January 2022
Photo courtesy of Jelle De Gier via Unsplash
In 2020, artists displayed a prominent clock in New York City’s Union Square with the message, “The Earth has a deadline.” The clock counts down the years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds before the effects of climate change are irreversible. Unfortunately, anxiety-provoking climate news, such as this, have become commonplace, making it difficult to maintain optimism.
That's why it's important to search for hope. In his latest book, scientist Michael Mann, describes hopelessness as the new “climate war.” Hopelessness leads to paralysis, and now more than ever, we need action. In an article published this year titled, “The Search for Environmental Hope,” scientists, nature philosophers, and activists shared sentiments of hope for the planet. The experts stress that optimism is rational and critical; there is still time to avert the worst consequences of climate change, and we are making meaningful progress.
Just recently, the artists of Union Square’s climate clock added a renewable energy calculator next to the countdown. The display shows the steadily increasing percentage of global renewable energy. The latest addition to the climate clock speaks to the significance of hope in climate messaging. This is not to say we should have blind hope, rather it highlights the importance of optimism that is both informed and actionable. Our newsletter this month focuses on positive environmental progress and hope for our planet.
“What is the antidote to irrational, disabling, doom-and-gloom futility messaging? Motivating hope that is grounded in entirely legitimate and defensible reasons for cautious optimism that the worst can still be averted.”
Project Spotlight Kamehameha Schools
At the beginning of July, Lotus began working with Kamehameha Schools (KS), a Native Hawaiian educational trust, to provide a high-level review of top sustainability strategies. KS operates an educational system that includes preschools, three K-12 campuses, community education, and scholarships across the Hawaiian Islands. In addition, KS is the largest private landowner in the state, stewarding 10 percent of Hawaiʻi’s land-base with a major stake in native forestry.
One of KS’ chief values, ‘Āina Ulu, refers to the connection between Native Hawaiian culture and protecting the environment and conservation lands. One of the top priorities for the consulting team was to integrate KS’ rich cultural heritage into our sustainability recommendations.
The Lotus team, in collaboration with the Hawaiʻi-based consulting firm, Sustainable Pacific, conducted a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and carbon stock assessment. Guided by this data, we provided carbon reduction recommendations as well as a carbon stock and sequestration opportunities analysis.
Welcome Kim Schlaepfer!
This month, we welcomed the newest member of the Lotus team, Kim Shlaepfer!
Kim has a broad range of experience in the sustainability field from managing climate mitigation and resiliency programs to working with private sector clients on focused sustainability projects. Kim excels in project management for large and small clients, across multiple stakeholder groups, through an integrative process. This includes the facilitation of large stakeholder meetings and managing the people as well as the process to ensure a project achieves its objectives and maintains momentum.
Kim's technical expertise lies in GHG accounting and mitigation strategies for the public and private sectors, and she has a proven track record of implementing and scaling programs to deliver a measurable impact.
Kim's most recent work includes management and facilitation of the Climate Action Collaborative for the Eagle County community, a partnership of over 30 organizations working to reduce carbon pollution in rural Colorado. Prior to that, Kim spent years managing diverse teams to align on and achieve LEED certification targets through project management, documentation coordination, and sustainability consulting to advise on strategy. Kim is a LEED Accredited Professional for Design & Construction and Operations & Maintenance.
One Good Piece of Environmental News from 2021
This month, we asked our team at Lotus to share a piece of 2021 environmental news that made them feel hopeful.
Emily: I appreciate the growing emphasis on promoting building electrification and developing electric-themed building codes. For news that really made me smile, I loved reading about how China’s elephant experts protected a herd of 15 while they meandered 300 miles away from their home. (Click here for more information). Even though our world is facing so many difficulties, people choose to humanely guide the elephants away from communities and let them continue their journey at the costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and significant coordination. This story highlighted the significance of maintaining our connection to and protecting other living creatures.
Hillary: I am loving that the concept of the Circular Economy is becoming a common topic of conversation and a great startup opportunity.
Diane: When it comes to reducing waste, I am all in. The year 2021 brought some great improvements to reduce single-use plastics across Colorado. One example is House Bill 21-1162 signed by our Governor in 2021, which aims to slow the end of plastic bags and single-use foam containers. Although the ban won't go into effect until 2024, it is one step closer to a path to zero waste - yay!
Rachel: Denver's building electrification ordinance! It will require all commercial and multifamily buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and building electrification. Combined with the work that will be funded by the Climate Protection Fund, there's a lot of exciting climate action happening in Denver!
Nick: One positive piece of environmental news in 2021 that stood out to me was that 58.9 million hectares (a bit larger than the island of Madagascar) of forest have been regrown since 2000. While deforestation is still happening at a faster rate, this highlighted to me the large-scale impact that collective climate action can have even if it seems small for an individual. Reforesting land, rather than continuing extractive land uses also highlights how shifting away from economics first viewpoints of land is key for nations who have contributed the most to climate change to reduce and reverse their impacts.
Mallory: This last year, there has been significant progress on coral recovery in the Great Barrier Reef! The process has been compared to IVF. Basically, scientists use man-made pools to move coral from abundant reefs to areas that have been hardest hit by coral bleaching. These “baby corals” then reproduce and repopulate the reefs. This last year billions of coral “babies” were born from this process in what has been described as an explosion of color in dying reefs.
Kim: The sustainability news that gave me some hope in 2021 was hearing how a small hedge fund made huge ripples in the energy industry by seating two board nominees, which happened to be climate activists, on the board of a major oil and gas company, ExxonMobil. Click here to learn more. While the fight to get the largest energy providers (and GHG emitters) in the world to curb and stop emissions seems daunting and hopeless at times, this story showcased that levers exist to drive systems-level change. Any systems-level change is absolutely critical in the fight to stop climate change. When the right levers are pulled, real change can be made, and I look forward to seeing how the two climate activists on ExxonMobile's board can push the company to reduce its carbon footprint and invest in renewable energy.
Marshall Fire Donation Links
On December 30, 2021, multiple fires tore through Boulder County, leading to the evacuation of 35,000 people and destroying over 1,000 structures. If you’re looking for a way to support our neighbors who were affected by the fires in Boulder County, here are a few resources:
Donate: Monetary donations can be made to the Boulder County Wildfire Fund.
WildfireFund through the Community Foundation of Boulder County here.
Volunteer: To support recovery efforts, click here to register with Colorado Responds.
Share resources: CSU Extension's After the Disaster Guidebook for Boulder County provides a toolkit for communities impacted by wildfire. This article, How To Help A Friend Who Lost Their Home In A Fire, is helpful for understanding how to sensitively support friends and acquaintances as they work through that loss. And for those directly affected, the Disaster Assistance Center is now open in Lafayette and is a hub for all resources that someone might need (FEMA, insurance, housing, food, etc.)