You probably know the saying by now: anything a man can do a woman can do better. And usually she does it with less complaining, more style, and let’s be totally honest, a whole lot more grace. Even farming. Yep, the new face of farmers in the U.S. might just pleasantly surprise you.
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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.
Continue reading... →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.
Continue reading... →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.
Continue reading... →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.
Continue reading... →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.
Continue reading... →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.
Continue reading... →On August 27, 2008, tropical storm Fay crisscrosses the state of Florida four times. It hits Jacksonville hard. The violent winds tore down trees and the rivers rose. It was a presidentially declared disaster. When the storm passes, MiKaela and Steve’s beautiful home was left in ruins. However, Mother Nature also left new opportunity. And it was green. This is a how the film “Built Totally Green” begins.
My guest today, Mikaela Miller and her husband, Steve Sadler, became leaders in the Green Building movement after losing their river front home during Tropical Storm Fay by fully deconstructed their old house and rebuilding it to become the 1st Platinum LEED certified home in NE Florida. Their film is a step-by-step account of their entire green building process and their very unique personal journey.
Continue reading... →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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