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.
In Obama’s recent address to Congress he called for the submissions of Cap and Trade policies for the United States of America. It looks as if by the end of 2009 the USA will be the last developed country to adopt a carbon trading scheme, but what will this scheme look like and what will be done with the money earned from the selling of permits?
In short, a Cap a Trade policy puts a cap on the amount of carbon industries and organizations are allowed to expel. These companies would buy pollution permits from the government, and can then buy and sell these permits amongst themselves, so that companies who can reduce more efficiently can sell excess permits to those who are unable to reduce in a financial feasible manner.
The government, as a result, will collect vast sums of new funds from the selling of these permits through the creation of a regulated carbon-polluting market.
There are a three different philosophies at the moment on what should be with this new revenue; the first, that the new funds should be reinvested into the industries and households that will be most affected by the consequential rise in energy prices.
The second thought is that these funds should go towards clean energy research and subsidies to create cheaper alternatives.
Finally, many believe that the government will squander the earnings from selling permits, and thus the funds should be given back to the public in a re-invested dividend, much like the system used in Alaska in which each citizen is given back an equal percentage of the funds earned from taxes on oil drilling.
I (and the Obama administration) propose a combination of the three. Use 40% of the earnings to subsidize clean energy and fund research into newer technologies like a smart grid, solar, wind, and energy efficiency. Use 30% to invest in energy efficiency, building retrofits, and consequently green job creation in the poorest communities who will be hit hardest by the increase in energy prices.
Finally, divide the remaining 30% into a countrywide dividend reinvestment program; this means that every American citizen would receive the same sized check in the mail each year from these funds.
This way we are holding companies financially accountable for polluting, and then using these funds to benefit the American citizen in the large-scale through technology subsides, the targeted-scale through building retrofits for the poorest communities, and the equality-scale through reinvested dividends.
Click here to learn more about your Carbon Footprint.
This kind of analysis is crucial - all too often I find that we, the US, votes laws into action without laying out the ground rules for the spending. Take AIG as an example. Thanks
J Mads
March 26, 2009 9am EDT
Nice article. I think splitting up the funds is a good idea, but that giving checks to people doesn’t really make much sense. We’ve already got a ridiculous deficit, and I don’t understand the desire to give back to families, as if something were owed. Carbon taxes force companies to pay the total cost of their operations, which include negative effects on the environment. This is a legitimate goverment revenue source, and should be treated as such.
Jenny B.
November 3, 2009 9pm EST
While I totally agree that we should be wise stewards of our environment (as well we should be for all things in our care), the cap and trade concept sounds more like a glorified scheme to pay to pollute.
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This kind of analysis is crucial - all too often I find that we, the US, votes laws into action without laying out the ground rules for the spending. Take AIG as an example. Thanks
Nice article. I think splitting up the funds is a good idea, but that giving checks to people doesn’t really make much sense. We’ve already got a ridiculous deficit, and I don’t understand the desire to give back to families, as if something were owed. Carbon taxes force companies to pay the total cost of their operations, which include negative effects on the environment. This is a legitimate goverment revenue source, and should be treated as such.
While I totally agree that we should be wise stewards of our environment (as well we should be for all things in our care), the cap and trade concept sounds more like a glorified scheme to pay to pollute.