Can business be the solution and not the problem?
Sally Jewell, President and CEO of REI, delivers the Fall 2009 Horace M. Albright Lecture in Conservation.
Given October 1, 2009, at the University of California, Berkeley.
October 26, 2009
October 13, 2009
Alum's Project is a Finalist for the BBC World Challenge
Andaman Discoveries, a non-profit organization founded by CNR alumnus Bodhi Garrett, is among twelve finalists in the 2009 BBC World Challenge. The BBC World Challenge recognizes "innovative business projects that increase investment into the local community and take a responsible approach to the environment in which they are operating." Andaman Discoveries was chosen by a jury of high-level executives from Shell, BBC World, the World Bank, IUCN, and Newsweek. The World Challenge winner, selected from among the twelve finalists by BBC viewers and readers via online voting, receives a $20,000 grant.
"Our connection to the villages comes from rebuilding our lives together, and our projects focus on the big picture, empowering people to define their own future. This means that, along with responsible tourism, we also support scholarships for 120 kids, reforestation, [and] a community development network," says Garrett.
CNR's Breakthroughs Magazine featured Garrett in its Summer 2008 Issue: Bodhi Garrett: After the Wave.
October 8, 2009
Are you choosing products that are safe and environmentally-friendly?
What is the lifecycle of your sunscreen? How about the environmental impact of buying a laptop? Professor Dara O'Rourke discusses how he came up with the idea for The Good Guide, a consumer reference that helps people make informed decisions about products based on safety and environmental concerns.
Algae Power
Professor Kris Niyogi discusses algae's natural capacity to produce energy and its potential use in carbon-neutral biofuels.
August 12, 2009
Agroecology, Small Farms, and Food Sovereignty
Global forces are challenging the ability of develop ing countries to feed themselves. A number of countries have organized their economies around a competitive export-oriented agricultural sector, based mainly on monocultures.
It may be argued that agricultural exports of crops such as soybeans from Brazil make significant contributions to the national economies by bringing in hard currency that can be used to purchase other goods from abroad.
However, this type of industrial agriculture also brings a variety of economic, environmental, and social problems, including negative impacts on public health, ecosystem integrity, food quality, and in many cases disruption of traditional rural livelihoods, while accelerating indebtedness among thousands of farmers...
July 14, 2009
Singing the Praises of Native Bees
From Bay Nature:
Gordon Frankie is a UC Berkeley professor and a native bee expert. Bees are his unmitigated passion. But before you walk out the door to talk to him, drop anything you think you know about honey-making hive-dwellers. For him, the most important bees are the ones you probably see every day--but have never heard of.Turns out that none of the 1,600 known species of native California bees are anything like these transplants from across the Atlantic. Our homegrown bees can be green, black, or even red. They range in size from giant bumblebees to some that are barely visible to the naked eye. Some are as furry as a Sasquatch. Others are smooth and metallic. They mostly live alone or in small groups, sleeping in burrows or bivouacking on flowers at night. They are roughly split between male and female, they don't have queens, their stingers don't get stuck in your skin, and, lastly, they don't make honey....
Read "In the Key of Bee" at BayNature.org
March 2, 2009
Prof. John Harte: Understanding the Global Environmental Crisis
Professor John Harte discusses what environmental science teaches us about the potentially catastrophic consequences of a failure to address the current environmental crisis. His intellectual odyssey from physics to environmental studies offers important insight into how scientists have come to understand the relationship between humanity and nature and the necessary conditions for providing a balance that insures the well being of future generations. The conversation concludes with a discussion of how the present moment can be seized to meet the challenge of global warming.
January 30, 2009
Green Perspectives: David Roland-Holst
In a recent conversation with Green Technology magazine, Professor David Roland-Holst, co-author of two key reports on green economic policies, discussed workforce creation, federal stimulus money and governmental policymaking.
Continue reading "Green Perspectives: David Roland-Holst " »
January 28, 2009
Video: Honey Bee Pollination Crisis - Professor Claire Kremen at the Commonwealth Club
Monoculture farming leaves us highly dependent on honey bees, whose pollination affects 75 percent of fruits and vegetables and 30 percent of all food production. However, managed hives are being wiped out by colony collapse disorder at an alarming rate.
Professor Claire Kremen discusses how wild bees can boost the effectiveness of managed hives and play a critical role in pollinating the crops that keep California's economy humming.
Watch the video below or download the podcast.
October 20, 2008
Green Policies in California Generated Jobs
From the New York Times: "California’s energy-efficiency policies created nearly 1.5 million jobs from 1977 to 2007, while eliminating fewer than 25,000, according to a study to be released Monday."
The study, conducted by David Roland-Holst, an economist at the Center for Energy, Resources and Economic Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley, found that while the state’s policies lowered employee compensation in the electric power industry by an estimated $1.6 billion over that period, it improved compensation in the state over all by $44.6 billion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/business/20green.html
Roland-Holst's work was widely covered by media around thew world, including:
Discover Magazine
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Los Angeles Times
October 17, 2008
On Biofuels: CNR Professors from the Energy Bioscience Institute
Above, Chris Somerville, professor of plant and microbial biology and director of the Energy Biosciences Institute, discusses the future of cellulosic biofuels.
In addition, ABC 7 News recently featured Somerville and David Zilberman, professor of agricultural and resource economics, in an excellent piece on Responsibly creating new plant biofuels (video).
September 29, 2008
Professor's startup company empowers consumers to see through "greenwashing"
Even when it was just an idea, Professor Dara O'Rourke's plan to deliver environmental, social responsibility, and public health information about consumer products directly to shoppers was making headlines.
Now, after an extended leave from campus to pursue the project as an entrepreneur, O'Rourke and his colleagues have publicly launched GoodGuide.com.
"I think there's a burgeoning awareness that there is a global supply chain behind a product," Dara O'Rourke, GoodGuide's founder and a Berkeley professor, told Wired.com. "People are seeing that there are real costs to these everyday low prices. The question is, can we deliver this information in a way that is simple and easy and helps people make decisions?"
Other stories:
August 13, 2008
Beahrs ELP 2008
This summer, 40 environmental professionals from around the world once again converged in Berkeley to attend the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (ELP). This certificate program in sustainable environmental management links participants to state-of-the-art environmental and natural resource science and policy training.
Participant Liliya Smialkova, of Belarus and Italy, sums up the ELP this way: "They say that in order to make a change, one doesn't need to change the circumstances but to change his or her point of view. I feel that I have new eyes now."
July 3, 2008
Nature reserves attract humans, but at a cost to biodiversity, says study
BERKELEY – Rather than suppressing local communities in developing nations, nature reserves attract human settlement, according to a new study by researchers.
In an analysis of 306 rural protected areas in 45 countries in Africa and Latin America, the researchers found that, on average, the rate of human population growth along the borders of protected areas was nearly twice that of neighboring rural areas.
Continue reading "Nature reserves attract humans, but at a cost to biodiversity, says study " »
May 27, 2008
Addressing Global Hunger & Poverty through Agricultural Development
Dr. Rajiv Shah, director of Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, delivers an overview of the Foundation’s programs that addressing global poverty and hunger, and a panel of experts from the College of Natural Resources responds by discussing the challenges and opportunities to improving the lives of smallholder farmers and their families through philanthropy, technology, and policy. With questions from the audience.
February 15, 2008
After the Wave
After the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami, hundred of thousands of survivors struggled to put their lives back together. "After The Wave" looks into the lives of villagers in Phang Nga province in Thailand, almost three years after the tsunami. The documentary also focuses on the efforts of a grassroots non-profit organization led by CNR alumnus Bodhi Garrett, which has helped the local population move forward in practical ways to rebuild their local communities.
January 17, 2008
"Buy local" applies to forests, too
by Dean Keith Gilless
Frozen pipes never concern San Francisco residents, but Minnesotans insulate the pipes around their homes every winter. The West Nile virus scares many Californians but doesn't alarm Scandinavians at all. Where you are in the world goes a long way toward determining the things you worry about.
Some Californians shy away from using wood for fear of contributing to the deforestation so frequently associated with global warming. But relying on imported goods means burning fossil fuels to bring those goods to market, which increases greenhouse gas emissions. The arguments to promote "locally grown" are no more or less valid when considering one's consumption of lumber and other forest products.
August 15, 2007
Two CNR students win prestigious WWF fellowship
Two CNR students are among 16 undergrads from around the nation that have been selected to participate in the 2007 Nissan-World Wildlife Fund Environmental Leadership Program.
Desirae Early and Ky Ngo were chosen for this prestigious fellowship for their strong leadership skills and a commitment to environmental progress.
Continue reading "Two CNR students win prestigious WWF fellowship" »
August 8, 2007
What you can do to fight global warming and spark a movement
A new book co-edited by a CNR alumna attempts to answer a question familiar to anyone concerned with climate change:
"What can I do?"
Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement, co-edited by Sissel Waage, ESPM Ph.D. '00, features a wide array of authors ranging from activists to scholars to students, who each discuss what the average person can do to turn their private concerns into public action.
The book recently received a positive review in the LA Times.
Continue reading "What you can do to fight global warming and spark a movement" »
March 7, 2007
A world without bees is a world without chocolate
From The San Francisco Chronicle [original URL]
By Alison Rood
When Professor Gordon Frankie wants to impress schoolchildren with the importance of bees, he lays out an array of foods such as berries, grapes, pears and chocolate alongside a couple of dried-out tortillas and rice cakes and asks them which foods they prefer.
"Invariably the kids go for the fruits and chocolate," he said. "Then I tell them: In a world without bees, the only choice they'd have would be the dried-out tortillas or rice cakes, since wheat and rice are self-pollinated. Even chocolate, from the cacao plant, depends on the pollination of bees. That gets their attention."
Frankie, an entomologist at UC Berkeley and a specialist in the behavior of native bees, has been the leader of a decadelong urban bee research project. By documenting bee diversity and populations in urban gardens throughout California, he's discovering which flowering plants attract native bees and determining whether urban gardens can support bees. He said the declining native bee population is comparable to global warming in terms of a potential ecological catastrophe.
January 19, 2007
Relying on Berkeley research, California establishes groundbreaking carbon standard for fuels
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order calling for California to establish the world's first carbon standard for transportation fuels. (Read about it in the Governor's op-ed here.)
Relying on research by David Roland-Holst, adjunct professor in ARE, the governor writes:
The University of California estimates our greenhouse gas emissions goals will increase our gross state product by $60 billion and create more than 20,000 new jobs. The time is now for America to transition to a clean-energy economy.... I am very pleased to be able to announce that California is leading the way.
More information on Roland-Holst's study is at http://calclimate.berkeley.edu/.
December 6, 2006
Farmworkers: Can't afford the food they grow?
The perception that fruits and vegetables are too expensive helps explain why Fresno County farmworkers eat too few of these foods, according to Christy Getz, a UC Berkeley specialist who focuses on natural resource-dependent workers and communities.
Continue reading "Farmworkers: Can't afford the food they grow?" »
November 30, 2006
Tours begin of eco-friendly "green apartment"
Four Cal students living in a new "Green Apartment" demonstrate sustainable living. The apartment is the latest addition to an expanding effort by the Green Room Committee to educate the campus community about recycling, water and energy conservation and about purchasing decisions.
The apartment in the Channing-Bowditch student housing complex is the latest addition to an expanding UC Berkeley effort by the Green Room Committee to educate the campus community about recycling, water and energy conservation and about purchasing decisions.
"We wanted to give the room a holistic concept, connecting the dots between the things students learn in the classroom and the choices they make in their everyday lives, said Desirae Early, a junior majoring in environmental economics and policy, a Green Campus Program coordinator and a Green Room Committee member.
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"We wanted to give the room a holistic concept, connecting the dots between the things students learn in the classroom and the choices they make in their everyday lives, said Desirae Early, a junior majoring in environmental economics and policy, a Green Campus Program coordinator and a Green Room Committee member.
Continue reading "Tours begin of eco-friendly "green apartment"" »
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- Can business be the solution and not the problem?
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