What Ants Can Teach Us about Resilience | Carmichael Roberts | TEDxBoston

In this compelling talk Roberts describes the three-legged stool we need to develop to address urgent climate change. The first pilar is Mitigation—slowing down the change in temperature. The second pilar is learning how to adapt as our climate changes. Roberts’ talk focuses on the essential third pilar which is resilience—the ability to be deliberate in our choices around systems, processes and infrastructure to create systems that hold up better under challenges. Roberts describes the early childhood lessons he received from studying ants who determinedly built back ant mound no matter how many times they were destroyed. He describes learnings from Sanibel Island where more resilient structures built to be renewable and resilience withstood the ravages of Hurricane Ian while much of the rest of the island was leveled. He shares examples of two companies who are thriving and built on resilient principles: Pivot Bio and Source Global. Source Global takes solar principles and designs Hydra Panels that can be used to create clean drinking water on any continent. Pivot Bio leverages microbes that farmers can put into the soil as an alternative to depending on fertilizers. Carmichael points our that “nature is already pre-programmed for resiliency by design.” He says we get into trouble typically around human designed systems which prove to be more vulnerable. He cautions us of the importance of building out the third leg of the stool and not assuming that we can build back after a storm without leveraging resiliency principles.
Carmichael Roberts is, co-founder and managing partner of Material Impact, a venture fund that builds resilient technology companies developing products to solve real-world problems using innovative materials. Material Impact companies collectively have a mission to keep the world healthy, safe, fed, warm, powered, and secure.

Carmichael’s strategy as a venture investor is partly based on his entrepreneurial experience building companies and commercializing university-based technology in partnership with Fortune 500 companies.

Carmichael serves as Vice Chairman of the Duke University Board of Trustees. Carmichael also serves on the boards for the Consumer Technology Association, WGBH, and Massachusetts General Hospital Physicians Organization. Carmichael is also a Finance Leaders Fellow with the Aspen Institute.