Sonja Michaluk is back, but this time with backup from her sister Charlotte! Winner of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for her work protecting wetlands and drinking water sources using a novel bioassessment method she created, Sonja came up with a sustainability challenge to take on with her sister in our first recording, and is back to talk […]
New Year, New Goals: 2023
I meant to do a New Years’ post at the start of the year, but there was a little hiccup: a little dude stole half my wife and my DNA, mooched off my wife for 9 months, then emerged as a demanding bundle of joy the first week of 2023. Wonderful news for me and my family, awful news for […]
TSL:SFN – Protecting Wetlands, With Science! w/ Sonja Michaluk
Sonja Michaluk of New Jersey works passionately to protect wetlands and drinking water sources using a novel bioassessment method she created. For more than a decade, she has collected scientific data and shared it with policy makers to help conserve ecologically sensitive wetlands, critical habitat for threatened species, wildlife corridors, and old growth forests. Through her Conservation Communities Initiative, she […]
Learning To Lead: Essay #2: Perception, Focus, and Attention
Leadership Step By Step, Unit 1, Chapter 2: Perception, Focus, and Attention (Essay #2) For Unit 1, Chapter 2: Perception, Focus, and Attention in Josh’s book, we turn our focus inward to ourselves. To begin, Josh recommended trying an exercises called the Three Raisins Exercise. In this exercise designed to help practice mindfulness and becoming self-aware, you basically go through […]
TSL:SFN – Sustainably Scoring Amazon w/ Lizzie Horvitz
Lizzie Horvitz has been passionate about sustainability since the age of 16 when she lived off the grid. It was there that, depending only on wind energy and rainwater, she saw the solution of climate change before fully understanding the problem. She founded Finch, a browser extension that helps you select sustainable products on Amazon. It’s a tool that educates […]
This Sustainable Baby
I’m now getting prepared for one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced: becoming father to a newborn baby boy…And trying to be as sustainable as possible. Raising a baby is hard enough, but trying to do it in a way that is sustainable in a world where everything you need for babies is made to be “convenient” (i.e. “disposable”), […]
TSL: SFN – Upgrading Infrastructure w/ Javad Mohammadi
Javad Mohammadi is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include multi-agent optimization and machine learning in networked cyber-physical systems, including smart grid-interactive buildings, power grid, and electrified transportation systems. In short, he’s solving problems and figuring out how to make our electric grids smarter […]
Learning To Lead: Essay #1: The Personal Essay
Leadership Step By Step, Unit 1: Understanding Yourself – The Personal Essay (Essay #1) Recently, I’ve started reading Joshua Spodek’s Leadership Step By Step, a book that teaches, as the title suggests, a step by step methodology for becoming a better leader in whatever area you choose. Each chapter ends with an exercise that he recommends you do to advance […]
TSL: SFN – Digital, Sustainable Construction w/ Paul Laycock (VinZero)
Climate change can be seen as a disaster or an opportunity. Paul Laycock and his company VinZero is a new global company with a goal to cut major emissions from one of the biggest emitting sectors globally: construction. Paul and his staff at VinZero are passionate about facilitating the construction industries digital journey to meet net zero outcomes via digital […]
The Trash Can IS The Environment
Throwing away trash…It’s so addictively easy. Can’t figure out what to do with all that plastic packaging? How about all these food scraps? Old ripped clothes or a broken TV? Just toss it all in the trash and you never have to worry about it again. Have you ever thought about what you would do if you DIDN’T have that […]