Go Green Radio

On today’s episode of Go Green Radio, we’re going to talk about two very special community garden projects in Los Angeles. These gardens grow so much more than plants and food – they nourish the hearts and minds of the people in the community around them. Tune in as we talk about the USGBC-LA’s 2020 Legacy Project: the West Adams Resiliency Garden project, which centers on the needs of individuals undergoing the process of re-entry, whether returning from incarceration or recovering from other challenges such as homelessness. We will also discuss The Bay Foundation’s Table to Farm program with a mission to implement a local model to divert food waste and alleviate air pollution while educating students and creating nourishing compost.

Join us for a conversation with subject matter experts on what it means to create a healthy building in which to work, live and learn, particularly during a time when indoor air quality is receiving unprecedented attention due to COVID-19. We will discuss best practices, technology and design factors that create optimal health conditions for building occupants. Our guests are Sara Neff, SVP of Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation and Ben Stapleton, Executive Director of the U.S. Green Building Council, L.A.

The Green Bronx Machine is one of the most inspiring organizations in the green schools movement! Stephen Ritz is the founder of the Green Bronx Machine, and today we will talk to him about how urban agriculture is changing children’s lives through better nutrition and new attitudes toward food. At a time when our nation is keenly aware of the disparity between high- and low-income communities, the Green Bronx machine brings action, opportunity and empowerment to students who do not have access to food that will fuel their minds and bodies for optimal health. Tune in and be inspired!

If you’ve heard of the plastic-free lifestyle, but think you don’t have time for it in your busy life, prepare to be delightfully wrong. The new book, Say Goodbye to Plastic, shows you how, whether you’re seeking to knock plastic out of your life or just try out a few novel eco-hacks, you’ll learn how to go joyfully plastic-free in the kitchen, bathroom, office, dining room and more. As a plastic pollution activist and founder of ECOlunchbox, Sandra Ann Harris invites us into her book, which is part memoir, part inspirational ode to the ocean and packed with how-to tips to say goodbye to plastic. Tune in as we talk with Sandra about the book today!

Ben Lecomte is a marathon swimmer, ocean advocate, entrepreneur, and speaker. He swam the Atlantic from Cape Cod to France in 1998. In 2018 he attempted to swim the Pacific, but after 165 days of swimming his team had to call it off due to severe storm damage to their mainsail. During each swim, Ben collected data on plastic pollution in the ocean and worked with scientists to create extensive, uncharted information on what types of pollution Ben swam through, where it was in the ocean, and what clues they could find about where the pollution originated. Tune in today as we talk with Ben about what he found and what he is doing to urge people to make informed decisions about what they buy and discard.

In recent months PFAS contamination has been found in the groundwater in a small suburb of the Bay Area of California. There is no obvious source for the chemical contamination, and currently, the local water agencies must fend for themselves to pay for treatment to keep their drinking water safe. Tune in as we talk with Olivia Sanwong, President of the Board of Directors for the Zone 7 Water Agency. She will discuss the financial and public policy strain this issue is placing on her small community.

2020 has been a painful year in so many ways, but for communities of color, the suffering has been especially severe. Today we’ll be talking to Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., founder of the Hip Hop Caucus, about the ways in which environmental racism and injustice place a disproportionate burden on communities of color, and the many ways his organization is working toward a just, sustainable, and prosperous world for all.

The Wyland Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and preserving the world’s ocean, waterways, and marine life. The foundation encourages environmental awareness through education programs, public arts projects, and community events. Today our guest is Steve Creech, Executive Director of the Wyland Foundation. Tune in as we talk with him about some of upcoming events and resources offered by the foundation!b

Today we are joined by Miguel Veiga-Pestana, SVP of Corporate Affairs & Sustainability for RB, makers of common household brands like Lysol, Woolite and Clearasil, just to name a few. Under Miguel’s leadership the company has instituted a rigorous set of policies and reporting to create measurable, transparent environmental benefits throughout all their brands.

The EPA set legal limits on nitrate levels in 1962 to prevent acute cases of methemoglobinemia, which causes an infant to suffer from oxygen deprivation in the blood after ingesting excessive nitrate. More recent studies have found correlations to additional human health risks. An Environmental Working Group (EWG) investigation found that nitrate contamination in drinking water has grown steadily worse. Data obtained under public records laws shows that between 2003 and 2017, tests detected elevated levels of nitrate in the tap water supplies of more than 4,000 community water systems in California, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. Those water systems supply tap water for more than 45 million Americans. Tune in as we discuss this new report with EWG Senior Economic Analyst, Anne Weir Schechinger.

Prior to the pandemic (and hopefully soon thereafter), most kids spend the majority of their waking hours at school. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) has a significant impact on a student’s ability to learn. Classrooms with polluted air, high CO2 levels, and poor lighting can make it difficult for students to learn even if they have the best teachers, most current technology, and a positive attitude about school. On today’s episode we will talk with Shannon Oliver, MPH about a project his school district undertook to measure the IEQ of their campuses alongside students armed with the knowledge, guidance, and tools they needed to use their school buildings as a teaching tool.

Our guest today is Cory Long, founder and Executive Director of the Making a Change Group in Chester, PA, a community just outside Philadelphia. If you look at Chester from the USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas (formerly the Food Desert Locator), you will see it is objectively a Food Desert. If you look at Chester from the EPA’s environmental justice screening and mapping tool, you will see it is an Environmental Justice community. So what does an effective, local community organization do to help residents, especially when a crisis like COVID-19 emerges? Tune in and find out because Cory Long’s blueprint is phenomenal!

Author, Paul Wheaton has come out with a wonderful book on making a huge, positive, global difference from your own home! Prioritize comfort over sacrifice while saving thousands of dollars. Explore dozens of solutions and their impacts on carbon footprint, petroleum footprint, toxic footprint, and other environmental issues. Tune in as we talk with Paul about his new book, Building a Better World in Your Backyard!

The pandemic has put the world in a heightened state of anxiety, but there were already underlying signs of trouble before COVID-19 hit. Suicides are at their highest point in 50 years, record numbers of Americans are taking medication for anxiety and depression, and opioids kill more people in the U.S. than car crashes. Dr. Margaret Klein Salamon’s new book, Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, makes the case that climate change inaction is the root cause for the hopelessness that so many people are feeling. Tune in as we talk with Dr. Salamon about her new book.

Nearly 70 percent of the fresh produce sold in the U.S. contains residues of potentially harmful chemical pesticides, according to the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) 2020 Dirty Dozen™. EWG’s newly released consumer guide outlines the produce items with the most amount of pesticide residue, as well as a list of the fruits and vegetables with the least amount. Tune in as we talk with EWG toxicologists, Dr. Alexis Temkin and Dr. Thomas Galligan about the information you need to make the best choices in the produce section of your grocery store.

Tune in as we talk with Janine Benyus about how she has helped some of the world’s top companies design for the future by drawing inspiration from 3.8 billion years of nature’s blueprint. Benyus has worked with companies like Boeing, Colgate-Palmolive, Nike, General Electric, Herman Miller, HOK architects, IDEO, Interface, Natura, Procter and Gamble, Levi’s, Kohler, and General Mills to create sustainable product designs. In 2010, BusinessWeek named Janine one of the World’s Most Influential Designers, and her work in biomimicry has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, Esquire, The Economist, Time, Wired, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Nature, and more.

Farmland dominates the landscape and watersheds in the Midwest. The way that land is used and managed has profound effects on our health through the water we drink and the food we eat. Farming can actually make water cleaner and the environment healthier. Farms doing exactly that are scattered across the Midwest. Tune in to learn how the Environmental Working Group’s Midwest division is using remote-sensing, big data and landscape analysis to build pressure to change policy to heal the damage done by poor farming practices and to build excitement about how much healthier the environment could be through often simple changes in the way we farm.

Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies used by species alive today. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies — new ways of living — that solve our greatest design challenges sustainably. The Biomimicry Institute was founded in 2006 by Janine Benyus and Bryony Schwan to share nature’s design lessons with the people who design and make our world, and empower people to create nature-inspired solutions for a healthy planet. Today we’ll talk with the Executive Director of the Biomimicry Institute, Beth Rattner.

Feeding America is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization—a powerful and efficient network of 200 food banks across the country. As food insecurity rates hold steady at the highest levels ever, the Feeding America network of food banks has risen to meet the need. They feed 40 million people at risk of hunger, including 12 million children and 7 million seniors. But Feeding America also works to alleviate hunger with a focus on sustainability and environmental justice. Today we will discuss their work in America’s Food Deserts, as well as their work to keep edible food from going to waste.

CR Vasco da Gama (CRVG)—one of Brazil’s top football (soccer) teams—partnered with social impact startup VeganNation to promote sustainability initiatives within the sports industry. In recent months, VeganNation has gathered sports partners across Brazil—including soccer teams Remo, Paysandu, Iranduba, and Nacional Club, which are located near the Amazon rainforest, and legendary soccer player Cafu—to help it bring awareness and solutions to the waste generated by the global sporting industry. Tune in as we speak with Isaac Thomas, co-founder and CEO of VeganNation about his company and how you can join the movement!