In last week's episode #7, I interviewed Tom Twist of The Chewonki Foundation about getting sustainability into the classroom (or ironically, out of it!).

I mentioned that Tom & Chewonki have a short podcast series they developed to highlight some interesting work they've done on campus around sustainability & energy in particular. So I talked with Tom this week, and Chewonki have been nice enough to let me share one of these episodes with you. It's an interesting episode that recounts the experiences of eight girls who were semester students at Chewonki as they pursue a goal to live for one semester "off the grid".

It's an honest account of the struggles of generating our own energy, especially when you have to "physically" generate it.

To begin, the girls had a bike named "Hubert" that they had to cycle on regularly in order to recharge a battery for their dorm. If they wanted to read at night, they had to do the hard work to make it happen. This direct physical relationship was what I found interesting about this podcast, and the interesting outcomes it had.

I hope you enjoy it, and thanks again to the Chewonki Foundation for letting me broadcast this episode. You can check them out at www.chewonki.org

Cheers,

Mick

In an effort to explore more about education & sustainability, I talked with Tom Twist, Sustainability Officer for The Chewonki Foundation in Maine. Tom shares his ideas and experiences with taking sustainability into the classroom... or better yet - Taking students out of the classroom to "experience" sustainability and it's challenges.

If you get a chance, check out Chewonki's website where you can listen to some podcast episodes that Tom developed with some students. They are amazing

www.chewonki.org

During the end of the discussion, we touched on energy storage and the existing flow/consumption of energy in the USA. Here's the image I was referring to. It's rather astounding to study this.

In October 2007, Auden Schendler (@Audenschendler) of Aspen Skiing Company ignited a conversation about corporate sustainability when he appeared in a cover story article of Business Week magazine titled "Little Green Lies". The honest account of the real progress & struggles on sustainability within organizations inspired him to write a book about the subject. He then went on to release "Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the front lines of the sustainability revolution".

I think it's fair to say that Auden walks and talks the reality of sustainability. He seems to understand that while lighting retrofits, insulation, recycling, locally sourced suppliers and green buildings are important for the environment, but they are now considered "obvious" and somewhat baseline practices.

Auden calls for companies and citizens alike, to take a stand and make loud and public steps toward climate change and environmental protection.

If you operate within an organization, school or community that is still stuck taking small steps, then I encourage you to share this with your colleagues, board, committee members and even your customers. If you share this conversation, and simply meet to discuss it's content... something great might happen. At the very least, you'd be talking about the "real" issue.

After talking with Auden, I learned that he was a graduate of Bowdoin College right here in Maine! If you'd like to learn more about Auden, you can follow him on twitter @audenschendler, or BUY his book Getting Green Done. You can also learn more about his work at Aspen Skiing Company

PHOTO CREDITS:

Episode Cover Feature Image - Aspen Snowmass

"Getting Green Done" Book Cover - Published by: PublicAffairs; 1st edition (February 23, 2009)

In 2012, The Hotchkiss School had to completely replace and upgrade their central heating plant. This presented a unique opportunity to take a major step toward achieving climate commitment goals, while providing a stronger integration between the mission of the community and ongoing education opportunities in sustainability and environment.

Josh talked with me about more than just Biomass however. We discuss:

* The role of a sustainability department or director

* How & Why this project could just as easily have been "business as usual"

* The importance of being honest with community & clients about this topic

* How this project and other projects have been connected to the classroom/curriculum

* What has changed as the school and the community have become more sophisticated about sustainability

* The challenge of following up from a BIG project or BIG win.

I hope you enjoy our discussion.

For more information on this topic, go to

The Hotchkiss School - Sustainability Initiatives

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT!

In this episode, I talked with Tyler Kidder - from the Office of Sustainability at University of Southern Maine (USM). If you think this is just a discussion on recycling, then think again. This is an example of how to implement change within an organization that requires many different people changing one small behavior.

It's jam packed with the transparency of reality, community resistance, success and learnings, and accompanied by some inspiring words on sustainability!

Tyler & colleague Steve Sweeney embarked on an ambitious waste reduction effort at USM, by introducing an initiative to reduce every staff member's trash can/bucket to only a quart size container. The initiative was appropriately titled "My Tiny Trash", and was awarded the 2013 Grand Eco-Excellence award from ecoMaine.

As part of the program, Staff received their tiny trash cans to reduce the volume of recycling getting caught up in regular trash, while still providing unlimited access to recycling.

So what happens when you make it hard to throw something out, and easy to recycle? Tyler gives a deep dive analysis of how the program rolled out, what went well, what went wrong, how they handled criticism, how USM benefited and most importantly how their sustainability efforts were impacted.

You can learn more about the program at:

DOWNLOAD Tyler & Steve's Free TINY TRASH E-BOOKLET Here

The Tiny Trash Web Page

University of Southern Maine Sustainability Program

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Amy Seif Hattan of Thornton Tomasetti. Amy is the Corporate Sustainability Officer for the global consulting firm with over 800 employee's. They do engineering, design, investigation & consulting on projects with a focus on the full life cycle of a building.

Originally I thought this episode was going to be about “Carbon Footprinting”, until Amy helped guide the conversation toward the fact that this isn't necessarily a great place to start a sustainability program or effort... So listen in for everything from “getting started tips” to “how to” strategies for carbon footprinting and reporting for your organization.

This week, I dish out a little challenge for you, the listener – If you take the time to do this, I'm certain you will pay for the time it takes to do it by a factor of over 1,000...

I hope you decide to take action from this episode, and if you do – below the "play by play" show notes are a few resources to help you out - Thanks to Amy for these links :)

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THORNTON TOMASETTI - VISIT - www.thorntontomasetti.com

Show Notes/Time Stamps

0.00 - 07.00 - Intro & this week's challenge!

07:00 Amy's backgound in corporate sustainability

09:30 How have you noticed interest in climate change and sustainability develop over time?

13:00 How the corporate sustainability program began at Thornton Tomasetti.

17:00 LEED Certification as a strategy for engagement - hard or easy?

18:30 The benefits of being a company that provides LEED certification.

20:40 Amy's work before the transition to Thornton Tomasetti.

22:00 How everyone at Thornton Tomasetti got involved in the sustainability programs.

27:00 Integration of sustainability programs into a company.

29:30 How Thornton Tomasetti maps their carbon foot print.

32:30 What type of carbon foot printing they are doing - ie. fuel, transportation, buildings etc.

36:45 Balancing all the sustainability work at Thornton Tomasetti.

EPA Emissions Factors

Campus Carbon Calculator

The Green Office Calculator

Terrapass.com - Business Carbon Footprint Calculator

Carbon Footprint 360 Calculator

PHOTO/IMAGE CREDITS

Sykyline & Function Image Courtesy - ThorntonTomasetti.com

Building (Bigelow Labs, ME) Courtesy - ©CHRISTOPHERBARNES.COM

In episode 2 of Sustainacast, I sat down with Marty Grohman of GAF - America's largest roofing manufacturer. In this discussion, we talked about where sustainability at GAF has developed from and where it's headed.

We discussed the market reach and impact of GAF's "Certified Green Roofer" program, and talked about various considerations in the world of roofing including recycling, insulation, vegetated roofing, rainwater harvesting and touched on some embodied energy conversations regarding different roof choices.

Here's the show notes with time-markers of what we covered;

05:00 Introducing today's guest: Marty Grohman

06:00 Where did sustainability at GAF develop from? and where has it evolved the last few years?

09:30 The responsibilty of a sustainability director

11:30 The influence of roofing in the building design & operation

13:00 What are the type of roofs does GAF manufacture?

14:30 Shingle recycling

16:40 Are manufacturers directly involved in recycling shingles and other roofing?

21:00 What are the types of insulation being manufactured & used by GAF?

24:10 Reflective vs non reflective roof coatings

29:00 Sustainability choices when manufacturing & selecting roofs

31:00 What makes a roof "solar ready"?

32:30 Plans/direction at GAF in the next 5 years

36:00 How to contact Martin Grohman

VIDEO - Marty Grohman @ GreenBuild 2013

Check out:

www.GAF.com

GREEN ROOF CENTRAL

COOL ROOF CALCULATOR

In this first ever episode of Sustainacast, I sat down with Matt Haas of IDEXX, a Maine based biotech company specializing in animal health & water diagnostics.

IDEXX is a global company with over 5,500 employee's in 180 different countries, and I was both fascinated and encouraged to hear of the quite practical yet effective ways that IDEXX have implemented sustainability into their culture, their company and their community.

Matt shared some fabulous stories and outcomes on how they accidentally found sustainability efforts within the organization, and how they intentionally grew some innovative strategies such as their "adopt a raised bed" program, and their CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) joint program to connect employee's directly with local farms.

Enjoy!