Dr. Allen Hershkowitz of the NRDC returns to Green is Good to discuss how the organization is changing environmental perceptions through sporting events. Dr. Hershkowitz says 61% of Americans follow sports, compared to just 13% who claim to follow science. As professional sports are a huge cultural force, they are also a huge business. Sporting events provide many opportunities to positively influence fan bases around the nation.

“If you want to change the world, you don’t emphasize how different you are from everybody else,” Dr. Hershkowitz explains of the NRDC’s approach. “All commissioners of all professional sports have come out and said that global warming is real, that it is not good for their sport, and that they are going to initiate initiatives to help address global climate disruption.”

Rosalinda Sanquiche‘s environmental journey started all the way back as a youngster in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she grew up surrounded by the beauty of nature. Her studies in environmental science eventually led her to Ethical Markets Media, a multiplatform company that examines environmental topics while asking individuals what they can do to make a difference. Since 2007, the company has tracked how much private money has gone into green-transition technologies.

“We’re using media in all of its different forms to get out this good-news message,” Sanquiche explains. “There is $4.1 trillion (since 2007) being invested in green-transition technologies. That means that regular people looking toward the future are seeing that sustainability is the way to go.”

It was a trip to the UC – Berkeley library as a young woman that forever shaped Frances Moore Lappé‘s life, as she discovered there that we as a species are “actively creating scarcity out of plenty.” Today, she is the co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, an organization that is “living democracy and feeding hope.” She is also the author of 18 eco-fueled books, including her latest, EcoMind.

“In EcoMind, I take seven of the messages around our environmental challenge, including climate change, that are disempowering — that keep us from seeing the solutions right in front of us,” Lappé explains. “And, I flip them so that we can see the power we have.”

Raya Salter, a regulatory attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, focuses on U.S. climate and energy programs. It is her job to make smarter decisions and conserve our energy. EDF is putting policies in place that will make it easier for U.S. citizens to power their homes with clean energy sources.

“Our current electricity infrastructure is aging, it is dirty and it is polluting. It wastes tremendous amounts of electricity,” Salter explains. “We need a modernized, interactive energy system that is resilient enough to meet our changing energy needs — one that captures efficiencies across the system and is open to innovation.”