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What if the solution for reducing our collective carbon footprint were right under our feet? Our guest this week on Sea Change Radio believes it is – soil is a natural and planet-healthy repository for CO2. A slight rise in carbon dioxide levels in the soil could help fend off the encroaching warming of the climate. Author Courtney White talks about this as well as the environmental problems caused by today’s common farming practices.
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When we think of resiliency, we usually think of a gritty, comeback story, or a resilient economy – but can a company be resilient too? If you consider that, of the world’s 100 largest economies in terms of revenue, 37 of them are corporations, making companies more resilient starts to make more sense.
This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, Andrew Winston is a sustainability consultant and author who is working to make big corporations understand that they have just as much of an obligation to the planet and community as they do to their shareholders. He and host Alex Wise discuss what Winston dubs The Big Pivot, the need for these large corporations, just like many countries, to use science-based goals to reduce their carbon footprint, embrace renewable energy, and to develop a green strategy that is much more than just window-dressing.
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This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, Allen Hershkowitz, is a pioneer in the greening of the sports industry and a senior scientist at the NRDC. Dr. Hershkowitz is working to help decrease the carbon footprint of our nation’s sports teams while engaging sports industry leaders to speak up about environmental problems like climate change. He and host Alex Wise delve into the various ways that sports leagues and teams are starting to become leaders for change.
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This week on Sea Change Radio, we hear from the Research Director of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, James Leaton. He discusses his organization’s ongoing effort to inform the public about the quantities of fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses various companies are emitting. His team’s findings have been important talking points for Bill McKibben and 350.org‘s recent divestment campaign.
Next, host Alex Wise speaks with Graham Bergh, the founder of Resource Revival, a small company that collects tons of bicycle parts each month from bike shops all over the US. to create beautiful, low carbon-footprint, everyday products like picture frames and candle holders.
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Are you the kind of person who calculates your carbon footprint the way some folks count calories? And if you aren’t should you be? This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, and her colleagues from the Union of Concerned Scientists have written a guide that makes it easier to reduce your carbon footprint by 20% – without sweating the small stuff.
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Last week on Sea Change Radio, we talked about how a single flight can virtually neutralize all the efforts a family makes in a year to reduce their carbon footprint. As individuals, it’s essential that we begin to fly less, but isn’t there something more that the airlines can do, too? This week, Alex Wise interviews Jim Walsh, Managing Director of Corporate Environmental at American Airlines. He explains how early motivations to become more efficient and sustainable stemmed from rising fuel costs and an associated self-interest in saving money. But these seeds of sustainability began to sprout and the airline now boasts a number of employee-informed solutions, including donating used carpets to animal shelters, plans for burning alternative fuels, replacing heavy food carts with lighter ones, and even serving rain-forest certified coffee.
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Our guests this week on Sea Change Radio talk about the development of green luxury, and suggest that products that are both luxurious and sustainable may be an important trend. First, Sea Change Radio host, Alex Wise, speaks with Dr. Jem Bendell, a sustainability professor, consultant and author. Next, Alex talks to Beth Gerstein, the Co-founder and Co-Ceo of Brilliant Earth, a socially responsible jewelry company.
Green luxury. The two concepts seem diametrically opposed. We usually equate sustainable lifestyle with one involving sacrifices – driving a smaller car, turning down the AC, or reaching deeper into our wallets to buy pesticide-free fruit. And we think of luxury as something involving “no sacrifice.” But ever-increasing consumer awareness and demand, coupled with product innovation has led us to the dawn of the green luxury age. One in which sacrifices can be minimal.Read the show transcript
In a January 27 vote – split three-to-two along party lines – SEC Commissioners approved interpretive guidance on rules requiring companies to disclose potential impacts of climate change on their bottom lines. The move was prompted by a petition filed in September 2007 by Environmental Defense Fund – Finding the Ways That Work and Ceres. The petition was backed by institutional investors with $1.5 trillion in assets, including treasurers from California, Florida, and New York, among others.
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Producing biofuel is kind of like brewing beer, a practice that’s been around since the Phoenicians and Egyptians first fermented things, according to Bill Haywood, CEO of the San Francisco-based company LS9. He explains to Sea Change Radio West Coast Correspondent Alex Wise how his company uses E. Coli‘s digestion capabilities (which have been around for billions of years) to convert sugar to biofuels and chemicals. Next, Alex speaks with Robin Gold, co-founder of Dogpatch Biofuels, a filling station in San Francisco where drivers can gas up on “yellow grease,” or waste vegetable oil.
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When Sea Change Radio Executive Producer Bill Baue logged onto his computer Thursday morning, Skype immediately rang with a call from Don Carli, Senior Fellow of the Institute for Sustainable Communication, in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Conference (COP15). Don’s passion is to raise awareness about the carbon embedded in the entire lifecycle of every communication act – for example, the energy and emissions to power your computer to read and listen to this dispatch. He urges everyone, especially companies, to walk our talk, and reduce our emissions in how we communicate.