Comments on: Call for Submissions: Women at the Forefront of Sustainability

By: AndreaLearned

AndreaLearned — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:37:11 +0000

Nominations/submissions are closed - but, feel free to post the name(s) you think need to be recognized here anyway, if they aren't already on the poll http://learnedon.com/2010/03/poll-women-sustain...

One that came to me via LinkedIn, GreenBiz group: Anne Korin, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.

By: Carolyn Parrs

Carolyn Parrs — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:17:32 +0000

Hi Andrea, I know submissions are closed but I have to share with you my podcast called Women Of Green. It highlights the women who are the movers and shakers in green. This seems in alignment with your call for submissions. Maybe we can collaberate on this and share some of the voices of the winners on Women Of Green? Check out my podcast and website here: www.womenofgreen.com or go to iTunes. Feel free to call me at 505-231-2342 or 505-989-4004.

By: Nigel

Nigel — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:25:52 +0000

Pat Featherstone at 'Soil For Life' in Cape Town, South Africa has been a dynamo in her quest to teach masses of people, who live in very meagre conditions, to grow their own veggies using their organic waste in clever composting techniques. They use other waste such as car tires to hold soil in which to grow potatoes and so on.
By showing people on the bread-line how sustainability, and 'up-cycling' of waste can improve their own food security, I would guess that Pat has built a solid platform from which to grow 'sustainability' as mantra. Interestingly, this work at the lower end of the LSM spectrum has begun to percolate upwards to the leafy suburbs where food safety issues are creating the drive for home grown food!
Pretty significant cross-sectional influence in my mind.
PS. Thanks to Tom for the link!

By: AndreaLearned

AndreaLearned — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:45:57 +0000

The main gist I get from this call for submissions (remember – we haven't even done the actual poll yet!) is that there are tons of women doing incredible work but who are perhaps not so concerned with being KNOWN/recognized for it. I applaud and can relate to that perspective. In sustainability perhaps more than a lot of other realms, it's all about just doing it! Figuring out how to be recognized may just slow the whole process down… More in future posts on the topic, I'm sure.

By: kiragould

kiragould — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:38:18 +0000

I am co-author, with Lance Hosey, of Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design (Ecotone Publishing). I have MANY names to add to this list, but I'll try to sent them in small batches. Nina Simons, co founder of Bioneers should be on the list. And Janine Benyus of biomimicry fame (and infectious, joyous spirit); those two participated in a conversation with Hunter Lovins in our book and it was powerful! (We felt lucky to be along for that ride!) Many of my examples are in the building/design world but we thought about that world broadly--it's really about all aspects of human settlement. I'll suggest others soon. Perhaps I should just post the list of EVERYONE we quoted in the book... (don't worry, just kidding). The best thing about the hundreds of interviews we did was hearing from so many influential women about who ELSE they thought we should talk to.

Architect Gail Lindsey must be mentioned here: She inspired many in the green building movement with a durable joy they draw on today. Her passing last year was a huge loss.

Donella Meadows' writing (esp. Leverage Points in a System) is absolutely SEMINAL for so many in the field...

Okay, I'll stop now.

By: AndreaLearned

AndreaLearned — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:10:27 +0000

2 more submissions – Kira Gould, co-author of Women in Green, and Joyce LaValle, former Senior Vice President of Interface, Inc. and founding member of Women's Network for a Sustainable Future.

By: kerrymitchell

kerrymitchell — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:21:26 +0000

I don't even know if this is appropriate but I am a woman promoting energy and green building education. We are young but have educated 6,000 in the real estate industries and have many more on target for the coming year.

I founded Green Real Estate Education after being diagnosed with the very beginning stages of emphysema and realizing no one was training real estate agents in green building or sustainability issues. This sector needed to start understanding more of indoor air quality and helping clients to know how to lower utility bills. We established a certification program 4 years ago for those professions in the real estate industry and haven't looked back. but all should knoweducation is sorely needed

Thanks,

By: kerrymitchell

kerrymitchell — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:18:21 +0000

By: Andrea Learned

Andrea Learned — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:02:32 +0000

Getting this conversation to reverberate outside the inner sustainability circles is one of my goals. On that front, http://www.TomPeters.com linked to both my post on working women/energy efficiency and this call for submissions. If there are other broader business/management-related sites you think might be interested – please pass this link along. It’d be great to figure out how to make sustainability universally interesting/engaging for smart business minds!

By: Lola Oje

Lola Oje — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:12:51 +0000

Thanks Andrea, it is very interesting to see that a lot of us share your passion for environmental sustainability, indeed it is not a gender issue, those of us in developing countries awareness is low and government policies are weak,for me living in Nigeria the first name that comes to my mind is Wathai Maangari, she is refreshinly genuine.