How to Invest in the Future of the Planet
How to Invest in the Future of the Planet
Battery Powered Organization Night sketched a new roadmap toward a sustainable, low-carbon future for California and the world. Eight organizations (out of a group of 19 finalists) shared their visions for new technologies and partnerships to usher in a Resource Revolution that redefines our relationship to natural resources today and builds a more equitable future for the next generation.
To accompany their presentations, each speaker had a rotating deck of slides timed to switch every sixty seconds and just six minutes to make the case for how their projects were radically improving how we use food, water and energy. The result was a fast-paced exploration of how we can speed up a transition to a new kind of economy that helps families and communities thrive.
Food
What we eat shapes our health, our mood and our opportunities in life more than we know. Curt Ellis (FoodCorps) and Doria Robinson (Urban Tilth) spoke to the importance of hands-on education around what healthy food is and where to get it.
FoodCorps is a team of educators collaborating with schools on community gardens where kids learn how to grow and harvest their own fresh food. “We’re converting a lunch line from french fries to fresh greens, and that takes time and human resources,” said Ellis. “I believe in a future where every child knows what healthy food is, cares about where it comes from, and eats it every single day.” Their project could serve up to 20,000 families and transform the way kids experience cafeteria lunches.
Urban Tilth focuses on raising awareness and creating access to healthy food for the city of Richmond, where there are more than 100,000 residents, 230 convenience stores (with mostly packaged, processed snack food)—and just a single grocery store. Tilth’s urban farm project would be a farm-to-table solution run by and for the community that will serve 78 thousand pounds of produce a year.
“We need to tackle the access problem,” said Robinson. “Our long supply chains don’t get food all the way to people’s homes. We can change that.”
“One in eight people do not have enough food,” began Brandi Decarli (Tacklebox Lab). “We want to shift the paradigm from mass production to production by the masses.” Tacklebox Lab’s Farm from a Box project is built on partnerships with leading technology companies and implementers to develop incubator farms that increase productivity and income while saving water and energy in every community where they are deployed. With two real-word test site farms in action, Tacklebox is looking to expand operations and shift the global food system to better align production and consumption.
Water
We live in an increasingly digital and globalized world, yet our water system and infrastructure is a relic of a different era. “It would be hard to design a system that would be more hostile to fish than the one we have inherited,” said Jacob Katz (California Trout).
By repurposing winter-flooded rice fields for surrogate wetland habitat, Cal Trout is working to remake floodplains and restore salmon runs, sustain farms and deliver water security to 25 million Californians. “It’s simple,” he said. “We can reintegrate the natural productivity of the system into the way we manage water. ... We can have our farms and our fish.”
Our existing water delivery system is also designed for an economy of excess, not scarcity. Global Green is taking on the opportunity for greywater reuse in residential buildings that could overcome current technology and policy barriers and make “new” water by using the same water more than one time.
It’s almost serendipitous, as Global Green’s Walker Wells showed in his presentation, that the amount of water we use to shower in the morning is the same as what we use to flush the toilet all day long . (Both are around eight gallons per person.) Put simply, a greywater innovation would create a 50% reduction in residential water use. “Natural infrastructure can be working with human made infrastructures. It’s just one way to make our cities greener and more sustainable,” said Wells.
Policy change can feel like an uphill battle. That’s where WaterNow Alliance comes in. The organization is working to fundamentally shift how California cities and towns use water. WaterNow’s Cynthia Koehler says it’s not a problem of supply, but one of efficiency and coordination among policymakers and other partners.
“We don’t need more water to support growth in California. We need to use our water better, smarter and more efficiently,” she said. “Providing safe, accessible, affordable water for all is one of the most important legacies we can leave for the future.”
Energy
At the end of the day, an overhaul of our water and food systems will also require new and innovative energy use. Amanda Eaken (Natural Resources Defence Council) and Renee Sharp (GRID Alternatives) closed Organization Night with a call for inclusive and low-cost, renewable solutions for household transportation, lighting and other energy needs.
The NRDC’s project brings emerging mobility technologies (like ride-shares and autonomous vehicles) to communities across the state to ensure that as the sharing economy expands, California can be the model for strong policy framework for a new mobility future that is truly accessible to all.
Currently, mobility advancements have the potential to save 90% on carbon emissions (if used in ride shares and with other regulations), or they could create a 200% increase in congestion and pollution (if self-driving cars are sent on inefficient, passenger-free trips). “This brave new world of transportation is not just for the young and the wired,” said Eaken.
“We need as a society to affect a massive shift away from fossil fuels and towards clean, renewable energy, and we need to do this as fast as possible,” said Sharp. “We have a choice as to whether the resource revolution includes everyone or leaves people out.”
GRID Alternatives’ vision for a transition to a clean energy economy that truly includes everyone. GRID installs solar systems for low-income families across the country. The systems save homeowners 180 million dollars over their lifetimes and prevent the emission of 500,000 tons of greenhouse gasses.
With each of these solutions to food, water and energy challenges already underway in California, now is the time to back a resource revolution today that sets the stage for major transformations in our communities and economies of tomorrow.
Read more amazing stories from our finalists online or in your Battery Powered Guide to Giving before joining us for Allocation Night on Thursday, June 9.
For more information about Battery Powered or to join, contact [email protected]