In a speech at the Progression2026 conference, former Harvard business professor Robert G. Eccles said one thing is clear: it's a climate conference unlike any other.
“I have never been to a conference like this on climate change,” he said. “It’s been absolutely fascinating. The conversation was completely different than any of the conferences I go to, which are typically liberal conferences. People in this room get that climate change is a real deal but the way you talked about it was very different. It was optimistic. It was a problem that could be solved.”
Eccles studies the intersection of capitalism and sustainability. The April 3 conference gave him hope for shifting the climate conversation away from reducing fossil fuels and toward one "more based on innovation, more based on technology and recognizes the critical role of the financial sector,” Eccles said.
In its third annual gathering, Progression brought together a dozen entrepreneurs pitching innovations in the climate space with investors, climate researchers and snow sport leaders.
The innovators filled the gym in the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Center for Excellence, spreading out display tables between weight racks to pitch ideas ranging from eco-friendly epoxy resins to AI-powered software which redistributes demand across the electric grid.
One innovator, Rainmaker, is a cloud-seeding company that aspires to help save the Great Salt Lake by increasing snowfall in the Wasatch. Founder Augustus Doricko believes that through technology, society can conquer climate change without sacrifice.
“Do not, under any circumstance, give in to the idea that we have to live with less,” Doricko said. “There are ways to make more water. There are ways to make more snow. We just have to innovate and work really hard to make sure that happens.”
Cloud-seeding is a decades-old technology Rainmaker says it has perfected using drone innovations. Interest in the technology has increased across the Mountain West. In studies, it remains unclear how transformative the technology could be.
Few innovations at the conference focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists say is critical to maintaining a livable planet.
So, can these innovations make a real difference? Max Seawright, from the University of Utah’s Wilkes Center for Climate and Policy, admits they may seem like a bandage on a bullet hole, but it’s a start.
“We have to pull the levers in front of us. Piecemeal solutions is one way to describe [these ideas],” he said. “But another way to describe it is an all-of-the-above approach.”
As the Trump administration cuts research funding and reverses Biden-era green energy investments, Seawright said climate solutions are increasingly dependent on investment from the private sector.
Conference speakers made one thing clear: climate progress, whoever funds it, is critical.
Noting that in Colorado, where he is from, the year's snowpack was 22% of normal, Executive Director of Mountain Towns 2030, Chris Steinkamp, said the climate situation "is just terrifying. For those of us who live and work in mountain communities we see it all year, everyday. And it will be economically devastating. This inconsistency is absolutely our new normal.”
Innovators at Progression2026, like Doricko, share those concerns, but see opportunity for solutions in that new normal.