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As Director of Sustainability, Jennifer is responsible for all environmental information, education and initiatives at Sierra Club Green Home.
Trained as an accountant, Jennifer worked in tax consulting at Ernst & Young before making a career change to pursue her passion for all things sustainable. Inspired by worldwide outdoor and adventure travels, Jennifer decided that environmental preservation would become her life’s work.
She went on to study environmental design and sustainability at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and then completed her Master’s in Urban Planning and Sustainable Design at the University of California — Irvine. Jennifer is a LEED Accredited Practitioner and serves on the USGBC Education Committee. She also serves on advisory boards for the UC-Irvine Sustainability Leadership Program and Healthy House Institute. She has participated on several panels including the University of California’s “Green Development: A Search for Solutions” and has spoken to many different audiences on reaching the new green consumer.
Away from work, Jennifer can be found on the tennis court, trail running, or in the Bikram yoga studio. She follows art and design avidly and is also a trained Cessna pilot. You can find her innermost green thoughts as a weekly blog contributor to the Huffington Post, as well as on the home page of www.sierraclubgreenhome.com.
Regarding our visit to the grand opening of City Center Las Vegas a few weeks ago, we talked about how spectacular the entire development is – from its architectural design to its green standpoints. Here are some more observations and architect interviews about this trendsetting space, perhaps the world’s best example of cutting edge green design:
Julia Monk, founding principal of BBGM and designer of Vdara Hotel and major portions of ARIA:
We give clients a discount if they are going to be building a LEED certified structure. A major focus at City Center was lighting. We used fluorescent lamps which give off a similar glow to conventional bulbs, the latest advancement in LEDS which use only one third the energy but last 10 times longer. Low flow toilets in rooms, electronic window shades to reduce heat gain, low VOC paints, coatings, sealants and non-formaldehyde wall paneling. Recyclable fiberglass ceiling tiles, wall coverings, CRI (Carpet and Rug Institute) certified carpet padding, strawboard sub-flooring, FSC wood floors, low-E glazed windows, Caesarstone countertops, the list goes on.
The large box looked too heavy for my 115 pound frame to carry. “Jennifer Schwab, Sierra Club Green Home” on the label, yep, it was for me, but I hadn’t ordered anything large like this??
After cutting open the yards of plastic packing tape, I was appalled to find acres of bubble wrap, then those absolutely impossible Styrofoam “peanuts” which will still be in the landfill 200 years from now.
After all this, a nice glass vase from a relative who shall remain unnamed. She means well, and this lovely object d’art did survive the trip, but what do I do with this pile of unsustainable, non-green, mostly not recyclable, plastic and Styrofoam packing materials?
And so it goes for millions and millions of packages, not to mention one of the biggest culprits in this assault on the environment, electronics products. Think about all those big, dense pieces of Styrofoam that are used in almost every electronic product package to secure the ends of the item. Admittedly, they help keep the DVDs, TVs, stereos and computers in one piece. And what about moving? Most of the cardboard boxes can be recycled, but the reams of tape, peanuts, foam and other packing material usually
cannot.
Any of you old enough to remember the classic rock tune “My City Was Gone” by the Pretenders? Like singer Chrissie Hynde, I go back to Ohio, but my city (Akron, aka The Rubber City) is not gone. Can you imagine my surprise to find a great organic restaurant, VegiTERRANEAN, by none other than Chrissie Hynde herself, on my last visit?
While other little girls were into Barbie, I was idolizing Chrissie as the world’s coolest rock chick. I think of her as a true pioneer, back in the day when MTV actually played videos. “Back on The Chain Gang” and “Middle of the Road” may have been bigger hits, but the anti-development anthem “My City Was Gone” has a blues rock riff that still inspires me.
My mother told me about VegiTERRANEAN and I was immediately on board. I must admit that despite my green leanings, kicking the meat habit has not been easy. Nevertheless, onward we went for our vegan meal.
Surprisingly, VegiTERRANEAN is not a tribute to Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders. There are a select few bits of memorabilia, a guitar on the wall type of thing, but Hard Rock Café it is not. The room is loft-style, swank by most city standards, with concrete floors, curved chain link walls and subdued blue lighting. It is dominated by a long bar serving a great selection of local microbrews and some organic wines. A little bit of SoHo in Akron.
Santa Barbara, Calif — Talk about brains, power and money in one room. This was the ECO:nomics Conference, put on by The Wall Street Journal at the lush Bacara Resort. Legendary investor T. Boone Pickens; top venture capitalists John Doerr and Vinod Khosla; CEOs of Royal Dutch Shell, Rio Tinto and American Electric Power; Energy Secretary Steven Chu; the list goes on. This was almost enough business horsepower to warrant autograph seeking.
If there is one clear message coming out of this gathering, it’s that we need to assign a price or cost to carbon emissions, and soon. Almost all the speakers agreed that be it through a direct tax on carbon — which would affect the average consumer at the pump and on their energy bills — or the cap and trade model, which auctions off “permits to pollute” to all businesses that emit carbon, we need to enact some serious legislation on this immediately.
These days it’s fashionable for celebrities to hitch their stars to the green movement. Many of them claim to be green, but in my experience, only a few are really doing substantive things to back up the PR flackery. Ed Begley Jr. rides a stationary bike each morning to power his coffee-maker, admittedly on the lunatic fringe. He is certainly the trendsetter in Hollywood, having made a second career out of going green. But a number of others who shall remain nameless don’t have much on their resumes beyond a couple of PSAs or donations. I recently found a celebrity who is not only adjusting her personal lifestyle but has embraced the business of going green. Enter Eva Longoria Parker, the not so desperate housewife.
On a whim, I spent part of the holiday season in Sydney, Australia, one of few major world cities I have never visited. Sydney is a great place to tour, but you better bring lots of money, as prices are very high, more like London or Paris than most U.S. cities. So long as you can afford it, the sightseeing is terrific.
It could be argued that the Sydney Aquarium is among the best in the world, boasting incredible specimens of sting rays, dugongs, giant sea turtles, crocodiles, and many more. The design of the building itself is first rate, great viewing even with big crowds, especially where you walk “through” the huge tanks with giant fish passing over your head – it appears the six inch thick glass is strong enough. The famous Opera House is even more breathtaking in person, and the indoor views are as stunning as the exterior. You can climb to the top of the giant Sydney Harbor Bridge on foot, try that in the States with our lawsuit-happy society. The Art Gallery of New South Wales offers a world class collection spanning the centuries. The champagnes, petit syrah, and shiraz continue to get better and better. The food is generally good, and a growing variety of organic and natural choices are offered. As for the customer service, well, I’ll circle back on that in a moment.
I just entered the new Emerald City. The proprietor here, however, isn’t The Wizard of Oz, and this sure ain’t Kansas. This is the MGM Grand’s City Center, located on the Las Vegas Strip.
You may have heard of it by now. City Center’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Aria Casino/Hotel, Vdara Hotel and Crystals retail experience just came on stream over the past two weeks. Veer Towers, a modern-day take on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, is two condo buildings nearing completion. The Harmon is yet another high rise still under construction. City Center is simply the biggest, best, greenest, edgiest, most beautiful, over the top, spectacular, mind-blowing commercial/retail/residential development I’ve ever seen.
So I was wondering, why is it that commercial air travel is considered so non-green? It seems unjust that my efforts to live green all year are negated by a few flights to Sierra Club headquarters and a trip or two to visit my parents.
Most carbon calculators – but notably not ours at Sierra Club Green Home (www.sierraclubgreenhome.com) – penalize even the dark green citizen who is required to fly commercial for work. Let’s say you’re a sales manager, you diligently recycle, you watch the thermostats, you have low-water landscaping, you eat organic vegetables, you’re doing everything right except your job requires you to fly from Denver to Cincinnati twice a month. According to most evaluations, you are a serious carbon emitter. I don’t think this is right, it’s not fair to call this person a polluter. His or her lifestyle and home are green, and should be respected as such.
Although a pitch to the boss for teleconferencing in lieu of so many business trips is the best antidote, the real modern day quest is to achieve eco-friendly air travel. And what about the concept of full vs. empty flights? Nobody will dispute that the least green way to travel (sorry celebrities, CEOs and pro athletes) is by private jet. The amount of carbon produced vs. the number of people moved is not a favorable equation. Consider a 727 stretch packed with 300 people. It would seem that this calculation would be a lot more efficient in terms of carbon produced vs. passenger miles traveled. Kind of like watching a mom drive thru a Starbucks with her 25 pound kid in the passenger seat of a giant SUV – can it get more non-green? Whereas, you can justify driving a stretch Chevy Suburban if it is packed with six or seven passengers and their baggage, this is highly efficient per passenger mile, even at 15 mpg. A better way to quantify your transport emissions would be number of people miles moved per gallon.
White Christmas is a cultural and traditional icon of our society. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, Green Thanksgiving will also become an American standard.
Naturally, the most eco-friendly meal would be a 100 percent vegan menu. Let’s be honest, though, do you really want to celebrate with turkey-shaped soy? If you do, more power to you. But if a “tofurky” feast isn’t your thing, bear in mind you still have other savory and sustainable options: Choose a turkey that is USDA-Certified organic and free-range, meaning it is given organic feed and is free from confinement. You can find a list of farmers at Local Harvest who use organic methods to raise their birds, perhaps there is one near you?
If you do choose to enjoy soy for Thanksgiving there are many vegetarian and vegan soy “turkeys” available, or you can even try making your own. Click here for an article offering many non-meat turkey options. There are also some vegetarian gravy recipes if you want the full Thanksgiving meal experience.
So I was in Park City, Utah, last week expecting to find a green haven among the pristine white winter wonderland. As one of the world’s most desira le ski areas with upscale communities and lodging to rival Vail and Aspen, Park City is truly a special place. Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that despite an a undance of natural and man-made beauty – not to mention a
population of educated, nature-loving outdoors enthusiasts – Park City is seemingly behind the times in going green.
Some of the finest hiking in the world, great whitewater rafting, and of course world class skiing. You’d think those pursuits would transfer over to local policies that are fairly restrictive on development, and an overall culture of green. Certainly everybody I met on the hiking trails and at the river looked the part, and it seemed that they were concerned about all things environmental. It wasn’t until I got to really tour the area, which includes the ski mountain as well as Old Town, the main drag filled with businesses and shopping, that some practices I observed began to raise my eyebrows.
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