Published
June 29, 2026
The argument that economic growth and environmental progress are in tension has never been particularly convincing to the people actually building things. The U.S. Chamber's Environmental Innovation Summit demonstrated that the companies deploying the most ambitious environmental solutions are not doing so in spite of their growth ambitions — they are doing so because of them. That’s because of growth. As Marty Durbin, President of the U.S. Chamber's Global Energy Institute, put it, "a growing economy creates the capacity to solve problems, invest in innovation, create jobs, strengthen communities and widen opportunity."
Shannon Kellogg of Amazon Web Services captured the posture of the private sector plainly: "We don't want to be part of the problem, we want to be part of the solution." What that requires, in practice, is a policy environment that makes it possible.
Innovation is already delivering. Dr. Neil Jacobs, NOAA Administrator, described how data, cloud computing, advanced modeling, and private-sector expertise are converging to improve how the country prepares for environmental risks. "The future is going to be cloud based," he said, pointing to public-private partnerships as the accelerant for weather modeling and climate resilience tools that help communities and businesses make faster, better-informed decisions.
Amanda Cimaglia of James Hardie Building Products made the same point from the manufacturing floor: "We have smarter material choices, we have smarter designs, we can build back better and more resiliently and more sustainably than ever before." These are not aspirational claims. They are descriptions of what American companies are already doing.
Nowhere is that clearer than in low-carbon manufacturing, where the United States has quietly built a structural advantage. U.S. steel manufacturers and natural gas producers have achieved emissions reductions that outpace their international peers — so much so that "that carbon advantage really has become structural to U.S. manufacturing," as David Gillers of Carbon Measures put it. When businesses have the policy certainty, capital, talent, and infrastructure needed to compete, environmental performance stops being a cost center and becomes a source of economic leadership.
The obstacle is not ambition or capability. It is regulatory friction. Alan Prouty of J.R. Simplot Company ran into unexpected regulatory hurdles even while implementing water reuse systems designed to increase manufacturing efficiency — a company trying to do the right thing, slowed down by the very frameworks ostensibly designed to encourage it. Tom Isberg of Solstice Advanced Materials put the ask simply: "We need regulations that we can count on." Not lighter regulation for its own sake, but durable, predictable rules that give businesses the confidence to invest at scale.
That is where permitting reform becomes unavoidable. "We have the opportunity in front of us with NEPA reform to really accomplish some things in the next few years," said Dustin Sherer, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. Interagency coordination on water issues, infrastructure investment, and regulatory modernization are not separate workstreams — they are all part of the same project of making it easier to build the things America needs.
Environmental progress requires investment. Investment requires growth. Growth requires a policy environment that rewards innovation and removes unnecessary barriers to building. The companies ready to lead already exist. The question is whether Washington will get out of their way.
About the author
Chuck Chaitovitz
Chuck Chaitovitz is vice president for environmental affairs and sustainability at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
