Episode 64: 2021 Holiday Hodge-Podge
Where did the year go? Join our hosts, Scott and Jay, as they review their favorite 2021 Sustainability Defined moments, interesting sustainability articles, personal updates, and sustainable gift ideas. Tis the season for our annual holiday hodge-podge episode. 2021 was no ordinary year with lots of changes for sustainable action and Sustainability Defined - you won't want to miss this episode!
Episode Intro Notes
Outline
Podcast Year in Review
Personal Updates
Favorite Articles
Sustainable Gift Ideas
Thanks to folks
Podcast year in review
410,000 total downloads! What a milestone. That means we saw over 100,000 downloads since this time last year, an increase of 33%. We’re still averaging about 12,000 downloads per month, in line with where we were 12 months ago.
We’ve received 202 iTunes reviews, up from 177 reviews this time last year. We like this growth trajectory - keep em coming!
And as a reminder, we read one review at the end of every episode, and chances are good that if you write one, yours will get read! And you know what, let’s just read a good one right now rather than saving it until the end.
A review that we wanted to share from: haley.ellis92, 11/02/2021
A Lovely Reminder of What’s Important: Sustainability Defined is a truly amazing podcast, filled to the brim with interesting facts about sustainability, plus some incredible dad jokes. I am a recent engineering graduate meandering through my first year of employment, wondering what’s next for me, and this podcast has helped to remind me why I chose engineering in the first place. The world needs more experts in sustainability! There are so many facets of sustainable living, and Jay and Scott do a beautiful job of defining each one. Thanks for doing this, and thanks for inspiring me!
Our most popular episode remains last year’s Careers in Sustainability episode featuring our friend Trish Kenlon. Over 15,000 downloads for that episode alone! This had been a pretty heavily requested topic, and clearly definers were hungry for it. We hope this episode continues to help you guys navigate this wild and ever-changing world of sustainability and find fulfilling careers.
Our racism and the modern environmental movement episode last year was a big step in the right direction too. Prior to that episode, we published the podcast’s racial justice statement and formally recognized our responsibility to become better informed and do our part to combat racial injustice. We’ve got a ways to go, but we’re committed to getting there.
Big year for the podcast organizationally, too.
We brought on our incomparable audio editing pro Keaton Butler late last year. Let’s just say we didn’t realize how bare-bones our audio editing system had been until Keaton came on and knocked it out of the park. Side note - Keaton is a ridiculously talented musician too - check out her stuff at keatonbutler.com.
And, say hello to our new researcher Amelia Kovacs!
We also celebrated our fifth year anniversary. It kind of snuck up on us, and we probably should have done something cool around it. It was in April 2021 since we started the show in April 2016.
Personal updates
Jay
StoryBuilt Update
If folks recall, last year we closed on 2 properties this year to be redeveloped. One is a townhouse development and one is rental apartments - both in walkable locations with easy access to transit. We’re now nearing the final stages of design and permitting from the City and will be breaking ground in 2022. Super exciting - these will be our first projects out of the ground for the new Denver market.
We’re also busy sourcing new deals to build our pipeline, including one new one that I’m super excited about that hopefully I’ll be able to tell more on later.
Personal
Earlier this year Anna and I met some friends in Yosemite and hiked Half Dome - a nearly 20-mile hike with over 5000 feet of elevation gain. We started hiking at 4:30am and weren’t done until after 5pm. Truly an insane hike but such a cool accomplishment.
I also got to see my sister for the first time in almost 2 years after she moved to New Zealand literally 3 months before the outbreak of covid. Their response to covid had set the bar internationally, but that also meant it was basically impossible for us to see her until she recently (and with huge luck) was able to book a managed isolation spot in one of the country’s hotels, which is what allowed her to then book flights home.
Fun fact - it was my sister that first introduced me and Anna.
Judy - her new thing is going through our bathroom trash can. She’s also learned how to open doors, which had led to some uncomfortable encounters.
Solar powered car - got an EV earlier this year and recently just financed some residential solar panels for my duplex (shout out to episode 7!), so I’m borrowing Anna’s dad Dave’s favorite joke in now saying that I drive a solar powered car.
Scott
Professional/CMI
Friendly reminder to the definers that I am the Vice President of Sustainability at the Can Manufacturers Institute, which represents U.S. metal can manufacturers and their suppliers. So my job is to promote and advance metal can recycling and sustainability. It’s nice to represent a packaging that is the most recycled food and beverage container in the U.S. as well as made of a material that can recycle forever. Consider that 75% of all aluminum and 75% of all steel ever produced is still in circulation today.
So I’ve been pretty busy lately. We had an exciting lead up to America Recycles day, which was November 15.
On November 8, we announced our fourth can capture grant. This money goes toward equipment at material recovery facilities (MRF) that ensure cans are properly sorted from the rest of the single-stream recycling. So this fourth grant was to a MRF in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. Collectively, the four grants we have given out will capture 67 million aluminum beverage cans that otherwise likely would have went to landfill. When these cans are recycled, they will generate $1 million for the U.S. recycling system and provide enough energy savings to power 26 million U.S. homes for one hour.
On November 10, we announced aluminum beverage can recycling rate goals. There were no such goals before. The current recycling rate is an industry-leading 45% in 2020. The target is to get to 70% by 2030. If we had reached that target in 2020, we would have recycled about 25 billion additional cans, which would have generated more than $400 million in revenue for the U.S. recycling system and resulted in energy savings that could power more than 1 million U.S. homes for an entire year. That gives you a sense of the impact of aluminum beverage can recycling. I made a presentation live to the media explaining how we plan to achieve these targets with our four pillars of action. The key pillar of action is new deposit systems. Deposits are where you pay a small amount like ten cents when you purchase the container that you get back when you redeem it. In the ten U.S. states that have a deposit system, the average aluminum beverage can recycling rate is 77% while in the other 40 states it’s only 41%.
On November 11, we published a joint op-ed in MarketWatch with the circular economy non-profit Reloop and the advocacy organization U.S. Public Interest Research Group that called for a national deposit system. If we had a national deposit system, we would see those high recycling rates across the country and we’d reach our target just like that. I think this policy position gives legitimacy to our targets.
So that was a fun week!
Personal
I’m now an Uncle. My brother had a baby named Charlotte Jo. She’ll be called Charlie Jo. My dad’s name was Joe so I’m glad his name was incorporated. She’s beautiful (and all cheeks right now as the cutest baby that you ever did see).
Shannon and I continue to love our little kitty, Delta, and we had a pretty epic trip to Italy this year where we took high speed rail to Rome, Venice, Florence, and Bologna. Made me think of our episode on high speed rail.
I passed the Level 1 exam of the Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) certification. I’ll be taking the Level 2 exam early in 2022 and that will mean I have earned the full FSA certification (when I hopefully pass!).
Favorite articles
Jay
The report centers on a new residential development in nearby Arvada, CO called Geos, “a net-zero community where the homes produce enough energy for the year with renewables. Each home has a solar array and a herd of goats to keep the grass and weeds at bay.”
The original developer of the project, Norbert Klebl, didn’t get a chance to complete his vision. He had to sell the project’s remaining, undeveloped land to a separate developer in November 2020 to, of all things, settle a divorce. The new developer at first promised the next phase of homes would reflect Klebl's original climate-friendly, sustainable design. However, the new developer and the homebuilder it partnered with eventually ended up installing the natural gas infrastructure that Klebl sought to avoid in the very first place.
The article touches on the nuances of who effectively has authority to dictate what, and without any legal grounding to enforce Klebl’s original concept, the city eventually moved forward with laying more gas lines.
To me, the article highlights a few things:
How easy it is to follow the status quo (market standard for a new home is both electricity and gas connections)
Areas where progress is being made
A growing number of cities have already banned natural gas hookups in new homes as part of their climate goals, while some states like oil and gas-friendly Texas and Louisiana are outlawing such bans. California is so far leading the way, with Berkeley as the first city to ban gas installations as other places followed suit. Other major cities including Seattle and New York City are also looking into banning natural gas hookups as well.
Climate change: Fossil fuel production set to soar over next decade. By Matt McGrath, BBC.
This article’s sobering title sets it pretty straight. Per the United Nations’ Production Gap report, countries will drill or mine more than double the levels needed to keep the 1.5C threshold alive over the next 9 years.
The article states that, despite the flurry of net zero emission goals and the increased pledges of many countries, some of the biggest oil, gas and coal producers have not set out plans for the rapid reductions in fossil fuels that scientists say are necessary to limit temperatures in coming years. Additionally, the UN report highlights that most governments continue to provide significant policy support for fossil fuel production.
I won’t call this the most uplifting of articles, but its stoicism is important in reminding us where exactly we are today. It reminds me of a NYT video piece on Greta Thurnberg titled “Greta Thunberg Has Given Up on Politicians”. Point being, there is a lot of talk around emissions targets and important advancements in sustainability, but we can’t lose track of the reality of the situation we currently find ourselves in.
Linked at the bottom of that BBC article is a video titled “I care about the climate but my dad works in the oil industry”. So naturally I had to watch that one too, and it struck a chord with me as well.
It reminded me of our eco-anxiety episode, where the anxiety many of us are feeling may not be fully recognized by others.
In the video, Stephanie, a 13 year old from outside of London sits down with her dad, an employee at BP. I sat and watched as Stephanie asks her dad the questions all of us want her to ask, things like “Do you feel guilty working in the oil industry”.
Her dad responds with “I don’t feel guilty because if I don’t do this job, someone else will. There’s still a demand for oil and gas whether we like it or not.”
The frustrating part is that he’s not wrong, but the way this father-daughter conversation plays out is reminiscent I think of where we find ourselves in the climate crisis: a lack of accountability or ability to point the finger at one particular entity. At what point will this urgency actually be reflected by companies and governments? Are Stephanie’s dads responses a convenient way to reinforce the status quo that’s led to the stalemates that have gotten us to this position?
This addresses a key concept championed by one of my favorite sustainability writers and provides a nice segway to my next article. Alex Steffen, a self-described “planetary futurist”, routinely references a term he coined calls “predatory delay”, wherein people that understand that their profits and livelihoods rely upon destructively unsustainable practices no longer deny the need for change, they simply argue for delay, on the basis that to change too quickly would be unfair to them.
Steffen continues, “This allows them to been seen as responsible and caring. They want change, they claim; they just think we need prudent, appropriately paced change, mindful of economic trade-offs and judiciously studied — by which they mean cosmetic change for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, they fight like hell to delay change of any real magnitude, attacking not only the prospects of our kids and kin in the future, but increasingly of our society in the present. Their delay has real, serious human consequences, across generations. They’re taking, not creating; the harm they cause is measurable.”
I encourage everyone to check out Steffen’s recent article “The Transapocolyptic Now” - it’s a compelling piece that I can’t articulately compress into our segment here, but the articles subheader “It's not the end of the world, but it is the end of the world as we've known it” frames it pretty well. Steffen has a remarkable way of distilling nebulous thoughts and feelings into sobering and weirdly refreshing writing.
Scott
“Environmental Rights in State Constitutions.” August 2021 by Michael Gerrard, Columbia Law School. I was surprised to learn that six state constitutions currently include provisions with explicit environmental rights: Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. There is no federal U.S. constitution equivalent. He was writing about it in part because New York voters were going to the polls in November to vote on whether to add a new section to the state constitution’s bill of rights, declaring: “Environmental rights: each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” And voters decided to add it in!
For those interested in this issue, one of the leading groups pushing for more environmental rights amendments in state constitutions is Green Amendments For The Generations.
And in other environmental rights news from 2021, I read in Sierra Club’s magazine back in April that Citizens in Orange County, Florida (home of Orlando) voted 89-11 in November 2020 to give the county's waterways the legal right to exist, flow, be protected from pollution, and have a healthy ecosystem. That 89% includes 134,000 Trump voters.
The Cotton Tote Crisis.” August 2021 by Grace Book, The New York Times. The article’s main point is that the embrace of the cotton tote as a symbol of being earth friendly may have created another problem. One study finds each one needs to be used 20,000 times (daily use for 54 years) to offset its impact. Cotton is water intensive, the bags are not compostable (and recycling them is energy intensive), and the dyes are not recyclable. They aren't necessarily worse than #plasticbags. Plenty of issues with them too.
I think the main takeaway is don't just take cotton bags (or really any bag) when offered.
Two Freakonomics podcasts from this year caught my attention. One on air pollution and one on kelp.
Some staggering numbers on air pollution. The World Health Organization says anything above 10 micrograms per cubic meter is polluted. It estimates that roughly 90% of people around the world breathe polluted air. The 7 million people that die each year from air pollution is 2X those that died from COVID in 2020, and 5X the number of people killed in car crashes in 2020. Beyond this, the podcast episode explains the research coming out showing short-term and long-term effects of higher air pollution.
And check out the air quality index! It's in the weather app on the iphone. It can vary place to place and even day to day.
Kelp are the ocean's equivalent of trees. Kelp forests cover a quarter of the world’s coastline. Amazingly, kelp forests capture up to 20X more carbon per acre than land forests. Sadly, kelp forests have declined by a third over the past decade.
Critical to helping kelp is controlling the population of its key predator, the sea urchin. The Nature Conservancy has a plan to control sea urchin with several prongs including increasing the population of sea stars (they eat sea urchin), promoting urchins (including the invasive purple kind) as culinary cuisine, and growing kelp in controlled environments before releasing them into the ocean. With the last prong on growing kelp, they've partnered with the non-profit GreenWave, which is featured in the Freakonomics podcast on this topic.
Apparently, native seaweeds contain more vitamin C than orange juice, more calcium than milk, and more protein than soybeans. I'll certainly be looking to incorporate more seaweed (and urchin) into my diet.
April 2021. The Second Chance Business Coalition was launched to expand hiring and advancement practices for people with criminal records. This is important since 1 in 3 Americans has an arrest or conviction that can significantly impact their ability to get a job. A criminal record alone can reduce someone's chances of getting a job 50%. The companies involved include Chase, McDonald's, PepsiCo, Visa, and Walmart. They will develop best practices and launch pilot initiatives.
April 2021. The Low-Carbon Patent Pledge launches. Companies taking the pledge agreed to give free access to key patents to those looking to develop low carbon technology. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Facebook, and Microsoft were the first companies to take part. Others have joined since then. We’re talking about hundreds of patents here.
April 2021. Around Earth Day, Gallup released a new series of environmental polls. Only 29% of Republicans believe that the effects of climate change are already in motion. That's down from 42% in 2008. Also, the number of Republicans that believe climate change is primarily caused by human activity has also decreased. It's now 32%, a decrease of 20% since the early 2000's. This decline is mindboggling to me.
Last but not least, a PSA to not flush single-use wipes down the toilet. This can cause serious clogs in municipal sewer systems known as “fatbergs.” Municipalities spent more than $1 billion last year getting rid of blockages from a buildup of wipes, which makes sense considering sanitary wipe purchases increased 75% from January 2020 to January 2021.
Sustainable Holiday gifts
And of course, no HodgePodge would be complete without sustainable holiday gift ideas. The most sustainable way to give gifts is to shop secondhand or gift something you already own, but if you are looking to buy something new, these are some gifts that caught our attention. Note that no one endorsed us for these - these are just gifts that we think are pretty cool. All we ask is that you credit us with the idea when you give these gifts to your friends and family.
Friendsheep Eco Dryer Balls are an all-natural and organic fabric softener handmade from 100% premium New Zealand wool. They replace single-use chemically treated plastic dryer sheets and fabric softeners that contain harmful chemicals, are fully reusable for over 1000 loads, and reduce drying time by up to 40%!
Choose from 6 unique guaranteed-to-make you smile designs such as Flock of Friends, Piggy Band, and, wait for it, the Sloth Squad.
Scott’s partner’s stepmom actually got these for him for Christmas a couple years ago, and they worked great.
These will run you about $28 (but of course you don’t need to buy dryer sheets)
Sticking with the laundry theme, check out these sheets you stick in with your clothes to avoid the plastic and harsh chemicals that often comes with the typical detergents.
They also aim to be philanthropic. Their website says, “In 2021, Sheets Laundry Club is committed to giving 50,000 loads of laundry to areas in need. We also aim to plant 10,000 trees and eliminate 100,000 lbs of plastic by offering a better alternative... all in just one year.”
You may have seen them on Shark Tank. We won’t give a spoiler on if they got a deal.
One box with 50 sheets runs you $20. You can apparently get by with half a sheet if they load isn’t too big. You can also do a subscription for 25% off.
One, it’s cute. Two, who doesn’t love avocados? This cute little wool sock allows you to ripen avocados quickly and evenly.
The Avocado Sock partners with people with employment challenges who sew on the label, insert the drawstring, and attach the hang tag.
One runs you about $17.
Nothing says you’re an earth-loving hippie like a mason jar and now you can take that to the next level with a mason jar you can use to grow herbs. It utilizes passive hydroponics to make it easy to grow the herbs without soil. You can choose between basil, cilantro, mint, parsley, and rosemary.
I was wondering if this can continue to be used after the plant dies that you grow with the seeds they give you. The answer is yes! “The stainless steel net pot and recycled glass grow medium can both be reused— simply rinse with hot water. Add new seeds and use soil or coco pith to help seeds germinate. Use a water soluble fertilizer and follow its instructions.”
One mason jar indoor herb garden costs $22.
Reusable and washable. They are made with flannel or cotton fabric along with terry fabric for absorbency. Absorbency is increased after the first few washes and will shrink just enough to be the perfect size for a standard paper towel roll.
The ones we found are made by Marley’s Monsters in Eugen, OR. So many fun prints. They run $16 for a 6-pack and $54 for a 24-pack.
Note that we also saw online instructions on how to do a DIY version.
Hangs on a suction cup hook that attaches to any window. It has a USB port so you can charge whatever. It’s educational because you know, it’s in your window, but also because the transparent design allows you to see the solar tech inside.
Also awesome is that they don’t want you to ever throw it away. They will gladly take it back and replace parts.
This runs you about $139 from a company called Group Hug.
Holiday Instagram Giveaway for definers
This is new! We get a fair number of emails from companies saying hey, we have this cool product, will you feature them on your podcast? We only do episodes once a month so normally it’s a thanks but no thanks, but then we said wait, maybe these companies would be willing to make some product available that our loyal definers could win. And low and behold, some companies said yes!
So we’re going to tell you about the products involved in our giveaway and then we’ll tell you how you can win one.
Sponsored Gifts
Better Grounds is the all organic and ethically sourced specialty coffee subscription. Better Grounds helps you discover and experience incredible coffee from roasters across the country that not only tastes better, but is truly better for your health and the health of the people and planet producing it.
By shifting buying and consumption patterns toward certified organic specialty coffee, Better Grounds is advocating for the long-term health and well-being of those who produce and consume coffee, as well as the delicate ecosystems that make the coffee experience possible.
Giveaway: Giving away three months of coffee
Grounded is a woman-owned company that makes wildly innovative and tasty plant-based cheeses from cauliflower + hemp. Grounded exists to make plant based cheese more appealing, affordable and accessible to a mainstream audience than it’s ever been before and has created a more environmentally resilient alternative to traditional dairy and nut-based products by leveraging hemp, an emerging superfood, and imperfect produce.
Giveaway
Made Trade is the best online store for ethical and sustainable goods. With the largest selection of ethically and sustainably made gifts, you can shop by values that are most important to you: vegan, recycled/upcycled, fair trade, sustainable materials, person/people of color-owned, woman/women-owned, USA made, and handcrafted. Made Trade is Climate Neutral Certified which means all orders on Made Trade are 100% carbon neutral.
Giveaway: Giving away a $100 gift card
Here’s how you can win one of the products
To enter, it’s pretty simple. Between when this episode is published on December 3 and midnight pacific time on December 31, anyone can enter the giveaway by 1) following us on Instagram, 2) liking our holiday hodge podge post on Instagram that will be posted on December 3, and 3) taging 3 friends who they think would like the podcast in the comments of that post. So this whole thing will be taking place on Instagram.
Then in January, we’ll be picking randomly from those that entered to win these products. There will be multiple winners since we’ll be telling each company the one person that won their giveaway and give them their mailing address. We’ll be DM’ing the winners for that mailing info. So get on Instagram and engage with our post by December 31, 2021!
Thanks
Adrienne Breen
Helped us with research for some episodes this year. Also continues to provide Scott (and Jay) with unconditional love, which you know, is pretty awesome.
Mike Brody
Adrienne’s partner who is an accountant and helped us with some tax issues. We may or may not have had several notices from the IRS come through this year. Don’t worry, it was resolved! We’re still BFFs with our IRS friends.
Beth Bannerman and the Amyris team
They were our only sponsored content this year. We only do sponsored content where the client gives us the latitude we need to cover the topic fairly and it sounds like all our other episodes. The reality is that sponsored content is a big revenue driver for us and helps us pay our staff like Keaton and Amelia. So we want to thank Amyris for being a great client and working with us/trusting us this year. We’re hoping more companies do sponsored content with us next year.
Lisa Pesok
Helping us redesign our media kit to help source sponsorships and keep the podcast afloat! If you recall, she’d helped us with our KILLER Party Fact Guide from last year - still free to download at our website.