Couple creates a community of trash treasure seekers.
Plug-in activist moves into the “Big Fix.”
Cooking up energy savings with every meal.
Greening her community through the development of city-wide programs.
Becky Byler and Andrew Leonard
Two high school seniors honored for their community environmental action.
12 year old took his love of music and composed a remarkable song.
CEO of Akraya, Inc. turns his company green.
Suney Park and the 2008 6th Grade Class at Eastside College Preparatory School
A teacher and her 2008 6th grade class are Acterra’s first “Climate Heroes."
- February 2010 -
Couple Creates a Community of Trash Treasure Seekers
About 11 years ago Jonathan Cranch, a general contractor and his wife Hannah, an art teacher decided to embark on a wonderful journey. Little did they know that the trip would eventually lead them to create a magical place called FabMo.
Jonathan and Hannah’s story begins at the San Francisco Design Center, a place the couple used to visit regularly. After attending several events at the Design Center the couple noticed many large trash bags filled with beautiful designer fabric samples sitting in the dumpsters. Hannah was disappointed to learn that they ended up in a Bay Area landfill.
The Cranch’s decided they wanted to do something to re-purpose the samples and put them to better use. As an art teacher Hannah thought that local schools could use these out of season samplings to create some neat art projects. Hannah started visiting the San Francisco Design Center every six weeks asking vendors for their discontinued fabric samples. Hannah states, “At first the vendors looked at me strangely as though I was begging for trash.” For the next 10 years the Cranch’s built relationships with designer showrooms and helped divert materials out of the wastestream and into a variety of programs around the Peninsula.
However in 2007 their load increased dramatically. A San Francisco based Sisters of Mercy had also been picking up fabric waste but could no longer do it. Hannah and Jonathan stepped in to take the increased supply. At first they posted the extra fabric on websites like Craigslist and FreeCycle but soon decided to move the operation into their home.
Each month they hosted an event where local artists, seamstresses and creative folks came and took as much free fabric as they could carry. This magical place soon became FabMo — a place where people share ideas and inspire each other to create wondrous items from designer fabric trash. Jonathan states, “The beauty of FabMo is the community it has created, the people we meet and the things they have created. It’s truly amazing.”
This past October 2009 Sarah Jackson and Holly Welstein, volunteers at FabMo co-hosted FabMo’s first Textile Art Exhibit & Sale at the Quandrus Conference Center in Menlo Park. The event was attended by 350 folks who were amazed at the variety, creativity, and quality of projects made from materials that would have otherwise gone into the wastestream.
Currenly, Jonathan and Hannah travel to the San Francisco Design Center for their weekly pick-up, but as of Febuary 2010 FabMo has a new home. You can now find them in an industrial section of Mountain View off of Old Middlefield Way. Visitors to FabMo events need to make an appointment because Jonathan believes it is essential to keep visitors to small groups, creating a more intimate community feeling.
Jonathan and Hannah are climate heroes because they have taken waste and re-purposed it to create beautiful things and built a community of people who find the wonder in producing them.
To learn more or to attend a FabMo event please visit FabMo's website.
- December 2009 -
Plug-In Activist moves into the “Big Fix”
Felix Kramer has a plan. He believes one of the best ways we can start to combat the effects of global warming is to convert the 900 million cars on our roads today to run partly or entirely on electricity.
Kramer, an experienced PR professional, knows how to get national attention for his ideas. In 2006 Kramer parked his “Prius+” — the first ever Prius plug-in conversion — in front of the U.S. Capitol and gained the attention of the NY Times, Business Week, Time magazine and many local and network television stations. The Prius+ was Felix’s first campaign to bring attention to plug-in vehicles and encourage carmakers to build them. His hard work has paid off. GM has committed to mass produce the Chevy Volt in the fall of 2010, President Obama allocated $5-$10 billion in incentives for the production of plug-in cars, and Google launched RechargeIT, a major plug-in initiative.
Kramer, the co-founder of a Palo Alto based non-profit called CalCars.org, has now created a new project which outlines an aggressive plan he calls the “Big Fix.” Noting the urgent need for climate-friendly cars, Kramer explains, “New plug-in vehicles won’t arrive quickly enough, and today’s old, inefficient vehicles will remain on the road for decades to come. The solution is that we need to ‘fix’ or retrofit the cars that are already out there.” His plan targets heavy vehicles that drive short distances like the Ford F-150 series.
Kramer states, “Converted trucks, buses and SUV’s could plug-in once or twice a day and reduce our use of oil by as much as 60%.” With support from people like Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, and musician Neil Young, Kramer hopes to get large car manufactures to see how green tuning our existing cars can save the planet and revitalize the auto industry. Kramer views this massive retrofit as a way to create tens of thousands of new jobs and an entirely new revenue source for struggling automakers.
So Kramer is back out there advocating and educating consumers and business professionals about his “Big Fix” program for gas guzzlers. Last month he presented his ideas to the sold out Business of Plugging In Conference in Detroit. “If we do this,” Kramer adds, “we gain millions of cleaner, more efficient vehicles that are cheaper to drive. Why wouldn’t we do it?”
Felix Kramer is a Climate Hero because he has made a significant contribution to advance the adoption of plug-in vehicles and for his latest advocacy in trying to “fix” the 900 million polluting vehicles that drive on the roads today.
To join Felix Kramer in his campaign to Fix Gas Guzzlers, please e-mail him at info@calcars.org.
- September 2009 -
Gini Mitchem Cooks Up Energy Savings with Every Meal.
As a board member of Solar Cooker’s International, Gini Mitchem has spent two decades teaching others how to harness the power of the sun to cook food and pasteurize water.
During a 10- month stay in Botswana with her husband John many years ago, Gini partnered with a colleague to teach some local women how to incorporate solar cooking into their lives. “Solar Cooking is such a compelling technology because it’s so simple,” Gini states. “If you have sun, you can do it anywhere and that’s especially helpful in areas of the world where the sun shines all the time but they have very little access to modern resources.”
Upon returning from Botswana, Gini learned about Solar Cooker’s International, an organization based in Sacramento. Created in 1987 by a unique group of people in the sunny Central Valley, to date Solar Cookers International has enabled 30,000 families in eastern and southern Africa to cook using the sun’s energy. Gini joined the board of Solar Cooker’s International in 1990 and has been a key contributor in shaping the organization ever since.
Gini believes in Solar Cooking so much that she has a few models of her own at home. Gini says, “It’s a lifestyle, I put my food in the cooker, go for a run or do other errands and when I come back my food is ready.”
Gini explains that you really can’t overcook food in a Solar cooker: the food heats up slowly and the cooker never exceeds 250F. Gini makes cookies, teriyaki chicken and even bakes bread in her solar cooker. She says, “I haven’t used my conventional oven in years.“
Gini also educates our local community about the power of solar cooking by providing engaging demonstrations at local Bay Area schools, churches, and science museums at all seasons throughout the year. “I enjoy sharing my knowledge of solar cooking because it’s a great demonstration of how useful harnessing energy from the sun can be.”
Gini is a climate hero because she works to empower people locally and around the world with a safe method for, cooking and water purification that doesn’t produce carbon emissions. For more information on Solar Cooking please visit Solar Cookers International 
- July 2009 -
Valerie has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in greening her community through the development of city-wide programs.
Valerie is a woman who takes charge with conviction. During her career she held high level financial positions in some of Silicon Valley’s hottest hi-tech start-up companies. However, following the birth of her second daughter, she decided to leave her hi-tech career and devote all her time to her next venture, motherhood. As a mother, Valerie looked at her two daughters and started to think about what their futures would be like. During these moments she realized that the deterioration of our planet’s environment was a growing problem that she wanted to address.
Valerie states, “I spent quite a bit of time the next two years researching Global Warming. It was disturbing that there wasn’t a lot of information available about what individual people could do.” She also attended countless events focused on the new “Go Green” message. One was the first West Coast Green conference held in 2006. During the conference she ran into Charles Marsala, then the mayor of Atherton, and he invited her to become part of a special environmental committee. The mayor’s plan was simple, he wanted to expand Atherton’s awareness of environmental issues. Valerie agreed to join the committee and helped organize Atherton’s first “Earth Action Week.” During “Earth Action Week” local residents had an opportunity to attend panel discussions, film screenings and meet green vendors who could educate them on ways they could become greener citizens. Valerie says, “I learned a lot and after it was over, I realized I wanted to do more.” In other words, she was hooked!
In 2008 she changed her focus and set out to get local residents more involved . She created a new community-wide program called GreenSTART. The program’s primary goal was to have Atherton residents offset their large carbon footprints by helping to fund student created green projects. In April 2008 twelve student groups presented their green projects at the first GreenSTART fair. At the event attendees purchased the voting rights to decide which of the student projects would receive financial prizes. Over $5,000 was given away that day, Using the momentum she received from the students and school staff, Valerie re-engineered the GreenSTART program for 2009 to engage yet more students and residents in taking real action against climate change.
In 2009 GreenSTART initiated a two month collaborative community challenge that targeted 18 area schools and 10,000 students and their families. Students worked with their parents on GreenSTART worksheets earning points for reducing their families’ carbon footprint. Students were motivated to gain as many points as possible. For example, a student could receive 10 points for promising to power down all lights and devices when not in use or 50 points for having their family agree to compost all their veggie and yard waste.
By April 30th Valerie had collected over 400 completed GreenSTART worksheets. Valerie states, “The parent/faculty liaison teams were amazing. I could never have done this program without their support.” On May 19th, Liza Bock, a ninth grader from Woodside High School, was selected as the grand prize winner for earning over 1,500 points. Again over $5,000 was given away to both students and community members for their “greening” efforts.
Valerie Gardner is a true climate hero because she moved from being a concerned mother to an impressive and highly effective community activist. During her three-year journey, she created programs that educated and empowered hundreds if not thousands of local residents to become more environmentally active. She is truly an extraordinary woman who has worked to make her community, and the world, a greener place.
- May 2009 -
Acterra honors two high school seniors for their leadership and dedication to community environmental action.
Becky, an 18-year-old student at Palo Alto High School, has been accepted with a full-ride scholarship to Georgia Tech where she plans on majoring in Bio-Medical Engineering. Her aspiration is to introduce sustainable practices into the medical field, specifically in Latin America.
Becky has a history of promoting sustainable practices. Two years ago she played a lead role in creating an annual environmental education week called "Green Up" on the Paly campus. Green Up takes place during the week of Earth Day and features daily environmental activities, events and speakers. Becky initiated Green Up to educate her peers about issues such as recycling and waste, air quality, alternative energy and the climate crisis. Last year's event raised more than $5,000. As result Palo Alto High School now has a school-wide recycling program, 45 bike racks serving 450 students who pedal to school, and new eco-lighting and heating systems.
Andrew is an 18-year-old student at Crystal Springs Upland School in Hillsboro. He recently was admitted to Columbia University in New York City where he plans to pursue a degree in environmental studies.
Andrew was motivated to become an environmental activist after visiting Beijing several times as a young boy. During his visits he remembers not feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin and later realized this phenomenon was because the air pollution was so bad it blocked some of the sun’s heat.
At his school, with the help of funding from Disney, Andrew channeled his environmental concern into creating Global Youth Services Day. The event involves not only his classmates but also students in a sister school half way around the world on the outskirts of Beijing, China. On this special day students in both countries plant trees, remove non-native species and pick up litter. The significance of Global Youth Services Day is the partnership of students in these two schools on two continents — working together to make their small parts of the world a better place.
Becky and Andrew are part of an emerging generation that will inhabit the earth for most of this century. These two students recognize that environmental deterioration must be reversed if they and the other members of their generation are to live high quality lives. We salute them for their leadership and good work and wish them well as they venture off to college to tackle larger environmental challenges.
- April 2009 -
Aitan Grossman is a 12 year old who has taken his love of music and composed a remarkable song. Acterra’s young climate hero hopes his composition will raise the world’s awareness about the threat of global warming to future generations.
The song, called “100 Generations”, can now be purchased on iTunes for less than one dollar. “A very small donation”, Aitan points out, to counter the threat of global warming. This special song, not only features Aitan and his 14-year-old sister Tatiana but also many young people from around the world. Students from Botswana, France, Venezuela, Taiwan and Ethiopia contributed to singing different sections of the song in both English and in their native tongues. The song’s instrumental section features Aitan on keyboards and other students from Nueva School in Hillsboro, California, Nishad Singh on drums, Willy Hawkins on bass and Matt Baszucki on guitar.
This imaginative project was conceived by Aitan last summer when he began preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. He notes, “It’s expected that we do the right thing to help some big world problem, and it made perfect sense to pick global warming because it’s the biggest problem our world faces today.” Aitan learned about the seriousness of global warming after reading the kid’s version of Al Gore’s book An Inconvenient Truth.
Aitan wrote and composed this song for two very important reasons. First, to raise awareness of how global warming will affect the next 100 generations. He says, “I hope the message of the song makes people pay attention and will speak for itself.” His second goal is to generate money to help two large environmental non-profits combat the threat of global warming: The World Wildlife Federation and The Alliance for Climate Protection.
Aitan realizes these organizations need money to operate, so he wants to help them out. All the money the “100 Generations” song generates through iTunes will be donated to them. Aitan selected the WWF because he believes it is the leading environmental non-profit assisting endangered species. He chose the Alliance for Climate Protection because it is a very well known organization and because it created The Live Earth Concert series, which is what inspired him to take on this project in the first place.
Aitan Grossman is a climate hero because he has created a sentimental and powerful song that makes each listener think about how global warming will affect the next 100 generations and he has also allowed us an extremely affordable way to become part of the solution.
To purchase or hear a sample of “100 Generations” please visit iTunes or visit www.kidearth.us
- March 2009 -
Amar Panchal, CEO of Akraya, Inc., a small business in Sunnyvale, is recognized by Acterra as a climate hero for his extraordinary leadership in turning his company green.
While waiting to pick up his car at an auto body shop last summer, Amar came upon a brochure that started him on his climate hero journey. The auto body shop, The Driving Machine, in Cupertino, CA, had recently become a certified green business and the brochure was an invitation to other small businesses to follow their green path.
Inspired by this call to action, Amar decided that his firm, Akraya, Inc. would also join the fight to combat climate change. Amar states, "I have always been environmentally aware, and I saw becoming a green certified business as an opportunity to take it to the next level."
It's been a little over six months since Akraya first decided to green its business practices and they have a lot to show for it. They recently gained Bay Area Green Business certification and have effectively integrated green thinking and behavior into their company culture. Akraya now publishes a quarterly "green" e-newsletter called The Green Vibe that highlights employee actions to green not only their professional but also their personal lives. Amar states, "The Green Vibe is another way for us to learn from each other and to reinforce the value of the program."
Akraya has also built green expectations into their HR department by having all current and incoming employees follow their new Green Employee Policy, which covers 11 Green measures including encouraging carpooling or taking public transportation and having the green signature, "Green Earth, Green Akraya. Please print this email only if necessary." on all outgoing emails.
Amar has plans to expand Akraya's green program, but what's equally as important is that he and his team are now also able to pass along their new knowledge and enthusiasm to other businesses not yet green-certified. Amar states, "Just the other day my new green email signature line caught the attention of a Wells Fargo executive. He was curious about the program and I was able to share with him our success with it."
Amar Panchal is a climate hero because as a business leader he has taken action to commit to greener business practices, and has created a work force that is more environmentally aware and responsible. Amar and his team are now environmental advocates and ecourage other small businesses to join them in becoming green.
- January 2009 -
Suney Park, a teacher at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto, CA and her 2008 6th grade class are Acterra’s first “Climate Heroes” of 2009.
Suney launched her 19 students on their heroic journey when she decided to integrate the study of Global Warming into the class’s Earth Science unit – not as a minor topic, but as a year-long research project. Early in the course, the students realized they not only wanted to research Global Warming but do something about it as well. So, they adopted a credo that guided them through the entire year, Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quotation, “Be the Change you wish to see in the World.”
As part of the year-long project, each student wrote a research paper and the class organized a Global Warming Evening, where they did a multimedia presentation about climate change for the entire school, parents and members of the community. “The event was magical”, said Suney, “it was very well attended and the students became the agents of change they hoped to be”.
The project also prompted the students to take action in their school community, and they quickly identified two things that they could do on campus to combat Global Warming. The students first decided to ask all the teachers turn off their lights and use the natural lighting the windows provided so the school could save energy. They also created a recycling program on campus and involved other students by creating educational posters.
“This Global Warming unit gave the students so much”, says Suney. Keyshawn, one of her students, explains, “I feel like an expert on Global Warming now and it’s exciting that I can now teach others about it.”.
Suney Park is a true Climate Hero because she gave her students the very special gifts of knowledge and empowerment. These 19 students are climate heroes because their hard work and dedication empowered them to take action in their community. By spreading the word they hope that others will heed their message and take steps to combat global warming.