Tamanna Mohapatra

Sometime this September, a few of us waste geeks got invited to tour a municipal waste facility as well as a company trying to convert waste into energy. It was both fascinating and heart breaking; mainly because the company has such a great idea and business model but is still waiting for all necessary permits from the government. Hopefully they will get all necessary approvals very soon and will be in the news as a great success story. The visit still made me think this wou

Originally posted: http://greenhomenyc.org/blog/a-greener-future-for-waste-management/ All of us living or working in New York City recognize and admire the fact that the city is a trailblazer in many areas. However, waste management in general, and organics recycling in particular, have been challenging issues for the city – issues needing a trailblazing spirit to establish best practices for the future. A recent panel discussion hosted by the U.S. Green Building Counci

Part two of this blog focuses on the observed sustainability initiatives at a few US/international chains of hotels. I chose some based on their creativity and others because they are familiar chains and it would be good to know their stance on ‘going green’: Since 2006, Four Seasons Hotel, Philadelphia has successfully reduced its landfill waste by 47% by recycling more than 100,000 pounds of material. It also recycles its used cooking oil and organic waste for conversion in

Part one of this blog talks about the hospitality industry and the urgent need to embrace sustainability as part of an overall business strategy: Summers are for family trips and vacations! A few of you maybe flipping through this piece as you wait for your flight to take off or as you complete your summer journey. I am no different when it comes to fulfilling this summer fantasy (almost a necessity now a days with our hectic lives). I love traveling, so does pretty much ever

Styrofoam® is a type of plastic product made from oil. Styrofoam® chemically is Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) and is also known as plastic #6. It is owned and manufactured by The Dow Chemical Company. It is used as disposal products (for take outs etc.), packing peanuts, and sometimes as an insulator for other larger products. According to this educative video[1], Styrofoam as a material has endless creative and commercial uses and is therefore so prevalent in our society today.

I recently visited Seattle and having heard that it’s one of the sustainability meccas of America; I was hoping to feel happy, pleasantly surprised and see sustainability in practice everywhere. I was a little more than disappointed. Seattle is sort of the other silicon valley of the west. It is home to truly corporate giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, and Boeing as well as quite a few smaller but upcoming companies such as Zillow.com, thriftbooks.com etc. I felt l

It’s encouraging to note and see that many airlines are trying to reduce their carbon footprint in both the conventional manner (greening their fuel) as well as less traditional methods. Returning back from a coast to coast trip, I was able to observe the sustainability efforts by two well recognized brands- JetBlue and Southwest Airlines; both US born smaller airline companies, companies that can make introduce and implement sustainability efforts faster than giant behemoths

I was the original author of this post hence posting it here. Since then a editor friend of mine had a go at it to make it a little spunkier and shorter. Enjoy Article on Aquaponics as posted on GreenhomeNYC #aquaponics, #greenhomenyc, #okofarmbrooklyn, #sustainability, #urbansustainability.

This is a short and mostly educative blog piece. The idea for the piece started based on a discussion I had at a sustainable networking event about the growth of aquaponics and hydroponics in our food system today. I realized I wasn’t clear about the difference between the two. Further, it’s such a growing area; it would be nice to learn what’s been happening in it recently. So here goes: Before there was just a body of water, fish swimming in it and men fishing them manually

I have to visit Sweden. This urgent need of mine came to light after attending the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce’s (SACC for short) second green summit this November. They did such an excellent job of bringing to light the various issues in the global food system in a both a very serious and playful manner, that by the end of the event I was thinking when should I book my tickets! Michael Wood, the former US Ambassador to Sweden was the MC for the event. Very funn

Below is an article from the amazing food think tank website  highlighting 24 TED talks specifically around food issues that they find compelling and worth sharing. Please check out and watch as many of these as you can. 1. Roger Thurow: The Hungry Farmer – My Moment of Great Disruption Thurow,author of The Last Hunger Season, explains the profound “disease of the soul” that hunger represents, and how empowering smallholder farmers can bring long-term sustainable health

Hello everyone and a happy summer to you all! Every time I learn something new that helps clarify some concept or makes me realize the importance of the topic, my first thought is- wow, that was so well explained! My second thought usually is, I should blog on it so that I can pass along this wonderful learning and help clarify someone else’s thoughts and understanding. You may wonder why I have such an odd post title at first glance the three topics may seem dissimilar but t

As part of one of my course works this semester, we were asked to read Andrew’s latest book called,’The Big Pivot’.  It was quite a fast and interesting read and full of concrete steps although sometimes it may feel like the steps are a little impractical to implement immediately in an established major company. The book’s title is taken from the reasoning that (in Andrew’s own words), ” We live in a fundamentally changed world. It’s time for your approach to strategy to chan

Bill McKibben’s latest book with a subtitle of ‘The Education of an unlikely Activist’ was no doubt a good read. I was and am impressed by everything he has done for our generation, this country and the cause of reversing Climate Change. I have no authority whatsoever to criticize him or be critical of him. But after finishing this novel, I think the character I end up remembering and wishing I was is the person behind the honey- Kirk Webster; the local Vermont monk/farmer wh

I had an amazing day today visiting a silk road exhibit at the Penn museum, PA. It was a wonderful day and I decided to make the most of it. It was sort of experiment and adventure in sustainable living and boy do I have some statements to make! First - about the silk road: It did exist, it’s about 2000 years old and covered 4000 miles across Asia, Africa and Europe. It allowed for the exchange of goods, ideas, technology and religions between East and West. It was an amazing

University of Pennsylvania has named 2010-2011 academic year the “year of water”(more info on that at http://yearofwater.org). The point is to remember how important this natural resource is to our survival and how we have to immediately stop taking it for granted. Concepts such as water war are already happening our the world. People sometimes walk 20 miles one way to get a bucket of water. We, in the US and most of the developed world are very lucky to not only get water (t

Last year I was not able to take part in the National Trails day which made me even more determined to take a hike this year in honor of it. I was delighted that this year in addition to taking part in a hike, it would be for a good cause and would be with friends. The cause I am referring to is amongst many names also called ‘Save the Gaps’. This was the 2nd of the two hikes done this year to raise awareness of this issue and let people see first hand what was to lose by not

The first thing special you will feel about this book is how it actually feels. And there is a good reason for that. In going with the theme of this book, the chemist (Michael) and architect (William) authors have published this book on material that not only feels smooth and nice but also is 100% reusable. It’s printed on..you would never guess, so here goes: polypropelyne film! It’s probably one of a few if not the only book of it’s kind. I have been reading a lot of books

Not sure how I stumbled upon it, but I am very happy to have come across this term ’permaculture’ and learn more about it. According to the NYC meetup site for it, it’s defined as: Permaculture is a “whole systems” view and design system that connects the dots to being green and leading a green life. It shows us WHY refusing, reducing, reusing, repairing, and recycling, growing food, composting, buying local, supporting “alternative” energy and transportation, cooperative eco

The other day I was talking to my mother about the really hot weather in my town back in India. My mother keeps complaining the temperatures are every year reaching unbelievable heights that seemed just impossible a few months back. In her eyes and everyone else in various parts of the world facing record high temperatures and crazy weather, global warming is very real and unfortunately hear to stay. Unless.. We all stopped complaining and discussing it and actually did somet