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President-elect Obama has proven pragmatism and decisiveness with the completion of his energy and environmental team. He apparently understands the issues and is ready to lead.
Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA: former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Nancy Sutley, Chairman of White House Council on Environmental Quality: former energy advisor to California governor, Gray Davis
Carol M. Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change: former EPA administrator under Bill Clinton
Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior: Colorado Senator
Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture: former Iowa Governor
Obama’s first stated target is to reduce U.S. GHG emissions to the level of 1990 by 2020. This is an incredibly bold goal and the wheels need to be put in motion immediately. The first course of action is deciding on a carbon tax and/or cap-and-trade system.
With Obama elected, the world has gained a renewed faith in America. A faith that we understand what needs to be done and finally have the courage to act. To become the change agents that the world needs. We’re no longer afraid of coming together, of breaking cultural, racial, and religious barriers. We’re ready to begin a new age of humanity.
For those of you who’ve been reading our blog for awhile, you know we’ve focused on wine as a unifier in the sustainable development of our lives. We’ve woven it into the core values of economic, social, and environmental health in an effort to exemplify its unifying power. The GrapeThinking passion has always been to create a sustainable world, and we feel the time is now to grow from our wine roots and become a sustainability incubator.
I’m so excited for our friends at Ecovative Design. They have recently won the € 500,000 grand prize at the PICNIC Green Challenge in Amsterdam a few weeks ago. I’m absolutely ecstatic for Eben and his partners! Skip ahead to 1:56 to see Eben’s presentation.
Being the eco-biz of the grape thinkers, I have to say, I’ve finally come across a company that completely resonates with what we’re all about.
Village Green Energy is a really cool startup that is buying renewable energy certificates, also known as RECs, from a regulated marketplace of solar fields, wind farms, and other renewable energy producers, in which they compete with utility companies and then broker the RECs to a variety of partners. A few wineries just so happen to be some of their first customers, our friends over at Windsor Vineyards and Girard being one of them. VGE is also doing some clever things with consumer particpatory apps and programs that gain marketable exposure to the partner businesses, thus giving them greater incentive to purchase the RECs from Village Green.
Wow, what an excellent conference! A game changer. I have to thank my friends over at Village Green Energy for hooking me up with a free pass. I’ve been so passionate about this movement as long as I can remember… ever since 6th grade when I messed around with electromagenetic fields and plants. Early education for me was all about ecology and environment, and that followed with rigorous economics in college, which I didn’t quite understand about myself until now. Having not gone into banking with my degree and now seeing the state of the economy I was like shit… but David Suzuki put it so clearly… it’s (eco)nomics. I can’t believe I never recognized that. I automatically associated economics with the greedy, short-sighted mentality of Wall Street that focuses solely on the bottom line and exploiting the market for cash and egoic status. Yet you realize the bottom line is not the statement of cash flows or the balance sheet… it’s the fuckin planet. Ecology + Economics = Sustainability. This conference was absolutely buzzing! People were feeling alive and connecting and touching each other like I’ve never seen in my life. We all knew the green revolution is ready and about to change the world in a big way.
President-elect Obama has proven pragmatism and decisiveness with the completion of his energy and environmental team. He apparently understands the issues and is ready to lead.
