My bio often includes the phrase “award-winning author.” For a hint about what that means, I want to take you back a few years to when I first earned that title. San Francisco, February 2019 My heart suddenly started pounding in my chest. I was sitting in a banquet room at the Hyatt Embarcadero…

Some people think the circular economy is about making a product or packaging recyclable. (I’ve also heard some completely absurd answers, but I won’t share them here.) Recyclability is related to the circular economy. It’s also far from the whole story. …

Compostable packaging sounds like a great idea. Instead of packaging food in plastic that lasts for hundreds of years, stores and restaurants are offering compostable packaging that will decompose in weeks. That’s a lovely promise. Unfortunately, the reality is often quite different. Three problems make compostable packaging less than ideal. 1. Lack of composting infrastructure …

April 22 is Earth Day. It’s an opportunity to revisit our relationship with the natural world. In 2022, I took that opportunity to a new level. I went on a multi-day nature retreat. What follows comes from a blog post I wrote shortly before that retreat. The inspiration for this…

I wrote another article about solar panels. This month’s topic is batteries, in particular those used to power electric vehicles (EVs). “I believe there will be a battery economy.” — Dan Schwartz Dan Schwarz and I first met when I toured the Clean Energy Testbeds at the University of Washington…

I have a Google alert for the phrase “Material Value,” the title of my 2019 book. It turned up an article called “Can We Recycle Spent Renewable Energy Infrastructure?” Spent infrastructure is stuff in the built environment that is no longer useful in its original form. That might come from…

As I strode across the parking lot and into the performing arts center in the pouring rain, my footing didn’t feel quite right. A few steps into the building, my left shoe stuck to the floor. I lifted my foot and bent my knee to see what I had stepped…

The news from Patagonia flooded my inbox and social media feeds last fall. In case you haven’t heard, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced his intention to give away the company to support climate action. The home page of the Patagonia website states, “Earth is now our only shareholder.” A New…

I visited San Francisco and Moscone Center for the first time in over a decade to speak at the FLEX Conference, co-located with SEMICON West. On the surface, Moscone looked much the same as I remember it. …