Convo: Douglas Foy on Environmental Advocacy and Private Enterprise Fighting Climate Change
In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Douglas Foy, Founder and CEO of Serrafix Corporation, a strategic consulting firm and business incubator focused on energy, the environment, transportation, and climate change.
Doug serves on numerous corporate and non-profit boards, including Ameresco, Inc., Renew Energy Partners, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. Among many awards recognizing his public interest work, Doug has received the President’s Environmental and Conservation Challenge Award (the nation’s highest conservation award), the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University (its highest honor bestowed on a graduate), and the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from the Queen of England.
He and Ted discuss his background, growing up in New Jersey, graduating from Princeton University as a University Scholar in engineering and physics, Cambridge University in England as a Churchill Scholar in geophysics, and from Harvard Law School. Doug was also a member of the 1968 USA Olympic Rowing Team and the 1969 USA National Rowing Team.
Prior to launching Serrafix Corporation, Doug served as the first Secretary of Commonwealth Development in the administration of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. In leading this “super-Secretariat”, he oversaw the agencies of Transportation, Housing, Environment, and Energy. Before his service in the Romney administration, Doug served for 25 years as the President and CEO of the Conservation Law Foundation, New England’s premier environmental advocacy organization.
His current role at Serrafix Corporation is devoted to sustainable business practices and the development of social enterprises, primarily in the areas of energy, housing, smart growth, transportation, and climate change. He shares his belief that the three major players in the fight against climate change are advocacy groups, government, and private enterprise. According to Doug, Private Enterprise, in particular, holds the key to the future.