Earth911 talks with oil industry veteran and critic Jack Kerfoot, the author of Fueling America: An Insider’s Journey. He spent decades in the oil industry and argues that it is responsible for pollution and geopolitical issues that plague our planet and people. Approximately 3.7 million people die from chronic or acute pollution-related illness per year due. Kerfoot argues that the U.S. and countries around the world can make a fast pivot to renewable energy while eliminating sources of conflic...
Nov 27, 2020•33 min
Earth911 talks with Roger Duncan and Dr. Michael E. Webber of the University of Texas at Austin. They are the authors of The Future of Buildings, Transportation, and Power. We discuss the profound changes in the ways we travel and the places we work or live that will occur as we build a sustainable economy. Listen in to hear the political, social, and economic opportunities and challenges that will emerge as electricity displaces internal-combustion engines and fossil fuel power generation. Dunc...
Nov 23, 2020•33 min
Earth911 talks with Space, keyboardist and guitarist of Never Not Nothing, (“NNN”) a rising British duo that takes sustainability seriously. Space discusses the band’s philosophy of positive nihilism and how they contribute to sustainable culture through direct donations and support for green music festivals. The band, originally named Black Futures, recently changed its name in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Space and his bandmate, Vibes (percussion, which is an understatement...
Nov 20, 2020•18 min
Carbon emissions are piling up every day, affecting the world’s weather patterns, and accelerating climate change. Earth 911 talks with Cool Effect’s Blake Lawrence about how you can offset your carbon emissions inexpensively and with confidence it will remain sequestered. Cool Effect is a non-profit organization that seeks out the highest quality carbon reduction projects globally and assists them in selling their carbon credits to individuals, organizations, non-profits, and anyone who wants t...
Nov 18, 2020•30 min
Earth 911 talks with Sandra Ann Harris, the founder and president of Ecolunchboxes.com and the author of Say Goodbye to Plastic: A Survival Guide To Plastic-Free Living. She’s been living an increasingly plastic-free lifestyle for several years and shares here experience and what she’s learned along the way. There are many small ways to help with preventing pollution that you can do daily. Take your lunch as an example, using reusable bags, utensils, and containers can be helpful but are they ma...
Nov 16, 2020•21 min
Extreme weather damage grows more expensive every decade. Storms, floods, droughts, and wildfire have cost the world more than $2.97 trillion dollars since 2000, according to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Earth911 talks with Professor Ilan Noy, Chair in the Economics of Disasters Climate Change at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand about the economics of disaster and how society can make reasoned decisions when spending money to avert climate change. His re...
Nov 13, 2020•30 min
Author and entrepreneur Steve Melink joins Earth911 to talk about making the conservative case for clean energy. His new book, Fusion Capitalism, is a call for conservatives to recognize the dangerous reality of climate change and invest in a rapid transition to renewable energy. His company, Melink Corp. pioneered energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions for commercial buildings in Ohio -- it also build the first LEED Gold-certified building in the state. "Shame on us" for denying as a ...
Nov 11, 2020•30 min
Earth911 talks with Eden Green CEO Eddy Badrina about the company’s vertical greenhouses that will help the world grow locally and end food insecurity. While Americans expect to buy fresh product year-round, flying foods from Central America and Southern Hemisphere carries a heavy environmental cost. Urban farming can fill in critical gaps in local food supplies, providing year-round, locally grown fresh produce. Eden Green licenses the growing system to urban farmers who can set up in old build...
Nov 09, 2020•37 min
Pharmaceuticals represent a growing source of pollution that impacts the water in streams, and can eventually make its way into the bodies of animals, fish, and humans. Earth911 talks with Nancy Devine, chief operating officer of Deterra, a Verde Environmental Technologies business, about safe drug disposal. The company makes the Deterra Drug Deactivation System, a recycled- and bioplastic-plastic pouch that contains an activated carbon material which binds to the pharmaceutical molecules to mak...
Nov 06, 2020•20 min
Suntory, the Japanese beverage and distillery company famous for its whiskey, American bourbons including Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, as well as Laphroaig scotch and many non-alcoholic drinks including Orangina, Boss canned coffee, and many bottled teas, is a sustainability leader. It has consistently ranked above average in the industry for environmental, social, and governance practices. Earth911 talks with Clarkson Hine, a senior executive with Beam Suntory and sustainability advisor to the Su...
Nov 04, 2020•21 min
Arguments against embracing sustainable choices often suggest life will be less prosperous. Philosopher Kate Soper argues that the first step toward a sustainable lifestyle is changing the things we appreciate. Modern life has made us frantic and despite technical advances, people work more than ever, particularly in the United States. Soper's new book, Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism, suggest that consumerism has many downsides that, if recognized, will allow people to rethink h...
Nov 01, 2020•36 min
More algae blooms and red tides are affecting the grassy coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. David Wolff, founder of OceanHabitats Inc., recognized the need for natural solutions in the 1990s, when he built the first Mini Reef, a structure that can be placed under docks in coastal waterways and canals that supports plant and ocean life. But the world wasn't ready for the idea and money ran out by 1998. Wolff pursued other businesses, which he recently sold before returning to his Mini Reef project ...
Oct 28, 2020•15 min
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft National Recycling Policy in October. Earth911 speaks with Adina Renee Adler, vice president of advocacy at the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) about the plan's strengths and areas for improvement. ISRI offered comments about the EPA's focus on job creation as a primary goal and basis for measuring the new regulations' success. Instead, increased collection of valuable materials combined with lower contamination rates shou...
Oct 26, 2020•30 min
EarthFund Global's ambitious plan to finance and accelerate national transitions to renewable energy is starting in Greece, where we spoke with founder Alysia Helming. A veteran of the U.S. renewable energy industry, she founded Santa Monica, Calif.-based EarthFund Global in collaboration with Green Cross International as a non-profit in March 2020 to attempt to meet the challenge of making renewable energy widely available by 2030. In September, Helming's team announced its Greek project, where...
Oct 21, 2020•22 min
The fashion industry is a profligate source of pollution, even when making baby clothing. Lauren Gregor founded Rent-a-Room to help parents find and reuse baby clothing. During the first years of a baby’s life, they change sizes and styles faster than a teenage fashion plate. Gregor, a new mom, decided to follow the fashion rental examples of Rent-the-Runway and StitchFix, introducing a subscription service the provides curated “capsules” of baby and toddler clothes. Available in a 7-item Just t...
Oct 19, 2020•18 min
Enspire leather is a novel take on recycling one of humanity's oldest industrial materials. Earth911 talks with Frank Fox, cofounder of Sustainable Composites, a Lancaster, Pa.-based company that recycles leather fibers to create new leather that looks, feels, and performs like the real thing. By breaking leather down to individual fibers, the grain of which you can see if you turn over a swatch of leather, Sustainable Composites produces more usable material than traditional leather recovery. T...
Oct 12, 2020•16 min
Earth911 talks with Jeremy Schewe, a wetlands scientist who is chief science officer and cofounder of Ecobot, an app company that helps to accurately inventory wetlands. Schewe shares the state of more than 110 million acres of wetlands in the U.S. and progress in understanding the role wetlands play in the carbon cycle, their influences on local weather and environmental diversity, and policymaking to protect these valuable natural resources. Wetlands are estimated to provide up to $14 trillion...
Oct 05, 2020•24 min
Earth911 talks with Adam Met, bassist of the multi-platinum indie pop group AJR and advocate for the United Nations Sustainable Development Program, about his new podcast, Planet Reimagined and how to start a lasting sustainability transition. Adam and his brothers Jack and Ryan launched AJR as teens. They've produced numerous hits, including their current release Bummerland, while Adam continued his studies in philosophy and international law. He is completing a Ph.D. in International Human Rig...
Sep 28, 2020•24 min
Feeling like the world can't survive 2020? Take a few minutes to meet 15-year-old Adarsh Ambati of San Jose, Calif., winner of the Innovation prize in the 2020 International Young Eco-Hero Awards to discover why there is hope. Adarsh and 16 other 8-to-12-year-olds and 13-to-16-year olds were recognized this month for their contributions to global sustainability. Adarsh's story is an inspiration that will get you looking at your world with a new eye for positive change. He's also one of the most ...
Sep 21, 2020•19 min
Plastic pollution surged along with COVID-19 as the world's human population raced to protect itself from the virus. We talk with Kevin Kelly, CEO of Emerald Packaging, one of the largest plastic bag makers in the country. Kelly shares how in-store recycling programs have been curtailed by fears about spreading infections and the continuing increase in plastic usage compared to previous years. Emerald Packaging is working to reduce its reliance on virgin plastic resins, as well as introducing re...
Sep 14, 2020•22 min
Environmental Media Association CEO Debbie Levin invites you to watch this year's EMA Awards, hosted by Lance Bass, on August 20, 2020. We talk about the role of storytelling and celebrity in making sustainability mainstream. Levin took on leadership at the EMA in 2020 and created a very successful approach to using celebrities to make environmental stories tangible to viewers. We discuss the importance of transparency and accountability in media, the positive role stars can play in raising awar...
Aug 14, 2020•25 min
Earth911.com talks with Ford Seeman, founder of Forest Founders, a tree-planting subscription service working to integrated carbon responsibility in daily shopping and marketing programs, and Righteous Causes, a sustainable business incubator in New York. We talked with him from his home, where trees were falling to the recent hurricane, about planting trees as an everyday activity we support with small contributions. Forest Founders offers $10- and $20-a-month subscription programs that have pl...
Aug 11, 2020•21 min
The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) monitors the sustainability and environmental responsibility performance of the world's largest countries. Charlotte Hugman, a researcher for the climate and energy programs at WBA shares the results of the organization's July 2020 Electric Utilities Benchmark of the 50 largest electric producers in the world, including the top 10 U.S. utilities. The report is the first update of a regular review of energy producers' progress toward the U.N. Paris Agreement ...
Jul 27, 2020•15 min
Pablo Diaz, founder and CEO of Direct Solar America, joins Earth911 to talk about the current state of solar subsidies in the U.S. Recently named one of CEO Magazine's Top 20 Dynamic CEOs, Diaz founded the company as a solar installer but transitioned to providing solar technology and installation services for home and business owners. Visitors to DirectSolarAmerica.com can enter their address and share energy bills to receive a complete analysis of the potential cost, subsidies available for, a...
Jul 20, 2020•19 min
The time to talk about climate change and social equity is now. Author and sustainability consultant Kevin Wilhelm has a valuable new guide to bridging the political, social, and ideological chasms that keep that discussion from happening, How to Talk to the “Other Side”: Finding Common Ground in the Time of Coronavirus, Recession and Climate Change. A practical book full of real-world examples of collaboration that succeeded despite Left-Right, Urban-Rural, and racial divisions. Wilhelm and his...
Jun 22, 2020•31 min
As the world re-opens in the wake of COVID-19 Wave 1, revenge pollution threatens to amplify human environmental impacts as people travel, spend, and discard products and packaging at a higher level than before the global lockdown. Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe talks with Lauren K. Olson, zero-waste manager at World Centric, a Rohnert Park, Calif.-based maker of compostable bioplastic food packaging and tableware about how to avoid revenge pollution in our personal lives. She shares insights into p...
Jun 01, 2020•21 min
We're still deep in the lockdown and the Earth911 team gathers from the far corners of the U.S. to discuss how to improve our personal and community sustainability as we emerge from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earth911's Sarah Lozanova, Mitch Ratcliffe and our producer, Doug Mackey, talk about the increased recycling reported by cities, as well as the disappointing news that people are not cleaning and sorting recyclables -- contamination rates stay stuck between 20 percent and 25 p...
May 18, 2020•36 min
Earth911 talks with Rita Katona and Eric Hall, cofounders of probiotic juice shot makers SoGoodSoYou about their new biodegradable packaging, the BtrBtl, and how contemporary companies must embrace ecological sustainability. The BtrBtl breaks down approximately 17 times faster (it “biodegrades 31.7–37.0% after 391 days in active landfill conditions compared to 2% biodegradation of untreated PET”). It’s an important step in the company’s efforts to reduce its ecological footprint. Rita and Eric de...
May 11, 2020•21 min
The recycling industry, like the rest of the world, is coping with the massive disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Joe Pickard, the chief economist of the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), shares his insights into how recycling will change as a new normal emerges after the pandemic. Even as homeowners and apartment-dwellers send more recyclables through curbside programs, the commercial recycling market has slowed with closures and declining manufacturing. The results are that ov...
May 04, 2020•18 min
Bevi, an office water dispenser company, has saved more than 180 million plastic bottles from landfills. Earth911 talks with Sean Grundy, cofounder and CEO of Bevi, about the company's mission to deliver sustainable and healthy water, with or without flavoring. They developed a networked water dispenser that can be installed in an office to distill and carbonate tap water, adding natural flavors for about one-third the cost of a can or bottle or soda. Grundy explains how Bevi has measured many a...
May 04, 2020•20 min
