Founder of carbon-offset firm to speak

Like many environmental calamities, climate change may pose its greatest societal threat to groups that are already disadvantaged. But to Michel  Gelobter, responding to global warming presents a golden opportunity to set the world on a more sustainable path where everyone wins, including those traditionally left behind.

A prominent champion of environmental quality and human equality, Gelobter will give a free public lecture, “Environmental Justice and Climate Change,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, in 1121 Mosse Humanities.

Gelobter’s unconventional career has taken him from the halls of government and academia to nonprofit work and, now, to the hypercompetitive business world. As founder and CEO of Cooler Inc., he has enlisted hundreds of national retailers in a novel scheme to make the heart of the free enterprise system itself carbon neutral.

Cooler is an online, for-profit venture that enables consumers and retailers to buy and sell millions of everyday goods and services while offsetting their global warming impacts. The California-based firm has partnered with companies including Wisconsin’s Holsum Dairies to promote “carbon offsets” that reduce the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

For more information, contact Molly Schwebach at 265-6712 or mayoung3@wisc.edu.