epr

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Lori Scott, Chief Information Officer and Vice President for Technology & Partnerships at NatureServe about Changes in GIS over time, NatureServe Explorer, and Baking.   Read her full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Showtimes: 
4:42  Nic & Laura discuss the NatureServe Explorer website
9:33  Interview with Lori Scott starts
13:23 NatureServe Explorer
27:40  Changes in GIS over time
33:44  Field Notes
37:04 Baking

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review.

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Lori Scott at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-scott-1986493/

Guest Bio:
Lori is the Chief Information Officer and Vice President for Technology and Partnerships for NatureServe, the authoritative source for biodiversity data in North America. She oversees NatureServe’s technology team, with a portfolio that includes software product development, server administration, and user support for mission critical enterprise information management and delivery systems. Since joining NatureServe in 2000, Lori has led the successful transformation of the organization’s core biodiversity data platform Biotics 5 and its public information delivery platform NatureServe Explorer. Lori’s team supports NatureServe’s North American network of biodiversity information centers with implementation of sophisticated online tools to automate environmental review and to manage and direct treatment for invasive species in their jurisdictions. Her team was recognized with the IDG CIO 100 Award in 2016 and the Computerworld Premier 100 Technology Leaders Award in 2017.

Lori’s work experience includes 10 years serving Lockheed Martin Corporation in the field of software integration and information systems development. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Bucknell University in her home state of Pennsylvania. She lives in Arlington, Virginia and enjoys hiking, traveling, and cooking – and she makes a wicked good peach pie!

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Thanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

To celebrate another successful year we'd like to share the fun we've had behind the scenes with you in an end of year outtakes spectacular! There's no interview, just a long list of mispronunciations, roasts, and mistakes we've accumulated over the year. This show is genuinely so much fun to do and we can't thank you enough for listening!

Happy New Year! See you in 2024!

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review.

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Thanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick!

Summer is in full swing and we hope you are enjoying it! We have a new minisode for you today. This is taking place of our regular episode this week. There's no interview, we just wanted to share with everyone how our summer has been going and what we have been up to. We also reflect on the show to date and talk about upcoming episodes and plans for EPR. Thank you so much for listening!

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review.

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Thanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick!

On today’s episode, we talk with Tiffany Duong  explorer and storyteller at Ocean Rebels, and JD Reinbott, marine conservationist and queer rights advocate about New Career Paths, Handling Toxic Feedback, and Networking.   Read their full bios below.

Thank you to our episode sponsor, Center for Open Exploration (C4OE)! Donors can reach out to Erica Moulton at erica.moulton@gmail.com 

Showtimes:
2:11 Nic & Laura discuss healthy & unhealthy determination
14:46  Interview with Tiffany Duong & JD Reinbott starts
15:53  New career paths
26:50  Handling toxic feedback
33:58  Networking

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review.

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Tiffany Duong at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanytvduong
Connect with JD Reinbott at https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-reinbott/

Guest Bios:

Tiffany Duong is a writer, explorer and motivational speaker. She holds degrees from UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Inspired by a dive trip, she left corporate law to campaign for our planet. Now, from dense jungles, remote oceans and her slice of paradise in the Florida Keys, she gives voice to what's happening in the natural world. Her mission is to inspire meaningful action and lasting change. Follow her on Twitter/Instagram @tiffmakeswaves.

As someone who has had an affinity for the marine world from a young age, JD Reinbott has dedicated his life to conserving the numerous ecosystems and organisms found within the ocean. This self-proclaimed coral nerd has worked extensively on restoration projects around the globe but finds the most rewarding aspect of such to be the community-based engagement that is needed to allow these initiatives to succeed. Recently JD has focused his attention on highlighting the need for further representation of the LGBTQIA+ community within the realm of marine science to ensure that diversity is celebrated both above and below the surface.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Thanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Thanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

We have a new minisode for you today! There's no interview, just a timely and important message we wanted to share with everyone as we come up on the holiday season. This is taking place instead of our regularly scheduled episode on Friday this week, but we will be publishing a very special outtakes episode next Friday. Thank you so much for listening!

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review.

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Thanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

In episode 275, Kestrel welcomes Liz Ricketts (the cofounder and Director of The Or Foundation), alongside Sammy Oteng (a fashion designer, researcher, and the Community Design Lab Manager at The Or Foundation), to the show. A nonprofit based in the USA and Ghana, The Or Foundation’s primary goal is to catalyze what they call a justice-led circular economy.

“What’s so unfair about what fast fashion has done is that it’s created a situation where every single garment that’s created, whether it was from me or from Sammy or if it’s upcycled or recycled — it’s still waste until proven otherwise, because we just have so much excess in circulation right now, and it’s just very unfair to anyone who’s trying to do the right thing.” -Liz

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

Before we get into it, there’s one thing I want to contextualize. And it’s probably something you’ve heard about - maybe something you’ve even heard a lot about recently. That thing is – Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR.

EPR policy would ideally ensure that producers are required to assume the costs of collection, treating, and recycling of their end-of-life products. Basically, it puts the financial burden of the waste management on the actual brands to deal with their products after citizens are done with them.

In 2007, France was the first country to declare a legal framework for managing textile waste through EPR policy with the goal of holding textile producers responsible for the collection and recycling of end-of-use clothing, linen, and shoes. The EU also recently announced EPR schemes to help address textile waste from fast fashion. 

However – France and the EU’s policies fail to compensate the communities where the majority of that waste ends up. So, the tax is supposed to go to waste management, but when a great deal of that textile waste ends up being exported to countries in Africa as a part of that so-called “waste management”, AND those tax funds stay within France or Europe, these policies are only continuing to perpetuate a long history of waste colonialism.

This is only a very brief overview – but it gives you a little context on EPR before we get deeper into it.

The Or Foundation x Shein Agreement To Create EPR Fund

There were shockwaves sent across the fashion industry, after an announcement at the Global Fashion Summit this year (2022). The Or Foundation unveiled their agreement with SHEIN to receive $15 million over three years, as the first grant recipient of SHEIN’s new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Fund to help manage textile waste. 

The commentary and discussions across social media and the web have been intense, with a lot of very emotionally-charged reactions from varying vantage points. Here’s just a glimpse of some of the feedback that has been shared –

• Concerns about the way this is blatant greenwashing by SHEIN, considering that their ultra fast fashion business model is largely to blame for the waste being dumped in Ghana and other areas of the Global South

• Concerns about how SHEIN will be able to use this partnership as a way to *look good* while continuing to perpetuate a savorist mindset

• Concerns over the criticism of this partnership being directed at The Or Foundation instead of at SHEIN

• Concerns about what this showcases with regard to the nonprofit industrial complex

• Concerns about the apparent need for wealth redistribution, but the question of when and why the origin of those funds should matter

• Concerns over when and how SHEIN will address the root causes of its impact, instead of simply throwing cash at the problem, which some have identified as only offering a bandaid solution

And so many more. In this week’s conversation, I had the privilege to speak with the folks at The Or Foundation to get their take on it all. And more importantly, to hear some of the responses of the community in Kantamanto, and how this money will be and already is being used.

Quotes & links from the conversation:

• Watch video celebrating Kantamanto's contribution to the "circular economy"

• “The fashion industry is not only linear in terms of material flow, it’s also linear in terms of power dynamics and wealth — where you have countries in the Global North using the Global South as a waste management system, and folks in the Global South and people that we work with in Kantamanto doing the actual work of circularity in terms of reuse and repair and upcycling, but not having any of the language that is sanctioned in the Global North to describe what they do. And so, there’s this big disconnect between rhetoric and impact.” -Liz (18:18)

• “Kantamanto has two truths — Kantamanto makes visible fashion’s waste crisis but it’s not the cause of the waste crisis, and Kantamanto itself is the largest reuse and upcycling economy in the world.” -Liz (20:00)

• “If you think about the work that is being done here and the discussions that are going on around these topics within the fashion space in the Global North, there is such a huge disconnect — it almost seems like there is more interest in talking about all of these topics than actually doing the work.” -Sammy (22:40)

• “The work that we are doing here is not about the Global North. We are not doing all this work in our community to give back to the Global North.” -Sammy (28:55)

• “I don’t want to dismiss the complexity and some of the reactions that I think are very important; I think it’s provoked some productive dialogue in the Global North. But for us, it’s very simple — it’s not about me, it’s not about our organization. It’s about the community that we are accountable to which is Kantamanto, and they have been trusting us since 2016 to deliver tangible change and frankly, we’ve failed them for a long time. It’s been really hard to find money to do the things that need to be done, and every single week — retailers, tailors, girls working as kayayai have asked us if anyone has acknoeweldged them and if any of the brands has stepped up to take responsibility, or if anyone from the Global North has stepped up to take responsibility. I have to be very honest that for me, it’s a big relief to finally be able to say “yes, someone has.” We’ve been calling on this — a lot of people in our community, folks in the Global North have joined us in calling for brands to pay for the waste that ends up here, for the waste that we are processing ourselves. And I understand that maybe this is not how people imagined that looking, but for us again, it’s very simple — it’s not about Shein, it’s not about us, it’s about the fact that finally we can have the resources that the community has been calling for.” -Liz (40:38)

• “The conversation here is very different when you talk to the retailers — they are not concerned about what brand is bringing the money or who is the CEO, they don’t care about that. They just believe that white people or people from the Global North should take some responsibility for the problem that has been caused here. And for them, that is the one thing they appreciated — knowing that after all this long while of waiting … people in the Global North have actually taken responsibility that their stuff has may be ending up here and causing problems.” -Sammy (42:22)

• “For me, that should have been the focus of all of these shock and waves or whatever going around the fashion space. I think that should have been the real question, the real interest — finding out what it meant to the community.” -Sammy (45:37)

• “I don’t think that our community, the sustainability community, really talks about the lack of resources, but it’s very real. For instance, I’ve gone to brands that are considered very “sustainable”, asking them to support our kayayei programs — which it only takes a $1,000 dollars per girl to transition them out of this job that literally is killing them into a dignified career. And people have responded by saying “oh that’s very sad, but we would like to fund a documentary” because people want to have things that they can put their logo on or that they can sponsor.” -Liz (47:01)

• Article on The Or Foundation’s work with kayayei (written by Liz)

• Watch video on The Or Foundation’s Chiropractic Research and Treatment Program

• Recent IG Live where Sammy and Chloe talk about how challenging it is for Ghanaian citizens to travel outside of Ghana while millions of garments flood into Accra from outside every week

• Watch video tour of the No More Fast Fashion Lab

• Waste Landscape Report by The Or Foundation

• The Or Foundation’s 2021 Annual Report

• Follow The Or Foundation on Instagram >

• TAKEAWAY: look into the EPR policies in your local area, and figure out if the policies that are being considered are globally accountable — if waste is going to be exported as part of that policy, is money going to be able to flow with it? If not, fight for this.

Connaissez-vous notre site ? www.lenouvelespritpublic.fr

Une émission de Philippe Meyer, enregistrée au studio l’Arrière-boutique le 14 janvier 2022.

Avec cette semaine :

• Nicolas Baverez, essayiste et avocat.
• Akram Belkaïd, journaliste au Monde diplomatique.
• Béatrice Giblin, directrice de la revue Hérodote et fondatrice de l’Institut Français de Géopolitique.
• Michaela Wiegel, correspondante à Paris de la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

LE RETOUR DE L’EMPIRE RUSSE ?

Projection de 3 000 hommes au Kazakhstan en 2022, après que des troubles ont éclaté à Almaty, interposition militaire entre Arménie et Azerbaïdjan en 2021, relance de l'union avec la Biélorussie en 2020, déstabilisation de l'Ukraine depuis 2014 ou encore guerre avec la Géorgie en 2008 : la Fédération de Russie réinvestit militairement, économiquement et militairement plusieurs anciennes Républiques Socialistes Soviétiques et entretient des tensions militaires en Baltique via l'enclave de Kaliningrad, en Mer Noire à partir de la Crimée annexée en 2014, dans le Caucase grâce à sa médiation après le nouveau conflit du Haut-Karabakh en 2020. Cependant, la Fédération de Russie ne dispose pas des ressources économiques, militaires et politiques de l'URSS. Économie rentière dépendante des exportations d'hydrocarbures, de minerais et de technologies militaires, la Russie ne maîtrise pas son destin économique, son PIB est inférieur à celui de l’Italie, tandis que son déclin démographique constant réduit sa croissance potentielle.

En dépit ou à cause de ce contexte, le 17 décembre, la Fédération de Russie a officialisé son projet de traité avec l'Otan et les États-Unis au sujet de ses « garanties de sécurité ». Poutine a exigé des Américains et des Européens de revenir à la situation de 1997, lorsque l'Alliance atlantique n'avait pas encore accueilli parmi ses membres la Pologne et les autres pays d'Europe centrale et balte. Il a proposé deux projets de traités en ce sens, l'un avec Washington et l'autre avec l'Otan. Moscou réclame l'assurance que l'Otan n'admettra plus aucun membre parmi les anciennes républiques de l'Union soviétique (autrement dit, l'Ukraine et la Géorgie), mais aussi la promesse que l'Alliance va réduire ses activités militaires en Europe centrale et dans les pays Baltes. La Russie exige en outre que les États-Unis ne déploient aucun missile à courte et moyenne portée en Europe. Devant la presse internationale le 23 décembre, Poutine a enjoint aux Occidentaux d’accepter son projet « immédiatement, maintenant». Pour appuyer sa revendication, il a massé des dizaines de milliers de soldats à la frontière de l'Ukraine, plus de 100 000 selon les Américains.

Des prétentions jugées « inacceptables » par les Occidentaux, qui refusent a priori toute concession non réciproque. Après deux sommets Poutine-Biden (dont le deuxième, le 7 décembre dernier, par vidéoconférence), la rencontre lundi à Genève entre les vice-ministres des Affaires étrangères russe et américain, Sergueï Riabkov et Wendy Sherman, s'apparentait à une reprise de contact afin d'amorcer une désescalade de la crise ukrainienne. Elle ne semble pas dans l'immédiat avoir permis de faire bouger les lignes. Ces discussions ont été suivies par une réunion Otan-Russie mercredi à Bruxelles, puis une rencontre jeudi à Vienne de l'Organisation pour la sécurité et la coopération en Europe, plateforme de dialogue Est-Ouest issue de la guerre froide. « Je ne crois pas que nous verrons des avancées cette semaine », a déclaré le secrétaire d'État américain, Antony Blinken.

***

LE RETOUR DU NUCLÉAIRE

« Non seulement l'Europe n'est pas près de se passer d'énergie nucléaire, mais elle va même devoir investir massivement dans la modernisation de ses centrales au cours des prochaines décennies » a indiqué dans un entretien au Journal du Dimanche le commissaire européen chargé du marché intérieur, Thierry Breton. Il a chiffré à 500 milliards d'euros le montant des investissements nécessaires d'ici à 2050, pour développer les centrales de nouvelle génération, sans lesquelles l'Europe ne pourrait atteindre son objectif de neutralité carbone d’ici trente ans. D'où la nécessité pour l'industrie nucléaire d'avoir accès aux financements européens aux meilleures conditions possibles. C'est l'enjeu du projet de « taxonomie » dévoilé le 31 décembre par la Commission européenne, qui prévoit d'inclure le nucléaire parmi les sources d'énergie « durables » contribuant à la réduction des émissions de CO2 et pouvant bénéficier, à ce titre, d'investissements publics et privés à taux préférentiel. Cette disposition est soumise à conditions : les nouvelles centrales devront avoir obtenu un permis de construire avant 2045, les travaux permettant de prolonger la durée de vie des centrales existantes devront avoir été autorisés avant 2040. Des garanties en matière de traitement des déchets et de démantèlement des installations nucléaires en fin de vie sont également exigées. La proposition officielle de l’exécutif européen est attendue pour le 18 janvier. Les États membres auront alors quatre mois pour s'opposer au texte. 

La France compte lancer la construction d'un nouveau parc de réacteurs EPR. Elle a donc mis a mis tout son poids dans la balance à Bruxelles. Elle tire aujourd'hui 70 % de son électricité du nucléaire, mais son parc de 56 réacteurs est vieillissant : 36 d'entre eux ont plus de 35 ans. L'objectif affiché par l'actuel gouvernement est de réduire cette part à 50 % du mix énergétique en 2025. Les nouveaux réacteurs nucléaires que la France envisage de construire pourraient faire l'objet d'un dépôt de dossiers en 2023, pour une mise en service « en 2035-2037 ». EDF propose la construction de six nouveaux réacteurs de type EPR en France sur trois sites, un projet que le groupe évalue à environ 50 milliards d'euros en tenant compte d'une intervention de l'État. Cette semaine, EDF a averti d'un nouveau retard d'au moins 6 mois dans la livraison de l’EPR de Flamanville, initialement prévue en 2012. Ce nouveau retard va engendrer un surcoût supplémentaire de 300 millions d’euros. Au total, un coût multiplié par six, à près de 20 milliards d’euros selon la Cour des comptes qui ne cesse d'alerter sur la nécessité de revoir le chiffrage de cette technologie. Dans son dernier rapport, publié en décembre, elle insistait sur la nécessaire prise en compte de tous les coûts de production avant de décider de choix cruciaux en matière énergétique.

Chaque semaine, Philippe Meyer anime une conversation d’analyse politique, argumentée et courtoise, sur des thèmes nationaux et internationaux liés à l’actualité. Pour en savoir plus : www.lenouvelespritpublic.fr

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

To celebrate our first successful year we'd like to share the fun we've had behind the scenes with you in an end of year outtakes spectacular! There's no interview, just a long list of mispronunciations, roasts, and mistakes we've accumulated over the year. This show is genuinely so much fun to do and we can't thank you enough for listening!

Happy New Year! See you in 2022!

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form 

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. 

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Support the show (https://www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form)

Thanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Revoir la politique énergétique de la France, avec Loïk Le Floch Prigent. Depuis la sortie du confinement, le monde fait face à une hausse des prix de l'énergie spectaculaire. En France, les prix du carburant, du gaz et de l'électricité ont des conséquences dramatiques sur les familles aux revenus les plus modestes. Les réponses du gouvernement à ces envolées de prix, avec le chèque-inflation (au lieu d’une diminution des taxes) et le bouclier tarifaire, sont-elles satisfaisantes? Le mal n'est-il pas plus profond, et n'est-ce pas toute la politique énergétique de la France qui serait à revoir pour sortir de la crise, en mettant l’accent sur le nucléaire, filière d’excellence française, qui nous assure une énergie décarbonée ? Autant de questions que nous allons aborder dans #BeMyGuest avec l'ancien capitaine d'industrie, Loïk Le Floch Prigent, ex-Président d'Elf-Aquitaine et de Gaz de France.

Revoir la politique énergétique de la France, avec Loïk Le Floch Prigent. Depuis la sortie du confinement, le monde fait face à une hausse des prix de l'énergie spectaculaire. En France, les prix du carburant, du gaz et de l'électricité ont des conséquences dramatiques sur les familles aux revenus les plus modestes. Les réponses du gouvernement à ces envolées de prix, avec le chèque-inflation (au lieu d’une diminution des taxes) et le bouclier tarifaire, sont-elles satisfaisantes? Le mal n'est-il pas plus profond, et n'est-ce pas toute la politique énergétique de la France qui serait à revoir pour sortir de la crise, en mettant l’accent sur le nucléaire, filière d’excellence française, qui nous assure une énergie décarbonée ? Autant de questions que nous allons aborder dans #BeMyGuest avec l'ancien capitaine d'industrie, Loïk Le Floch Prigent, ex-Président d'Elf-Aquitaine et de Gaz de France.