Steps toward action in the circular economy

Steps toward action in the circular economy

Every time your smartphone screen shatters, do you ever stop and think: why do I have to buy a new one? Why can’t we just replace the parts that still have some value? These questions were raised by Janine Finnell, Executive Director of Leaders in Energy, at the third annual Circular Economy event on September 28, 2017 at the University of the District of Columbia.

Several dozen participants from different backgrounds joined to learn about the circular economy and engage in small group discussions on how to expand its practices in our businesses, communities, and daily lives. The goal was to develop an action framework to further enable the circular economy in the Washington region.

Resilience in small packages

Resilience in small packages

Cyberattacks, natural disasters, including flooding, snow and ice storms, droughts, in addition to aging infrastructure, and other factors all lead to vulnerability in a system faced with increasing demand. When one part of this complex system fails, as can happen when a storm knocks down a wire or pole, other parts are affected. Enter the microgrid—a local energy distribution system that offers backup generation if the central grid fails.

Changes in the green real estate market

Changes in the green real estate market

By KARI KLAUS This article is reposted with the permission of the author. You can find the original article here. The web is now the primary information resource for...

Clean energy professionals exchange career tips

Clean energy professionals exchange career tips

Leaders in Energy conducted its 4th annual Green Jobs Forum and Green Career Workshop on August 17, 2017. The sold-out event, with over 100 people participating, was held at the DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) headquarters in Washington, DC.

Are you ready to stand up for something?

Are you ready to stand up for something?

Should your business take a stand on the hot issues of the day? Wondering what will happen if you do and if your business will be negatively affected?

Here’s a brief overview of the annual Cone Communications CSR study along with major highlights and takeaways useful for marketers, communicators, business executives and nonprofit leaders as you make key decisions for your organization.

The major takeaway is that people are no longer asking only “What do you stand for,” but also “What do you stand up for?”

Water scarcity is a top global risk

Water scarcity is a top global risk

The World Economic Forum is sounding the alarm – water crises are the top global risk over the next decade. Competition for this essential and highly localized resource is aggravating geopolitical conflict in already stressed environments. This was one of the key messages from Sandra Postel of National Geographic, who delivered the keynote address at the April 25 Northern Virginia Community College Green Festival.

Cybersecurity and the power grid

Cybersecurity and the power grid

In the face of the mounting threats of cyberattacks and the vulnerable, interdependent electric grid systems, governments, utilities, businesses, and people need to come together and do what is necessary to be prepared. No one can afford to be complacent. This was the message at the Energy Infrastructure and Cybersecurity forum held by Leaders in Energy at Make Offices in Arlington, VA (Clarendon) on June 1, 2017.

A sleeping giant has awakened

A sleeping giant has awakened

A sleeping giant has awakened. Instead of looking at the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement as a negative, look at this as the passing of the baton to American businesses and citizens to do what Americans do best—innovate and lead!

Opinion: The frog, climate change, and Trump

Opinion: The frog, climate change, and Trump

There is a short analogy that has been used to explain the human response to climate change (whether in the form of denial, inaction, or delay, or simply nonchalance): that if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he will hop right out, but if you put the frog in a pot of cold water and then turn on the burner, he will remain calmly in the pot until he is fully cooked.

The analogy does provide some insight into our lackadaisical response to a changing climate. From a human perspective, climate change is indeed a slow-moving phenomenon, but geologically-speaking, it is incredibly rapid. As a set of events and changes unleashed primarily by our discovery of fossil fuels some 300 years ago (and dramatically increased rates of extraction and combustion mostly in the last hundred), a cognitive sense of changing climate is distributed across only a dozen generations – either too slow to notice, or too ambiguous to come to conclusions about causality.

Anything but Luck: Achieving the 13th Living Building Challenge Award

Anything but Luck: Achieving the 13th Living Building Challenge Award

On May 20, 2017, the DC Chapter of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP-DC), along with partners, Leaders in Energy and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) National Capital Region, held an event at a newly certified Living Building Challenge facility at the Alice Ferguson Foundation (AFF).

Are you prepared if the lights go out in your area?

Are you prepared if the lights go out in your area?

I just finished reading the cyber-techno book thriller, Blackout, by Marc Elsberg, on the theme of a cyberattack in Europe and the United States leading to a prolonged power outage. It made me wonder whether I was really prepared for an emergency of this kind. It was bad enough experiencing the Derecho storm in the summer of 2012 where my neighborhood in Virginia experienced a power outage in the sweltering heat for 5 days!

After that experience, I became more interested in the topic of community microgrids and back-up power systems to help shield one in the event of a power outage. As a result of reading Marc’s book, I have also been doing research on the best ways to prepare for a power emergency, whether caused by natural or more nefarious reasons such a cyberattack.