Michael Kroon: Citizen Reporter

NRDC superstar Courtney Hamilton has treated us these past few months to a series of pieces on her experiences in "Volunteer Tourism" - namely, using her vacation time and money to take care of elephants in Thailand. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting a man with a similar plan, though he calls it "Adventure Voluntourism," and as far as I can tell, no elephants are involved - but the idea of recreational altruism remains the same. 

While enlisted in the Peace Corps in Peru, David Aabo watched traveling surfers pass through town without meaningfully contributing to the local community, so he devised a method to "help communities connect surfing and ...read full post

A little before Election Day, I heard Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D., of the eco-design non-profit Terreform, speak to a gathering of green leaders at Tree in the East Village, NYC (the event was sponsored by GreenSpaces).

Named one of Wired Magazine's 15 People the Next President Should Listen To, Joachim doesn't really look the part . You don't see many flag-backed dreadlocks lining up at Obama's press conferences these days. Of course, he gets away with it by being ridiculously intelligent.

The following excerpt, in addition to being a nice time-capsule from the election, presents some of Joachim's innovative solutions for a post-carbon presidency, from the American military to domestic transportation (and thus the flailing automotive industry).

Mitchell Joachim: I'm not really a Republican or a Democrat. I don't care so much for either ...read full post

Nicholas Eisenberger serves as Managing Principal at GreenOrder, an environmental consulting firm based in New York and known to some as the McKinsey of green business. He spoke with me recently about the need to redirect, redefine, and regulate Wall Street's riches, as well as the connection between education and a sustainable New York City.

Michael Kroon: Can corporate sustainability help Wall Street recover from the current financial crisis?

Nicholas Eisenberger: I think there are two ways to react to this crisis. One is to go into raw survival mode and really scratch and scrabble for savings and dollars and ways to pay the bills using the conventional thinking that we've been using but in many ways has gotten us into this crisis. Or we can think more deeply about what has gotten ...read full post

Wearable Collections organizes clothing recycling collection in buildings around the city, helping style-sensitive New Yorkers free up space in their tiny closets while easing the waste stream and supporting multiple charities in the process. I met the founders in Brooklyn last week to talk about their organization and the meaning of New York fashion in a floundering environment.

 

Michael Kroon: Please explain the personal inspiration ...read full post

 

[Van Jones talks at Newark's Green Future Summit]

In his new book The Bridge at the Edge of the World, NRDC co-founder Gus Speth advocates environmentalists' embrace of human rights, social justice, and other progressive ideals under one banner. At Newark's Green Future Summit last week, I found evidence that Americans have preemptively enacted Speth's request and instigated a shift towards inclusive coalition.

According to event organizer Apollo Alliance, Newark represents "the first time a predominately African-American city has pursued a new economic strategy based on clean energy development and creating green-collar jobs." In pursuit of this mission, the two-day summit brought together a smorgasbord of ...read full post

I recently discussed renewable energy with a New Yorker working in project finance. For keeping-her-job purposes, let's call her Jane Dough. She sheds light on the pessimism of financial institutions that can't seem to stay afloat -- let alone afford idealism. While she envisions energy crises facing this nation's future, she offers two solutions: technological innovation and energy efficiency education.

Michael Kroon: How does the New York finance community see renewable energy?

Jane Dough: I won't speak for the entire city. But I work for one of the premier project finance banks in the world, and our experts tell me all the time that renewable energy will never cover base-load electricity demand in this country.

MK: Why not?

JD: I lay out the details of comparable transactions in the energy space. Coal is overwhelming. Natural gas is overwhelming. Wind is trendy. Solar is ...read full post

Michelle Madden has climbed Mt. McKinley. As CEO of GreenYour.com, she looks to create a new slippery slope: everyday environmental choices tumbling together towards sustainability. She met me in New York this week to talk about her site, her city, and that ever-eponymous color: green.

Michael Kroon: You label the site "Your guide to green anything," and it really seems everything we do could be a moment of potential impact. For instance, I saw three subject areas: dating, wine, and lingerie. And I said, "I know those are related to each other but I never thought of them in relation to the environment."

Michelle Madden: [Laughs] Yes. We let people know there are a lot of choices. It's unlikely they'll follow everything we suggest. But it helps people be aware of what's available

MK: Were there any ah-ha moments during the research ...read full post

Janna Olson works as a Sustainability Marketing Consultant in New York City, currently serving as the NYC Market Manager for Greenopia's local guides to green living. I spoke with her last week to talk about the power of the individual and other forces shifting our culture towards a sustainable future.

Michael Kroon: How do you see the future of a green economy?

Janna Olson: I see things we've been calling "green" inside the worlds of sustainability and environmentalism being taken main-stream so that a green economy looks increasingly like the human species coming home to a society that stops drawing really arbitrary lines of distinction between what's healthy for the planet and what's healthy for us.

Looking at the shifts it's increasingly apparent we must make - engaging solar and other alternative energy solutions as we end fossil fuel use in transportation and manufacturing, concentrating the growing populations ...read full post

Margo Pellegrino is a 41-year-old mother of two from Medford Lakes, New Jersey who cares about the health of the world's oceans-a lot. Last year she paddled her canoe from Miami to Maine in an attempt to get a little attention for her cause. It worked, so she's done it again, this time with a more specific purpose in mind. In July, she teamed up with NRDC, the Surfrider Foundation, and other advocacy groups to paddle from New Jersey to Washington, D.C., in support of OCEANS-21, a bill sponsored by Representative Sam Farr (D-CA) that would unify national oceans policy under a single regulatory framework. I decided to catch up with her on day two at her press conference Atlantic Highlands with Benson, my four-year-old nephew, in tow. While Benson gave her oar a close inspection, I asked her a few questions (that's me on the right, asking Margo questions).

MK: So last time you paddled ...read full post