http://www.cchange.net Covering the transformations to social, environment and economic sustainability Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:26:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Sea Change Radio covers the transformations to social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Change is accelerating in positive and negative directions: the clock is ticking in the race to see which will tip first—the problems or the solutions. Join Sea Change's Host, Alex Wise, as he provides in-depth analysis to help our audience understand possible remedies and potential pitfalls. Sea Change interviews sustainability experts including Paul Hawken, Stewart Brand, Bill McKibben, Van Jones, Lester Brown, and many others. Sea Change airs on over 30 radio stations around the country. Alex Wise clean Alex Wise awise@cchange.net awise@cchange.net (Alex Wise) 2007-2011 Making Connections for Sustainability Sustainability, Climate Change, Human Rights, Environment, Corporate Responsibility, Socially Responsible Investing, Accountability, Stakeholders, Clean Tech, Renewable Energy, Green Jobs, Wealth Divide http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/cwr-images-archive/SeaChangeRadioTAG_square144_sm.jpg http://www.cchange.net Weekly http://www.cchange.net/2010/01/20/a-hybrid-model-co-op-and-nonprofits-launch-energy-efficiency-company/ http://www.cchange.net/2010/01/20/a-hybrid-model-co-op-and-nonprofits-launch-energy-efficiency-company/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:18:23 +0000 Bill Baue http://www.cchange.net/?p=2297 http://www.cchange.net/2010/01/20/a-hybrid-model-co-op-and-nonprofits-launch-energy-efficiency-company/feed/ 13 energy efficiency,energy savings performance contracts,energy service companies,Green Jobs,retrofits,triple bottom line Sea Change Radio Radio Co-Hosts Bill Baue and Kelsey Flynn talk to Tom Rossmassler, CEO of Energia, an innovative new energy efficiency company founded by two nonprofits -- Nuestras Raices and Nueva Esparanza -- and Co-op Power, a consumer cooperative. (http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomRossmassler1.jpg)Sea Change Radio Radio Co-Hosts Bill Baue (http://www.cchange.net/about/bill-baue/) and Kelsey Flynn (http://www.wrsi.com/Kelsey-Flynn/3222248) talk to Tom Rossmassler, CEO of Energia, an innovative new energy efficiency company founded by two nonprofits -- Nuestras Raices (http://www.nuestras-raices.org/en/home) and Nueva Esparanza (http://www.nuevaesperanzacdc.org/home/index.php?title=Main_Page) -- and Co-op Power (http://www.cooppower.coop/), a consumer cooperative.  And Kelsey profiles the Roots Up Green Jobs (http://www.nuestras-raices.org/en/green-jobs) program, run by Nuestras Raices and Co-op Power, which will train workers for Energia. Caulk and insulation -- Bill hadn’t quite realized what a key role these play in helping solve the climate crisis until he edited a report (http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=1172) for Ceres (http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=705) late last year on energy efficiency and real estate investors.  At about the same time, he heard about Energia, a new energy efficiency company with a twist: it’s a for-profit, founded by two nonprofits and a consumer cooperative.  And it’s filling in the gap between big companies doing big energy efficiency projects, and smaller companies focusing on single-family homes.  In the middle are multi-family units and smaller businesses that are underserved in the current marketplace for energy efficiency retrofits. Bill happens to know the new CEO, Tom Rossmassler, who was in his communications course last year at the Marlboro Sustainability MBA (http://gradschool.marlboro.edu/academics/mba/) program in Vermont.  So he invited Tom to join him and Co-Host Kelsey Flynn for an interview at the WMUA studios in Amherst.  Tom described how Energia fits into the world of energy service companies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_service_company) (or ESCOs), which are most often associated with big outfits like Siemens (http://www.usa.siemens.com/entry/en/), Honeywell (http://www51.honeywell.com/honeywell/), or Johnson Controls (http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en.html), which often enter into energy savings performance contracts (http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/financing/espcs.html) with big institutions, companies, or municipalities. Kelsey Flynn also recently profiled the Roots Up Green Jobs program from Nuestras Raices and Co-op Power that Tom mentioned in the interview on her Sustainable Valley (http://wrsi.com/pages/4791101.php) segment on WRSI.  Roots Up is a program for low-income students just finishing their GED, who are paid to go to school to learn about energy conservation, energy efficiency, and how to install solar hot water systems.  As part of a larger Holyoke/Springfield grant, Pathways Out of Poverty (http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eoeeapressrelease&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Eoeea&b=pressrelease&f=090528_pr_pathways&csid=Eoeea), the program has received funds to expand the work to include youth from the Springfield area. The program particularly targets youth who have little education or work experience, and few options for getting onto a successful career ladder. (http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/LynnBenander.jpeg)Kelsey spoke with Co-op Power founder Lynn Benander (http://www.cooppower.coop/index.php/contact-us/155), as well as Roots Up participants Yamil Brillos and Josh Vargas. Bill Baue clean 29:30 http://www.cchange.net/2009/12/16/back-to-the-future-reduce-reuse-retrofit/ http://www.cchange.net/2009/12/16/back-to-the-future-reduce-reuse-retrofit/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:03:39 +0000 Francesca Rheannon http://www.cchange.net/?p=2220 http://www.cchange.net/2009/12/16/back-to-the-future-reduce-reuse-retrofit/feed/ 2 back to the future,carbon emissions,carbon footprint,mass humanities,northeast sustainable energy association,retrofits,zero net energy Welcome to the third episode in our Sea Change series, Back to the Future.  Green architect Betsy Pettit talks about retrofits and what older building methods can teach us about saving energy. And John Grossman of ReStore tells us about re-using salvag... (http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/BetsyPettit-150x150.jpg) Welcome to the third episode in our Sea Change series, Back to the Future.  Green architect Betsy Pettit (http://www.buildingscienceconsulting.com/who/member.aspx?TeamID=3) talks about retrofits and what older building methods can teach us about saving energy. And John Grossman of ReStore (http://www.restoreonline.org/ ) tells us about re-using salvaged building materials. Each month, our six-part series looks at what we can learn from the past, when we used far less fossil fuels than we do today. We explore practices we can adapt as we move toward a lower carbon future. Last month, we looked at the revival of a locally based food system in western Massachusetts. This month we look at using old style Yankee frugality in building homes -- and adapting existing houses -- to save energy and reduce our carbon footprint. (http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/BetsyPettitRetrofit-150x150.jpg)(http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/BetsyPettitRetrofit2-150x150.jpg)In the U.S., buildings are responsible for between 48 and 80 percent of all carbon emissions (http://architecture2030.org/current_situation/building_sector.html), depending on what you include in the numbers. Single-family homes account for a significant portion today -- but they used to use a lot less energy. Green architect Betsy Pettit says homes built in the early years of the last century can teach us a lot about using less energy for cooling and lighting -- and even heating. She retrofitted her circa 1916 Sears Kit house (http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/case-studies/cs-0016-concord-four-square-retrofit/?searchterm=retrofit) to make its carbon footprint tiny -- nearly zero net energy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-energy_building). Pettit plies her trade with Building Science Corporation (http://www.buildingscience.com/) in Boston. She'll be chairing this year's Building Energy Conference (http://www.nesea.org/buildingenergy/) put on by the NorthEast Sustainable Energy Association, or NESEA (http://www.nesea.org/). The ReStore in Springfield was founded eight years ago by the Center for Ecological Technology (http://www.cetonline.org/) in Northampton, MA.. It takes salvaged materials and surplus stock from the building industry and sells them to the public at low prices, thereby keeping good used stuff out of landfills. The ReStore crew will take a house apart, piece by piece, including one from the 1700s, that used to sit in Rutland, Massachusetts. (http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ReStoreMerch-150x150.jpg)When you go to the ReStore, you'll find everything from claw foot tubs to spas, doors, windows, heaps of old lumber, radiators of various vintages, tub surrounds and marble countertops outside. Inside, you can find entire kitchen cabinet sets, including a cherry one on the day Sea Change host Francesca Rheannon (http://www.cchange.net/about/francesca-rheannon/) visited that looked like it had been pulled from a 1940s mansion. There are lamps hanging from every inch of ceiling space, and everything else for the home from drawer pulls to wiring.  Manager John Grossman took Sea Change on a tour. Francesca Rheannon clean 29:30