vibrant entrepreneurial communities, which can act as incubators for new technologies and businesses. These efforts can, and should, be geared to pursuing societal objectives, such as shrinking our carbon footprint.