Sustainability In Your Ear

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Earth911 Podcast: Christy Briggs Scores a Sustainability Touchdown at Seattle’s Lumen Field Sep 16, 2023

Show notes

Since 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 Arena was the country's first LEED Platinum sports venue and has achieved similar waste diversion rates. Of course, sports thrive on competition, and Lumen Field has introduced innovative approaches to collection, sorting, and putting items into the right reuse stream. For example, after each major event, Lumen Field rolls out a portable materials recovery facility — a sorting system like the ones used at recycling transfer stations that separates packaging, food waste, and other items.
Sports and concerts connect communities, bringing crowds together from around a city, state, or nation, and those fans toss massive volumes of cups, food service items, programs, and memorabilia. A football game or Taylor Swift concert could be among the most waste-creating events in our society. Many stadiums and sports venues are stepping up to the challenge. Lumen Field's sustainability efforts go back to its construction, when 35% of the concrete from the demolished Kingdome, the stadium that stood where it is today, was used in the new building. First & Goal Incorporated, which also manages the Seattle Seahawks, has developed programs to reduce environmental impacts that include recycling sod through donations to local parks, sourcing Green Seal-certified janitorial supplies, recycling thousands of gallons of cooking oil, and during a major renovation of the field the company donated 96.3% of the used furniture, carpet, and other materials collected. You can learn more about Lumen Field and its sustainability efforts at https://www.lumenfield.com/venue-info/sustainability

Earth911 Podcast: Rayven CEO Owen Barrett on Electrifying the Nation’s Apartment Buildings Sep 15, 2023

Show notes

Owen 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 makes energy efficiency improvements and installs solar panels to increase the profitability of the building.
About 40 million Americans lived in apartments as of 2019, and they must rely on their landlord to make investments to electrify the buildings they live in. Rents have been rising precipitously — the cost of a square foot of apartment space was up more than 100% between 2010 and 2020, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, due to a shortage of apartments. If you've considered investing in apartment buildings, Rayven offers the opportunity to lower the nation's greenhouse gas emissions while earning a return on your money. You can learn about Rayven at https://joinrayven.com/

Earth911 Podcast: Supermodel Georgie Badiel Brings Clean Water to Burkina Faso Sep 11, 2023

Show notes

Supermodel 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 water three hours a day, working alongside her grandmother and cousins to transfer water to her village for the family's use — she was the inspiration for the illustrated children's book The Water Princess. Georgie's story shows that positive changes are possible in dire circumstances.
Our frequent guest, Newday Impact Investing CEO Doug Heske, also joins us. Georgie and Doug will host the 2023 Water Gala on Sept 29 at Second, an event venue on 6th Avenue in New York City. Building a new solar-powered well, which provides water, toilets, and community services such as a study center, costs $20,000 while repairing a well runs as little as $1,000. More than 341,000 people in Burkina Faso now have access to water. Just $10 million in funding could transform the country's water supply.
The Georgie Badiel Foundation also offers resources to help schools across the United States do fundraising and provide awareness programs about water scarcity, sustainability, and women's empowerment. You can learn more about Georgie and her foundation at https://www.georgiebadielfoundation.org/
Discover Newday Impact's exchange-traded ocean health fund and its other impact investing programs at https://newdayimpact.com

Earth911 Podcast: Maya van Rossum on Held vs. Montana and Renewable Energy Lobbying Aug 07, 2023

Show notes

The 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 the right to a safe climate is getting a full and fair hearing in the courts with a state Green Amendment as a key foundation."
Maya also recently contributed an article on Earth911, Industry & Big Greens Stomp on Frontline Communities & Environmental Justice... Yet Again. She pointed out a questionable alliance between national environmental groups and renewable energy companies fighting the addition of a Green Amendment to the New Mexico State constitution. In addition to Montana, Pennsylvania and New York have adopted Green Amendments. There is little or no evidence those constitutional changes have slowed the development of green energy services in those states. Despite the apparent agreement that we need a healthy environment, the clean energy industry and several prominent environmental advocacy groups, including Sierra Club Nation and Union of Concerned Scientists, have joined the Interwest Energy Alliance (IEA), a lobbying group opposing the Green Amendment in New Mexico. You can learn more about Maya and the Green Amendments movement at https://forthegenerations.org/

Earth911 Podcast: Ship It Zero Aims for a Decarbonized Shipping Industry by 2030 Aug 04, 2023

Show notes

The 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 coalition of environmental, public health, and shipping experts. The organization reports that the shipping emissions of just 15 retail companies, including Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, Amazon, and Target, are responsible for 12.7 million tons of CO2 and as much particulate pollution as the entire U.S. mining industry.
Eric also digs into recent news that Amazon reversed its Climate Pledge commitment that would have made half of its shipping emissions-free by 2030. As reported by Business Insider, Amazon's reason was, "We realized that it no longer made sense to have a separate and more narrow Shipment Zero goal that applied to only one part of our business, so we've decided to eliminate it." Ship It Zero called on Amazon to reinstate its 50% net-zero shipping goals. Shipping has many routes to lower emissions, including the use of hydrogen- or ammonia-based fuels, augmenting engines with wind power, and the addition of emissions scrubbing technology that captures and sequesters carbon, sulfur oxide, and nitrous oxide emissions instead of letting them escape into the atmosphere. Eric joins us to explore the challenge of lowering retailers' shipping-related emissions and tell us about Ship It Zero's recommendations.
You can learn more at https://shipitzero.org/, which features several helpful ebooks for those who want to read up on shipping emissions and pollution.

Earth911 Podcast: SuperCircle Breaks the Textiles Logjam Jul 31, 2023

Show notes

SuperCircle, 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 for the retail industry. The company recycled more than 700,000 garments last year using new sorting steps and technologies to separate organic and synthetic fabrics and identify items that can be resold. You can learn more about SuperCircle at https://supercircle.world/

Earth911 Podcast: Consumer Reports' New Electric Yard Tool Recommendations Jul 28, 2023

Show notes

Welcome 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, trimmers, and blowers are noisy, and their two-stroke engines pollute 20 to 300 times more than a car per hour of operation. A 2011 Environmental Protection Agency report concluded that gas lawn equipment emits large amounts of three volatile organic compounds that are known carcinogens, Benzene, 1,3 butadiene, and formaldehyde. The environment and our neighborhoods would be better off without gas-powered lawn equipment.
Tobie has covered appliances, generators, lawnmowers, and much more for more than 30 years and is one of the most tuned-in observers of the electrification of consumer products. We'll find out why Consumer Reports concludes that gas yard equipment still has the advantage in some cases and explore the key features and functionality to look for when choosing electric alternatives to polluting gas equipment. Check out the electric yard equipment brands she discusses when shopping, including Ryobi, Kobalt, Stihl, Greenworks, Husquarvana, and eGo.
To find a collection of Consumer Reports reviews of electric lawn tools, visit Gas Vs. Electric Lawn Mower: Which is Better? (membership is required to see product ratings).

Earth911 Podcast: Plaine Products Makes Personal Care Products Circular Jul 24, 2023

Show notes

How 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. When a customer runs low, they order a new bottle that arrives before they run out along with a return mail label; after swapping the pump to the new container, the empty is placed in the shipping box to send the battle back to Plaine Products for cleaning, refilling, and use by another customer.
Imagine the circular economy, a world in which everything we buy and use is collected, recycled, composted, or passed on for continued use to lower our environmental impact. The vision sounds a long way off, and it may be a long time until everything can be recycled or composted economically. Among companies, Walmart, Kroger, and Burger King are pioneering circularity through Loop, a consortium of consumer packaged goods brands spearheaded by specialty recycler Terracycle. Loop has not disclosed how much packaging it has prevented from reaching the landfill. To date, Plaine Products has prevented more than 547,000 plastic bottles from being used once and tossed or escaping into nature as pollution. Lindsey also discusses how more than 270 retail stores now offer Plaine Products refill stations.
Plaine Products has created a special 20% discount for Earth911 readers -- visit the site and enter the discount code "Earth911" when checking out. Learn more about the company at https://www.plaineproducts.com/
This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item through one of these links, we receive a small commission that helps fund our Recycling Directory.

Earth911 Podcast: Brevian Energy's Rod Matthews on the Changing Economics of Microgrids Jul 21, 2023

Show notes

Renewable 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 connected to or operate independently from the regional electric grid. Rod Matthews, cofounder and CEO of Brevian Energy, a renewable energy technology company based in Vista, California, joins the conversation to discuss microgrids for business. While the decision to electrify still makes eminent sense, the incentives for business adoption of solar, wind, and microgrids are changing. California's net metering 3 decision will reduce prices paid to individuals and businesses that sell their excess energy back to the grid.
A microgrid can be as small as a single business or home and offers a different relationship with electricity, freeing the owner from the arbitrary price increases imposed by remote electricity generation providers. As we embed solar generation into our built environment, vehicles, and appliances and gadgets in offices and homes, we may enter a glut condition when moving power where it is needed remains challenging. As the nature and placement of electric generation evolve, understanding microgrids' role in power distribution and economics. Just as the net was initially engineered to survive a nuclear war, we can re-engineer the power grid to provide reliable power in an era when six- and seven-hour blackouts due to a single fuse failing or extreme heat causes a utility to turn off transmission lines have become, if not every day, increasingly familiar inconveniences. You can learn more about Brevian Energy at https://www.brevianenergy.com/

Earth911 Podcast: The Global Water Partnerships' Dimitris Faloutsos Sets the Stage for a Global Plastics Treaty Jul 14, 2023

Show notes

A new global plastics treaty due to take effect in 2025 will reset the world's strategy for reducing and reversing plastic's environmental and health impacts. Get a primer on the politics and issues defining the agreement from Dimitris Faloutsos, Head of Transboundary Waters at the United Nations' Global Water Partnership (GWP). The Global Water Project and London-based policy institute Chatham House recently released a report, "Why lifecycle solutions are needed to tackle marine plastic pollution." He and his coauthors argue that many solutions are available but require increased investment in the collection and processing of plastic with transparency about the performance at every step in the process to create accountability. The report argues that plastic pollution, which costs society more than $100 billion a year due to health and environmental damage now, will continue to grow until emerging strategies pioneered in Europe, Japan, and Chile — along with new ideas and technologies — to prevent plastic from reaching the ocean. In other words, we have many of the ideas and technologies necessary, and it's a matter of putting them to work while continuing to learn and improve the system.
More than two billion people live without access to waste collection services. Plastic pollution is growing with the volume of plastic produced, which has grown by 4.4% annually since the global financial crisis in 2007. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Global Plastics Outlook reports that 22 million tons of plastic pollution entered the environment in 2019. If society continues plastic business as usual, 44MM tons will pollute the world's waters, land, and animal bodies by 2060. You can read the report at https://circulareconomy.earth/publications/why-lifecycle-solutions-are-needed-to-tackle-marine-plastic-pollution

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