Earth911.com's Sustainability In Your Ear
468 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago - ★★★★ - 14 ratingsEarth911's Mitch Ratcliffe interviews activists, authors, entrepreneurs and changemakers working to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, post-carbon society. You have more power to improve the world than you know! Listen in to get started saving the planet!
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Episodes
Earth911 Podcast: Making Billions of Square Feet of Commercial Space Sustainable with CBRE's Rob Bernard
April 15, 2024 10:50 - 39 minutes - 54.1 MBThe built environment, particularly office buildings other urban facilities, are responsible for 39% of the global energy-related emissions, according to the World Green Building Council. About a third of that impact comes from the initial construction of a building and the other two-thirds is produced over the lifetime of a building by heating, cooling, and providing power to the occupants. Our guest today is leading a key battle to reduce the impact of the built environment. Tune in for a w...
Earth911 Podcast: Ecoteens Founder Pragna Nidumolu On Activating Youth Environmental Networks
April 08, 2024 10:50 - 29 minutes - 40.3 MBYouth face the greatest impact of climate change, and will certainly have to live with the consequences of the extractive economy for the longest time. They also have the opportunity to pass along a better world to future generations and Pragna Nidumolu, founder of EcoTeens, is working to make that happen. When she was 14, Pragna launched an organization dedicated to creating dialogue and campaigns to encourage youth to recycle and reuse products and packaging responsibly. She also produces a...
Earth911 Podcast Special: Water For Peace With Model And Water Philanthropist Georgie Badiel
April 01, 2024 10:50 - 1 hour - 91.4 MBJoin Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe for a special World Water Day conversation with model and activist Georgie Badiel and Newday Impact Investing's Dan Keeler. If you'd like to watch instead of listen to the show, which includes the world premiere of The Georgie Badiel Foundation's new fundingraising campaign video, visit our YouTube channel. Georgie's team supports a network of village wells in her homeland, Burkina Faso, that provides clean water, solar-powered community learning centers and ga...
Earth911 Podcast: Honeywell's Chief Sustainability Officer, Dr. Gavin Towler, On Accelerating ESG Efforts
March 25, 2024 10:50 - 42 minutes - 58.1 MBHoneywell International is one of the largest companies in the world, ranking 115th in the Fortune 500 and operating in 70 countries around the world. With lines of business in aerospace, building technology, workplace safety, and digital technology, Honeywell is applying its expertise to reduce its environmental impact. Since 2018, Honeywell has reduced CO2 emissions by 18%, progressing toward its Scope 1 and 2 carbon neutrality goal for 2035. Our guest, Dr. Gavin Towler, the Chief Sustainab...
Earth911 Podcast: EPAM Continuum On Amplifying The Impact Of Earth Hour
March 18, 2024 10:50 - 31 minutes - 42.9 MBEarth Hour 2024, the "Biggest Hour for Earth" of the year, takes place on March 23rd. Since the World Wildlife Fund launched the event in 2007, Earth Hour has symbolized a commitment to the planet by simply turning off lights for one hour. However, despite its noble intentions, awareness of the movement was limited, with only 52% of the global population aware of the event. Our guests today, Phil Wilce and Antonia Simon, are Creative Director for Europe and Senior Experience Consultant, respe...
Earth911 Podcast: Globechain Founder & CEO May Al-Karooni On Expanding U.S. Reuse Markets
March 11, 2024 10:50 - 41 minutes - 57.1 MBWe can all take decisive action to protect the environment: reusing goods instead of sending them to landfills. By passing items on to others, whether through family, businesses, or community efforts, we avoid the need for new resources and reduce carbon emissions. May Al-Karooni, shares her story about founding Globechain.com, the largest dedicated reuse marketplace in the world, with just £800 (about $1,000). She aims to build a platform that enables worldwide reuse of excess inventory and ...
Earth911 Podcast: Concrete.ai CEO Alex Hall On Mixing Embodied Carbon Out Of the Built Environment
March 04, 2024 11:50 - 39 minutes - 54.6 MBThe built environment will evolve constantly, and NextCity.org reports that 75% of the infrastructure that will be in use by 2050 has not yet been built. That calls for a lot of concrete, and we need to avoid the emissions associated with that growth if we are to provide housing, workplaces, and everything that connects humanity on an equitable basis in a decarbonized world. Meet Alex Hall, CEO of Concrete.ai, which uses an artificial intelligence-based mixing platform to create affordable, l...
Earth911 Podcast: Xworks CEO Electra Coutsoftides on Pioneering Waste Networking
February 26, 2024 11:50 - 33 minutes - 46.4 MBMeet Electra Coutsoftides, CEO of Xworks, who is building a business network to catalyze recycling progress. Xworks designed its platform to enhance waste handling and trading by accredited waste professionals. The U.K.-based company provides digital compliance reporting capabilities, making it easier for businesses and recycling programs to meet regulatory requirements. Members are verified before joining to ensure user trustworthiness, a keystone in any successful network. That confidence t...
Earth911 Podcast: Dandelion Energy CEO Kathy Hannon on the Promise of Residential Geothermal Heat Pumps
February 19, 2024 11:50 - 36 minutes - 50 MBKathy Hannun, president and cofounder of Dandelion Energy, introduces an untapped heating and cooling capacity source for homes -- geothermal energy. Typically associated with high temperatures and geologically active areas such as hot springs or locations at the intersections of tectonic plates, geothermal heat pumps tap into the consistent year-round temperature of Earth’s outer crust to maintain a comfortable home environment. Dandelion emerged from Google X Lab and is transforming the hea...
Earth911 Podcast: EVRNU's Stacy Flynn On Creating Circular Fiber For Sustainable Fashion
February 12, 2024 11:50 - 36 minutes - 49.7 MBClothing and textile recycling has historically been scarcely available to consumers. It has yet to be successful, with clothing piling up in warehouses or being sent overseas instead of becoming a new generation of apparel. Stacy Flynn, CEO and co-founder of Evrnu, a textile innovations B Corporation, works to reduce the fashion industry's environmental impact with a circular, recycled cotton fiber called Nucycl. In this crucial conversation, Stacy discusses how we can encourage companies to...
Earth911 Podcast: The Resource Renewal Institute's Chance Cutrano on Putting Fish Back in the Fields
February 05, 2024 12:00 - 44 minutes - 60.7 MBChance Cutrano is director of programs at the Resource Renewal Institute in Fairfax, California. He and his team are experimenting with blending two activities, rice and fish farming, to reduce the emissions from rice fields while creating additional income for farmers. It's a practice recovered from antiquity that led to the launch of the Fish in the Fields program, which lowers carbon equivalent emissions created by rice farming by as much as 66% while improving biodiversity. Fish in the Fi...
Earth911 Podcast: Project Censored's 25 Under-Reported Environmental Stories of 2023
January 29, 2024 11:50 - 1 hour - 84.2 MBAs we enter 2024, closing the books on 2023's record heat, economic and geopolitical turmoil, and a raft of climate change stories in the mainstream press, we're fortunate to have Project Censored's Andy Lee Roth return to the show to discuss the most under-reported environmental stories of the last year. Andy last visited with us to discuss 2022's under-reported stories. Tune in for a wide-ranging conversation about the hidden environmental stories reported on independent news sites like The...
Earth911 Podcast: Can Nano Nuclear Energy's Microreactors Deliver Equitable Electricity?
January 22, 2024 11:50 - 50 minutes - 69.3 MBDespite its other environmental impacts, including toxic waste that requires centuries or millennia of storage in facilities designed to protect future generations from the genetic and acute effects of radiation, nuclear power is considered by some influential environmentalists an essential component of the post-fossil fuel economy. For example, James Hansen, the NASA scientist who raised the alarm about global warming in Congressional testimony in 1987, advocates expanded nuclear energy gene...
Earth911 Podcast: Ben Vivari On Getting Started With ESG Investing
January 15, 2024 11:50 - 44 minutes - 61 MB2023 was a challenging year for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, even though more capital continues to flow into ESG-reporting companies. In 2024, as inflation cools, consumers are expected to continue migrating to sustainable products and services, fueling higher returns for ESG-aligned stocks. Explore the first steps you can take to begin with Ben Vivari, cofounder of Till Investors, which helps investors evaluate and invest in green and socially responsible funds. Ben...
Earth911 Podcast: Nikki Batchelor and Mike Leitch introduce the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Finalists
December 18, 2023 11:50 - 38 minutes - 52.6 MBHow do you kickstart an industry? The $100 million XPrize for Carbon Removal recently announced its 15 winners in the first competition stage to achieve gigaton-scale carbon removal. With more than 1300 entrants in the XPrize process, the carbon removal prize may be the largest experiment in innovation in human history. The goal is to lower the cost of carbon removal to well below $100 per ton and ultimately to store atmospheric CO2 for centuries to halt and eventually reverse climate change....
Earth911 Podcast: Orlo Nutrition Introduces Carbon-Negative Algae-based Omega-3 Oil Supplements
December 15, 2023 11:50 - 32 minutes - 44.7 MBNutritional supplements, which the Centers for Disease Control report that 57.6% of adults consume, have significant environmental impacts. One family of supplements, Omega-3 oils, the healthy fats about 20 million Americans take each month to support brain and circulatory health, is responsible for the decline of krill in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica and overfishing of pelagic fish, such as anchovies and sardines, along the coast of Africa. Meet Corinna Bellizzi, Head of Sales and Ma...
Earth911 Podcast: The Apparel Impact Institute’s Kurt Kipka Maps the Path to Sustainable Fashion
December 11, 2023 11:50 - 40 minutes - 55.4 MBFashion makes us feel elegant and affluent, creating unique looks that allow people living in crowded societies to set themselves apart with unique styles. But fashion also comes at a substantial environmental cost. According to many estimates, 10% of the world's carbon emissions and 20% of wastewater are generated by making, shipping, and selling clothing, much of which ends up in landfills long before the clothing's usefulness is exhausted. Meet Kurt Kipka, Chief Impact Officer at the Appar...
Earth911 Podcast: Avoiding PFAS and Other Water Contaminants
December 08, 2023 11:50 - 53 minutes - 73.9 MBDrinking water is at risk of becoming scarce in the face of climate change. More than 50% of the nation has experienced drought since 2000. Rich “Raz” Razgaitis, CEO of Bluewater North America, a water purification company, joins the conversation to discuss the rising incidence in the water of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS, the forever chemicals used in everything from the lining of fast food containers and firefighting foams to cosmetics and waterproof clothing. A recent...
Alchemy’s James Murdock on Building a Circular Economy for Technology
December 04, 2023 11:50 - 41 minutes - 57 MBThe volume of electronic waste doubles about every six years as technology plays a more significant role in daily life. In 2019, the United Nations estimated that only 17.4% of electronics were recycled. The United States recycled only 9.4% of its e-waste that year. But in Europe, the recycling rate was 42.5% in 2019. There are many ways to improve, and one is the growing market for refurbished technology. Meet James Murdock, founder and chief marketing officer of Alchemy Global Solutions, a ...
Earth911 Podcast: Peter Glenn on Financing Your EV Life
December 01, 2023 11:50 - 36 minutes - 50.7 MBElectric vehicles are taking market share away from internal combustion competitors, with new plugin vehicle registrations in 2023 growing 45% yearly and accounting for 18% of all vehicle sales worldwide this year. U.S. EV sales hit 7.9% of all new car sales over the past three months. In Silicon Valley-speak, EVs are nearly across the chasm, the point at which a new product category is poised to displace older products rapidly. You're probably asking, "Can I afford one?" Our guest, Peter Gle...
Earth911 Podcast: The Skills Activist Leaders in Business Need in the Climate Era
November 27, 2023 11:50 - 49 minutes - 34.1 MBBusiness may be the most potent force in the world, perhaps more poweful than government. The largest corporations—only 20 companies— are responsible for one-third of carbon emissions, and some firms carry more economic heft than many nations. For example, Apple earned $99 billion in net income in 2022, and if Apple were a nation, it would rank 67th in the world if compared to the GDP of other countries. The Climate Crisis and its related food, water, and immigration impacts present the most ...
Earth911 Podcast: Better Earth's Savannah Seydel on Compostable Packaging
November 24, 2023 11:50 - 33 minutes - 46.7 MBSavannah Seydel, vice president of sustainability and impact at Better Earth, a maker of compostable tableware and food service packaging, is on a mission to remove petroleum-based plastics and PFAS-treated fiber from our food packaging choices. Food packaging and service ware are two of the largest sources of plastic pollution. The rise of compostable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics could change the character of food service materials, making restaurants, cafeterias, and food delive...
Earth911 Podcast: Trek Bicycle's Eric Bjorling Introduces the Red Barn Refresh
November 20, 2023 11:50 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MBTrek Bicycle has introduced a certified pre-owned bike program, Red Barn Refresh, and recently published its 2023 Sustainability Report. Eric Bjorling, Trek's Director of Brand Marketing and Public Relations, returns to Sustainability In Your Ear to discuss the company's progress and what it has learned on the path to greater sustainability. Two years ago, Eric said Trek was starting to move fast and take real action to reduce its environmental impact. Since then, the company has committed to...
Earth911 Podcast: Wearwell Cofounder Erin Houston Builds Circular Clothing Lifestyles
November 18, 2023 11:50 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBThe rise of fast fashion resulted in a tidal wave of clothing in the world’s landfills. Even traditional fashion choices can increase your environmental footprint if not selected using sustainable criteria, cared for and washed correctly, and worn until you donate or recycle it. Meet Erin Houston, cofounder of Wearwell, a woman-owned company that helps customers choose sustainable clothing, accessories, and shoes, as well as resell used items they no longer want to wear. Erin and her team car...
Earth911 Podcast: Breeze Founder Lucas Fraser on Small Business Carbon Tracking
November 13, 2023 11:50 - 38 minutes - 26.1 MBMeasuring greenhouse gas emissions, sometimes known as "carbon accounting," is the hottest topic in business. Regulators now require companies to report their emissions along with other environmental impacts. Consumers have also made clear that they want low-impact products and services. Meet Lucas Fraser, founder of Breeze, a carbon tracking tool for small and medium-sized businesses that measures Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Breeze is an easy-to-use platform that provides locally relevant r...
Earth911 Podcast: The Rideshare Company Reduce Traffic and Emissions
November 10, 2023 11:50 - 32 minutes - 22.5 MBReducing the number of solo drivers in and around cities and the emissions associated with commuting and shopping make a positive difference for the environment and human health. Meet Nanci Fitzgerald, President and CEO of The Rideshare Company. This nonprofit organization develops ridesharing services for companies, governments, and residential facilities. Founded in the 1980s, The Rideshare Company has created rideshare programs that, between July 1994 to December 2022, provided more than 2...
Earth911 Podcast: GS1 US Builds the Circular Economy Using Scannable Codes
November 06, 2023 11:50 - 34 minutes - 23.4 MBMeet Vivian Tai, Director of Innovation at GS1 US, the American division of GS1, a nonprofit organization you interact with daily and probably do not know by name. Its product, the Universal Product Code, or UPC barcode, is on virtually everything you buy and could power your participation in the circular economy. The original UPC barcode transformed shopping in the 1970s, first providing retail workers the ability for retail checkers to scan into the inventory management and point of sale sy...
Earth911 Podcast: Irrigreen’s Shane Dyer on Water-Saving Precision Irrigation
November 03, 2023 10:50 - 30 minutes - 20.6 MBWater is getting more expensive as drought spreads due to climate change, and in the Western U.S., scarcity continues to drive water prices higher. Meet Shane Dyer, CEO of Irrigreen, a precision irrigation company that recently released its first product for the home. Think of the Irrigreen sprinkler system as inkjet printing applied to putting water exactly where needed to keep a yard green or a garden productive. A smartphone app helps you map your yard to tell the system where and how much...
Earth911 Podcast: Guidehouse Insights’ Sam Abuelsamid Maps the Future of EV Battery Innovation
October 30, 2023 10:50 - 44 minutes - 30.6 MBThe rise of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will require a transformation in battery technology, the charging infrastructure, and the electric grid. Sam Abuelsamid, Principal Analyst for E-Mobility at Guidehouse Insights, joined the conversation to discuss electrification issues, from battery technology and mobility to smart cities and the distributed energy grid evolving around us. Sam explains that recycling will be essential to making enough batteries for the growing electric and hybr...
Earth911 Podcast: Author John J. Berger on Solving Climate Crisis
October 27, 2023 10:50 - 41 minutes - 28.7 MBFor many of us, the Climate Crisis looks like a brick wall, something the internal combustion-driven economy will slam into and total the system we grew up in. John J. Berger, Ph.D., author of Solving the Climate Crisis: Frontline Reports from the Race to Save the Earth, explored the path forward without getting up with the doom-saying that discourages people from taking action. While John warns of the consequences of continued inaction, his travels and research uncovered stories about progre...
Earth911 Podcast: ePlant CEO Graham Hine Listens to Trees
October 23, 2023 10:50 - 37 minutes - 25.6 MBSmart homes are commonplace today. Now, the intelligent yard is poised to join the mix. Meet Graham Hine, CEO of ePlant, which recently introduced the TreeTag. This solar-powered monitor is attached to a tree to monitor its health and send updates wirelessly to a phone. TreeTags are placed onto the side of trees using a screw and measure minor size fluctuations in trees. For example, the bark's contraction can indicate stress, such as a lack of water. The TreeTag includes an accelerometer to ...
Earth911 Podcast: Knoxfill’s Michaela Barnett on Recycling’s Failures & Refill Alternatives
October 20, 2023 10:50 - 42 minutes - 29.1 MBThe circular economy is a vision for a world in which the materials used in the products and packaging we purchase flow perpetually through the economy, used over and over instead of being tossed into landfills and replaced with newly mined, refined, and processed stuff. Recycling, an industry with about 50 years of history, is considered an essential feature of the circular economy, but it is just one option. Our guest, Knoxfill founder Michaela Barnett, recently wrote an article for The Con...
Earth911 Podcast: Building A Better Recycling Infrastructure With ISRI's Robin Wiener
October 16, 2023 10:50 - 42 minutes - 28.9 MBRobin Wiener, president of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), joins the conversation to explore the evolution of the circular economy and how the role of recycling will evolve. Today’s recycling infrastructure is closely aligned with the waste management system. There are growing signs that the reuse of products is essential and that recycling services can be built into the product lifecycle as the last step when no more reuse is possible. But the challenge recyclers face, al...
Earth911 Podcast: The Solutionists Author Solitaire Townsend On Solving Climate Change
October 13, 2023 10:50 - 46 minutes - 32.1 MBSociety is moving from sustainability naive to sustainably native, a new era in which the language, practices, and values of sustainable thinking will be taken for granted. When we have a shared language, changes start to happen- a trend we can see emerging now. Solitaire Townsend, author of The Solutionists: How Businesses Can Fix The Future, has written a guide to using the many threads of transformation that are already weaving the circular economy, albeit often behind closed doors and nev...
Earth911 Podcast: Andrea Ferris on Making Polyester Biodegradable with CICLO
October 09, 2023 10:50 - 27 minutes - 18.8 MBThe average American home produces 533 million microfibers annually, according to a 2019 study by Ocean Wise. CiCLO, a new polyester and nylon additive, promises to make those microfibers biodegrade in landfills or water, potentially eliminating these microplastic pollutants. Meet Andrea Ferris, CEO and cofounder at Intrinsic Advanced Materials, maker of CiCLO, a nutrient that attracts microorganisms to the weakest points in a synthetic fiber, where they feed and break down the material. Acco...
Earth911 Podcast: Caelux CEO Scott Graybeal on the U.S. Perovskite Solar Panel Supply Chain
October 06, 2023 10:50 - 44 minutes - 30.4 MBScott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux, sits down to talk about perovskites-based nanotechnology that can improve the performance of silicon solar panels to produce 30% more power from the sun at a 10% lower cost than traditional panels. Caelux recently closed an additional $12 million in funding to build a manufacturing facility that will produce up to 100 MW of generation capacity. The $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act has reportedly been followed by between $213 and $511 billion in private inves...
Earth911 Podcast: Grant Quasha on Cutting Cement's Carbon Footprint by 95%
October 02, 2023 10:50 - 35 minutes - 24.6 MBWhat is the most used material in the world? Cement, the basis for building most of the modern world, was invented during the Roman Empire and remains the most used material worldwide. In 2021, cement accounted for 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions globally, about 4.3 % of all greenhouse gas generated that year. Meet Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technology, a New York-based maker of low-carbon cement and materials for making concrete. Eco Material reengineered the Roman method...
Earth911 Podcast: Simen Saetre on Making Salmon a New, Domesticated Fish
September 29, 2023 10:50 - 40 minutes - 27.5 MBFarmed salmon has been touted as a solution to food scarcity as the world turns to eating more seafood. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that seafood production must increase 29.3% by 2030 to meet demand. Our guest today is Simen Sætre, who coauthored The New Fish: The Truth about Farmed Salmon and the Consequences We Can No Longer Ignore with journalist Kjetil Ostli. The book examines the salmon farming industry in Norway in the 1960s. It is a history of the bus...
Earth911 Podcast: Ben Wolkon on the Pace of Renewable Energy Investment
September 25, 2023 10:50 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MBThe pace of renewable energy investments has gained momentum over the past decade. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Investment 2023 report, $2.8 trillion will be invested this year in energy, including fossil fuels, with almost 61% dedicated to clean energy. Meet investor Ben Wolkon, a founding partner at MUUS Climate Partners. The firm invests to accelerate renewable energy adoption and to create clean technologies. Now that renewables have crossed the chasm an...
Earth911 Podcast Special Event: Introducing the Ecological Benefits Framework
September 23, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 45.8 MBThe landscape of environmental disclosure is changing fast. Go behind the scenes at Climate Week in New York to hear the introduction of a potentially transformative environmental reporting tool, the Ecological Benefits Framework (EBF). Created by the environmental storytelling studio The Lexicon, led by Douglas Gayeton, the EBF aims to go beyond Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting, extending today's financial risk assessments with a comprehensive quantification of environme...
Earth911 Podcast: Steven Hawley Documents the Cracks in the Western Water Strategies
September 22, 2023 10:50 - 43 minutes - 29.5 MBDams are more common than you think. Author Steven Hawley reports that 58,500 large dams worldwide have trapped 3,155 gigatons of sediment, meaning they are rapidly filling up and will eventually become useless for storing water or generating electricity. Steven's new book, Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World, was published by Patagonia. A wide-ranging study of the many impacts of damming rivers, Cracked explores the social displacement and economic harm dams do to people and ...
Earth911 Podcast: Christy Briggs Scores a Sustainability Touchdown at Seattle’s Lumen Field
September 16, 2023 10:50 - 49 minutes - 34.2 MBSince it started measuring waste diversion from landfills in 2006, when it recycled only 4.6% of materials collected, Seattle's Lumen Field has increased its recycling, composting, and donations efforts to avoid sending 90% of the waste generated by fans to the dump. Meet Christy Briggs, Logistics and Sustainability Manager at First & Goal Incorporated, who leads Lumen Field's recycling and other sustainability programs. The stadium has a high bar to meet, as just across town, Climate Pledge ...
Earth911 Podcast: Rayven CEO Owen Barrett on Electrifying the Nation’s Apartment Buildings
September 15, 2023 10:40 - 39 minutes - 27.3 MBOwen Barrett, cofounder and president of Rayven, is working to make it easy for individuals to invest in apartment buildings to accelerate the pace of energy upgrades and renewable energy adoption. Electrification of the nation's apartment buildings, moving them away from heating and energy generated from fossil fuels, is critical to achieving national carbon emissions reduction goals for 2030. Raven lets people invest with as little as $250, identifying profitable buildings to acquire, then ...
Earth911 Podcast: Supermodel Georgie Badiel Brings Clean Water to Burkina Faso
September 11, 2023 10:40 - 52 minutes - 35.8 MBSupermodel Georgie Badiel Liberty, who has graced the covers of magazines and in advertising worldwide, turned her celebrity to solving water scarcity challenges in her native country, Burkina Faso. In 2015, she launched the Georgie Badiel Foundation to bring wells, sanitation, solar-generated electricity, and community gardens to 10 million Burkinabé who lack access to clean water. The wells are built and managed by women in the villages where they are intalled. As a child, Georgie carried w...
Earth911 Podcast: Maya van Rossum on Held vs. Montana and Renewable Energy Lobbying
August 07, 2023 10:40 - 55 minutes - 38.2 MBThe founder of the national Green Amendments movement, Maya van Rossum, returns to discuss Held vs. Montana, a lawsuit brought by 16 teenagers demanding the enforcement by state agencies of regulations that ensure their right to a clean and healthy environment. Montana is one of three states that have a Green Amendment in its state constitution. She was in the courtroom during the testimonial phase of the case. Maya recently wrote: "The Held v. State of Montana litigation is the first time th...
Earth911 Podcast: Ship It Zero Aims for a Decarbonized Shipping Industry by 2030
August 04, 2023 10:40 - 42 minutes - 29.4 MBThe UN's International Maritime Association reported in 2020 that the shipping industry — the ships moving freight between the continents — accounts for 2.89% of annual global CO2 emissions. Between 1990 and 2020, shipping volumes "more than doubled," according to Statista, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, shipping grew faster, at as much as 16.4% a year, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. Meet Eric Leveridge, the Pacific Environment Lead at Ship It Zero, a nonprofit coali...
Earth911 Podcast: SuperCircle Breaks the Textiles Logjam
July 31, 2023 10:40 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBSuperCircle, a textiles recycling startup, has cracked the circular economy code for fashion brands. Meet the cofounders, Chloe Songer and Start Ahlum, who cofounded SuperCircle, which provides clothing takeback and recycling services to leading clothing brands, including tentree, Reformation, Mate the Label, and the circular sneaker brand Thousand Fell, which they also cofounded in 2018. SuperCircle launched in 2022 to a massive problem, managing recycling logistics and textiles processing f...
Earth911 Podcast: Consumer Reports' New Electric Yard Tool Recommendations
July 28, 2023 10:40 - 36 minutes - 24.9 MBWelcome to the hottest part of Summer, when the heat and smoke season may have you looking at your yard and thinking that it's time to upgrade from gas lawn equipment to electric, or to go back to manual tools. Tobie Stanger, a senior editor at Consumer Reports, joins the conversation to talk about the independent, nonprofit product review site's decision to endorse electric lawn equipment, especially for smaller lawns. According to the National Resources Defense Council, gas mowers, edgers, ...
Earth911 Podcast: Plaine Products Makes Personal Care Products Circular
July 24, 2023 10:40 - 43 minutes - 29.8 MBHow does a small startup launch a mail-back recycling program to deliver circular products that massive brands struggle to make? Meet innovator Lindsey McCoy, who started Plaine Products with her sister, Alison, in 2017. Today, Plaine Products offers 16 fully circular personal care products, including shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, and lotion. These personal care products are made with vegan ingredients and come in aluminum bottles that customers rinse and return for refilling when empty....
Earth911 Podcast: Brevian Energy's Rod Matthews on the Changing Economics of Microgrids
July 21, 2023 10:40 - 40 minutes - 27.5 MBRenewable energy will reconfigure the nation's electricity infrastructure, a relic from an era of centralized power generation when coal, gas, hydroelectric, and nuclear generation created massive amounts of power in one location for distribution across thousands of square miles. These times call for a different approach to electricity distribution, which mixes national and regional grids with local generation and a new concept, the microgrid. These local generation and storage systems may be...