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Pacific Gas and Electric Company/San Francisco, CA

Sustainable Community Energy Manager, Senior- Energy Solutions and Service- San Francisco, CA

Department Overview

Sustainable Communities, within Energy Solutions and Service (ES&S) Operations, delivers a holistic offering to local governments focused on sustainable energy management and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction. The Sustainable Community Energy Manager (CEM) will serve as the lead PG&E representative on community-wide climate action planning, working with local government leadership and relevant community partners. This approach will include the assessment of emissions and energy usage across all major sectors within the City of San Francisco. The Sustainable Community Energy Manager (CEM) also provides sustainability-related support and expertise to internal customer-facing teams at PG&E, in particular with local presence strategies and energy management within the Small/Medium Business sector.

Position Summary

PG&E is seeking a highly motivated, self-driven individual, passionate about sustainability, with clear vision and a knack for blazing their own trail. The ability to blend and reconcile the goals and desires of multiple stakeholders, while being sensitive to internal and external political environments will be critical. CEMs will support and partner closely with multiple groups within PG&E including Energy Solutions & Service (ES&S) Account Executives, Government Relations/ Partnership Teams and Green Communities.

The work will include a mix of office time, community field meetings and some travel. Occasional weekends and evening work may be required for community/ regional community events.

Responsibilities

Relationship Management: Maintains collaborative relationships with local government sustainability leaders, business and community leaders, and internal PG&E teams. Speaks at/ attends local community events in support of the overall energy/ sustainability plan.

Data Analysis and Strategic Planning: Analyzes community-wide energy and carbon emission data in an effort to identify cost-effective reduction strategies. Collaborates with Local Government, community leaders and stakeholders to develop energy vision.

Project Management and Performance Tracking: Partners with community leaders to implement agreed upon carbon reduction strategies/ campaigns, monitoring performance and providing status reports. Leads and monitors internal cross-functional collaborations and services supporting community climate goals. Provides feedback to the community, collaborative marketing and recognition.

Subject Matter Expertise: Provides centralized technical support to customer-facing teams with advanced knowledge of sustainability matters important to PG&E customers and pertinent to achieving PG&E's corporate goals. Supports Account Executive's work with assigned customers, to encourage participation in energy efficiency programs as part of a community scale sustainability effort.

Internal Coordination: Leads and coordinates innovative service solutions for local governments and their communities using network of internal PG&E and external resources. Partners with multiple PG&E departments to provide integrated services.
Compliance and Safety: Work safely and in compliance at all times with legal, regulatory and ethical standards. Fully utilize PG&E's Customer Management Tool (CMT) and other systems to document and report all work activities and expenses. Provide weekly reports/updates to supervisor.

Qualifications

Minimum:

- Bachelor's degree in business, environmental, technical or related field
- 6 years of relevant work experience (sustainability work, energy/ government-related work)
- Valid driver's license and willingness to use personal vehicle for reimbursed company mileage

Desired:

- Specialized knowledge of and experience in sustainability strategy, communications and customer motivations
- LEED AP and knowledge/ experience with green building, reach codes and related regulation
- MA in engineering, environmental management, sustainable business management or similar
- Ability to apply portfolio-based consultative sales skills and technical skills to understand, explain and recognize opportunities to work with energy end use systems and efficiency measures/techniques
- Excels in a team environment and models a collaborative spirit
- Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills
- Strong sense of awareness and savvy in political situations
- Coachable and committed to continuous learning
- Maintains professionalism and humility in dealing with team members and clients
- Strong critical thinking and problem-solving orientation (out-of-the box solutions)

If interested, please visit pge.com/careers and reference job number #12000991 Sustainable Community Energy Manager, Senior. To be considered you must apply directly to this posting via our careers page. All other inquires will not be accepted.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company is an AA/EEO employer that actively pursues and hires a diverse workforce.

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Rainforest Alliance/New York, NY

Reports to: Director, Finance & Budgeting – Finance & Administration Division
Location: New York, NY

The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Based in New York City, with offices throughout the United States and worldwide, the Rainforest Alliance works with people whose livelihoods depend on the land, helping them transform the way they grow food, harvest wood and host travelers.

The Rainforest Alliance’s TREES (TRaining, Extension, Enterprises and Sourcing) Program promotes sustainable livelihoods and protects biodiversity in forest-dependent communities. We work to enhance the competitiveness of community and indigenous forestry enterprises by building business skills, increasing efficiencies, and facilitating investment in value-added processing, expanding income opportunities from wood and non-wood forest products and environmental services, and increasing access to local and global markets through Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

Position Summary:
The Finance & Budgeting Manager will be a key member of both Rainforest Alliance-HQ Finance & Administration Division and the TREES Program management team. S/he will provide critical support to the TREES Program management in monitoring, analyzing and reporting the financial performance of the TREES Program. S/he will work closely with the Director to develop and manage the TREES Program budget and proactively ensure it meets its revenue and expense targets. S/he will assure the TREES Program complies with finance, budget and contracts requirements in accordance with Rainforest Alliance policies and procedures. S/he will also be a member of the Finance & Administration Division, which includes HQ-Finance management and the other Rainforest Alliance Finance & Budgeting Managers, and as such participates in the overall budgeting and financial analysis process and supports HQ-Finance as needed.

Responsibilities:
Planning and Budgeting
• Responsible for accurate and timely reporting and analysis of the division’s performance, based on board approved budgets, for both TREES Program management and HQ-Finance;
• Manage the annual budgeting and financial planning process (including mid-year forecast) for the TREES program in collaboration with the Director, Regional and Project Managers, Supervisors, and other Division staff; determine how TREES Program staff participate in drafting portions of the budget;
• Monitor all financial activities, and keep TREES Program management and HQ-Finance advised of situations which have potential negative impact on financial performance; and
• Coordinate proposal budget development with TREES Program staff, Development and HQ-Finance.
Expense Control/Accounts Receivable
• Monitor expenses and revenues to ensure that the TREES Program spend according to the available revenue and that restricted funds are used according to donor requirements;
• Coordinate with HQ-Finance and TREES Program staff to manage receivables on an ongoing basis;
• Create and maintain financial report templates and reporting tools; and
• Establish additional TREES Program procedures, where needed, to ensure adequate control and timely and accurate recording of expenses; including pre-approvals, expense approval limits, and activity planning tools.
Contracts and Agreements
• Ensure that contractual agreements are created with approved templates and according to Rainforest Alliance policies and funder requirements; and coordinates negotiation of agreements with TREES Program staff, Finance, Legal and/or other Rainforest Alliance departments as required and necessary;
• Ensure that Rainforest Alliance-issued agreements and related payments are processed and administered according to Rainforest Alliance policies and in compliance with established terms; and
• Ensure that implementation of funded activities is in conformity and on schedule with the provisions and requirements of the funding sources.
Reporting
• Produce and/or review financial reports submitted to funders on behalf of the TREES Program; ensure that submitted reports and invoices are reviewed for accuracy and include proper support documentation; and
• Assist with monitoring, tracking and reporting of contract and agreement deliverables.
Human Resources
• Coordinate with Human Resources in submission of job descriptions/position announcements and new hire requests in accordance with HR processes, and monitor these for conformance with approved program budget; and
• Coordinate with Human Resources regarding current and future recruitments.
Communication, Training and Guidance
• Serve as a key communication conduit to and from HQ-Finance and TREES Program management and other staff. Ensures the timely and accurate dissemination of information;
• Provide training and guidance to TREES Program staff on the use of financial tools, budget formulation, tracking and adjustments, expense accounting, financial analysis and reporting, and contract management;
• Identify training needs and facilitates contracts orientation and training for newly hired TREES Program staff, in coordination with other Rainforest Alliance staff;
• Provide guidance, coaching and oversight of other TREES Program staff serving in finance and contracts management roles for large government and multi-lateral funded projects; and
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:
• Bachelors degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting or Finance;
• 7-10 years experience in financial analysis, reporting and budgeting; with minimum 2 years experience directly supervising staff;
• Demonstrated work experience with both Excel and computerized accounting systems (knowledge of Solomon a plus) and with reporting software, (FrX and Crystal highly preferred);
• Familiarity with a multi-office, multi-national organizational environment;
• Non-profit and U.S. government funding experience preferred;
• Experience in training staff in budgeting, financial reporting and use of financial tools;
• Strong math, analytical and technical skills; highly organized with an attention to details; take initiative; customer service oriented;
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills;
• Ability to interact professionally with culturally and linguistically diverse staff and clients;
• Fluency in English and proficiency in Spanish required; working knowledge of French a plus; and
• Willingness and ability to travel to 30% of the time internationally and domestically.

Salary:
Commensurate with experience. Competitive benefits package provided.

To apply:
Send resume, cover letter and salary history to Human Resources, Rainforest Alliance, 665 Broadway, Suite 500, New York, NY 10012; Fax: 212-677-2187; E-mail: Personnel@ra.org. If emailing, use the following format in the subject line: first name and last name, job title of position you are applying for.

The Rainforest Alliance is an equal opportunity employer.

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Sustainable Life Media/San Francisco, CA

The annual Sustainable Brands conference brings the leaders in sustainability, brand and design together for 4 days of conversation. We need a multi-talented designer who can assist in designing for web and print, is comfortable juggling multiple projects and is passionate about sustainability.

You will be working with the Design Manager and marketing team to produce a broad variety of conference materials. Ranging from web pages and e-newsletters to signage and event guides. You are guaranteed to gain a large amount of portfolio pieces by completing this internship.

We need 10-15 hours of work per week, of which at least 8 should be from our offices in San Francisco (the remainder can be done remotely if preferred). The internship will run until the conference in early June.

Skills:
- Adept at using Adobe Creative Suite software i.e. Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InDesign and bonus points for Flash or After Effects experience.
- HTML/CSS knowledge preferred, but not required
- Highly attuned attention to detail
- Good team player
- Familiarity with brand guidelines and maintaining design consistency

What we can offer:
This internship is unpaid but in addition to the opportunity to plug in with a terrific team of media and sustainable business experts, this position offers full travel, board and admission to the Sustainable Brands Conference 2012 in San Diego from 4-7 June. This comes with the opportunity to meet and interface with some of the top innovators on the global sustainable business landscape. We can also offer a flexible work schedule and part time telecommuting.

How to Apply:
Please send your portfolio or link to it, your resume, along with a cover letter detailing your interest in this role and what you feel your strongest skills are.

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by Daniel Klein.

Our videos are often inspired by whatever it is I’m in the mood to eat. Such was the case with this short trip we took along the Rappahannock River in Virginia, where oyster farmers are helping clean the Chesapeake Bay and replenishing the native oyster population (now down to just 1 percent of what it once was). These bivalves are a remarkable, sustainable food and if you are in an oyster-growing region, I recommend you partake as soon as possible. Winter is oyster season! (Just make sure your cameraperson isn’t prone to seasickness.)

Related Links:

One man’s trash: Dumpster diving for breakfast [VIDEO]

Farming: A New York state of mind [VIDEO]

Learning on the half-shell

View full post on Grist.org – the latest from Grist

Rainforest Alliance/Lima, Lima, Peru

Title: Markets Specialist, Peru – TREES Program, Sustainable Forestry Division
Reports to: TREES Program Director, Sustainable Forestry Division
Location: Lima, Peru

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) is an international nonprofit organization that works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Based in New York City, with offices throughout the United States and worldwide, the Rainforest Alliance works with people whose livelihoods depend on the land, helping them transform the way they grow food, harvest wood and host travelers.

The Rainforest Alliance’s TREES (TRaining, Extension, Enterprises and Sourcing) program promotes sustainable livelihoods and protects biodiversity in forest-dependent communities. We work to enhance the competitiveness of community and indigenous forestry enterprises by building business skills, increasing efficiencies, and facilitating investment in value-added processing, expanding income opportunities from wood and non-wood forest products and environmental services, and increasing access to local and global markets through Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

Position Summary:
The Markets Specialist will lead TREES program activities in Peru related to markets and marketing of products and services produced by small and medium enterprises (SME), communities and indigenous forest operations assisted by Rainforest Alliance. S/he will forge commercial alliances by employing a supply chain, market-demand approach to add value to forestry production, open access to finance for growing partner operations and create new linkages with buyers interested in sourcing products and services from sustainably managed forests. A particular focus will be on growing national, regional and international market demand for certified products produced by partner organizations.

Responsibilities:
• Prepare periodic work plans and budgets for marketing and business development activities for forest SME;
• Ensure achievement of project targets in the areas of sales, business skills development, product diversification, new market linkages and access to finance;
• Develop and implement marketing strategies for partner forest products (both timber and non timber) and environmental services;
• Provide support to forest partners in the areas of production efficiency, quality control, contracting, administration, business organization and planning, market strategy development and access to market information and buyers;
• Coordinate with Rainforest Alliance marketing counterparts in the region and at Rainforest Alliance headquarters to identify potential linkages with buyers and new marketing opportunities;
• Forge relations with national and international buyers and engage interested parties to develop commercial alliances with SMEs;
• Build market demand for certified forest products, especially in domestic markets for lower grade wood and non-traditional species (lesser known species);
• Assist buyers with supply chain analyses, procurement policy development, sourcing action planning, and creating and maintaining business relationships that favor partner producers;
• Create and develop alliances with other agencies and projects working in forest products and payment for environmental services (i.e. WWF Global Forest Trade Network, ADEX, etc.);
• Coordinate technical inputs to periodic reports on marketing activities and achievements in the field;
• Oversee planning, logistics and reporting on technical consultancies and other inputs related to marketing activities; and
• Other tasks as assigned.

Qualifications:
• Bachelors Degree in Forest Administration, Small Business Administration or related field required; Masters Degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Finance or related field preferred;
• Minimum 7 years of experience in the forest sector with at least 3 years experience in marketing in the private forest sector and preferably with at least one year experience in environmental services projects (i.e. forest carbon);
• Knowledge of non-timber forest products, environmental services and marketing of lesser-known species in the context of SMEs a major plus;
• Experience in development of forestry SMEs and community based enterprises; doing so in an international context is major plus;
• Excellent organizational skills, ability to work independently as well as in an interdisciplinary team environment;
• Experience in international and national markets and public sector procurement policies for sustainably produced forest products is highly desirable;
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks with a strong attention to detail, against targets and deadlines set in periodic operational plans;
• Ability to formulate and write technical inputs for projects (planning, funding, budgets, management, evaluation, and monitoring) and to negotiate commercial alliances with the community-based enterprises and national and international buyers;
• Strong computer skills (Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint);
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in Spanish; proficiency in English preferred or required;
• Strong teamwork skills, ability to work in multi-cultural settings and capacity to engage effectively with a wide range of actors – from indigenous communities to high-level government partners to private sector players and technical specialists; and
• Willingness and ability to travel 40% of the time, nationally and internationally.

Only candidates authorized to work in Peru will be considered for this role.

Salary: Commensurate with experience.

To apply:
Send resume, cover letter and salary history to Human Resources, Rainforest Alliance, Lima, Peru; email: perupersonnel@ra.org

The Rainforest Alliance is an equal opportunity employer.

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by Andrew Leonard.

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang—profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a
more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about
before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you
probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why.

Call it the bright side of globalization: progressive solutions midwifed by transnational interconnections. From her office in Berkeley, Calif., Andree Sosler, executive director of the Darfur Stoves Project, coordinates the distribution of cheap, clean, super fuel-efficient cooking stoves to women in the Darfur region of Sudan. Designed by Berkeley scientists, partially manufactured in Mumbai, India, and assembled in Sudan, the stoves vastly reduce the amount of time and money Sudanese women have to spend obtaining firewood and cooking food.

Dubbed “the five minute stove” by a group of Darfuri women Sosler helped train to market the device, the stoves are carefully calibrated to fit local environmental conditions and traditional cooking methods. As part of the research and development process, a team led by Ashok Gadgil, the director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, made sure that users of the stove would be able to successfully cook traditional Darfuri meals such as assida, a sticky dough topped with fried onion, meats, and spices.

Sosler remembers showing some women in Darfur who had used the stoves a short video depicting the research process.

“These women were just astounded to see that there were women across the world testing these stoves, for us,” says Sosler. “One of the women almost started crying when she saw these pictures of Berkeley college students making assida. At that moment both the woman I was talking to and I felt the same feeling: This is amazing. We are bridging these huge gaps, taking world-class science down to one of the most unfortunate situations in the world.”

The Darfur Stoves Project is the first initiative of the Technology Innovation for Sustainable Societies, a nonprofit founded by Gadgil linking research institutions, nonprofits, and local distributors to promote progressive technological solutions to entrenched poverty and degraded environments. It’s a job that Sosler has been pointed directly at ever since she was a junior at Brown University, when she spent a semester in Cameroon.

After Cameroon, says Sosler, “I knew I wanted to have a career in economic development, most likely focused on Africa.” In the decade that followed she worked for Trickle Up, a microfinance organization, on projects in Benin, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Uganda, obtained an MBA from Wharton, and did a stint as a consultant to the government of Rwanda, focusing on the goal of improving tea exports.

But her experience working for Trickle Up and seeing the way many nonprofits operated in Africa left her feeling a big piece was missing from the aid game.

“There just wasn’t much core operating support for the local organizations,” says Sosler. “I met so many amazing grass roots organizations, and local activists, and just really motivated people who were sacrificing so much to help their communities, but I felt really frustrated with the lack of tools I had at the time to help them build their own capacity to solve their problems.”

At the Darfur Stoves Project, Sosler helps train the trainers who teach Darfuri women how to use the stoves, builds consensus between the scientists at Berkeley and the big nonprofits on the ground in Darfur, and hammers out the details of the supply chain that translates ideas in California to cleaner, faster-working, fuel-saving stoves in Darfur. The long-range plan is to translate the lessons learned in Darfur to deployment of other technologies elsewhere.

“Our role is to be project managers,” says Sosler, “and help make sure that the research and development that is done is demand-driven based on what is needed by people in developing countries, and to foster the relationships between researchers and the local people, and to help create sustainable mechanisms by which the technologies can be disseminated in an ongoing way without indefinite aid.”

If there’s a touch of Silicon Valley venture-capital pragmatism leaking through Sosler’s mindset, that’s not necessarily an accident. One of the structural problems that has plagued aid projects in the developing world in the past was an unwillingness to let donors know when projects weren’t working, for fear of losing funding. But that’s changing.

“I see a lot of Silicon Valley funding coming into this field and I think that because of that influence,  people are really much more open now to saying we’re going to try three different things and we’ll do the one that works. I think there is an opening up of dialogue and transparency around the field, and an understanding that there isn’t one magic bullet solution. A lot of small solutions are gaining ground, and honestly that is probably the way that we are going to make large-scale change in the future.”

Related Links:

Ietef Vita: Rapping the righteousness of wheatgrass juice

Neverending nigiri: Kristofor Lofgren fights for sustainable sushi

Alexi Arango: Teaching solar to take a quantum-dot leap

View full post on Grist.org – the latest from Grist

Sustainable Life Media, Inc./San Francisco, CA

Executive Assistant, Special Projects Intern
Who you are:
• Masters graduate in sustainable business with undergraduate degree in international business, communications, or related field. Some work experience preferred
• Highly motivated self-starter, exceptionally well organized and detail-oriented, able to juggle many activities with grace and good humor
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; able to generate the trust and respect of all, whether interacting with a global corporate executive, a supplier, or an administrative assistant
• Willing and able to bounce between fairly mundane administrative support and project management of special projects that are of strategic significance to the business
• A team player who communicates well across the organization and views their personal success as integrally connected with the success of the team and the performance of the organization against its goals
• Proficient with all types of information technology and current business software
• Ethically driven, with impeccable personal integrity, able to maintain confidentiality, looking for a high level internship with a high impact, purpose driven, entrepreneurially run organization – strong potential for intern to hire for the right candidate
General Description:
Personal Assistance to Founder/CEO:
• Manage CEO Calendar
• Assist with design and coordination of SB’12 conference program
• Liaise with key partners on international conference expansion
• Assist with, and potentially lead other special tasks and projects which may or may not include: oversight of the 2012 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open, and/or helping to kick start new lines of business
• Other duties on behalf of the executive as needed
• Potential exists to move into paid leadership position depending on results of special projects activities

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California Housing Partnership/San Francisco, CA

The California Housing Partnership Corporation (www.chpc.net) assists nonprofit and government housing agencies to create and preserve energy efficient homes affordable to lower income households, while providing leadership on housing preservation policy and funding. As part of its mission, CHPC advocates for policy changes to make energy efficiency retrofit funding available to low income multifamily rental housing serving lower income Californians.

CHPC seeks a full time Policy Associate to advance policy and program changes that enable low income multifamily rental housing owner/managers to access energy efficiency funding and services. The Policy Associate will assist the Sustainable Housing Policy Coordinator and other staff to develop and implement policy strategies, identify and outreach to stakeholders with common interests, as well as to educate policy makers about the importance of investing in energy efficiency in low income multifamily rental housing.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities
•Assist CHPC in advocating its positions through regulatory proceedings and initiatives involving the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission, including:
-The Energy Savings Assistance Program; the Green House Gas Allowance Revenue Allocation; and general energy efficiency proceedings.
-Energy Upgrade California’s multifamily work;
-AB 785 implementation (Comprehensive Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings)
•Represent CHPC before legislators and other government officials in support of CHPC’s key legislative issues.
•Conduct research, gather data, and create policy papers and memos in support CHPC’s energy efficiency, preservation, sustainable housing policy and outreach work.
•Nurture and expand the Green Rental home Energy Efficiency Network (GREEN), of which CHPC is the founder, by outreaching to potential participants and organizing and preparing CHPC/GREEN events and monthly meetings.
•Issue monthly GREEN newsletters promoting understanding of energy efficiency needs in affordable housing.
•Periodically conduct other policy research under the direction of CHPC’s Housing Policy Manager.
•Assist with office administration as directed.

Qualifications
•Demonstrated interest in and commitment to providing affordable housing for lower income Californians.
•A minimum of two years direct experience with public policy advocacy in the legislative and/or regulatory arenas advancing state legislation and/or active participation in a California regulatory proceeding
•Strong interest in and understanding of energy efficiency and sustainable housing issues.
•Experience with coalition building and stakeholder group management.
•Strong analysis, research, writing and speaking skills.
•Strong organizational skills, including the ability to set priorities, juggle multiple tasks, and meet deadlines.
•Highly self-motivated and able to work independently with minimal supervision and as part of a team.
•Strong interpersonal skills and ability to thrive in a close working environment with evolving priorities.
•Advanced degree in law, urban planning, public policy or related field desired.

Application Details
•CHPC is an equal opportunity employer where diversity is considered an asset.
•To apply, email a cover letter, detailed resume and short writing sample (in PDF format) to: info@chpc.net
•The Housing Policy Assistant reports to CHPC’s Sustainable Housing Policy Coordinator.
•Compensation will be commensurate with experience and budget. Excellent benefits.
•The position will remain open until filled.

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by Steph Larsen.

I am not a hunter. I don’t (and will not)
own a gun and, though I’ve toyed with the idea of bow hunting in the
past, my aim really stinks. Even so, the deer population where I live
does need to be thinned, since we’ve taken their natural predators away. 

And I sure do appreciate a good venison steak.

So
while chatting with our neighbors who hunt this fall, my partner,
Brian, and I hatched a plan. Two of our ewes were being culled because
they had health issues that were impacting their abilities to be good
mothers, but would not impact the quality of their meat. We decided to
trade the meat from one of the ewes for some venison.

Here
in Nebraska does are not in short supply—in fact, many hunters are
after a trophy buck and the state has to push hunters to shoot their
female counterparts. Having many more does than bucks is not only bad
for the raw population numbers—because one buck can sire many
offspring in a season—it’s also bad for the genetics of the wild
herd. This year, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission was giving out
“antlerless” deer permits, and our neighbor took one for himself and an
extra for us.

The
opening day of deer season arrived, and by noon my neighbor had bagged a
huge doe. Many laborious hours later, he had steaks and ground meat
waiting in the freezer for his family to eat this winter. We stopped by
as he was finishing up, and he told us he was headed out again the
following morning, and would call me if he shot another doe.

Sure
enough, my phone rang the next day before noon, and he let me know he
had another deer in his truck and was coming home from the courthouse
where he’d registered her. I was to meet him in a half hour in his dad’s
machine shed so I could learn for myself how a deer becomes venison.

I
arrived to find the truck already in the shed, and I’ll admit I was a
little apprehensive. When it comes time to handle raw meat in my
house, it’s rarely me who volunteers. I was a vegetarian for many
years, and there is definitely something a little unpleasant about the
sensation. But I’m not one to shy away from the task at hand, especially
when it comes to harvesting my own food. So I came prepared—with a small
hunting blade and my newly honed kitchen knives.

I
peered in the back and saw a smaller doe, field dressed with dark eyes
that reminded me of the many trophy heads I’d seen decorating country
bars. I was expecting to feel guilt or sadness—but instead I felt
gratitude. I touched her head briefly, closed my eyes, and thanked her.
The deer’s sacrifice would feed us well all winter, perhaps longer.

Through
the next four hours, I lost all the squeamishness I’ve ever had for handling
meat. And I learned a few of the skills that hunters have been perfecting
for millennia, such as: where to cut so that the deer can hang evenly,
how to skin the animal, how to use an animal’s anatomy to make the
carving job easier. I’ll be frank—my inner scientist came out to
play. Mammalian bodies are fascinating, and I got very familiar with how
muscles look, feel, and behave. I
also learned what muscle looks like when it gets pulverized by a bullet, and
how to avoid tainting meat with spinal tissue (which can be dangerous
because it can be the source of Chronic Wasting Disease, a relative of Mad Cow). It took two of us four hours to carve
the deer, and another couple hours to grind the meat with the help of a
KitchenAid.

Brian and I have already had some venison in a pasta casserole that was quite tasty, as
were the burgers I made when my parents visited—per usual, I put too
much garlic in them. The tenderloin steaks we grilled that first night
weren’t very good. Perhaps it’s because of the way it was killed—one
of the benefits of gun vs. bow hunting is that guns can be faster, but
unless the death is instantaneous, the adrenaline that pumps through the
deer can affect the quality and taste of the meat. Arrows, on the other
hand, though more difficult to achieve a kill, are much quieter. A
skilled hunter can down a deer without scaring the animal.

Either way, I’m thankful for the sustenance and hopeful that, because of the record hunting season, I’ll see fewer deer dead on the side of the road this winter.

Related Links:

Will the Butterball raid yield any real results?

Scrooged: FDA gives up on antibiotic restrictions in livestock

The bad food news of 2011

View full post on Grist.org – the latest from Grist

by Jared Green.

This interview originally
appeared in The Dirt.

Jaime
Lerner was elected mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, in 1971, and reelected two more
times before serving as governor of the Brazilian state of Paraná. As mayor, Lerner
devised a number of low-cost solutions and innovative partnerships with the
public and private companies that turned Curitiba into a model green community. He has won
a number of major awards for his transportation, design, and environmental
work, including the United Nations Environment Award. In 2002, Lerner was
elected president of the International Union of Architects. Today, he is
principal of Jamie Lerner Associated Architects.

Q. You’ve argued that cities
are the solution to climate change, not the problem. What is the case for this?

A. Well, my point of view is
that there are many, many answers to what would be the best way to avoid
climate change. A lot of people are talking about new materials. Or new sources
of energy. Or wind turbines. Or recycling. They’re really important but not
enough. When we realized that 75 percent of car emissions are related to the
cities, we realized we can be more effective when we work with the concept of
the city. It’s through cities that we can have better results.

Q. What do you see as the
relationship between livability and sustainability?

A. Every time we try to
create a solution, we have to have a good equation of co-responsibility with
the public. That means it’s not a question of money and it’s not a question of
skill; it’s how do we organize the equation of co-responsibility?

For example, when I was
governor we had to work hard to reduce pollution in our bays. Of course, it’s
very expensive to do environmental cleanup work and we didn’t have the money.
Another region had taken out a huge loan from the World Bank, about $800
million. For us though, the question wasn’t about money; the question was about
mentality. We started to clean our bays through an agreement with fishermen: If
the fisherman catches a fish, it belongs to him; if he catches garbage, we
buy the garbage. If the day was not good for fishing, the fishermen went to
fish garbage. The more garbage they caught, the cleaner the bays became. The
cleaner the bay was, the more fish they would have.

It’s that kind of win-win
solution we need. We need to work with low-cost solutions.

Q. You also decentralized
garbage collection. One program to clean up dirty, narrow streets that were
inaccessible to trash collectors gave residents bags of groceries or transit
passes in return for their garbage. How well did this program work?

A. It’s been working for more
than 20 years in Curitiba. In many cities, there are places where it’s
difficult to provide trucks access to collect garbage. In many cities, if the
slums are on the hills or deep in valleys, they’re difficult to access. In
these places, people are throwing away their garbage and polluting the streams.
Their children are playing in polluted areas. In 1989, we started a program
where we said, “Okay, we’re going to buy your garbage as long as you put your
garbage in a bag, and bring it to the trucks, where it’s more accessible.” In
two or three months, all these areas were clean, and these very low-income
people had an additional source of income.

We also started public
education programs on the separation of garbage [into separate streams for
recycling, composting, etc.] because we realized that we could transform one
problem if we separated garbage in every household. We started teaching every
child in every school. Children taught their parents. Since then, Curitiba has had
the highest rate of separation of garbage in the world for more than 20 years.
Around 60 or 70 percent of families are separating their garbage at home.

Q. As mayor of Curitiba, you
created the world’s first bus rapid transit system (BRT), “Speedy Bus,” which
works like a surface subway system but at far less cost. How did you form the
public-private partnership that made it cost-effective?

A. We didn’t have the money
for a completely new fleet, which would have cost $300 million. What was the
equation? What was the solution? We said to the private sector, private
companies, “We’ll invest in the itinerary as long as you invest in the fleet.
We’ll get loans for the work on our side, for public works, for the itinerary,
if the private sector gets loans for the fleet.” We paid them by kilometers and
there are no subsidies. The system pays for itself. Now, there are more than 83
BRT systems around the world.

The problem is in many
countries, government wants to invest in everything. That doesn’t work. I’ll
give you an example. Why don’t we have a good system of transport in New York
on the waterfront? This could be a very good approach for reducing congestion
in the city’s bridges and tunnels. The city could have a very pleasant system
of water public transport. But instead, the policymakers are holding it up,
saying there are no passengers and we don’t want to invest in the fleet. First,
they need to create a good partnership and create an attractive system, then
they will have the passengers, and then they will have a low-cost solution.

Q. You’ve also mentioned
that many poor copies of your BRT are out there, and are actually setting back
BRT as a transportation movement. What are other cities doing wrong?

A. BRT can’t be designed as
a transportation solution. It has to be planned as a whole city. Why? Because
the city is a structure of living, working, and leisure. Everything together.
Transportation has to provide a structure for living and working together. It
can’t just be a system of transport. You will just have a kind of commuting system,
which is more difficult to make feasible. With that kind of approach, you will
only use public transport twice daily, concentrated in just a few hours. If you
have a system that works always and connects working and living activities,
it’s more a city [approach] than just a corridor of public transport.

Q. Now you have your own
architecture and urban design firm and you are working with major city
governments and private clients throughout the Americas. What kind of projects
are you working on?

A. Sustainability is an
equation between what we save and what we waste. There are so many problems of
mobility or integration of systems, but we have to work fast. If we understand
the city as a structure of living, working, moving together, we can work more
effectively …

For instance, in Sao Paolo,
they have three subway lines. They are working on fourth line of the subway,
with 84 percent of the trains running on the surface. It’s the surface that has
to operate better. At the same time, the suburb railroad is being improved. The
idea is to take advantage of the existing path of the suburb railroads and
build above the rail a kind of linear park like the High Line. However, this
linear park would link the whole city, where you can connect people of all income
levels. In every place, you could have good public transport and you have a
huge park linking it all. Within this park, you could walk, bike, or take small
electric cars.

Sometimes there’s an idea
and it has to be improved. In other cases, we use “urban acupuncture.”

Q. At the street level,
you’ve been experimenting with “portable streets,” creating informal and spontaneous
market street life.

A. Some places in some
cities have become decayed. There’s no life. When that happens, it’s very
difficult to bring back life because people don’t want to live in a place like
that. However, the moment we bring street life, people will want to live there
again. That’s why we designed the portable streets. On a Friday night, we can
deliver a portable street and remove it Monday morning. We can put a whole
street life in front of a university or any place, bringing street life back …

These are small
interventions that can provide new energy to the city, and provide assistance
during the process of long-term planning, which has to take time. But we have
to work fast.

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