On 28 February 2013, Green Grid Radio returned to a local focus with a broadcast titled "A Day in the Life of a Bay Area Environmental Think Tank," which featured Dr. Tanja Srebotnjak, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute. She spoke about the San Mateo office's recent work in the Bay Area and more broadly about the role a think tank such as Ecologic Institute can play in European and US environmental policy making. She highlighted that local sustainability measurement is just as important as larger, national efforts and that cities and counties in the Bay Area are engaged in a growing number of initiatives and partnerships with non-profit organizations and businesses to advance sustainability in the county and the Bay Area. The interview is available online.
Ecologic Institute's San Mateo office is involved in one such local initiative: the Sustainable San Mateo County Indicators Report, which was developed by Sustainable San Mateo County and is now in its 17th continuous year.
KZSU’s Adam Pearson also inquired about a recent study on Senior Health in San Mateo County and its links to environmental issues. The study grew out of the 2012 Sustainable San Mateo County Report, explained Dr. Srebotnjak, and was produced with support from local health care districts and with input from the county's health care department. It shows that health and environmental issues often go hand in hand so that counties can allocate scarce resources more effectively by developing a holistic long-term vision for the county and working across departments to achieve it.
The interview also discussed the special position that Ecologic Institute occupies due to its presence in both Europe and the U.S. Tanja Srebotnjak highlighted that while Europe today is seen as a leader on global climate change and other environmental topics, it was able to draw on and learn from pioneering legislation and innovative market-based approaches developed in the U.S. The institute can therefore serve as a useful transatlantic bridge for knowledge and information exchange between governments and other actors on both sides of the Atlantic. In the future, she said, the San Mateo office is also hoping to foster such exchange with countries such as Japan, Korea and China.
Green Grid Radio is a radio programme produced by Stanford University students on KZSU 90.1FM. Green Grid Radio’s mission is to create engaging and transformative narratives regarding the environment, energy, and sustainability.
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