Ted is always looking for ways to minimize his ecological footprint. Professionally, Ted is working to gain the skills necessary to turn his passion for sustainable development into action, as an entrepreneur or financing sustainable businesses.
Ted studied economics and international business at Saint Louis University’s campus in Madrid, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was honored as the Distinguished Student in International Business for his class. As the founder and president of the SLU Madrid Business Club, Ted focused the club’s activities on sustainability.
While working for commercial real estate multi-national Jones Lang LaSalle’s Madrid office, Ted strove to implement sustainable practices both within the firm and for its clients. He proposed and designed an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan for JLL Spain. Green Building and Environmentally Sustainable Development remain a passion for Ted: he believes that the intersection of sustainable infrastructure and sustainable attitude is where we’ll find a sustainable society.
Ted currently works for a private equity firm in Madrid, learning skills that he hopes to apply to finance Environmentally Sustainable Development in the United States and around the world.
Tracy is the CEO and Founding Partner of Technical Green - a green industry career site focused on clean tech and green research and development.
Tracy's professional experience are in the recruitment advertising and non-profit sectors and she has for many years maintained a sustainable lifestyle.
Marie Oser is a best-selling author, columnist, and host/producer of VEG TV. A vegan lifestyle expert, and environmental advocate with a focus on nutrition and its role in disease prevention, Oser specializes in creating original gourmet recipes with a solid nutritional bottom line.
Many prominent medical and nutrition professionals endorse her work, including Dr. Colin Campbell, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University and principal researcher of the groundbreaking CHINA STUDY, and Neal Barnard, M.D. founder and president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC.
Marie is president of VEGTV, Inc., a video production company producing content for TV and new media. VEGTV streams hundreds of lifestyle videos to more than 1,000 sites globally. In her role as Director of Product Development at Smart Planet Kitchen, she has created, Marie Oser’s Lean & Green, a new line of vegan and Fair Trade Certified products. Marie has appeared on CNN, ABC, National Public Radio, QVC, WUSA, WNBC, KCAL, KOVR, Home & Garden Television (HGTV), FINE LIVING, TECH TV, and Discovery Channel.
Vegetarian since 1971; vegan since 1990, Marie left a career in TV advertising to pursue her interest in food, health, and nutrition. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, she studied psychology at St. Joseph’s University. Marie is a gourmet cook and organic gardener living in California, writing her 5th book and hiking every day with Travis, her Yellow Lab companion.
Cherl Petso is the Associate Editor at Disaboom.com, an online magazine for people with disabilities. Her writing expertise includes articles about the environment and sustainable living, and vegan/vegetarian issues. A vegetarian for 16 years and a recent vegan, Cherl is passionate about animal rights and issues. She enjoys writing about simple ways to lessen the impact on the Earth.
Cherl recently moved to Denver, Colorado from Bellingham, Washington. She enjoys hiking and hanging out with her puppy.
Nathanial Manning works for the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) as a Regional Analyst for Asia. He focuses on two programs for CCI, the Green Building Retrofit program and the Waste Management program. Nathaniel recently graduated from Brown University as an Environmental Studies Masters student, specializing in sustainable design and international carbon policy. Nat also completed a Bachelor of Arts in World Religions at Brown, focusing on the philosophy of ethics and the intersection between religion and politics. He is completing his Masters thesis on clean-technology-transfer within the UN's carbon credit mechanism (the CDM), which allows developed countries to invest in carbon mitigating technologies in developing countries with the purpose of promoting sustainable development.
Nathaniel has a long history of involvement in environmental development work ranging from waste-to-energy entrepreneurial ventures to designing sustainable homes for the Guatemalan chapter of Habitat for Humanity, to working for a tidal energy engineering firm in Singapore. Nat's passion is in how intelligent innovative solutions and technologies can be applied to create a sustainable and free world. When Nat thinks of the word "green" he does not just think of the word "environment" but how we as humans can design systems and solutions that create win-win situations.
Robert Cowin is a political consultant for environmental NGOs. His nomadic childhood reveals a world-class carpetbagger, but he masks as a Texan-New Yorker hybrid. Formerly with the National Environmental Trust (now the Pew Environment Group) in DC, he’s spent time on Capital Hill advocating for Kyoto ratification, clean air, renewable energy technology, and green energy policy.
Robert has also worked on marine conservation issues, directing the Conserve Our Ocean Legacy coalition in the Mid-Atlantic States which successfully worked to help strengthen and reauthorize the Magnuson Steven’s Act. He now happily lives in Southern California, flying back east often as he finishes his Masters in International Relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School.
Dayanti Karunaratne is a freelance journalist based in Canada's capital city, Ottawa.
Since graduating from Carleton University's journalism program in 2006, Karunaratne has worked on the news desk at the Port Hope Evening Guide, the Ottawa Citizen, and the Molokai Times. Karunaratne's writing appears in the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Magazine, the Globe and Mail, and other lifestyle publications.
Heather O'Neill is the founder of Eco to the People, a green living blog.
Before founding Eco to the People, Heather O’Neill wore so many hats in the field of journalism that even the Queen Mother would envy her collection. She has worked as the managing editor of a beauty trade magazine; as a copy editor for an online tech magazine; as the associate editor of a city magazine and as a newspaper reporter and columnist, and as the senior editor at the popular online newsletter ecofabulous.
Her work has appeared in many publications, including Parenting, Alternative Medicine, Natural Solutions, Marin Magazine, Greenwich Magazine and HOME.
Heather earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from California College of the Arts. She lives and works in San Francisco.
“Energy Independence” is a statement often dissipated recently in the Presidential race. Interestingly, both sides seem to claim that they are the champions who can achieve this magnificent feat. The importance of energy independence in this globalized world was struck home by Barack Obama in the third debate at Hofstra University: “If we invest in a serious energy policy, we will save the amount of money we’re borrowing from China to send to Saudi Arabia.” While both campaigns claim to uphold the banner of energy independence, they are each proselytizing very different answers for achieving this goal.
There are numerous differences between Obama’s and McCain’s energy plans. We have increasingly heard the candidates altercate over issues such as offshore drilling and tax cuts for big oil. However, a fundamental difference between each candidates’ plan, largely overshadowed by the emotionally-charged aforementioned issues, is nuclear energy. The McCain campaign intends to put in motion an investment of $300 billion to build 45 new nuclear plants in the USA by 2030. In last Thursday’s debate McCain retorted; “Senator Obama will tell you, as the extreme environmentalists do, it has to be safe. Look, we’ve sailed Navy ships around the world for 60 years with nuclear power plants on them.” And frankly, he is right. France has been powering their nation on nuclear energy for years, and America has the technology to do the same. But… safety and waste storage are not the only reasons to avoid nuclear energy, neither is the fact that each plant costs approximately $10 billion due to the price increase in steel and other commodities. The truth is that investing in nuclear power is a poor business venture because we cannot sell it to the rest of the world; the clean technology industry is America’s ticket to not only energy independence but economic independence as well.
Obama, on the other hand, plans to invest $150 billion of the federal budget in renewable energy sources over the next ten years. Its not that he is avidly against nuclear energy but instead recognizes that the government energy investments should be going foremost to renewables. As Thomas Friedman suggests in his new book “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” we need to invent and create the new clean energy industry of the future, and sell it to rapidly developing nations. Countries such as China, who happens to be in dire need as their economy continues to grow by 10%. That is how we will balance our deficit, that is how we will regain our economic strength in the world, and that is how we can regain our respect in the international arena. So yes, we can promote renewables over nuclear as the “green” energy-source due to an environmental pragmatism, but more beneficial still is to prove their economic superiority.
As Americans we pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial spirit. So what is your entrepreneurial spirit telling you? We must look beyond the immediate goal of creating energy independence and think long-term, like an intelligent investor. We cannot become blinded by the goal of energy independence; we need to intelligently create a business that is sustainable, profitable, and scalable. That is the real competitive advantage of solar, wind, and other renewable technologies over nuclear. America needs to invest our time, our minds, and our federal budget in clean energy technologies that will lead to world industries. In so doing, we will become international leaders in the fight against climate change, while simultaneously guaranteeing our own futures in the world economy.
Well said. I have always been dubious of nuclear power due to the high upfront costs and potential radiation…but the economic benefit is the icing on the cake. What is keeping our government from pushing green technology further? Even if we incur a short-term loss, don’t they realize that the US will greatly benefit over the long-term?
Stay current on the latest policies and progress government is making on addressing green issues. Find out what is going on off-camera and in the discussion chambers of government. Advocate your thoughts and ideas.
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Well said. I have always been dubious of nuclear power due to the high upfront costs and potential radiation…but the economic benefit is the icing on the cake. What is keeping our government from pushing green technology further? Even if we incur a short-term loss, don’t they realize that the US will greatly benefit over the long-term?