Podcasts

Our main topic for today was Sustainable Fashion. Our guests presented the creative way they are re-using and re-purposing materials to make intriguing and fashionable clothing. We also had a guest give us an update on an initiative to remove styrofoam from Texas.

Guests were:

Luke Metzger. Executive Director of Environment Texas. He discussed a new initiative they are kicking off to encourage the state legislature of Texas to ban Styrofoam.

Shaun Auckland - Conservation Coordinator with Travis County - Shaun will be talking about the county's T-Shirts For Hunger program, which teaches women in the Travis County jail how to turn old t-shirts into reusable shopping bags, which are then donated to local food pantries.

Pamela Torres - founder and designer at Classic Childhood, a children's clothing company that turns old men’s shirts into children's clothing.

Najai Mckenzie-Robinson - local 16-year-old that turns old Levi's into 80s and 90s style jean jackets. CEO and Co-founder of KenzerQuest.

CodeNEXT is the City of Austin initiative to rewrite its complex and outdated land development code. The project is a component of the City Council adopted comprehensive plan, Imagine Austin, which aims to promote growth in more connected, sustainable, and affordable ways, embodying the values and character of the Austin community.

It is a complicated and controversial topic with supporters and critics. We had guests with varying views of CodeNEXT on Shades of Green to get us updated on the issues. Our guests were:

Jim Duncan - member of the city's Zoning and Platting Commission.

Conor Kenny - member of the city's Planning Commission

Susana Almanza - Executive Director of PODER (People Organized In Defense of Earth and Her Resources)

As land use commissioners, Jim and Conor shared information about each of their commission's specific recommendations to City Council around CodeNEXT.

Susana has been involved in several efforts organizing against CodeNEXT, and was one of the co-authors of the People's Plan (an alternative to CodeNEXT focused around curbing displacement and gentrification)

Susana also shared with us an environmental success!!! She gave us an update around her work in getting the Pure Castings Industrial Metal Foundry to relocate away from Zavala Elementary School in East Austin.

We discussed the really cool annual Coal House Tour of 2018 in Austin, Texas on June 10. We had the director and organizer of the tours, a representative from Austin Energy, the main sponsor, and a guest from Whisper Valley one of the stops on the tour in the KOOP studio with us.

Our guests were:

Lucy Stolzenburg, Executive Director of the Texas Solar Energy Society, a non-profit with the goal of promoting the use of solar energy in Texas.

Kurt Stogdill, Director of Green Building and Emerging Technologies at Austin Energy.

David Currie, Whisper Valley Concierge, in Manor, Texas. The Whisper Valley development is one of the sites on the self-guided Cool House tour. It features homes with solar electric systems, smart home technologies, energy efficient appliances and a community-wide geothermal system bringing the homes to virtual net-zero energy usage.

Bats and bees are a critical part of Austin’s environment. We discuss the history of the bat community in Austin, how the Austin Bat Refuge is protecting them, and how to view the bats. And, we learned how bees are a critical part of our environment and economy.

Our guest on bats were:

Dianne Odegard

After 12-1/2 years as Education and Public Outreach Manager at Bat Conservation International by day, and bat rehabilitator by night, Dianne has now gone full-time with her true passion, as co-founder of Austin Bat Refuge. Dianne has been a wildlife rehabilitator since 1990, always working with animals that live in close proximity to urban areas and human structures, with the hope of educating people about ways to live harmoniously with wildlife.

Lee Mackenzie

As a carpenter, then a nationally acclaimed design build remodeler, he has been humanely dealing with a variety of small mammals in structures his whole career. A wildlife worker for over 20 years, and now co-founder of Austin Bat Refuge, he creatively combines rehabilitation and permaculture, providing the highest possible quality of life in our “bat gardens”, an Austin Bat Refuge original concept and the first of its kind.

Bruce Sims is a Captain at Capital Cruises who has been leading bat watching excursions for seven seasons. He first saw the bats at age six with his kindergarten class.

Georgia Swan is a Captain at Capital Cruises and has been leading bat watching excursions for four years. She is a member of Bat Conservation International and has an ever growing collection of bat memorabilia including a tattoo of the Congress Ave Bats taking flight.

And, on Bees we had:

Brandon Fehrenkamp , the owner and proprietor of Austin Bees. He has been keeping bees for around 14 years or so and he has been doing removals for at least 12 years. He builds beekeeping equipment, and sometimes give classes and lectures for both kids and adults. He is a member of the Texas Master Beekeeper program.

To be a successful society we need to ensure that low and middle income people have access to solar power and can use energy efficiently. Several organizations in Austin are working toward that goal. Our guests on Shades of Green discussed their goals and policy suggestions for reducing energy poverty and how our listeners can get involved.

We first had film producer, Shalini Kantayya on the phone to highlight her recent documentary “Catching the Sun: The Clean Energy Future”.

Our local Austin solar guests were:

Dana Harmon, the Executive Director for the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute (TEPRI) discussed their initiatives and research in Austin.

Danielle Murray, Manager of Solar Energy Services at Austin Energy is implementing two programs in Austin to help give low income customers access to affordable solar energy. One is a set-aside for low-income customers for purchasing a part of the new community solar project in East Austin, and a new shared solar program for renters.

Scott Nguyen, Executive Director for 1PlanetSol a new organization with community-wide approach to help give low income families access to solar energy.

Emmett Miranker, representing Everybody Solar, a non-profit working toward providing solar power to local charities to their reduce electricity costs and direct their limited resources to the communities they serve.

A new non-profit called the Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance (TxEtra) has been formed to promote all forms of electric transportation. Our guests were Michael Osborne, Chair of the Board, and Janis Bookout a founding member of the Board of Directors.

We also focused on bicycles. We had Katie Smith Deolloz , The Executive Director for Bike Austin, a non profit with the mission to improve quality of life for all of Austin and Central Texas by growing bicycling as a form of transportation, exercise, and recreation. Deolloz is well known in Austin as an advocate of biking and walking. She is a member of the City of Austin’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Councils, a board of member of the nonprofit Walk Austin, and the founder of ATX Walks, a local business that designs customized walks and personalized coaching services.

Electric assisted bikes may get more people on the road to work. We had Michael Bruner, the COO and Co-Founder of Z-Bikez on to talk about all their electric options including electric bikes, mopeds, and motorcycles available to the Austin Community.

TreeFolks of Austin launched two new exciting programs, and our guests discussed each of them. The first is called ‘Austin Environmental Heroes’ where the hire high school students to water our city's trees during the summer. And the other is called ‘Remove And Replace’ , a pilot program to provide low-income Austin residents with expert assessment, removal, and replacement of hazardous trees at no charge.

Our guests were:

Thais Perkins - Executive Director of TreeFolks

Erin Gurak - Development Director, TreeFolks

We also heard about a new book by author Juli Berwald called “Spinless: The Science Of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing A Backbone.”

More than a decade ago, Juli Berwald left a career in ocean science to raise a family in landlocked Austin, Texas, but jellyfish drew her back to the sea. Recent, massive blooms of billions of jellyfish have clogged power plants, decimated fisheries, and caused millions of dollars of damage. Driven by questions about how overfishing, coastal development, and climate change were contributing to a jellyfish population explosion, Juli embarked on a scientific odyssey. She traveled the globe to meet the biologists who devote their careers to jellies, hitched rides on Japanese fishing boats to see giant jellyfish in the wild, raised jellyfish in her dining room, and throughout it all marveled at the complexity of these alluring and ominous biological wonders.

Green Corn Project

David Huebel, Program Coordinator

The mission of the Green Corn Project is o educate and assist Central Texans in growing organic food gardens. To help Central Texans have access to nutritious, affordable food grown in ways that conserve natural resources, promote self-reliance, and strengthen communities.

The Green Corn Project (GCP) is a grassroots, volunteer-run organization dedicated to helping Central Texans in need grow their own organic vegetables. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, GCP installs organic food gardens for elderly, low-income, and disabled community members as well as for elementary schools, community centers, and shelters in underserved areas of Austin.

Food For Thought ATX

We also discussed the Food For Thought ATX, a week of volunteer opportunities, educational events, and panel discussion around Austin's Food EcoSystem.

Food For Thought ATX is being organized by the Entrepreneur's Foundation, which was founded in 1999 by entrepreneurs, venture capitalists & friends to promote philanthropy & impactful community engagement among Austin’s startup community.

Our guest was Caitlyn Conner, the Start-up Champion at the Entrepreneurs Foundation.

We talked about the City of Austin’s parks, the City’s park budget and the upcoming bond elections. Our guest was John Rooney, Program Coordinator with the Austin Parks Foundation, a non-profit that partners with the community to enhance people’s lives by making public parks, trails and green spaces better through volunteerism, innovative programming, advocacy and financial support.

Our second guest was Roman Gonzalez founder of Gardenio, a new local company that sells urban gardening starter boxes so that you can grow your own food in your own backyard.

The Organic Recycling Ordinance (ORO) will go live on October 1, 2018 in Austin, Texas 3-22-2018

As part of its goal to reach 100 % Zero Waste by 2040, the City of Austin will be implementing the Organic Recycling Ordinance (ORO), which goes into effect on October 1, 2018. All businesses with a food service permit will be required to ensure they have a plan in place, and their employees have convenient access to organics diversion services. In order to help meet the City’s goals, food service businesses will need to learn about the program and how they will need to comply. Our guests helped unravel the details of the ORO program.

Our guests for March 22nd on Shades on Green were:

• Teresa Chapman, Senior Planner for Austin Resource Recovery’s Business Outreach Team

• Stacy Savage of Zero Waste Strategies. Stacy is a communications contractor for ARR’s Business Outreach Team

• Tyler Markham from Central Texas Food Bank