EARTHPLEDGE MAKES SUSTAINABILITY FUN

Fifteen years ago, the last thing Leslie Hoffman thought she’d be doing was running a foundation. A sometime carpenter, “green” builder, coffee farmer and gardener, Hoffman’s idea of a good time was sailing the high seas—preferably without any company.

But then she met Ted Kheel, the renowned mediator and civil rights advocate who had long been an environmental partisan, and Hoffman’s life changed overnight. Kheel had recently started a foundation called Earthpledge to bring innovative technologies for renewable energy to traditional industries, and he decided—on the spot—that Hoffman was the right person to run it.

Since then, Earthpledge has become an effective and creative advocate for what’s become known as sustainability, or what Hoffman describes as “the interconnectedness of everything.” Wherever there is waste, Earthpledge sees fuel. And wherever there is a way to connect people, companies and technologies, Earthpledge sees opportunities to expand its agenda through sustainability initiatives such as Green Roofs (planting the tops of urban buildings with sod, plants, flowers and trees to ameliorate urban heat, lower energy costs, purify the air and reduce storm-water runoff); the yummy Farm to Table initiative (to create demand for sustainable, local products); a high-tech Waste=Fuel project (to create new ways to turn human and animal waste into clean energy); or even its more recent Verdopolis conference on the future of the green city, replete with a runway fashion show (FutureFashion) featuring ecocouture made with organic and recycled fabric. Hoffman seems to have a knack for bringing sustainable culture to the masses, and doing it with tremendous panache. “Why shouldn’t this be fun?” she points out. “Using the wow factor you can deliver the broader understanding of a global shift to sustainability-without all the granola and brown rice.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. She adds.
www.earthpledge.org

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