Travels from Connecticut, USA
Peter Boyd's speaking fee falls within range: $15,000 to $20,000
Business and environment expert, Peter Boyd helps companies accelerate the adoption of business solutions that lower carbon emissions and increase long-term profits. Driven by his personal motto that “There is no Planet B,” Boyd has been at the forefront of the green business revolution for nearly a decade. With over 15 years of private-sector experience in strategy, marketing, operations, and general management, he understands the common roadblocks companies face when trying to “go green” and knows the smartest ways to steer around those obstacles. As Founder & CEO of Time4Good Group, his latest venture allows sought-out leaders to optimize their time so that they have more energy to dedicate themselves to the environmental and social causes they care about.
Boyd was the launch director of Richard Branson’s global initiative, Carbon War Room. During his time there, he shifted to the role of COO, orchestrating extensive advances in the use of renewable jet fuels, adoption of green technologies in the trucking, shipping, and construction sectors, and the transition off fossil fuels in island nations such as Aruba and St. Lucia. Under his watch, Carbon War Room received BusinessGreen’s NGO of the Year Award.
Boyd’s insights on how organizations can transition to a “Net-Zero” environmental impact economy have been highly in demand. He has served as a senior advisor for the B Team, a global non-profit initiative headed by some of the world’s most high profile business leaders including Sir Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and Paul Polman, among others. Additionally, as the Chair of the Energy Efficiency Deployment Office, Boyd advised UK government teams on EE policy and represented the EEDO at numerous national and global conferences and meetings.
Currently, Boyd serves as the founder and CEO of Time4Good, a social and scheduling platform that brings sought-out leaders, meeting seekers, and ecological and social causes together in an innovative way, maximizing each party’s resources, energy, and impact. Boyd is also Executive Fellow at Yale University’s Center for Business and the Environment, where he guest lectures and collaborates with the next generation of business leaders towards achieving a “NetZero” carbon-emission economy.
Peter is Founder & CEO of Time4Good Group and Executive Fellow at Yale University’s Center for Business and the Environment. He has led, advised, worked with, and spoken to high-growth organizations across multiple sectors on strategy, marketing, productivity, climate change solutions and entrepreneurial opportunity.
Peter’s current venture Time4Good Group combines his passions for maximizing the impact of the time of high-performing individuals and organizations; and helping accelerate the world’s just transition to a ‘Net-Zero’ environmental impact economy.
With regard to the topic of time and productivity, he was recently covered in Forbes.com and other outlets, following his recent appearance at TEDWomen 2016. His new venture has created an innovative approach to a Leader’s time; applicable to the time-starved high-performing individual and to an organization as a whole.
On climate change solutions, Peter advised The B Team (which includes Sir Richard Branson and Paul Polman amongst their leadership) on their ‘Net-Zero by 2050’ initiative in the lead up to COP21 in Paris. Prior to that, he was Launch Director then COO of Sir Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room; and served as Chair of The Energy Efficiency Deployment Office for the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change. This work created a knowledge and passion for system change across sectors.
His start-up, academic, charity & government sector experience followed ten jobs in twelve years in the private sector at the Virgin Group (including CEO of Virgin Mobile South Africa), and his career debut with McKinsey & Co.
He is originally from Edinburgh, Scotland; educated at University of Oxford, and now lives in Westport, CT USA – serving on the board of Earthplace and the town’s Green Task Force.
Sustainability keynote speaker, Peter Boyd explains why we should look at climate change as an opportunity rather than a crisis. He uncovers several ways that businesses can reduce carbon while actually making a profit and examines why companies have yet to tap into these opportunities.
One example he highlights are changes that could be made within the shipping industry, which if counted as a nation would be the sixth largest carbon emitter between Japan and Germany. Boyd details that there are between 50 to 60 new technologies ranging from better paint to better propeller caps that could drastically cut down emissions, because they would reduce the amount of fuel needed, saving the industry up to 70 billion dollars per year. However, there are two main reasons that this hasn't occurred.
"One, poor information," Boyd relates. "It's hard to tell a dirty ship from a clean ship." In other words, even if you do the work, it's difficult for potential clients to notice the difference. "Second is split incentive," Boyd continues. "70% of the fuel in the shipping industry is paid by the cargo owner, not the ship owner." He goes on to share how he and the Carbon War Room worked with industry leaders to overcome these market failures.
Sustainability expert and business veteran, Peter Boyd combines climate change, optimism, and action. Pulling from decades of on-the-ground experience, Boyd helps your organization tap into the numerous existing opportunities to turn your enterprise into a vehicle for environmental and societal good while developing the #1 competitive advantage of our time. The expert strategist shows that while energy efficiency is crucial to mitigating the dangerous effects of climate change, it is also a multi-billion dollar global market opportunity.
Boyd tailors his knowledge and wisdom to your company or industry. In terms of addressing climate change, his ability to unpack both the obstacles and financial incentives to going green is unrivaled, as is his talent for equipping your team to draw up an achievable plan that you will be eager to act on.
For all talks, Peter brings a blend of energy and passion for the subject as well as an obvious drive to ensure the audience does something better/different when they get back from the event to their desks.
Topic: It’s Time4Good – Maximizing Your Impact Peter has an innovative and highly practical take on the concept of time and productivity, drawing from the focus of his start-up company, as well as over ten years in senior positions at the Virgin Group, global NGOs and government, and latterly advising CEOs of growth companies.
He describes time as one of the biggest market failures in society. He covers two common frameworks to approaching time and workplace productivity, and shows how we can create an overarching framework to yield genuinely actionable insights that can help Leaders prioritize their time. It can extend to how Leaders engage with the outside world and their social media presence; as well as optimize the allocation of time across their organization. If interested, please speak to one of our consultants, and Peter as appropriate, to assess the specific fit with your audience.
To the extent it is interesting or useful to the event, Peter can also introduce his newly-built platform Time4Good.net. Time4Good talks could take the form of a one-way informative speaking engagement, but also evolve to more interactive workshops to ensure the executives yield the most benefit.
Specific output could include a guaranteed One-Page Master To-Do List for every executive, and a suggested method to synchronize this initiative across their team.
Topic: Net-Zero By 2050 – The Opportunity Of Our Generation Peter has been working on, and talking about, the economic, social and environmental opportunities of solving climate change since 2009.
Whether it is addressing ship-owners in Greece, solar executives in Canada, or a cross-sector audience in Singapore, his emphasis is always on getting across a compelling and tailored message to the audience, that they can feel positive and change their to-do list when they get back to work. Example flow:
Peter brings high energy and assumes no prior knowledge in the subject of climate change. He brings a wealth of solution examples from working with the Shipping Industry and Island governments at the Carbon War Room; to accelerating green student start-ups at Yale University’s Center for Business & The Environment at Yale University. He has observed international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Durban, Cancun, Paris and Marrakech.
Peter can liaise with the organizers pre-event to create a tailored message to create the biggest change from the audience in the room – whether it is a clean-tech audience, broader business, the ngo world, or community and faith-based organizations.
SPEAKING.COM: What do you want people to learn/take away from your presentations?
BOYD: For ‘Net-Zero’ presentations I want people to feel like they understand the breadth and depth of the environmental opportunity such that they could explain it to a friend. Likewise, I try to ensure that they know they can do something differently at work and at home that will yield potentially significant results.
For ‘Time4Good’ presentations I want people to know that they are not alone in feeling overloaded. No matter how senior they are or how complicated their life, they can get their approach to maximizing their time on just one page. From there, they can take concrete steps to massively improve their effectiveness at work and across their whole life. If they want, they can leave the room with the first draft.
SPEAKING.COM: What kind of special prep work do you do prior to an event? How do you prepare for your speaking engagements?
BOYD: The biggest preparation is getting to know the client, what they want to achieve, and what change they want their audience to go through during and after the presentation. If my presentation is part of a longer agenda, I also want to understand what the event as a whole is trying to achieve to drive the organization forward.
SPEAKING.COM: Have you had any particularly memorable speaking engagements / unusual situations arise while on the road?
BOYD: I was facilitating at a conference that Carbon War Room had created to galvanize enthusiasm and commitments for Island transition to renewable energy (which has made economic sense for many years).
We had amassed some strong renewable pledges from assembled Caribbean prime ministers in advance of the final wrap-up session so we knew we had a strong closing session. While I was facilitating this last session and asked for ‘any more commitments’, one of the Prime Ministers that had not yet committed in writing decided to step up.
SPEAKING.COM: What types of audiences would most benefit from your message?
BOYD: Audiences that are open to change and who want to be in the room. I think everyone gets the most out of a presentation when the energy flow is two-way.
Having said that, some of the most satisfying engagements I’ve spoken at were when the audience was neither particularly open nor keen to be there. At a very conservative shipping conference in Greece, I got the distinct feeling that this was the very audience that needed to hear about the economic (and environmental) opportunities of fuel efficiency. The conversations afterwards were most rewarding.
SPEAKING.COM: Which of your keynote speaking topics are your favorites and why?
BOYD: I am passionate about maximizing leaders’ time – for good; and also passionate about accelerating the transition to a ‘Net-Zero impact’, ‘Zero poverty’ world. Whenever I can tailor these two presentations to get to as many people as possible, I feel that I’m doing what I can to make the world a better place.
SPEAKING.COM: What inspired you to start doing speaking engagements?
BOYD: I really enjoy building and feeding off energy in the room, thinking about what change could happen after the event is over and we are all back at our respective desks.
SPEAKING.COM: How do you keep your audience engaged and actively listening during your keynotes? Do you use case studies, personal stories and/or in your speeches?
BOYD: I have an upbeat tone and do not speak slowly, so I think that helps! I also find ways to interact with the audience. I do use personal stories and tend to have a picture behind me as a visual support for the story I’m telling.
SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the successes you’ve helped clients achieve?
BOYD: I have been fortunate to work with the private sector, non-profits, government and academia. While I do get excited about the Prime Ministers of small island nations pledging to go renewable during a conference I’ve helped plan and facilitate, I am just as excited when I see a CEO or a Yale student have that ‘lightbulb moment’ when they get their arms around how to maximize their time and achieve their (and their team’s) potential. All of these examples are high-leverage, high-intensity moments in time that I thrive on.
“We were delighted with Peter’s keynote at the Canadian Solar Industries Association conference. Peter was exactly the speaker we needed at the event, bringing a refreshing global perspective on climate change, deep insight, energy, knowledge and delightful sense of humour to the stage. The feedback received was very positive and his insights have helped catalyze some substantial progress on renewable energy matters and the climate change dialogue across Canada as a result. Having previously seen Peter work before as a moderator among Caribbean heads of state for the Carbon War Room, I was impressed with his ability to hold a room of 500+ people enraptured, imparting knowledge, hope and crisp insights to a room of seasoned business professionals. I would definitely use Peter as a speaker at future events.”– Thomas J. Timmins Vice-Chair, Canadian Solar Industries Association Global Chair, Renewable Energy, Gowling WLG
“Peter was outstanding! His knowledge and enthusiasm of the subject matter of climate change and sustainability engaged the audience both during and after the event. We continue to receive wonderful feedback from his message. His message was both insightful and encouraging. Several attendees have asked if he could come back for a follow-up presentation!”
– Genesee Community College Foundation
“We were delighted with Peter’s keynote at our recent Solar conference. Peter brings energy, passion and knowledge about the wider subject of climate change and the world’s potential solutions to addressing it. He manages to mix a big-picture background and on-the-ground experience of the world’s climate negotiations with a clear business case-spelling out the compelling economic opportunity in front of us all. He is also refreshingly focused at ensuring his talk makes a difference for the lives of the delegates after the conference, ending his talk with an actionable to do list for everyone in the room. Our attendees were very engaged and gave Peter high marks on our post-conference survey. I would definitely use Peter as a speaker at one of our other events.” – Gary Thuro, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Solar Energy Trade Shows
“Peter is an exceptional keynote speaker – he lights up the room with his brilliance of knowledge, passion, spirit and an uncanny ability to deeply connect with everyone!” – Yasmin Glanville, Founder of Rethink Sustainability International
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Speaker rating
Comments about seeing this speaker live? (This field not required to submit a star rating.)
Name *
Email *
Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Call us / email us / check availability and fee for your favorite speaker.
