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”Green Minds” is a collaboration between members of the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network and guests who have experience, knowledge, passionate and dedication to sustainability. About SSDN: The Southeastern U.S. is no different than the rest of the world when it comes to dealing with the problems associated with climate change. Extreme heat, rising seas, strengthening storms, flooding, drought, and crop loss are just some of the challenges we face. The Southeast Sustainability Directors Network (SSDN) addresses these problems through sustainability efforts — work that creates a healthy, clean, and more stable environment for current and future generations. We connect local government sustainability professionals throughout the region to accelerate, scale, and implement sustainable best practices so that communities are equipped to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Learn more about SSDN at www.southeastsdn.org
Episodes
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
MaryPat Baldauf (Columbia, SC) nominated the session hosted by Tobin Freid (Durham County, NC) and KatieRose Levin (Cary, NC) as her favorite highlight of SSDN's 2022 annual meeting. The peer learning session was on Addressing Urban Heat Islands and Heat Mitigation Strategies - an appropriate topic with summer unofficially starting with Memorial Day in the Southeast.
Resource mentioned in this episode:
- UHI Mapping Initiative (Columbia): https://cpac.columbiasc.gov/urban-heat-island-mapping-initiative/
- Extreme Heat and UHI (Durham County): https://www.dconc.gov/county-departments/departments-a-e/engineering-and-environmental-services/sustainability-office/climate-resilience/extreme-heat/-fsiteid-1#!/
- Cool Roadways Partnership: https://globalcoolcities.org/cool-roadways-partnership/
- Tree Equity Score (American Forests): https://treeequityscore.org/
Thursday Apr 28, 2022
Green Minds Ep. 10: Regional & National Food Waste Awareness & Reduction Efforts
Thursday Apr 28, 2022
Thursday Apr 28, 2022
This episode of the Green Minds Podcast is hosted by Laurel Creech (Nashville, TN) and features food waste awareness and mitigation in recognition of April being Earth Month and many states and cities recognizing the month as Food Waste Awareness Month. This episode kicks off with NRDC's Darby Hoover and Nashville's Linda Breggin on a national food waste perspective then we visit the cities of Asheville, NC; Hollywood, NC; and Orlando, FL on how these Southeast cities impactful initiatives are reducing food waste.
Friday Apr 01, 2022
Green Minds Ep.9: Taking the Non-Traditional Path to Sustainability
Friday Apr 01, 2022
Friday Apr 01, 2022
Sustainability spans across a multitude of disciplines, and the variety of individual backgrounds of sustainability professionals are a reflection of this reality.
In this episode, we visit with Casi Callaway (Mobile, AL), Glen Hadwen (Fort Lauderdale, FL), Lennie Massanelli (Little Rock, AR) and George Santucci (Town of Boone, NC) to discuss their unique paths.
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Green Minds Ep. 8: Staffing Sustainability
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
This episode of Green Minds focuses on the sustainability organizational and staffing structures of four different size cities in the SSDN network and both their differences and commonalities: Susannah Troner of Miami-Dade County, FL; Helen Peplowski of the City of Winston-Salem, NC; George Santucci of the Town of Boone, NC; and Rebecca Harvey of Boynton Beach, FL. We discuss their histories, their current staffing, and future growth plans of each of these diverse cities.
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Green Minds Ep. 7: The Urban Tree Canopy
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Monday Jan 31, 2022
The first 2022 episode of Green Minds explores the making of the latest canopy study for the City of Sandy Springs (GA) with Bridget Lawlor, GIS Manager. She is followed by Dr. Kendra Abkowitz, Chief Sustainability and Resilience Officer with the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (TN), who discusses the latest efforts in Metro Nashville to preserve and increase the tree canopy.
Sandy Springs' urban canopy resources
Free canopy assessment and planning tools: i-Tree
Thursday Dec 16, 2021
Green Minds Ep.6: SSDN Cities Best of 2021
Thursday Dec 16, 2021
Thursday Dec 16, 2021
Tune into this episode as Green Minds Co-hosts Catherine Mercier-Baggett and Laurel Creech as we talk with five SSDN cities to hear about their accomplishments in 2021: Fulton County, GA; Winston-Salem, NC; Orange County, FL; Durham, NC; and Chapel Hill, NC.
For more headlines and stories from SSDN's members in 2021, check out our year-end newsletter (plus our archives!) and latest blog post on our website.
Thursday Oct 28, 2021
Green Minds Ep. 5: The State of Local Climate Planning with City Scale
Thursday Oct 28, 2021
Thursday Oct 28, 2021
This episode of Green Minds is focused on City Scale's recent report The State of U.S. Local Climate Action Planning, a collaborative reflection of a group of local climate practitioners. Through a series of conversations in 2019, climate practitioners across the country came to a shared recognition that local climate action planning had reached an inflection point. Guests Michael Armstrong, Katherine Gajewski, and Ariella Maron, of City Scale, bring their local government expertise to this enlightening and much-needed discussion.
Wednesday Sep 29, 2021
Green Minds Ep.4: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Wednesday Sep 29, 2021
Wednesday Sep 29, 2021
The IPCC is releasing its sixth round of reports (AR6), confirming that we must control our impact on climate. Dr. Jairo Garcia, author of the Atlanta Climate Action Plan and instructor at Georgia Tech, explains what is the IPCC and why their findings are critical for local governments. Nell Boyle, Sustainability & Outreach Coordinator for the City of Roanoke, VA, reveals how the IPCC report release makes a difference in her work.
Monday Aug 30, 2021
Monday Aug 30, 2021
This episode of Green Minds features Michael Dexter, SSDN's new Manager for the Southeast Sustainable Recovery Center (SSRC) which supports communities in their mobilization of COVID-19 relief and economic recovery in innovative ways which yield equitable solutions that make our communities more resilient to future stressors. We talk about the SSRC and how it will be valuable to members and Michael's previous roles in federal and local agencies.
Wednesday Jul 28, 2021
Green Minds Ep. 2: Defining Sustainability for Local Governments
Wednesday Jul 28, 2021
Wednesday Jul 28, 2021
In this second episode of Green Minds, Catherine Mercier-Baggett (Sandy Springs, GA) discusses what sustainability means in the municipal context with Dr. Lynn Patterson of Three Points Planning and Georgia Tech, and Vanessa King, Network Manager at SSDN.