Episode 130

Building A World Beyond Pollution And Inequality With Michelle Romero

Episode Summary: In this episode, Michelle Romero, Leekei, Jenn and Kristina delve into Dream.org's mission of building a brighter future, explore lessons from crises and struggles, highlight innovative climate solutions from diverse communities, and discuss strategies for fostering an inclusive green economy.

Topics discussed include:

  • dream.org in a nutshell: uniting people from unlikely walks of life and building a world beyond poverty, prison, pollution and polarization.
  • the Flint Michigan experience and Michelle’s awakening to the need to adapt climate action and conversations to serve poorer communities
  • helping underserved and underinvested communities access funding
  • recognizing the magnitude of the problem and acknowledging that there are no quick fixes
  • seeing an opportunity to empathize and collaborate through the crisis
  • learning environmentalism and climate solutions from different communities
  • a success story: how Reginald Parker (CEO of Optimal Technology Corporation) designed the most efficient technological solution to capture energy from the sun
  • the launchpad program for Black and LatinX entrepreneurs and innovators
  • building an inclusive green economy to help people with a prison record
  • what is the future “dream world” Michelle hopes to build for her 9-year-old
  • Michelle’s advice for people who want to create change: you don’t necessarily need to quit your job, you can start by using your power and position as a platform to take action

About Michelle Romero:

Michelle Romero is the Chief Strategy Officer of Dream.Org. As a Latinx C-Suite leader, Michelle oversees programs which focus on ending mass incarceration, building an inclusive green economy, diversifying tech, and uniting unlikely allies to create a more equitable future. She’s raised tens of millions of dollars for social causes, billions of dollars in climate funding, advised local governments on effective practices for engaging communities of color in decision-making, and advises corporations on equity in sustainability. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz and currently lives in Sacramento, CA.

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Visit thecarbonalmanac.org/podcasts and send us a voice message on this episode or any other climate-related ideas and perspectives.

Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!

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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Leekei Tang, Jenn Swanson and Kristina Horning.

Leekei is a fashion business founder, a business coach, an international development expert and podcaster from Paris, France.

From Langley in British Columbia, Canada, Jenn is a Minister, Coach, Writer and Community Connector, helping people help themselves.

Kristina has a background in architecture and engineering. Currently in Prague (that it is where she is originally from) and her base is US

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Since you’ve come this far, please show your Aloha.

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Maui-based Carbon Almanac Contributor Richie Biluan wrote “You are important. Your voice is important. Your aloha is significant. If you are on social media, send someone an encouraging comment who you see is going through this tragedy, or any for that matter. Share critical information with your network. Write. Read. And most importantly - love one another.”

Visit Richie IG to find out how you can help.

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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.

Transcript
Speaker:

Hi, I'm Christina.

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I'm from Prague.

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Hi, I'm Jen, and I'm from Canada.

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Hi, I'm Oladunji, and I'm from Nigeria.

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Hello, I'm Liki, and I live in Paris.

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Hi, I'm Brian, and I'm from New York.

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Welcome to Carbon Sessions, a podcast with

carbon conversations for every day with

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everyone from everywhere in the world.

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In our conversations, we share ideas,

perspectives, questions, and things we

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can actually do to make a difference.

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So don't be shy and join our Carbon

Sessions because it's not too late.

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This is Christina.

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Hi, this is Liki.

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Hi, this is Jen, and we've got

a wonderful guest with us today,

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Michelle Romero from Dream.

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org.

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Welcome, Michelle.

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That's right.

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Thank you so much for having me.

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Michelle, can you tell us a

little bit about what Dream.

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org is to start with?

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Yeah, well, it's very exciting.

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We have a very ambitious mission.

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Dream.

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org essentially dreams of a world beyond,

a world beyond poverty, beyond prison.

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Beyond pollution, um,

and beyond polarization.

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So we really are uniting people

from different sectors and from

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unlikely walks of life, right.

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To sort of come together and

contribute to helping solve

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some of our toughest problems.

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That's pretty amazing.

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And, and so my question is, how did so

many things come into one confluence?

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Yeah, well, you know, I think that

there are, uh, traditional issues

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like mass incarceration that we

think of as social justice issues.

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Um, in the United States, if you're

not familiar, the prison system is

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quite overrun and is disproportionately

incarcerating black and brown folks.

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And so it's a real issue here.

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Um, and that's something that we've

traditionally thought of as a social

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justice issue, a issue of unfairness.

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A newer issue really is climate change.

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I think climate change still in the

last few years has become much more

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understood, much more known for the like

magnitude of the issue that it truly is.

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Um, but it's newer, and so how those

issues affect communities of color is

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something that we try to bring forth, but

also when you connect the issues of both

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pollution and prisons, the reason that we

have a state where low income communities,

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poor people, and people of color are the

communities that have the dirtiest sources

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of pollution, they're the communities

that are most affected, you know, the

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places where pollution lives, so to speak,

the places where we've cited Some of the

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dirtiest sources of pollution, um, and

the, and the way that, in which we're

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able to just sort of lock folks up, uh, is

because we devalue certain people's lives.

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And so there's a connective tissue here

in terms of this throwaway society that as

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we look about building a more sustainable

economy, a more inclusive, regenerative

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economy, we also need to think about,

well, what does that mean for society?

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What are the mental mind shifts, um, that

we need to break free from in order to be.

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A sustainable society as well.

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Great.

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Thank you.

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And I have one more question and

then if somebody else wants to jump

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in, um, my question is how did you

personally become involved in this?

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Yeah.

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Well, seven years ago I had a friend

who was leading, um, Green for All,

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which is the initiative at dream.

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org that's working to build a more

inclusive green economy, strong

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enough to lift people out of poverty.

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And she asked me to come and help her

lead some of our national campaign work.

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And we'd worked together

at another non profit.

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And I said to her, I said, well,

look, I believe in you as a

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leader, a hundred percent, right?

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I am there to help you build what

you envision, but I'm not sure

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about this environmental stuff.

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I think as a Latina who had been working

on racial justice issues and issues of

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economic justice, I wasn't really too

sure, um, how the environment and climate

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issues really affected our communities.

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Again, like I said, it's not one of

those issues that we traditionally

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think of as a social justice issue.

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Um, and from the outside looking in, The

movement was still very much, you know,

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advertised as about saving the whales

and saving the polar bears and, um, you

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know, plastic pollution and things like

that that weren't connecting to me on

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a tangible level in terms of what does

this mean for our communities, right?

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What does this mean for

our day-to-day lives?

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Um, and I will say that first month that

I came and joined her, I took a chance

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and she sent me to Flint, Michigan.

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And Flint, Michigan at the time was

going through the Flint water crisis.

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And so this was an entire city

who had been lead poisoned

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in their drinking water.

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They couldn't drink the water, severe

cognitive issues, developmental issues,

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right, were present in children.

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I mean, just, uh, it was terrible.

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And I remember sitting there

in rooms talking to mothers.

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And there was one in particular,

her name was Denitra.

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And she had a three year old at the time.

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And she was describing How, you know,

as a three year old, your pot, it's

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potty training age, and so you're

teaching them to use the bathroom,

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and her son had a, an accident.

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And so she needed to wash him.

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And she very quickly thought she would

just rinse him quickly in the tub, knowing

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they can't drink the water, of course.

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But lead doesn't really affect

your skin, or shouldn't.

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Um, and yet, within seconds of her putting

him in the tub to rinse him off, he was

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yelling, Mommy, mommy, it's burning.

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And so when she pulls him out

of the water, she sees that his

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skin is cracking and bleeding.

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So there was more still going on that

wasn't fully, you know, being investigated

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and it wasn't addressed with any

sort of swiftness by the government.

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And when you look at a community

like Flint, Michigan, it was

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predominantly low income.

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It was black and white poor people.

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I just remember sitting there,

my daughter was about the same

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age as her son at the time.

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And I remember sitting there

just asking myself, how does

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this happen in the United States?

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This country that sort of upholds

itself as a beacon of, well,

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freedom and opportunity and all of

these things that we like to say.

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And have.

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People living like that.

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It had been over a year at that

point that they were living like,

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been much longer since, of course.

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Right.

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Uh, but I just reflected and I

remembered a moment that I hadn't

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given as much thought to at the time.

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And I was sitting back home, um,

in my home in California, uh, not

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too far from Richmond, California.

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And I remember watching the news and

the, uh, TV reporters reporting that

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you should get inside your homes if

you live in Richmond, California.

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There had just been a

Chevron oil refinery.

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Explosion and the air outside was unsafe

to breathe, so you should get inside

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and that you should close your doors and

windows and more than that, you know,

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you should find towels, bedding, anything

you could to sort of shove in the cracks.

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Well, I had a friend.

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Who lived in Richmond at the time and this

is before I'd ever gone to Flint, right?

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This is before I'd even worked on

environmental issues or started to make

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these connections But sitting there in

Flint reminded me of that time I called

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my friend and I said Blanca, are you

seeing what's happening on the news?

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Are you inside?

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Are you okay?

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And she actually laughed at me.

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She laughed at me because she

said Michelle I've grown up

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here my whole life, right?

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This happens every other year.

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There's something like this.

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There's an alarm system In the city that

tells us when we've got to get inside.

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Now, at that time, that particular

incident, I'm recalling tens of

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thousands of people ended up in

the hospital alarm system or not.

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Right.

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But the idea that someone who'd grown

up there had found it to be so normal

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again, to me, just connected the Richmond,

California is the Flint, Michigan's.

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Right.

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The thing they had in common is these

were poor communities and they had

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significant populations of either black

or Latin X or immigrant communities.

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And it was just.

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How do we let that go on so long?

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It's not in our neighborhood, right?

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As long as it's not us.

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And so this othering that we do,

um, I think is what has gotten

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us here with the climate crisis.

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Yeah, I think the work you're doing

is really important because you are

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tackling a very important issue.

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Part of society, a part of it

does not very much address in the

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climate and environmental work.

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And I didn't realize that until I listened

to a podcast a couple of weeks ago.

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I'm from France.

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And so we also have this problem

of, um, of polarisation and the

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low income communities issue.

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I was listening to a very bright young

man who's working with low income

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communities and going to Like, you

know, I don't know if you're familiar

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with the Bollier problem in France,

it's like really low income suburbs

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that have, um, very high unemployment

and, um, high pity crime, let's say.

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And, um, and, the people living there are

not involved in the climate conversation.

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But on the other hand, they're very much

exposed because it is in this area where

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they have no, like, not so many trees,

no access to, like, because we keep saying

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that, oh, well, you should buy local,

but no, they cannot buy local because

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nothing grows all around this area.

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Right.

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And, um, and so the message

of this very bright young man

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was, okay, this is your chance.

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I mean, not this is your chance.

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You have to, you really have , to

understand the problem, and this is

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an empowerment tool for you to, to

be involved in society, because a

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lot of things are going to change,

and this is your way of getting

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involved in building the new system.

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So my My question to you is that because

the young man was explaining things like,

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you know, well, the message that , we hear

in the mainstream media is like, Oh, wow.

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What we could do is to switch

to electric cars, but you know,

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people are not even driving there.

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So I guess that you have the same

kind of approach with low income

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communities in the places you work.

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So how do you address that?

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Absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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You know, local communities need local

solutions and not every community

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is the same right in terms of how

they get around their city or how

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they, um, reach access to hospitals

or to food or things like that.

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So I think, you know, one of the unique

opportunities that we have right now

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in the United States, which is very

exciting, is that the federal government

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this past year authorized 369 billion.

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for climate investment and

that was authorized as part of

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the Inflation Reduction Act.

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So there's now billions of dollars

that are going to be allocated

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over the next several years.

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But, you know, history shows us that just

because they've authorized the funding

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doesn't mean it actually reaches the

people in places that need it the most.

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Yeah.

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So one of the things that we

are really focused on at Dream.

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org is making sure that the

money does get to the people in

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places that need it the most.

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Um, we've been working with policy

makers in the United States.

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On how to design the programs

and the criteria for applications

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that would compete for funding.

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So that we're prioritizing the

communities that we've underinvested

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in for so long that we're actually

now proactively investing in them.

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Um, I'm actually very proud of our

team, you know, to share that the

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Environmental Protection Agency adopted

all of our recommendations recently.

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Um, when they put out the rules for

this new Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund,

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it's the first 20 billion essentially

that's going to go out the door.

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Um, and so we're going to see

now more of this money starting

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to benefit these communities.

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What happens at the

grassroots level, right?

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What happens at the community

level, um, when communities don't

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know how to position themselves to

compete, how to access the money.

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So we're also working at that

level through our transformative

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communities program.

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That program is working, uh,

specifically with what we call

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disadvantaged or underinvested in

pollution burdened communities.

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And helping them identify projects that

they want to see that meet the criteria

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for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,

and that could become competitive in

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this cycle, so that we're starting to

develop a pipeline of shovel worthy

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projects that are ready then when that

application open to go after those

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funding, and it's, you know, involving

community, it's engaging them and

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saying, What would you want to see here?

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Do you need more, you know,

public transportation?

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Do you need affordable housing built

near transit so that it's reducing

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the need for reliance on cars?

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You know, that's one of the

things that is possible.

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And so anyway, it's very exciting

because we have an opportunity really

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to do some transformative things.

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I have been thinking about when

we were talking about Flint and,

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uh, other specific, uh, disasters.

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They have been going on, on

decades, for decades and decades.

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And, uh, I experience, I'm from Czech

Republic, and I experience after 89.

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The pollution in the rivers, before

89, pollution was really bad.

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The fish were dying.

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It was basically disaster,

a chemical disaster.

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And within a year or so, the

rivers can be cleaned up.

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And I feel this is such a wonderful focus

on these things to finally put money

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in it and clean up all these things we

have been suffering with for decades.

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And, uh, maybe that's one positive

part of the climate change that

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finally we're getting focused

on something that is important.

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My question is, do you remember the time

when you could Specify the connection

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between the behavior of the big companies

and all these things happening and the

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climate change and how you woven it into

your I think that generally, you know, we

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see in the environmental movement these

campaigns to sort of help people stop

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using single use plastics and it's really

focused on sort of individual behavior.

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And of course, there's

something everyone can do.

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And I think what you're getting at is

important, which is to recognize that

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there's actually a smaller amount of

individuals or companies that actually

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contribute the greatest amount.

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Um, of the climate pollution,

and so absolutely, I mean,

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that's what we advocate, right?

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To um, stop pollution

and to fund solutions.

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Yeah.

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And some of that means, you know, making

the polluters sort of pay, that there

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is a social cost to allowing them to

just sort of pollute the air, which

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is essentially a public good, right?

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It's a shared resource.

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That's brilliant when you

said stop funding pollution.

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Yeah.

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I never thought it that way.

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Yeah, you're right.

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We have been.

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We have been.

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Yeah, if you were a small business, if

you were a restaurant, you wouldn't,

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oh, I don't know, some places I guess

you pay for trash and some places you

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don't, where I live, you know, you pay

to have your trash collected and picked

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up and so, but if you're a restaurant,

you're not just going to dump your trash

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on the street and think it's just going

to live there, right, that that would

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come with some sort of fee for littering

or, like, it's just not acceptable.

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And yet, that's essentially

what we've done to our air.

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That there hasn't been the regulations

around our shared use of, of the

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air, um, that it's allowed that.

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But I think to be able to recapture

some of the value, you know, that,

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that actually has and to be able to

use that to help fund the transition

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is, you know, a possible solution.

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So, yeah, I think how we hold these

polluters accountable is important.

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I, I have another question.

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Have you guys been working

with system practice?

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Uh, I'm not familiar with that.

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What do you mean?

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Systems practice.

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It's a system where they look

at the whole, whole thing.

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Uh, you, they would look at not

only the local main government, the

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pollution, but I, I was thinking

that's such a helpful tool.

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Yeah.

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With this issue that it's...

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It's huge.

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It's uh, and changing every day.

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Yeah.

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So, I thought of system

practice as a really good fit.

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I mean, we do need systems

level solutions, right?

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Interventions at every level.

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Yeah.

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Every level of government,

but also in industry.

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And connecting all of them together, yeah.

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Yeah.

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Um, Michelle, I would like to go back to

this low income, grassroot communities,

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and I was wondering through the work,

what was the biggest Difficulty that

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you faced, uh, your organization faced

when they go to the grassroots level.

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What was that?

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How does it happen?

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You know, what was the experience?

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Look, I mean, I think the hardest

thing is, um, recognizing the magnitude

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of the problem and wishing that you

could just sort of wave a magic wand

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and, and have cleaner communities

and have communities that have clean

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water again and that sort of thing.

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And it's just, unfortunately,

when there's this much damage.

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It's not a quick fix, and I think

that's hard to accept, right?

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We live, you know, especially just

capitalism and consumerism has us having

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these quick transactional exchanges, and

so we think, well, if we just, can we

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just pay for this, or can we just do the,

can we just throw money at the problem?

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Does that fix it?

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And we need money, right?

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To help bring the solution.

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Um, but it, it is more complicated,

and it does take collaboration.

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Um, it does take multiple, you know, sort

of players between, in, in cooperation

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I would say between government,

between industry, between communities.

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Um, but that's also I think

the exciting opportunity.

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You know when I talked earlier about we

have to heal society's sort of addiction

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to othering, um, the, the divisiveness

or the hate, the things that make us.

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feel comfortable pointing to someone

who is different than us and saying, Oh,

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well, that's not me, or I don't identify.

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And so therefore I don't have to care.

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Don't have to care about them.

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I don't have to have empathy, right?

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It's an excuse.

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It absolves us of some

sort of responsibility.

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Um, with this kind of problem, like

climate change, it doesn't allow for that.

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To have collaboration, you've

got to get back in the game.

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You've got to empathize.

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You have to care about people who

are different than you, um, and I

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think especially in this climate

crisis issue, uh, it's one thing when

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the dirtiest sources of pollution,

right, the cancer, the asthma, all of

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that is sort of in these low income

communities and communities of color.

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It's another when that.

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Pollution, right?

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The same climate pollution that's

sort of filling up kids lungs and

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causing asthma and cancer and those

sorts of diseases are now affecting

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:

us at a global level, you know?

348

:

And so we didn't care about it

when it wasn't in our backyard.

349

:

Well, now guess what?

350

:

It's in all of our backyards, but

the problem's become so big, right?

351

:

It would have been much easier to control

it before it had gotten out of control.

352

:

And so that's only possible, I think, when

we care when it's not in our backyard too.

353

:

I resonate with that.

354

:

I'm in Canada and we have a number

of First Nation communities that

355

:

have for decades not had access to

clean drinking water, which is...

356

:

absurd because we have some of the

best drinking water in the world.

357

:

So, you know, it's, it's a similar thing.

358

:

And what I'm noticing now is with all of

the fires that we've got going on here

359

:

is finally people are starting to consult

with the First Nations people who have,

360

:

you know, generations and generations of

knowledge on how to deal with things like

361

:

The environment, the earth, the water, the

air, the fires, and are finally consulting

362

:

to say, you know, what would you do?

363

:

Because clearly what we're

doing is not working.

364

:

And so finally there's some

consultation, um, from the people

365

:

who are the knowledge keepers really.

366

:

So I, I just kind of wonder if there's

consultation, if there's, you know,

367

:

what, what do the people who are the most

affected, do they have ideas and solutions

368

:

that anyone's listening to is my question.

369

:

Yeah.

370

:

There's two things I want to say to that.

371

:

One is that, you know, I mentioned

when I first got into the environmental

372

:

issues, I wasn't sure, uh, you know, I

struggled with the identifying myself

373

:

as an environmentalist because of how

the movement was sort of branded, right?

374

:

Um, and, and the, the concerns

that I had, you know, being

375

:

rooted maybe a little bit more in

economic justice or racial justice.

376

:

But when I think back to how I grew up,

uh, my grandmother was my babysitter,

377

:

right, I've spent most of my time, I

would say at her house, at grandma's

378

:

house, and, um, I'm half Mexican and

half white, so this is on my dad's

379

:

side, my Mexican abuelita, okay.

380

:

This was a woman who saved everything.

381

:

And you might have stories

of that too, right?

382

:

A lot of, a different generation.

383

:

A different, or different cultures

that learn to value things.

384

:

And so, butter containers, you ran out

of butter, that was a salsa jar, right?

385

:

Today, we have these bans against

plastic, uh, bags at the grocery

386

:

store, we don't have that anymore.

387

:

And I remember the first thing

thinking, Oh, what are we going to use

388

:

then when we're making our tortillas?

389

:

We used to just use that to sort

of separate so they didn't stick.

390

:

Um, you know, and we in our house found

ways to recycle and reuse, but I didn't

391

:

think of that as environmentalism.

392

:

My dad, my grandpa, all of my uncles

worked at the garbage company.

393

:

I was recycling from the

time I was a toddler, right?

394

:

I didn't environmentalism.

395

:

In fact, we actually had more

consciousness around the workers.

396

:

That received the garbage, right?

397

:

And how you are sort of paying attention

to that this goes somewhere, right?

398

:

And someone is dealing with this.

399

:

And so being kind, being respectful.

400

:

Um, but when you fast forward

now, you know, we think about

401

:

solutions to these issues.

402

:

I've talked a lot and I feel like a

lot of the conversation in general

403

:

around communities of color and

low income communities is centered

404

:

on how they're disproportionately.

405

:

How they're more polluted, how they

have less resources, less access to

406

:

the solutions and that sort of thing.

407

:

But they really are, as you mentioned,

Jen, like they are also solutionaries.

408

:

They are also people who have a

ton of knowledge and wisdom before

409

:

we've rebranded some of this as

now being environmentally trendy.

410

:

There are some cultures that

have been practicing these things

411

:

for many, many years, and I will

say there's a lot of genius.

412

:

And talent in these same communities.

413

:

And so again, we, if we can get

out of that sort of mentality, that

414

:

people who are different than us

means that they're less valuable,

415

:

less smart, less brilliant, right?

416

:

It's not just that they're

different, it's that they're less.

417

:

I think that that's how we've

sort of translated that.

418

:

Uh, then maybe we would unlock

the full potential of human

419

:

ingenuity on the problem.

420

:

There's a lot of folks

who've got incredible.

421

:

You know, solar companies and I work,

I get to work with a lot of black and

422

:

brown CEOs of climate tech startups.

423

:

Um, and just to hear how they started

their companies, I mean, we'll tell

424

:

you that lived experience matters.

425

:

You just think about the problem

differently and we need everybody's,

426

:

you know, creativity on this.

427

:

Right.

428

:

And we need to not have environmentalism

be a, you know, a white savior movement.

429

:

Right.

430

:

I agree with you because I think

the environmentalism, it's like

431

:

reinventing the will sometimes.

432

:

Because things have been done, , for ages.

433

:

I, I want to, again, go back to

the, you know, the success stories.

434

:

You mentioned the, you know, CEOs because,

uh, I, obviously your organization helped,

435

:

I shouldn't say people, become leaders.

436

:

Because you see the potential, so

you, you help them become leaders.

437

:

Like to ask you if you, uh, can share

some success stories and also your walk

438

:

us through how was the process or, you

know, how, how you help them become

439

:

the people that are, you know, that are

doing things differently and leading.

440

:

A year or two ago, um, after the

government had authorized all of this

441

:

funding, we said, okay, well, we want

it to go not just to the communities

442

:

who need it the most, but we also

want to make sure that the contracts.

443

:

The business opportunities are

also going to, um, innovators and

444

:

entrepreneurs of color, right?

445

:

Folks who are often overlooked

as the solution makers.

446

:

And so, um, I was able to reach out

and connect and build relationships

447

:

with a lot of brilliant CEOs of various

climate solutions and climate companies.

448

:

One of them, um, I would love to share

just sort of when I say lived experience

449

:

matters, this is what I mean, right?

450

:

Uh, his name is Reginald Parker.

451

:

He's the CEO of Optimal

Technology Corporation.

452

:

He's got all sorts of different

technologies that they've

453

:

brought, uh, to market.

454

:

But one of them is actually the most

efficient solar panel on the market.

455

:

Uh, it's the most efficient, right?

456

:

And so it captures more, it

harnesses more of the sun's energy.

457

:

Uh, and making it quite valuable.

458

:

How did he come up with

this technology, right?

459

:

Uh, many, many, many years

after many, many solar companies

460

:

had already been doing solar.

461

:

Well, he was a high school student

before he was an entrepreneur,

462

:

before he'd even gone to college.

463

:

He was a high school student.

464

:

And as a black man, he had his,

uh, photo taken for the yearbook

465

:

like every other student.

466

:

But again, as a black man,

um, not every photographer.

467

:

Knows how to capture the features and the

undertones in the face of a black person,

468

:

especially a darker skinned black person.

469

:

And so his yearbook photo came back,

uh, you know, like one dark blob.

470

:

He, he really couldn't recognize him.

471

:

It didn't feel like him.

472

:

And so he said, I'm not

having that in my yearbook.

473

:

And, uh, he went home and he worked with

his uncle to sort of set up lighting

474

:

and, you know, set up at home to take

it, to retake his yearbook photo.

475

:

So he could submit something different.

476

:

And sure enough, his uncle takes his photo

and it is a photo of him, a proper photo.

477

:

You can see his face, right?

478

:

Everything looks good.

479

:

And he asked his uncle,

Wait, I don't get it.

480

:

You know, he says, at school

we had all the lighting.

481

:

We had the professional camera

equipment and the company that

482

:

comes in to take the photos.

483

:

He says, we did all that at home.

484

:

How can these two photos be so different?

485

:

You know, his uncle was explaining to

him that the way that you can split UV

486

:

light You know, and bounce it, bounce the

light differently, helps you to capture

487

:

different sorts of tones, different sorts

of, um, layers and stuff to a photograph.

488

:

And so he remembered that, right, took

that piece of knowledge, pocketed it,

489

:

didn't think about it for a while, went

to school, right, became a, a chemist,

490

:

a chemical engineer, and ended up

working in the solar industry, actually

491

:

helping to install solar initially.

492

:

And, um, he realized in working in

solar that, Oh my gosh, these solar

493

:

panels were so inefficient at the time.

494

:

They were like 17 percent efficiency.

495

:

He's like, we're barely capturing

a fifth of the potential, right?

496

:

He thought there's gotta be a better way.

497

:

And so he went to work on that problem

and it was lessons like, uh, the one

498

:

from his high school yearbook photo

that actually gave him a different

499

:

way of approaching the problem and led

to an ultimately different technology

500

:

solution for how we capture the sun.

501

:

Uh, energy.

502

:

And so he's got, you know,

it's more efficient by far.

503

:

And folks would say,

well, he's outsourcing it.

504

:

How's he making it?

505

:

Right.

506

:

It must be really expensive.

507

:

Nope.

508

:

He produces them in the United States.

509

:

They're local jobs.

510

:

Right.

511

:

And, um, they're cheaper.

512

:

Yeah.

513

:

They're actually cheaper.

514

:

And so, um, it's things like that,

you know, I think that, uh, can

515

:

sometimes be overlooked, but one of

the things that we're doing at dream.

516

:

org is that we find that

there's brilliance like that.

517

:

Right.

518

:

More often than not, there's

an overlooked, you look under a

519

:

rock, under a corner, you're going

to find brilliance like that.

520

:

But our venture capitalists,

our financers, right, are not

521

:

necessarily funding these solutions.

522

:

When you think about that most venture

capitalists are, are not diverse, their

523

:

social networks are limited, right?

524

:

How they have access to finding that

brilliance is just limited with their

525

:

set, this sort of same outreach set.

526

:

And so, um, We have partnered with Village

Capital, which is another non profit

527

:

organization based out of New York.

528

:

And we are running a Launchpad

program specifically for Black and

529

:

Latinx entrepreneurs and innovators.

530

:

We're providing them intensive investor

readiness training so that they

531

:

know how to pitch their companies,

how to speak the speak, right, when

532

:

they go and present their companies.

533

:

Because the solutions are

brilliant, but there's a gap.

534

:

Between how one world talks and operates

and how the other has access and so, um,

535

:

being able to get them in front of, uh,

through a demo day culminating event at

536

:

the end of this is going to be in October.

537

:

Uh, in San Francisco, uh, we're going

to have a demo day out at Green Biz's

538

:

Verge event, and we're going to actually

allow them to present their companies in

539

:

front of investors and try to get more

support behind these, uh, innovations.

540

:

That's brilliant.

541

:

You just give me a brilliant idea.

542

:

Yeah, because I was thinking, because

I, I was thinking about, this young,

543

:

bright man and, and I was thinking how

I can help them, you and my field is

544

:

entrepreneurship and I help, I'll help

students and young entrepreneurs build,

545

:

build all the financials and do pitches.

546

:

So here we are.

547

:

Nice.

548

:

Here we are.

549

:

Thank you.

550

:

I see a launchpad in your future.

551

:

Can I ask how the prisons fit in

to everything that you're doing?

552

:

You know, um, our founder, uh, back

in:

553

:

organization, um, he was working as a

criminal justice organizer, and he was

554

:

working to get people out of prison.

555

:

And he was actually pretty successful.

556

:

They had just helped to stop a super

jail from coming to our local county.

557

:

Uh, but he was realizing that,

you know, all of this effort, when

558

:

you're an advocate, when you're

really fighting for creating a better

559

:

world, these are hard problems.

560

:

You don't see the change overnight.

561

:

And so when you have those moments

of success, you have those moments of

562

:

progress, you ask yourself, is it enough?

563

:

And I think that's what he did.

564

:

And he, um, basically asked himself in

reflecting, he says, If All that I'm doing

565

:

is helping to get people out of prison,

helping to give them a second chance.

566

:

That's essentially returning

them though to the same

567

:

communities that they came from.

568

:

So unless we're changing the conditions of

those communities, unless we're creating

569

:

pathways out of poverty, pathways, you

know, alternatives to violence, right?

570

:

Pathways into new opportunity.

571

:

Um, it's not enough.

572

:

It's, it's a half solution.

573

:

And so that's where the work that we do to

build an inclusive green economy comes in.

574

:

Um, that's where all of this climate

investment, if we invested in these

575

:

communities that need economic

opportunity, they need local jobs, right?

576

:

And we know that all of those

investments require skilled work, like

577

:

we actually have a labor shortage of

skilled workers to do this transition.

578

:

So if we can take people who most need

work, coming out of prison for instance,

579

:

and put them to work doing the jobs that

most need done, we can begin to solve

580

:

poverty and pollution at the same time.

581

:

Yeah, that was, um, when I moved in

a new house, it was over 20 years ago

582

:

before, long before we talk about,

um, uh, you know, uh, recycling and

583

:

repairing stuff, because I was young

at that time, so I didn't have a lot

584

:

of money, and I equipped my first

apartment in Paris with, um, secondhand,

585

:

like, fridge washing machine, uh, that

was repaired by people getting out of

586

:

prison, and we were already doing it

over 20 years ago, so, yeah, nothing new.

587

:

Yeah, yeah, nice.

588

:

I've known some companies to start as a

for profit company specifically to employ,

589

:

um, folks coming home from prison too.

590

:

Yeah, there's some great companies doing

that kind of work, but yeah, exactly.

591

:

Battery recycling, bread making,

I mean, there was, there's so

592

:

many, um, and these are exactly

the kinds of things that we need.

593

:

We just need pathways.

594

:

And to get rid of some of the

unnecessary barriers, I think

595

:

some jobs require or exclude.

596

:

Uh, folks with a prison record

from having certain jobs.

597

:

Now, in some cases, the specific,

you know, crime may make sense.

598

:

Um, but a lot of times we just use it as

a blanket, you know, right, to say, Oh,

599

:

if you have a record, you're disqualified.

600

:

You mentioned you have a three year

old a couple of years ago, so what's

601

:

the dream for your three year old?

602

:

Yeah.

603

:

When she would be your age?

604

:

Oh!

605

:

Look, I mean, my dream is that

she doesn't have to go through the

606

:

disasters that are predicted, right?

607

:

Um, my daughter's eight now and she's

already been through a pandemic.

608

:

Oh, yeah, which promised her, right?

609

:

She was in kindergarten at the time and

I remember telling her I promise this

610

:

isn't gonna be your whole life It will

get better and it was almost as quick

611

:

as the words came out of my mouth.

612

:

I thought to myself Oh my god,

you might be a liar and that

613

:

is That's really scary, right?

614

:

That's really scary to think about, so

not to catastrophize the situation, but

615

:

I think my dream for her is to not, you

know, live with the anxiety, um, that

616

:

things like a pandemic or her spending

a good portion of the fall season

617

:

indoors because we have wildfires here.

618

:

Um, in California, uh, you know,

that she can just be a kid, that

619

:

she can just pursue her dreams.

620

:

I remember when I was a kid

thinking, If I had a million

621

:

dollars, what would I do with it?

622

:

Now, a million doesn't sound like that

much anymore, but if I had a million

623

:

dollars, what would I do with it?

624

:

And, uh, I just think growing up, I didn't

worry about the climate crisis, right?

625

:

I dreamed up the biggest

mansion I could imagine!

626

:

Yeah.

627

:

That's what people are all

crazy to spend the money on.

628

:

Um, I asked my daughter this because

we do this, these journaling activities

629

:

and one of the prompts was essentially

that what would you do if you had a

630

:

million dollars and she turns to me and

she says, I would give it all to dream.

631

:

org so that you can fix the environment.

632

:

And I thought, you know, you're

eight on the one hand, but a

633

:

generous heart and on the other.

634

:

Is it because they worry, you know,

it's like, yeah, I was talking

635

:

to a, a person who's in charge

in the organization I work for.

636

:

She's in charge of what's called

the first third ministry, which is

637

:

everybody in the first third of life.

638

:

And she was saying that generations that

generation Z is, uh, has feels the most

639

:

hopeless out of all of the generations,

uh, because of everything they're facing

640

:

and that there's A very strong desire for

mental health and mental wellness because

641

:

of all the anxiety and stress that they're

under, which was really hard to hear.

642

:

And at the same time, completely

understandable because as you

643

:

say, they're living into this, um,

this world we we've got for them.

644

:

And um, that's a really,

that's a really tough thing.

645

:

It is tough, you know, and, um, It's

real, but I think to just leave on a

646

:

hope, on a hopeful note, there really is

something everyone can do, and I think

647

:

that this is, you know, regardless of

the social issue or social problem that

648

:

you're the most passionate about, climate

change, mass incarceration, right, any

649

:

sort of social justice, I think some

people feel like they have to quit their

650

:

day jobs in order to make change, and

I actually think we need people exactly

651

:

where they're at, and we need them

to learn how to use the power and the

652

:

position, the platforms, the platforms.

653

:

The, the relationships, the

resources that they do have to make

654

:

a difference, um, whether you're

in banking or finance, right?

655

:

Find out what programs do you offer

small businesses, you know, to

656

:

support more entrepreneurs of color.

657

:

If you worked at an, at a company, maybe

you work at an entertainment company

658

:

or you work at a technology company or

what have you, um, and they have a big

659

:

sustainability initiative because a lot

of these companies have made commitments

660

:

to reduce their carbon emission.

661

:

Ask them who they're purchasing

from for these solutions.

662

:

Who are they buying

their solar from, right?

663

:

Where are they getting

their electric fleet?

664

:

Uh, those are ways that people

can make purchasing decisions that

665

:

support more economic equity, uh,

when you have supplier diversity.

666

:

Um, if you're at a school, right?

667

:

Thinking about how to incorporate

friend, you know, kid friendly.

668

:

Yeah.

669

:

Don't freak the kids out more,

but you know, kid friendly, sort

670

:

of empowering activity that give

them a sense of empowerment around.

671

:

Um, what they can do to take action.

672

:

I think sometimes the hopelessness

comes from feeling like

673

:

there's nothing we can do.

674

:

Yeah.

675

:

You know?

676

:

We all just need to do what we can do.

677

:

That's great.

678

:

Yeah.

679

:

Thank you.

680

:

Thank you.

681

:

I love the empowerment of kids.

682

:

I was going to say, thanks for

this conversation, Michelle.

683

:

It's been great.

684

:

Lots of, uh, nuggets to take away.

685

:

Yeah.

686

:

Thank you.

687

:

Thank you.

688

:

Wonderful.

689

:

Thank you.

690

:

You've been listening to Carbon

Sessions, a podcast with carbon

691

:

conversations for every day with

everyone from everywhere in the world.

692

:

We'd love you to join the Carbon

Sessions so you too can share your

693

:

perspectives from wherever you are.

694

:

This is a great way for our community

to learn from your ideas and

695

:

experiences, connect, and take action.

696

:

If you want to add your voice to the

conversation, go to thecarbonalmanac.

697

:

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698

:

And sign up to be part

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699

:

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700

:

For more information, to sign up for

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701

:

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702

:

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703

:

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704

:

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Carbon Almanac

When it comes to the climate, we don’t need more marketing or anxiety. We need established facts and a plan for collective action.

The climate is the fundamental issue of our time, and now we face a critical decision. Whether to be optimistic or fatalistic, whether to profess skepticism or to take action. Yet it seems we can barely agree on what is really going on, let alone what needs to be done. We urgently need facts, not opinions. Insights, not statistics. And a shift from thinking about climate change as a “me” problem to a “we” problem.

The Carbon Almanac is a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between hundreds of writers, researchers, thinkers, and illustrators that focuses on what we know, what has come before, and what might happen next. Drawing on over 1,000 data points, the book uses cartoons, quotes, illustrations, tables, histories, and articles to lay out carbon’s impact on our food system, ocean acidity, agriculture, energy, biodiversity, extreme weather events, the economy, human health, and best and worst-case scenarios. Visually engaging and built to share, The Carbon Almanac is the definitive source for facts and the basis for a global movement to fight climate change.

This isn’t what the oil companies, marketers, activists, or politicians want you to believe. This is what’s really happening, right now. Our planet is in trouble, and no one concerned group, corporation, country, or hemisphere can address this on its own. Self-interest only increases the problem. We are in this together. And it’s not too late to for concerted, collective action for change.