Q&A: Terry Tamminen – Cracking the Carbon Code

Written on September 4th, 2012

 

Aired 09/02/12

When I first met TERRY TAMMINEN, he was living on a houseboat in the Marina and filling a position he’d founded as the first Santa Monica Baykeeper. No too long before that, he had been running a pool services company. And not too long after, he was Secretary of the California EPA.

Tamminen has reinvented himself successfully in several very different worlds — business, government, non-profit, foundation, from the grassroots to the halls of power. All of this for a long time now to achieve a sound and healthy relationship between society and the environment. He pursues that consistent vision with whatever works.

We’ll talk about the ideas in his book, CRACKING THE CARBON CODE: The Key to Sustainable Profits in the New Economy – which is very much a plan of action for companies who figure out that reducing carbon emissions reduces waste and is therefore good for the bottom line. He’ll tell stories of companies that have made or saved money by cutting carbon.

How has he been able to move things forward through politics and government in an era when so little seems to get done? Bottom line, are we moving fast enough? If not, how do we integrate all these different players to accelerate movement in the right direction?

http://seventhgenerationadvisors.org

Q&A: ED HUMES, Pulitzer-prize winning author

Written on June 9th, 2011

 

 

Aired 06/07/11

Pulitzer-prize winning author Ed Humes has a new book -- FORCE OF NATURE: The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart's Green Revolution -- that starts with the same sort of skepticism, asks some of the same questions, and ends up delivering a lot of good news.
He reports that Wal-Mart has embraced an unprecedented green makeover, which is now spreading worldwide. The retail giant is leveraging the power of 200 million weekly customers to drive waste, toxins, and carbon emissions out of its stores and products. Neither an act of charity nor an empty greenwash, Wal-Mart's green move reflects a simple, compelling philosophy: that the most sustainable, clean, energy-efficient, and waste-free company will beat its competitors every time. Not just in some distant, Utopian future but today.

http://www.edwardhumes.com/