Thomas H. Stoner Jr. is an energy entrepreneur and writer. He has been a promoter of sustainable development for over 30 years, having built, financed, and owned and operated renewable energy projects throughout the Americas. He has led three companies in the

clean technology Clean technology, in short cleantech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Cl ...

space, including one of the original CleanTech venture funds backed by the international development banks, including the

Multilateral Investment Fund The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) is an independent fund administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), created in 1993 to support private sector development in Latin America and the Caribbean. In partnership with business organi ...

(MIF), a division of the

Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Cari ...

. In 2011, with the aid of David Schimel of the

Jet Propulsion Lab The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

(NASA) and other leading climate figures, Stoner founded Project Butterfly, a research organization that primarily advocates for the global capital markets as being a solution to climate change. In 2013, Stoner released "Small Change, Big Gains: Reflections of an Energy Entrepreneur," which contains research about transforming the global energy supply to be more reliant upon sustainable fuel sources by the end of the century. Stoner is currently the CEO of Entelligent, a provider of Smart Climate indices, predictive equity portfolio analytics, and advanced data.

Education and personal life

Stoner received his Masters in accounting and finance from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

and a BA from

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mo ...

, Amherst, Massachusetts. In 1988 he married Laurie Larsen; together they have two children. In 1987, Stoner served as founding Director of the

Social Venture Network Social Venture Network (SVN) is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1987 by Joshua Mailman, Thomas H. Stoner Jr and Wayne Silby, SVN. Events Social Venture Network hosts two annual conferences, one on the West Coast in Spring and one ...

Career

Most recently, Thomas Stoner Jr. launched Entelligent, a provider of Smart Climate indices, predictive equity portfolio analytics, and advanced data. Stoner served as the Managing Partner at New Alchemy Energy Partners, a fund dedicated to developing distributed energy generation projects in North America. From 2008 to 2010, Stoner served as the CEO and Chairman of Evergreen Energy Inc. (NYSE:EEE), a publicly traded coal and clean coal technology company with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. From 1998 to October 2008, Stoner served as CEO of Econergy International, a carbon markets consultancy and owner/operator of renewable energy projects throughout the Americas. Econergy International floated on the AIM under the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pa ...

(ECG) in February 2006. Econergy was an independent power developer of renewable energy projects, including wind farms, small hydro, and methane fired power generation facilities throughout Americas as well as one of the leading carbon emissions traders under the Kyoto Protocol. Under Stoner's leadership Econergy developed the first methodology submitted to the governing body of the

clean development mechanism The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a United Nations-run carbon offset scheme allowing countries to fund greenhouse gas emissions-reducing projects in other countries and claim the saved emissions as part of their own efforts to meet internat ...

(CDM), the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in th ...

(UNFCCC). Stoner led the sale of Econergy to

GDF Suez Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...

, one of the largest utilities in the world. While at Econergy, Stoner helped five international development banks to develop the CleanTechFund, a $25 million private equity fund focused on small-scale energy generation (such as wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal power plants) and energy efficiency projects in Latin America. He served as the Senior Manager of the fund from its formation in 2004 to 2008. Prior to Econergy, Stoner founded and served as president of the Highland Energy Group, a national

energy service company An energy service company (ESCO) is a company that provides a broad range of energy solutions including designs and implementation of energy savings projects, retrofitting, energy conservation, energy infrastructure outsourcing, power generation ...

(ESCO) providing

demand side management Energy demand management, also known as demand-side management (DSM) or demand-side response (DSR), is the modification of consumer demand for energy through various methods such as financial incentives and behavioral change through education. Us ...

(DSM) services to public utilities, such as the

Public Service Company of Colorado Xcel Energy Inc. is an American utility holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving more than 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico in 2019. It consists of four ope ...

Duke Power Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overview Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 megawatts of base-load and peak generation in ...

, and Texas Utilities. Stoner led the sale of the company to Eastern Utilities, formerly a NYSE traded public utility headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to Econergy, Stoner was the first acting director and founding board member of the

, a nonprofit membership organization composed of socially responsible business leaders who are committed to creating a more just and sustainable world. Stoner has served as a technical advisor in more than a dozen countries.

Project Butterfly

Project Butterfly was founded in 2010 and is a collaboration among scientists, business leaders, and the global community to address the threats posed by

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, and researching opportunities that exist in mitigating it. The initiative, started by Stoner, brought together individuals from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(MIT),

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

, the

National Renewable Energy Lab The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and ...

(NREL), the

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Founda ...

(NCAR), and the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado s ...

. The research and climate modeling performed under Project Butterfly led to the book "Small Change, Big Gains: Reflections of an Energy Entrepreneur”.

Publications and appearances

*What Climate Change Means for Investors *Donald Trump is about to become an even bigger champion of coal and fracking *Investors must adjust their portfolios now for a changing climate *Why Big Oil might secretly wish for a

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more s ...

*Opinion: Exxon Mobil cover-up case shows why energy investors need a new strategy *Paris: Subsidies, taxes and the energy investor *China Still Needs to Focus on Renewable Energy Despite Economic Slowdown *The problem with Obama's clean-energy plan *Panelist at Livingston Securities Advanced Energy Conference Denver, CO *Panelist at 2015 Burridge Conference, Burridge Center for Finance at University of Colorado Boulder, CO *Instructor at Viridis Graduate Institute Ecopsychology and Environmental Humanities course: Economics, Humans & Environment *Invited member for "Committee on Determinants of Market Adoption of Advanced Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Technologies" at the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

*Small Change Big Gains: Reflections of an Energy Entrepreneur, 2013. 556p. *A Financial Model for Evaluating Projects with Performance Contracts Report to the Energy Efficiency Financial Task Force *The Most Important Climate Change Question: How Will Investors React? *Smart Grid: On a Path Toward Climate Stability? *Divestment and Climate Change: Thomas Stoner at TEDxHampshire *Carbon Taxes Shifts us From Polluting to Non-Polluting

References

External links