Christi Electris
Christi Electris has been an Associate at the Tellus Institute since 2007 and is a founding team member at the Croatan Institute. She has done consulting and research work on a variety of projects in energy, climate, agriculture, well-being, sustainability indicators, and corporate redesign. A computer scientist and quantitative policy analyst by training, she has worked as a researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where she designed and built data-driven and knowledge-based probabilistic models, and a research assistant at MIT’s Global System for Sustainable Development group, the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, and the Sloan School of Management. She studied computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, with minors in mathematics and cognitive science, and holds an MS in Technology and Policy from MIT and an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Tellus Publications (Selected)
Joshua Humphreys, Christi Electris, Jaime Silverstein
2013
This report provides an analysis of climate-related portfolio risk faced by educational and philanthropic endowments and presents three pathways toward reallocating an endowment portfolio into fossil-free investment opportunities, across asset classes. It includes numerous case studies of institutional asset managers and endowments that have competitively managed portfolios without exposure to fossil fuel company securities.
Marjorie Kelly, Christi Electris, Heather Lang, Gurneesh Bhandal
2012
An understanding of the social impact of the food and agriculture industry requires insight into worker equity, a concept that embraces many issues: fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to organize, job security, professional development opportunities, and employee engagement. This report sets out to review the landscape of company practices and policies in worker equity at the 100 largest companies in the food and agriculture industry in the U.S. market. While harmful practices are widespread—and in some ways the industry norm—there are also promising examples of emerging best practices. This report attempts to address both trouble spots and best practices. The latter are highlighted here as precedents that other companies might follow, and as an indication of potential avenues for impact and influence.
Joshua Humphreys, Christi Electris, Catie Ferrera, Ann Solomon
2012
With more than $400 billion in combined assets under management, US college and university endowments constitute an important segment of institutional investors involved in sustainable and responsible investing—defined here as the explicit incorporation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into investment decision-making and active-ownership activities. This study provides one of the most comprehensive analyses to date of the state of ESG investing by educational endowments.
Joshua Humphreys, Christi Electris, Ann Solomon
2012
Interest in investment that pursues social and environmental impact has exploded in recent years. Although opportunities for impact investing have emerged across asset classes, most impact-investment activity has remained largely confined to a limited array of private investments. To help fill this gap, this paper introduces a simple conceptual framework for organizations and individuals seeking greater impact and better alignment between their investment activities and their mission or values: Total Portfolio Activation. The basic insight that drives Total Portfolio Activation is that every investment across every asset class has social and environmental impacts—positive and negative. This report further offers concrete steps to help any institutional investor begin working toward a fuller activation of their portfolio in support of their mission.
James Goldstein, Christi Electris
2011
This study provides strong evidence that an enhanced national recycling and composting strategy in the United States can significantly and sustainably address critical national priorities including climate change, lasting job creation, and improved health. Achieving a 75 percent diversion rate for municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition debris (C&D) by 2030 would result in a total of 2.3 million jobs, lower greenhouse gas emissions, less pollution overall, and unquantified benefits of reducing ecological pressures associated with the use of non-renewable resources.
Paul Raskin, Christi Electris, Rich Rosen
2010
This study explores possible pathways to sustainability by considering, in quantitative form, four contrasting scenarios for the twenty-first century. The analysis reveals vividly the risks of conventional development approaches and the real danger of socio-ecological descent into a future of diminished human and ecological well-being. Nonetheless, the paper underscores that a Great Transition scenario—turning toward a civilization of enhanced human well-being and environmental resilience—remains an option, and it identifies a suite of changes in strategic policies and human values for getting there.
Preliminary report available
here.
Technical documentation available
here.
Originally published in
Sustainability 2, no. 8 (2010): 2626-2651.
