Is it “Tilt: Game Over”? A Sobering Conversation with Hunter Lovins – show 41

By on March 23, 2011   /   Featured Media, Women Of Green Podcasts with Carolyn   /   2 Comments
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Hunter Lovins has been a vocal citizen of the planet for over 40 years – teaching, educating, consulting scores of businesses from start-ups all the way to conglomerates like Wal-Mart on sustainability and the bottom line. Right out of the gate in my interview with her she says, “We are very near a tipping point in which it comes to be recognized that behaving in ways that are responsible to people and to the planet are simply better business.” In her next breath, she qualifies this with a sobering smack, “At the same time, we’re losing every major eco system on the planet.”

Hunter believes that our current economic collapse was caused by the “fundamental unsustainability of the way in which we do business.” I would agree. So is it “Tilt: Game Over?” Or are we as a species going to collectively rise up and meet the enormous challenges in front of us? Listen to this podcast and you decide.

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Erin Brockovich Is Back and She’s Not Going To Take It Anymore!

By on March 11, 2011   /   Innovation, Leadership, Uncategorized   /   2 Comments
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Erin Brockovich has returned to the town that made her famous and is once again rallying residents, sampling the water and at a water board meeting this week is expected to announce that the contamination may be worse than the utility says, reports Huffington Post. The pollution that Pacific Gas & Electric was suppose to clean up is once again seeping into the groundwater of Hinkley, CA. “We didn’t bring a giant to its knees, all we did was wake it up,” says Roberta Walker, a woman who was instrumental in developing the original case in 1993. “This is not happening again – I can’t believe it.” Julia, where are you?

Let’s raise our voices this time with Erin and see what happens and follow the story here.

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Washington DC Says Women are Essential in the Green Economy

By on March 11, 2011   /   Leadership, Uncategorized   /   1 Comment
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Straight out of Washington DC, here are the remarks attributed to Lawrence J. Gumbiner, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

“Women and youth are essential agents of change in society, and we believe they are particularly important in the context of the green economy. There are a number of ways in which educational opportunities, technical training, access to finance, and land and resource rights can enhance women’s roles in a green economy.” Tell us more Mr. Gumbiner. What exactly do you have in mind?

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Are You Strong Enough To Be Vulnerable? with Birute Regine – show 40

By on March 9, 2011   /   Featured Media, Heart, Women Of Green Podcasts with Carolyn   /   Leave a comment
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“The key to personal and social transformation is to see our vulnerabilities in a different light,” says the author of Iron Butterflies, Birute Regine. It takes “profound openness” she says to be strong enough to be vulnerable. Don’t you love that? Strong enough to be vulnerable.

“Soft is the new hard,” Birute playfully puts it. Her mission is to transform the meaning of vulnerability. “Our vulnerabilities will be our spiritual guides. They will show us and lead us to new strengths.” I couldn’t agree with her more.

In my own personal life, it took me years of peeling off the layers of ego to be vulnerable enough to be truly human. Vulnerability has nothing to do with weakness. In fact, it takes a strong, courageous woman to let her hair down, and her defenses, and be open to what’s present in any given moment. That is a leadership quality I want to practice more, to master. I believe this very quality is key to a peaceful and prosperous world. What other “soft” qualities do you think are needed?

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Cast Your Vote Here For the She-ro of the Year!

By on March 8, 2011   /   Leadership, Uncategorized   /   Leave a comment
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This year is the 100-year anniversary of International Women’s Day. It’s a time to celebrate women and how far we’ve come, baby. From female presidents to humanitarians to Nobel Prize laureates, the world is full of women that have soared and roared and paved the way for every one of us, every day.

The Huffington Post World team has put together an enlightening slide show of some the she-roes of our time. I was personally moved by these women who move the world. Cast your vote for the most inspiring woman for you here.

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Businesswomen Pushing the Green Agenda in China

By on March 4, 2011   /   Leadership, Uncategorized   /   2 Comments
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China and the US are not only the largest economies in the world (US is #1, China #2), but they also consume vast amounts of energy. The good news is that women-owned businesses are the fastest growing segments in both economies! So it’s no surprise that women are taking a leadership role in promoting sustainability. In this GreenBiz.com post, “How Businesswomen are Helping China Push Its Green Agenda”, Ann Goodman, executive director of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future tells how women’s ambitions for a global green economy were on view at the annual conference of the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs and what they are doing about it.

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Meet the Queen of Clean Tech, Rhonda Dibachi – show 36

By on January 6, 2011   /   Featured Media, Women Of Green Podcasts with Carolyn   /   Leave a comment
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Rhonda Dibachi is a women to watch. Her company, The Noribachi Group, has funded and is building several Clean Tech businesses from LED/solar lighting to custom solar material manufacturing to light-powered consumer electronics to home energy storage systems. She believes that clean tech offers the same promise of transformation to the masses as the internet did in the ’90’s. Instead of info, it’s energy. Why? According to Rhonda, “Everyone has more power, more control over their power destiny.” And that is going to change the energy game very soon. “The way we live is going to be very, very different in the next 5, 10, 15 years,” she pronounced. She’s right. After listening to Rhonda, I am doubly excited about it all.

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Creating a Sisterhood of Change Makers – Show 35

By on December 28, 2010   /   Featured Media, Women Of Green Podcasts with Carolyn   /   Leave a comment
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She’s an avid social entrepreneur. She has helped train and mentor thousands of girls worldwide. She has started an organization that is the only global organization that is run by girls, for girls. She has advised political leaders and corporate executives, co-authored a book and has been featured in many more. She has received national awards for her achievements from the Coca-Cola Company, Nestles Corporation, Taco Bell Foundation, Glamour Magazine, the U.S. Secretary of Education, and the President of United States.

And she’s only 19 years old.

Sejal Hathi is a change maker, and she believes that “as girls work together, they can solve some of the world’s intractable problems”. She calls it “the potential of the sisterhood of change makers”. Need some juice to get your social venture off the ground? Listen to this podcast and hear how Sejal, and her two friends at the ages of 15-16 years old, started an organization with no special resources, connections or capital and turned it into the only global organization that is run by girls, for girls. May 2011 be the year for you to make the impact you were born to make.

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Putting Solar’s Pedal to the Metal – show 34

By on December 23, 2010   /   Featured Media, Women Of Green Podcasts with Carolyn   /   3 Comments
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First, she found a 1950’s vintage gas pump and installed batteries, inverters and charge controllers inside it. Then she connected it to mini solar panels and voila! A fully functional solar pump that will charge your cell phone, laptop or the cool electric bike I got to whiz around in at the Bioneers conference. It doesn’t get more fun than that.

Beth Ferguson is an environmental designer and her company, Sol Design Lab, wants to make solar super accessible to the public. If she had it her way, this bright yellow outdoor charging station would be on college campuses nationwide.

Want to see how it works? Watch this.

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Women in Sustainable Design with Kira Gould – show 31

By on November 28, 2010   /   Featured Media, Women Of Green Podcasts with Carolyn   /   Leave a comment
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Studies show that women are more likely then men to support environmental causes through voting, activism and consumer choices. I am going to sound like a broken record here but we buy 85% of the consumer products on the planet. We hold in our hands the economic power to change the world. My guest, Kira Gould, is doing just that. She is the co-author of “Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design” and her book is a poignant collection of stories and voices of women creating system-wide change in this movement.

In this show, we talk about the special qualities women have that make us prime candidates for carrying out what is needed on the planet today. Qualities such as consensus building and inclusiveness. Kira’s clear voice and grounded manner give me hope that what is needed now will be accomplished if we rally the forces of both women and men. How do we do that? According to Kira, “Keep communicating as frequent and effectively as possible about all the opportunities for ways to make change.”

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