Green Sense Radio

Changing the Climate at the Local Level

Angie Fyfe, Executive Director of ICLEI, (Local Governments for Sustainability) is one of the largest global networks of local governments devoted to solving the world’s most intractable sustainability challenges. Angie was featured as one of three women leading in sustainability and climate action. Hear about how she and her organization are tackling climate challenges with local solutions.

Black-owned farms a sustainable way forward!

For centuries—even prior to the Civil War—Black-owned farms have played a key role in how Black Americans have forged their own identities, independence, wealth, and well-being amidst systems designed to repress them. John Jamerson, and his son D'Anthony Jamerson, are with the Indiana-based Legacy Taste of the Garden" farm. They talk about the challenges and opportunities facing black farmers in the past, present, and future!

Should we be preparing for doomsdays?

What happens if all the doomsdays forecast for the future are wrong and we have a utopian future with a clean environment? Michael Rogers, Practical Futurist has been tracking innovations that will change the future for decades and has written a new novel Email from the Future, notes from 2084.  Michael’s utopian future contains vertical farms in cities, as a sustainable way to grow year-round crops with a small footprint and high yields.

Historic Preservation: What old buildings are worth saving?

This week on Green Sense Radio we are joined by Mike Jackson a Springfield Illinois-based architect and a visiting professor of architecture at the University of Illinois. Mike has led the architectural division of the Illinois historic preservation agency for more than 30 years and shares his insights into why historic preservation is important, the criteria used to differentiate between blight and buildings worth saving, and provides tips the public can use when it comes to preservation.

Legacy Auto Company Retooling their Business Models to Stay Competitive

This week, Tom Appel reports our Green Automotive News - Ford Motor company’s announcement to split the company into Ford Blue, for traditional gas- and diesel-powered vehicles, and Ford Model E, for new electric models; Rising gas prices and their impact on car sales; The rise and fall of Rivian the darling of Wall Street rising production costs, delays in production and a PR debacle have soured its loyal customer base; and why battery production is moving to the US.

Growing a Unicorn: Plenty a $1 BN Vertical Farm Startup

This week we sat down with Arama Kukutai, CEO of Plenty an indoor, automated vertical farming technology company that can grow clean produce year-round, anywhere in the world. Arama is a pioneer in both Ag Tech investing and Vertical Farming. Hear about how growing up in New Zeeland, his Māori heritage and college days playing rugby shaped him to succeed. He shares his insights on the current CEA industry and what big plans he has as the newly appointed CEO of Plenty. 

The Future of Indoor Agriculture: Robots with a Green Thumb!

Ridder a Dutch indoor growing technology company is on a mission to help farmers grow more crops sustainably. They are on the constant hunt for new technologies that can grow a wider range of crops faster, better, safer, and cheaper.  This week we spoke with Ridder’s CTO, Joep van den Bosch to learn about what technologies are on the horizon, when they will become commercially available and how they will address labor, rising inputs costs and crop quality to produce more crops with less resources.

The Green Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

First Student is an industry leader in home-to-school transportation and furthers its
commitment to electric school buses. This week we spoke with Kevin Matthews, Head of Electrification at First
Students to hear first-hand how their electric buses are transporting over 5 million students to
school every day.

BRINGING LED LIGHTS BACK ONSHORE!

This week we spoke with Chris Higgins of Hort Americas and Urban Ag News to discuss how GE – Current repurposed an existing US light factory to make horticulture LED lights onshore.  Did they get lucky to get ahead of kinks in the supply chain or was this well planned? Listen to this week’s episode and learn about the eco-innovations that are happening in the world of Controlled Environment Agriculture.

The automotive industry continues to ramp up the production of EV trucks

This week we sat down with Tom Appel, publisher of Consumer Guide Automotive to discuss the latest news in the automotive industry and the challenges manufacturing companies face to ramp up production of EV trucks to meet demand. Tom gives us insight into how car companies are competing in two different automotive markets - cars, and trucks, to meet increased consumer demand for EVs in 2022 and
beyond.