Sustainability
GO Box Closes the Loop in Take-Out Dining
Eliminating waste is good for the environment. Laura Weiss is hoping to prove that it’s also good for business. Seeing Waste as an Opportunity GO Box was born in Portland’s vibrant food truck scene. A recent article in The Oregonian proclaims “Portland is the leader of the maverick food truck movement.” It’s hard to argue …
Creating Sustainability at SolarCity
If you had Nils Moe (C3) and Carl Schneebeck (C7) for EMCA, you remember the starfish power pose. Imagine standing like you are about to start a jumping jack—arms and legs out in a way that makes you look like a starfish. It’s a way of getting ready for a challenge. This is the story …
Talking Trash: PGS checks in with Austin’s award-nominated waste diversion planner, Amanda Rohlich
“Only a few people who are involved in this field—resource management, materials management, waste, and recycling—actually chose to do it,” explains Amanda, noting that many facilities are run as family businesses. “It kind of chooses you.” For Amanda, the choice was made after she moved back home to Austin after graduating from Presidio Graduate School …
Jen Boynton Breaks the Rules; TriplePundit’s founder shares his thoughts on his Editor-in-Chief
Jen Boynton (C3) is not a law abiding citizen. I mean that in a good way. There’s simply no way we would have been able to build TriplePundit.com (3P) to what it is today without breaking pretty much every rule in the book, inventing our own rules, then breaking those when they didn’t work. That’s …
Sports & Sustainability: Compost Facility Tour
On Monday a few of us from the Sports and Sustainability course participated in a tour of Recology’s Jepson Prairie Organics compost facility in Vacaville, CA. The trip was inspired by our project with NASCAR to better prepare us for recommendations regarding the handling organic waste. We learned a “ton!” For example, compostable cutlery is …
The “CVS Effect” & Millennial Demand for Responsible Jobs
“Whenever one person stands up and says, ‘wait a minute, this is wrong,’ it helps other people do the same” — Gloria Steinem There’s nothing wrong with a little business competition especially if the competition is to do the most good. In the past few years, we’ve seen large companies like Mars, Ikea, Apple, Chipotle, …
Better Relationships Through Better Buildings: Evelyn Lee blends design, architecture, and reuse
Think you need to build more office space? You probably don’t. You just need to call Evelyn Lee (C11/PA1). Evelyn is a design strategist and development specialist at MK Think, a San Francisco design strategy and architecture firm that focuses on designing and planning for building efficiency and organizational change. MK Think transforms clients’ office …
PHYSICIST DISHES ON THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO CLIMATE PROGRESS
Eric Gimon, PhD, describes himself as a “climate activist focused on helping society find practical solutions for moving beyond fossil fuels and towards a sustainable future.” He wears many hats, including advisor to the Clean Coalition, Board Member of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Pacific Institute, consultant, and instructor. Eric is also …
OPOWER ENGAGEMENT MANAGER ENCOURAGES ENERGY CONSUMERS TO CONSERVE
As a senior consultant at ICF International, Joe Herr (C13) used to inventory and analyze greenhouse gas emissions for the US EPA and United Nations, develop agricultural emissions projection tools for the USDA, and launch projects like the Climate Ready Estuaries program. But while crunching GHG numbers helped mold his view of humans’ impact on …
Change Starts Here: Presidio and Local Impact
In a Presidio blog post earlier this year, I described my work with The Green Ninja Project, a climate-change education initiative for kids. With funding from NASA, NSF and PG&E, a successful Kickstarter campaign, and other sources, our collaboration of climate scientists, animators, filmmakers, and educators have come together to create the Green Ninja, a …