I am a Senior Scientist at NRDC, specializing in issues related to sustainable development, supply chain management, industrial ecology, the paper industry, health risks, solid waste management, recycling, medical wastes, and sludge. I coordinate some of the world’s most prominent institutional greening initiatives, including the Academy Awards telecast, the GRAMMY Awards, the “Broadway Goes Green” initiative, and the greening of Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the USTA. I’ve served on the DuPont Corporation’s Bio-Based Fuels Life Cycle Assessment Advisory Board, the National Research Council Committee on the Health Effects of Waste Incineration and the EPA's Science Advisory Board Subcommittee on Sludge Incineration, as well as the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's Peer Review Panel for it's Report to Congress on the Health Implications of Medical Waste. There’s more, but too much to list here.
Posted December 2, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
President Obama is today announcing nearly $4 billion of investments in combined federal and private sector energy upgrades to buildings over the next 2 years. Today’s commitments, announced along with representatives from more than 60 organizations, are part of the...continued→
Posted November 15, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy
A new report released today by a coalition of labor and environmental groups estimates that recycling 75 percent of the nation’s municipal waste, in combination with incentives for manufacturers to use recycled raw materials, will create nearly 1.5 million desperately...continued→
Posted October 26, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, U.S. Law and Policy
Should municipal solid waste (MSW) be converted into energy? Is it a renewable fuel? Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) require electric utilities to generate a certain percentage of electricity from renewable energy sources. Although there are no federal renewable energy standards,...continued→
Posted July 29, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
When it comes to the functional integrity of the biosphere, small things matter. Indeed, it is the small things in the global ecosystem that keep Homo sapiens and other forms of life alive. Ants produce soil. Bees pollinate a third...continued→
Posted July 21, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, U.S. Law and Policy
It is well known that recycling produces more jobs than any other form of waste management. Indeed, recycling is among the most productive of green jobs producers. Moreover, the environmental benefits of responsible recycling are well documented, especially when it...continued→
Posted July 12, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, The Media and the Environment
As the movement to green professional sports continues to broaden its reach, (witness the recent launch of the Green Sports Alliance), those of us involved in this noble work continue to be inspired by the strong commitment to environmental stewardship...continued→
Posted June 23, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
In 2009, Dr. Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science brought together a distinguished group of the nation’s leading researchers from diverse fields to study the ecological effects caused by mountaintop removal coal mining. In January...continued→
Posted June 16, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
Food waste is approximately 14% of the household waste we discard. Food waste is of concern to environmental agencies and municipalities because in landfills food waste is a primary cause of methane gas emissions, a very potent greenhouse gas, and...continued→
Posted April 4, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Green Enterprise
The cultural shift toward ever increasing environmental responsibility is being given added momentum by the current NCAA Final Four event. For the first time in the history of the NCAA Final Four, a Sustainability Committee was formed to incorporate ecologically...continued→
Posted March 21, 2011 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
Representatives from the major professional sports leagues in North America came together today to announce the launching of the Green Sports Alliance (GSA). ( http://www.greensportsalliance.org ) With public endorsements from league Commissioners, and from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, it is the...continued→
Posted September 8, 2010 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, The Media and the Environment
“Sports matter. They hold a singular position among leisure time activities and have an unparalleled impact on the everyday lives of billions of people…Sports shape and stabilize social and …political identifies around the globe…to an unprecedented extent…Sports’ major protagonists…[are] global...continued→
Posted August 30, 2010 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, The Media and the Environment
Environmentalists and thoughtful people everywhere lost a compatriot last week with the passing of John Holusha, a longtime New York Times business reporter. John Holusha arrived in New York in the late 1980s from the New York Times’ Detroit desk....continued→
Posted August 15, 2010 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
The New York Times Magazine published a photo essay titled “Dumping Across the Digital Divide” this week, which documents the dumping and hazardous management of electronic waste in Ghana. (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/08/04/magazine/20100815-dump.html )This practice is not limited to Ghana and infects many...continued→
Posted July 28, 2010 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
The opening sentence of NRDC’s first Testing the Waters report, published in the summer of 1991, began as follows: “During 1988, an unusually high number of beach closures on both coasts, which were linked to uncommon amounts of floatable wastes,...continued→
Posted July 20, 2010 by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, The Media and the Environment
President Obama and the First Lady celebrated Broadway last night in the East Room of the White House and two co-founders of the Broadway Green Alliance, Susan Sampliner, Company Manager of Wicked, and I, were invited. (http://www.broadwaygreen.com/) Our attendance, as environmentalists...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
