Daniel Esty

Daniel C. Esty is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University. As a professor at Yale since 1994, he holds faculty appointments in both Yale’s Environment and Law Schools, with a secondary appointment at the Yale School of Management. He directs the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and serves as the co-director of the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance. Additionally, he founded the Center for Business & Environment at Yale in 2006 and remains actively involved.

From 2011 to early 2014, Professor Esty served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). In this capacity, he spearheaded the redesign of all DEEP’s permitting programs to enhance their speed, efficiency, customer orientation, and effectiveness. He also crafted an innovative energy strategy for Connecticut that shifted the focus from subsidies to finance, utilizing creative policy tools such as reverse auctions, power purchase agreements, the first-in-the-nation Green Bank, and a statewide Property Assessed Clean Energy program.

Professor Esty is a prolific author and editor, having produced fourteen books and a multitude of articles addressing sustainability, environmental protection, and the interconnections with corporate strategy, competitiveness, trade, globalization, metrics, governance, and development. His prizewinning work, "Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage," co-authored with Andrew Winston, illustrates how top companies integrate environmental considerations into their core strategies for better market success. His recent publications include "The Green to Gold Business Playbook: How to Implement Sustainability Practices for Bottom-Line Results in Every Business Function" and "Values at Work: Sustainable Investing and ESG Reporting," expanding his discourse on sustainable business practices and investment. His current research explores rethinking environmental policy for the 21st century, integrating climate change concerns into trade rules, and developing metrics to assess sustainability performance across various scales from global to corporate levels.

Prior to his tenure at Yale, Professor Esty was a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (1993-94), occupied various senior roles at the US Environmental Protection Agency (1989-93), and practiced law in Washington, DC (1986-89). He holds an AB from Harvard College, an MA from Balliol College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and a JD from Yale Law School. His extensive experience and innovative approaches to environmental policy and sustainability continue to influence both academic thought and practical application in the field.