A conversation with Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, producer of Academy Award winning film, The Cove – show 21

“Taiji, a little town with a really big secret.” That’s how the Academy Award winning documentary film, The Cove, begins. The really big secret that takes place in this little fishing town in Japan is a really big nightmare. Year after year, dolphins on a migratory path are surrounded by fishing boats, slaughtered and sold for their meat. Hundreds of thousands of dolphins have died in this cove. Except for the young, female dolphins which sell for up to $150,000 to marine parks and “swim with dolphin” programs around the world.

This is the backdrop of my conversation with Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, the producer of The Cove. Paula shares how this film has impacted her and why its message shouldn’t just end with the filmmakers. “One person can make a difference. You can make a difference,” she said out loud. And she proves this every day of her life through her non-profit, There With Care. Her mission: To provide a range of practical services for children and families facing critical illness in order to ease the burden of life’s day-to-day obligations during a medical crisis.

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How Green is Your Spa? with Tara Grodjesk of Green Spa Network – show 20

My guest today is woman I have known for a number of years.Tara Grodjesk and I met about 4 years ago when I was helping actress, Marsha Mason, launch her natural products company, Resting in the River. Back then, Tara told me about an idea she was percolating — a professional network to help spa owners green up. What was a seed is now fully sprouted. The Green Spa Network is a thriving membership organization that helps spa owners take specific steps to green up their spas. And there’s more than 14,000 in the US alone. Tara shares her journey and passion in how she’s helping an industry she’s been intimately engaged with for over 25 years take a healthy and prosperous leap into the future.

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Eco Deals on Ecobunga! with co-founder, Karen Schiff – show 19

For years, one of the biggest roadblocks for going green is the price. Typically green or organic goods can be anywhere from 20 to 50 percent more. So unless you’re a die hard greenie, chances are you’ll pass up the organic kitty litter for the more conventional type. Not any more. Thanks to Karen Schiff, a woman who knows the art of green deal, There’s EcoBunga, an online directory that lists hundreds of green giveaways and deals everyday. From hybrid cars to organic foods. And since the site’s launch in 2008, Karen has personally reviewed thousands of green promotions, screening each one to ensure that the listing is truly green and truly a deal before publishing it online.

About my guest: Karen Schiff is co-founder of Ecobunga!, an online directory listing hund

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BP and the Balance of Feminine and Masculine.

The balance of the masculine and the feminine is my mantra on Women Of Green. With the recent (or not-so-recent) oil spill, we see the extreme need for this more than ever. My heart burst open every day watching our waters be turned into a toxic soup of sorrow. With that, I share the blog post below by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox. It shines a light on an important view on the BP story that has not been covered in the current news.

— Carolyn

One year ago, BP’s most senior woman left the company. Vivienne Cox was the head of the company’s renewable energy business. A lifelong proponent and pusher of sustainability issues, she was one of the many women to leave the company after the current CEO Tony Hayward took over from Lord Brown, something 20-first.com reported on at the time. Watching the current debacle and the culture that created it, one wonders had she and the other women stayed, would BP be in its current mess?

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Seeping Up The Sludge One Strand at a Time – show 18

My guest today is working hard along with thousands of other volunteers on containing the spew with hair – human hair, dog hair, even alpaca hair. This nationwide effort is lead by the not-for-profit organization, Matter of Trust, that turns the collected hair into oil collection mats and tubes. And so far they’ve collected hair from thousands of individuals and over 40,000 businesses have signed up.

This podcast is on location at a local salon in Santa Fe. Melodi Wyss-Feliciano, the owner of Rock Paper Scissor Salonspa, is leading the way in New Mexico and has collected boxes and boxes of hair not only from her salon, but others in New Mexico. Yesterday, she added my hair. What about yours? Think of it, your strands seeping up the sludge. It’s a beautiful thing.

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The Emotional Journey of Green – show 17

Remember my Earth Day guest, Rebecca Harrell Tickell, the author of Hot Rich and Green? If you remember, the book revealed secrets that woman are using to get rich and save the planet. Well, I found my guest today in Rebecca’s book and she shares some of her secrets to her success including how connection with your community trumps “hard work” — and how being authentic was her competitive advantage over other “how to green up your whatever” businesses. I love Rachael’s honesty and transparency in this interview as she shares openly her own emotional journey in life, in business and in green.

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Me First, Planet Later? with Jacquelyn Ottman – show 16

Consumers buy over $200 billion of natural personal care and cleaning products, organic produce, hybrid cars, fair trade coffee, and the list goes on.

But gone are the days of buying green to save the planet. The green market is maturing and the name of the game is “Me first, planet later.” My guest knows this more than anyone. Jacqueline Ottman is a true pioneer in green marketing and the author of “Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation.” She has helped over 60 Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, 3M, and Nike – as well as the EPA’s Energy Star label find competitive advantage in this growing market.

As a green marketer myself, I have admired her from afar for years, I am thrilled to have her on Women Of Green to talk about where we are in green, and what’s to come.

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Blowing the Whistle: A Conversation with Carole Morison of film, FOOD Inc. – show 15

As I was watching Carole Morison in the Oscar nominated film, Food, INC, she instantly became a personal hero of mine. “This is not farming, this is mass production like an assembly line,” she said in the film. Carole, a Perdue chicken grower, was the only farmer brave enough to allow the film crew into the chicken house for all the world to see what’s really happening — how these animals are really being bred and what we’re really eating when we sit down to our family meal with a plump, juicy, stuffed chicken. If you haven’t seen the film, I promise you, what’s happening and what we’re eating isn’t finger licking good.

As a business woman, what blew my mind is a typical grower with two chickens houses has borrowed over $500,000 and earns about $18,000 a year. Not good. I asked her in our interview, “What DIDN’T you say in the film that you really wanted to?” Carole doesn’t hold back. You’ll want to hear this for yourself!

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How Sustainability is Transforming Business – show 14

When someone asks me what Women Of Green is all about I say to turn up the volume of the feminine of behalf of the planet, its beings and future generations. I know one of the most powerful ways to do that is through business. And with the market for sustainable business products alreadyestimated at over $74 billion – we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg. My guest today, KoAnn Skrzyniarz, has devoted her full attention to this. She believes business is in a unique position to address the global problems that plague us — and in fact, turn them into opportunity for innovation and new business. Her personal mission: To build a bridge to better brands. How does she do this? “It’s all back listening,” she says. So listen up!

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Leading the Greening of Detroit — and what you can do in your own backyard.

I am the President of The Greening of Detroit, a 20-year old organization devoted to greening the City of Detroit through planting projects, environmental and outdoor education, advocacy and by building community capacity. We have our roots in planting things that make our city greener, but we have expanded our programming over the years to include education and job training, advocacy and capacity building for our community partners.

When they meet me, many people ask what motivated me to become a leader in Detroit’s green movement. I have to say that, when I started this career, I wasn’t really thinking about saving the world. In fact, it was a much more basic instinct.

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