Episode 55: 2020 Holiday Hodge-Podge

Learn more about the natural environment here!

Episode Intro Notes

Outline

• Podcast Year in Review

• Personal Updates

• Favorite Articles

• Sustainable Gift Ideas

• Thanks to folks

Podcast Year in Review

• Favorite Episodes

  • Jay

    • Hospitals and sustainability. I’m proud of how we timed this one relative to the covid-19 outbreak, calling attention to the impact of hospital operations globally and recognizing frontline workers for their incredible work. My favorite fact from the episode - if the global healthcare sector was a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter on the planet.

  • Scott

    • Female hygiene products. I’m glad we were able to, and rightly so, incorporate our girlfriends into this episode. This topic has so many important environmental and social implications to it. I also liked this episode because my favorite interviews tend to be with entrepreneurs and Celia and Alec at Dame have such a cool story to tell about how their business started, the reusable applicator, and how they want to provide sustainable period products for all.

• Podcast Achievements

• 300,000 total downloads! What a milestone. Our total download count increased by 60% from this time last year! We’re now averaging over 12,000 downloads per month.

• We were also nominated for iHeartRadio’s Best Green Podcast award in its Podcast Awards 2020. Did we get to walk the red carpet? Sadly, no. We actually didn’t even know we were nominated (nor do we know how we were nominated). But this is a big deal with many famous podcasts recognized. We were one of the few independent ones.

• We’ve received 170 iTunes reviews, up from 122 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.

    • MidKniight, 9/22/20

      • “One of my favorites”

      • Found this podcast on a site listing the top 10 eco-friendly/sustainability podcasts. After listening a bit to all the ones they listed this was the only one I stuck with. The hosts are funny and engaging. They have great chemistry together and really seem to care about the topics they discuss!

    • Not sure what IanJKnigh was doing on September 19 when he referred to us in the review as Josh and Clark but thanks?

• We released our most popular episode ever this year - February’s Careers in Sustainability episode featuring our friend Trish Kenlon. This had been a pretty heavily requested topic, and clearly listeners (“definers”?) were hungry for it. We hope this episode is helping you guys navigate this wild and ever-changing world of sustainability and find fulfilling careers.

• Our racism and the modern environmental movement 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 excited to get moving.

  • Note that we have a running list of racial justice resources on our website. Check it out and let us know if we’re missing anything.

• We also created our Party Fact Guide with the help of the incomparable Lisa Pesok. If listeners/definers aren’t familiar with this, we took our single favorite party fact from every episode we’ve ever done and compiled all of them into a snazzy PDF that you can download for free. If you haven’t gotten your hands on it yet, just sign up for our newsletter and it’ll hit your inbox faster than you can say “Holiday HodgePodge” five times fast.

• Plus, our girlfriends joined the show! The first time we’ve ever had company during one of our intros. And by the feedback we’ve already gotten from their performance, it probably won’t be the last time either…

  • And my mom joined an episode too as she explained her work with her garden club to plant milkweeds for the monarchs during our pollinators episode. 

    • She mentioned on that episode that she was the LMITW. In case you missed the reveal, it stands for luckiest mom in the world. Awwwwwww.

Personal Updates

• Jay

  • StoryBuilt Update

    • We closed on 2 properties this year to be redeveloped. One will be a townhouse development and one will be rental apartments - both in walkable locations with easy access to transit. We’re moving into what’s called the “Schematic Design” phase of each project, where we’ll start drilling into our floorplans, construction costs, and permitting processes. I’ve never been in a job like this before, getting to work with so many specialists all the time, from architects to civil engineers.

• Personal

  • I referenced my girlfriend just now… which is now no longer accurate. Anna and I got engaged! I surprised her after a hike at a beautiful spot in Lyons, CO. 

• Anna and I also bought our first house, located right by a light rail station south of Downtown Denver. We’ve actually been doing our best to fill our new, larger space with second-hand items from Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and garage sales.

• And finally, we also rescued our new dog Judy! She’s a 4 year old Airedale Terrier that likes to sprint up and down our stairs at the crack of dawn each morning.

• Scott

  • Professional/CMI

    • Couple cool research pieces released

      • One explaining how aluminum beverage cans provide significant, vital revenue to the U.S. recycling system. In fact, most of the revenue that material recovery facilities (MRF), which separate single stream recyclables, in non-deposit states generate is from selling used beverage cans (UBC). Yet, the research also found that up to 25% of UBCs are missorted at a typical MRF. These cans can be effectively captured with additional aluminum can capture equipment (eddy current, robot) and this equipment can pay for itself with the additional revenue generated from capturing and selling more cans. 

        • Plus, we announced a grant program to get more of this equipment in MRFs.

      • Another piece of research titled Recycling Unpacked: Assessing the Circular Potential of Beverage Containers in the United States concluded that aluminum beverage cans have the highest circular performance in today’s U.S. recycling system and the highest circular potential. The material flow analyses in the report show visually how aluminum cans, glass bottles, and plastic PET bottles are flowing through the U.S. waste management system. It finds that more than 80 percent of beverage cans collected for recycling are recovered and turned back into new beverage containers, compared with 59 percent of glass bottles, and only 13 percent of plastic PET bottles. In addition to the analysis of current circular performance, the report analyzed the carbon emission reduction potential for the three beverage packaging types under three future scenarios – 100-percent collection, 100-percent sortation, and a national deposit system. In each future scenario, the aluminum can delivered the highest carbon emission reduction potential. For example, once a 100 percent deposit collection rate is achieved for each material type, the total emissions impact reduction potential for recovering one metric ton of aluminum cans is three times higher than plastic PET bottles and 42 times higher than glass bottles. 

    • Much more I could dive into but those research pieces are the most tangible and public bits that I want to pass on to the listeners.

    • I also suggest checking out cansgetyoucooking.com. So many good recipes! My favorite was the peach cobbler, but I also really want to try to make the apricot harissa chicken.

• Personal

  • Shannon and I moved in together back in March. One bedroom plus den in DC with an outdoor deck. The den and deck are critical! We’re enjoying spending more time together and our love growing as we learn even more about each other as people and how we want to operate as partners.

    • And it’s no rescue dog, but we’re getting a cat in November. Pics will be posted to the SD podcast instagram because nothing drives social media traffic like cat photos.

  • Shannon and I went on a roadtrip in the Northeast that included a couple days in Acadia National Park. That is a must-do! Magical place. But go at off-times and not just the most popular places. Crowds and limited parking can bring down the nature party.

Favorite Articles

• Jay

  • Honestly, the article that’s stuck with me most all year is the one we cited in our racial justice statement called “I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet.” by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. We’ve discussed this article previously, but here’s my favorite quote from it:

• “Toni Morrison said it best, in a 1975 speech: “The very serious function of racism … is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.” As a marine biologist and policy nerd, building community around climate solutions is my life’s work. But I’m also a black person in the United States of America. I work on one existential crisis, but these days I can’t concentrate because of another.”

• “There will be more wildfires. What should we do?” by Philip Higuera, Elizabeth Dodson, Alexander Metcalf and Solomon Dobrowski. Living here in Denver, this one hit particularly close to home, especially since we have the largest and 4th-largest wildfires in Colorado history burning as we’re recording this episode. My favorite quote:

• “In the past, “unprecedented” fire seasons have been catalysts for change. Unfortunately, the national conversation around the fires of 2020 is being framed as a false dichotomy: Is climate change or poor forest management to blame? The answer is both — and more.

• This false dichotomy ignores the complex and interrelated causes of wildfire, and it is counterproductive because it masks potential solutions we have at hand — solutions that require trust in science, community support and resolve.”

• In a calm, straightforward way. the authors explain the causes and potential solutions to the mass wildfires we’ve seen this year. Worth a read for everyone.

• For all those interested in sustainable real estate development, check out “Helsinki Makes Sustainability a Guiding Principle for Development” by Dorn Townsend. I like this article because it touches on both the micro and the macro.

  • First, the micro, in the form of a specific new master-planned mixed-use real estate development called Kalasatama. Kalasatama features everything from energy efficient apartments and commercial office spaces to communal saunas and readily accessible day care. And get ready to have your mind blown: “Every building in the neighborhood is connected to a network of pneumatic tubes that propel seven categories of trash at 70 kilometers an hour to a central collection point, where the materials arrive pre-sorted.”

• Now, the macro. The article also does a great job of highlighting how the city of Helsinki is pushing itself towards these goals. Importantly, the city understands that it “remains a major carbon emitter, with most emissions coming from fossil fuels used to heat homes. Recognizing that many cities face similar problems, officials recently created the Helsinki Energy Challenge, a yearlong competition with a €1 million prize going to anyone in the world with the best idea for decarbonizing the city’s energy system.”

• Scott

• A 99% Invisible Podcast titled For the Love of Peat blew my mind. Peatlands store 10 to 15 times more carbon on a per meter basis than the same area of land in a #forest or agricultural setting.

• We have only recently fully appreciated the power of peat. Peat is partially decayed vegetation or organic matter that accumulates under water-logged conditions. In total, peatlands store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests together while covering less than 3% of land surface.

• In the 1980s, we saw in the UK this lack of appreciation for peat, and it exemplified why planting trees is not always the right choice. There was a tax break given to encourage private citizens to plant trees and boost the UK's timber supply. People looked to the Flow Country as a vast undeveloped, unwanted area to plant trees. The Flow Country looks like an Arctic tundra. Over thousands of years, peat developed there, sometimes 30 feet deep. Peatlands (i.e., bogs) grow 1 millimeter a year so that's very deep. Scientists noted the unique ecosystems in the bogs but not before more than 150,000 acres in the Flow Country had been plowed and non-native conifers harvested. The good news is Scotland now has a goal of restoring 600,000 acres of peat bog by 2030.

• And perhaps rather than a podcast episode, you’d prefer to hear Alec Baldwin tell you about it in a short video he did for the UN Environment Programme. He also mentions how peatlands are being lost due to logging, drainage for agriculture, and burning. Smoke released from peatland fires are toxic and has the worst impact on the most vulnerable groups--children and the elderly.

• The New York Times educated me in an article published in July and updated in October on the issues that arise as oil and gas projects fail or are abandoned.

• More and more #oilandgas wells are being abandoned as the coronavirus slumps demand and prices drop. This means leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Companies are supposed to set money aside to take care of wells in bankruptcy, but they skirt the rules and pay out their executives right before bankruptcy. It's outrageous. There are already more than three million abandoned #oil and #gas wells across the U.S., two million of which are unplugged, releasing the methane equivalent of the annual #emissions from more than 1.5 million cars.

• Other interesting bits from that article:

• --Almost 250 oil and gas companies could file for bankruptcy protection by the end of next year, more than the previous five years combined. 

• --The Trump administration is finalizing a plan that would effectively eliminate requirements that oil companies install technology to detect and fix methane leaks from oil and gas facilities. By the federal government’s own calculations, the rollback would increase methane emissions by 370,000 tons through 2025, equivalent to what it would take to power more than a million homes for a year. 

  • Hopefully this won’t be an issue with President Biden in the White House (knock on microphone). 

• --North Dakota, in the heart of fracking country, has gone from zero to 336 so-called abandoned “orphan” wells in just the past two months. In New Mexico, officials have identified 708 orphaned wells, and “there is the risk for many more.” 

• Rails to Trails

  • I love rails to trails and was excited to read about the Great American Rail-Trail. What is the Great American Rail-Trail? It’s a multiuse (bicycle or walk) trail that will go from Washington DC to Washington State. When it’s done, it will be a separated trail that’s more than 3,700 miles. Rails-To-Trails Conservancy (RTC) identified a route that is already more than 52% complete. It incorporates 125+ existing trails. Planning for this trail dates back to the 1980s.

• When will the trail be done? Several decades from now, but I’m already excited to bike it! Significant sections are already complete and ready to be explored.

• RTC has a network of 23,000 miles of rail-trails. Its work of connecting people and places began in 1986. I love walking these rail-trails, which often connect the heart of communities and have neighbors engaging in the same outdoor recreation area.

• Raw sewage from Mexico entering the ocean that the U.S. is partly responsible for.

  • Learned about this in a 60 Minutes segment that aired in September, and it really got my blood boiling. There's raw sewage flowing in from Tijuana to the United States and also directly into the ocean.

• So what’s the background here? Decades ago the U.S. signed an agreement with Mexico not to cause back-up flooding. So the U.S. has tunnels underneath expensive border wall to allow the water to flow in. Unfortunately, during rain events, the untreated volume of water is so intense, they have to open the grates for the water to flow through. This water has tires, fecal matter, mercury, DDT, and a variety of other toxic matter. It also has people trying to cross the border who end up sick. I was amazed with how freely the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent spoke about how frustrating this situation is and that agents have also gotten sick.

• This water ends up in the Pacific Ocean, severely impacting coastal towns and also a nearby US Navy training ground. There's also 40 million gallons a day flowing directly into the Pacific Ocean on the southern part of the border because a facility meant to treat the water collected in giant pools hasn't operated for years.

• This is bad for the #environment and for the #publichealth of people on both sides of the #border including our #military. We must address this!

Sustainable Holiday Gifts

• And of course, no HodgePodge would be complete without sustainable holiday gift ideas. 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.

• Something like, “Happy holidays, Phyllis! Love Bob Vance… and Scott and Jay”

• First we have a Living Composter. We’re used to composters smelling pretty… not so good, but this composter features a sleek, modern design and uses live worms to compost food items cleanly and efficiently. You can drop vegetable peelings, grain foods, and tea bags into the composter and let the worms do their work (the worms will eat half their own weight of scraps each day!) The composter can process over two pounds of food a week, enough to keep up with most or all of the scraps in a two- or three-person household. You can then spread the compost next to your plants or in pots. Find it at uncommongoods.com for $199.

• Next we have a treat for all our yogi listeners out there, or for yogis who are lucky enough to receive a gift from a definer - a Cork Yoga Mat. Yoloha claims to be the creator of the world’s first cork yoga mat. Cork is the outer bark of the Cork Oak Tree which often grows in the Mediterranean area. Cork trees are the only tree in the world that regenerates stripped bark, so they don’t need to be cut down to harvest. That means that this mat is made of entirely renewable material, which is also recyclable and biodegradable. Yoloha has a range of mats of varying prices but around $100, and you can also find relatively cheap ones on Amazon, too.

• And speaking of cork, why not use it to hang your plants? The Atlas Cork Hanging Planter is a stylish planter to hold your favorite plants. For all of you who’ve gotten super into plants during quarantine (cough Anna and Shannon cough), this one’s for you! $60 on Etsy.

• Next up is the Take Me to the Parks Winter Woods Candle, sold by an awesome company called Parks Project. We can’t speak to the scent of this particular candle (until someone figures out how to send smells through the internet), but we do love the mission behind it: for each of these candles sold, 1 kid is funded to visit a national park through the Open Outdoors for Kids Program. This parallels nicely with our conversation with Faith Briggs from Episode 54 on Racism and the Modern Environmental Movement as well as Episode 4 on Nature Deficit Disorder. $34 at parksproject.us.

  • Another candle option is Keap Candles, a B Corporation. All the scents are made by a master perfumer (sounds fancy!), the packaging is 100% plastic-free and can be returned for re-use, and they use sustainable coconut wax for a full and complete burn. We saw a wood cabin candle on there for $49.50. Definitely on the higher end.

• For that friend or family member looking to minimize their use of plastic water bottles, check out Hydros. They sell reusable bottles, carafes, and pitchers that filter water up to 8 times faster than other filters. Plus, their products are made from 100% coconut shell carbon in a BPA-free casing. A 64 oz pitcher is $32.

  • Scott did have the Hydros team send him one to check out so this is the one exception to not being paid or being provided the products. Hydros did not pay Scott or ask him to include it in this episode. He just likes it a lot! And it can reduce a lot of plastic bottle use.

• There’s also Soul Much Foods, which features upcycled cookies made from leftover ingredients that would otherwise have gone to waste. The story here is some waitresses saw all the food the restaurant was throwing out at the end of the night. They knew there had to be a better way. They saw an opportunity to use food waste and educate people too. 

  • I bought some because one of the founders is a listener and reached out with her story. I loved the red velvet beet and ginger turmeric. I also liked how it came with a personal thank you note and told me that my purchase saved ½ lbs of food, 150 gallons of H20 and 0.35 metric tons of CO2.

  • They aren’t the only ones in the upcycle game. Grain4Grain, a San Antonio based company, takes used grains from microbreweries to recycle them and turn them into a low-carb, high protein flour (get excited keto fans!). To date, these folks have been responsible for upcycling over 160,000 lbs of grain and feeding over 6500 families in the San Antonio area through their donation program. A 3-pack of 12-oz pancake and waffle mix is $27. It’s on Amazon Prime as well as their website.

• And here are some cool gifts that help advance racial justice. First is a specific shade of nail polish called “Dune” by J. Hannah.  The company notes that “All proceeds from the sale of Dune will be donated to human rights non-profits. For example, sales from the month of October were donated to Black Voters Matter. You can also make a direct or additional contribution to their selected non-profits right on their website.” Dune nail polish costs $19. 

• If you’re in the mood for flowers, check out the For George Floyd Flowers. “With this arrangement, Jonathan Cohen Studio will be donating 15% of the purchase towards THE BAIL PROJECT, a national nonprofit organization that pays bail for people in need, reuniting families and restoring the presumption of innocence.

• Or, to keep it simple, on our show notes for this episode we’re linking to a resource with a consolidation of 171 ways to donate for Black Lives Matter.

Thanks

• Shannon Parker

  • Variety of special projects this year, from helping us research for episodes to spearheading our outreach to educators to create a resource for professors and teachers to reference when incorporating our show in their courses

• Adrienne Breen

  • Provided critical help on the Party Facts Guide that Lisa Pesok designed.

  • Go-to researcher

• Matt Arends

  • Helped us restructure website, social media presence

• Keaton Butler

  • Joined the team as our audio editor, so if we now sound better… you now know why