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The Greenwash Brigade

Entries tagged with 'sustainability'

Outdated mental models thwart sustainability -- details at 6

A cranky and environmentally aware younger generation may not want to work for you or buy your products... if you fall down on the job.

It's not just salmon: take a fresh look at our fishing & eating habits

We didn't learn enough from the tragedies of the bison and the passenger pigeon. We haven't yet learned enough from the collapse of most of the predatory fish of our wild oceans to set up the policies and consumer habits that foster recovery for those that haven't yet fully collapsed. The question is, are we smart enough as a nation and a global community to finally take this story of West Coast salmon's collapse to heart and lower the quotas for fishing across the board to levels that allow a recovery in populations and a larger yield for the fishermen of tomorrow?

A proliferation of definitions - that's the problem

Heidi reports 8 million web pages featuring sustainable development, and pointed out that there is "no dearth of sustainability criteria, labels and certification systems." Frankly, I think that's precisely the problem. Just reading her post, I felt so overwhelmed my brain tuned out.

Sustainability: a proliferation of definitions

I am thoroughly enjoying Janne's and Jim's sustainability conversation and agree that it's crucial we develop a shared understanding of sustainability, whether sustainable development, community, or product design.

Response - Define "Sustainability." Please.

Two chocolate chip cookies are yummy. Eighteen chocolate chip cookies will make you sick. There's a similar challenge with defining sustainability.

Define "Sustainability." Please.

I heard my voice on Marketplace this morning. Odd. I heard Heidi, too, for the first time ever. Nice to put a voice to a name, a face, and a personality. I also learned that Heidi and I have differing opinions about the desirability of crafting a definition of "sustainability."

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Meet the Greenwash Brigade

Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

NOTE: The opinions expressed by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of American Public Media or its employees. American Public Media is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers.

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