Entrepreneur Of The Year
Captain Planet
How Dr. Richard Sandor built a company around doing better for the world
Smart Business Chicago | July 2009
Winner
Green
For some time now, Dr. Richard L. Sandor has been taking care of the planet.
Long before going green was a buzzword used in every marketing campaign, Sandor was beginning his work as a hero for the environment.
Long considered to be the “father of financial futures” as he was dubbed after earning a reputation as the principal architect of the interest-rate futures market in the ’70s, Sandor founded Chicago Climate Exchange in 2002 around the concept of tying businesses to accountable market systems for legitimate emission reduction targets. CCX is North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases (GHGs), with global affiliates and projects worldwide. CCX emitting members make a voluntary but legally binding commitment to meet annual GHG emission reduction targets. Those who reduce below the targets have surplus allowances to sell or bank; those who emit above the targets comply by purchasing CCX Carbon Financial Instrument contracts. The result is a market where the CFI contracts, each of which represents 100 metric tons of CO2 equivalent, are a traded commodity in a system that looks to facilitate transparent trading and better institutional skills in the matter of cost-effectively managing GHGs.
In addition to his environmental work, Sandor has been involved in numerous civic and charitable activities. He is a member of the board of governors of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is also a member of the board of trustees of the International Center of Photography, New York. Sandor also finds time to keep a day job, so to speak, as he is a research professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a member of the international advisory council of Guanghua School of Management at Peking University.
For More Information: Chicago Climate Exchange, www.chicagoclimateexchange.com
