Sustainable Action Matters

 Even with the existing power mix in America's grid, we make significant environmental gains by electrifying our buildings.  Part 2 will discuss the technical and financial barriers that large building owners face in making the choice to electrify, and what kind of behavioral nudges can be applied to move them. 

In Part One, our experts give us the basics on the technologies and motivational challenges we face and discuss programmatic responses that could increase consumer uptake of heat pumps and other electrification strategies.Chances are that right now (if you’re not driving) you are sitting in a building that is heated by natural gas or maybe even heating oil…and you’re probably quite happy with that.  And yet, in the coming years we hope convince you to scrap your existing heating system and replace it with one driven by electricity.Building electrification is fast becoming one of the driving forces of efforts to mitigate climate change.  Yet, this initiative, which was barely on the radar even 5 years ago is largely unknown and not understood by the public at-large.  The unique challenges of electrifying large buildings are especially daunting and leads to questions about how we will motivate building owners to make the jump.We are also asking them to do this quickly. The Biden administration has set a new target for the US to achieve a 50-52 percent reduction in greenhouse gas pollution by 2030 along with a goal to achieve net zero emissions economy by by 2050.

What are we in the energy and sustainability fields getting wrong when it comes to reaching communities of color? Is it the actual message or is it something deeper? It’s an important question for a field that is overwhelmingly white and that has such an important mission to accomplish. To guide us through this complex territory we are joined today by Allison Musvosi who will share her research. Zimbabwe-born and trained as a qualitative researcher with strengths including survey design, experimental design, and customer satisfaction research, She works as a Senior Research Analyst with Illume Advising. There she examines both the individual and organizational levels to answer the questions of how and why customers engage. She has a masters degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) and with an eye towards equity, she specializes in multicultural research that helps clients reach underserved segments using well-researched, culturally appropriate, and resonant approaches. When Allison is not puzzling through research methods or wrangling data, she gives back to her community by serving on the board of an emerging arts and cultural heritage center.

In 2007, Brooklyn-based artist Eve Mosher started drawing a line. But unlike most lines that artists make, this one was drawn through neighborhoods, along streets and sidewalks, through playing fields and bus stops. Her line was drawn in an effort to alert various coastal communities in the U.S. and abroad to the coming changes in their shorelines due to climate change. That work is representative of a career built around creating interactive public projects that investigate the human condition in relationship to the world in which we live. Eve is not satisfied with just building an awareness of an issue. By creating a piece in a place that has meaning to her audience, she creates the kind of emotional response that can move us to take action. Her work has been featured as part of the New York Times’ 12 Artists On Climate Change, as well as in publications including The Economist and Smithsonian, and today she will discuss her work and how a realization just a couple years ago led to a profound shift in her approach.

Eileen Westervelt is not thinking small. Working with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, she has embarked on an effort to promote and increase energy-saving behaviors across the entirety of the U.S. Army.To this effort she brings over 25 years of experience in the energy field. A seasoned, professional engineer, she is passionate about making facility energy savings real and persistent, and engages the people-aspect of energy systems to ensure lasting results. Her observations on the human side of facilities energy management have been featured in classes and conferences for the Building Commissioning Association; the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference, a brand new chapter on behavior change in the, Guide to Energy Management, which is something of a sacred text in the energy management field.Today we’ll find out how the Army’s culture can create hurdles to adopting conservation behaviors as well as provide some surprising opportunities. Along the way we’ll find out what the Army’s utility bill is (you know you want to know this) and even learn how energy management can save lives in the field.Eileen presently works as a senior research mechanical engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers at the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), in Champaign, IL.

Let’s say you want your community to adopt new behaviors that lead to Increased recycling rates, or decreased energy use, or increased use of public transit…. How do you figure out where to start? How do you know what behaviors to target, and how do you do know if your efforts have been successful? Today we will dig into a step by step process that is research-proven and time-tested, leading to measurable (and impressive) results. And we will hear what drives a man to go out watching lawn sprinklers at 2 am, or stalk litterbugs in a public park.My guest is Joey Schmitt, the Project Director at Action Research, which specializes in changing behavior for the public good by applying marketing and social science research to outreach programs that promote clean, healthy, and sustainable communities. He has a M.A. in Experimental Psychology, and extensive experience managing large-scale field projects focused on residential energy efficiency. He is well-versed in statistical analysis and the logistical hurdles that come along with implementing large-scale projects.

Sustainability has been likened to a 3 -legged stool, with legs for environmental quality, social equity and economic prosperity. Few organizations have addressed all three legs as thoroughly as the HOPE Program in New York City. Michele Knox, their Brooklyn Program director, joins me today to discuss how they work with low-income communities of color to literally change the face of the environmental field while opening up economic opportunity for those they serve.Since joining the HOPE Program as a Work Readiness Instructor in 2012, Michele has led teams responsible for internship and job development, job placement, and retention and advancement services for all students and alumni of HOPE’s programs. She has held positions in human resources, financial literacy education, and financial services. She holds an MBA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and a BBA in Human Resources Management, both from Baruch College of the City University of New York.Today she will share the strategies used at HOPE to help students adopt career-positive behaviors and discuss the systemic barriers to the diversification of environmental fields. Listen to all our podcasts: https://energytrainers.net/all-episodes

Our guest today has consistently been working on the leading edge of sustainability policy implementation and behavior change, as part of one of the most forward-acting public agencies in the U.S. Her experience has taught her the importance of making the sustainable choice the easy choice, by eliminating the barriers that get in the way. Pauli Ojea, who is the Senior Commercial Toxics Reduction Coordinator at San Francisco Department of the Environment oversees the San Francisco Green Business Program and Healthy Nail Salon program. Previously she headed up the ‘Environment Now’ green careers program which helps prepare workers for jobs in the environmental field. She’s developed successful strategies and tactics that promote behavior change on topics such as energy efficiency, zero waste, transportation, and environmental health and today she shares this expertise with you.

How did recycling get so complicated? With so many categories of materials, special dropoff events and wide variation from one community to another, consumers are often unsure of how to correctly recycle the items they dispose of every day. Today, despite decades of effort, we are only diverting about a third of our waste stream from disposal. But maybe the bigger problem is the quality of the materials going into our bins.With me today is Susan Attridge, Director of Refuse and Recycling for the City of Buffalo, NY, she has been working in the waste management field for thirty years, establishing programs to divert waste and educating public on how to create less waste. She’s served on the boards of the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling as well as the National Recycling Coalition. Today she shares the successful strategies she’s used to increase recycling rates, as well as her controversial ideas on how “zero waste” goals may be doing as much harm as good.