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.
When people hear the term “green” they often think of it as interchangeable with “expensive.” Of course, this is not a general rule: an environmentally sustainable lifestyle can actually save you a lot of money. Still, the stigma exists.
When it comes to politics, this link between green and luxury has put off many Americans who worry that promoting environmental sustainability may hurt the US economy or their own already stretched budgets. This can be seen as a major reason the political coalition fighting for environmental causes has long been small and exclusive.
A group of progressive thinkers began to recognize that this political isolation was keeping advocates for an environmentally sustainable society from accomplishing their goals in the US. Van Jones has become one of the many dynamic leaders who have reinvented the environmental movement through his call for a more inclusive vision of what a sustainable society looks like.
Since getting his law degree from Yale in 1993 Jones has built a reputation as one of the most well-respected advocates of social equality in the country. Now, through his work with Green For All and his best selling book, The Green Collar Economy, he’s working towards an interrelated solution to both poverty and environmental degradation in the US.
Green For All advocates job training for the low- and medium-skilled workers who will be the backbone on which we build a sustainable society. Millions of new jobs are likely to be created over the next few years as we rebuild our national infrastructure with environmental sustainability in mind.
Many of these jobs will require new skills, but many will not require a four year college degree. Therefore, they represent an opportunity for low-income Americans to build skills and create wealth, as well as for some of the communities most adversely affected by pollution to become part of the solution.
Many of the jobs created will be difficult or impossible to outsource, offering reasonable wages and career growth opportunities. As we begin to move away from consumerism–consumption led growth–this training will be essential to building competitive green industries.
Great to hear. 2 big questions outstanding (at least for me). How many of these jobs will be created, and where can one go to find out more about the types of jobs? thanks
Ted Nelson
February 22, 2009 11pm EST
Steve,
The estimates vary pretty widely on how many green jobs will be created, depending partially on how you define a green job, but I’ve also been interested in the same question so I’m looking into it.
There are several websites devoted exclusively to green jobs–greenforall.org, greenjobs.com, greenjobs.net, sustainablebusiness.com/jobs/, jobs.treehugger.com, jobs.greenbiz.com,…–or you can also try the conventional job search channels like job websites, recruiters, and the websites of companies that interest you. If you start looking I’d be interested to see what you find works and doesn’t.
Steve P
February 25, 2009 5pm EST
I’ll take a look - thanks. Although, I looked at conventional job search channels and didn’t find much.
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.
Great to hear. 2 big questions outstanding (at least for me). How many of these jobs will be created, and where can one go to find out more about the types of jobs? thanks
Steve,
The estimates vary pretty widely on how many green jobs will be created, depending partially on how you define a green job, but I’ve also been interested in the same question so I’m looking into it.
There are several websites devoted exclusively to green jobs–greenforall.org, greenjobs.com, greenjobs.net, sustainablebusiness.com/jobs/, jobs.treehugger.com, jobs.greenbiz.com,…–or you can also try the conventional job search channels like job websites, recruiters, and the websites of companies that interest you. If you start looking I’d be interested to see what you find works and doesn’t.
I’ll take a look - thanks. Although, I looked at conventional job search channels and didn’t find much.