The Green Insight #1
Welcome to the Green Insight! In case you don’t know me, my name is Maria and I’m a Zero Waste and Sustainability expert.
When you study economics one of the first things you learn is that a price contains all the information there is about a product or service. Most economic models used in the last 100 years use this definition of a price as a basis for all the assumptions made, which of course impacts the effects that different variables have in the economy.
Let’s use an example. Think of a hamburger. Do you really think the price represents the costs to cover all the water used, the emissions generated from ranching, production and transportation, soil erosion, floods, water pollution and wildlife extinction? I’ll give you a hint: No.
So, we have been assuming for many years, that prices are an accurate representation of all the resources needed to produce an item, when in reality they don’t. Most prices only represent the costs incurred by the seller, but who’s paying for the environmental costs? We are doing it through inefficient subsidies. We are paying taxes that subsidize industries that are destroying the environment. We are paying business owners, through the government to destroy our planet. Whether you eat that burger or not, you are still paying for it. Let that sink in.
The resources we are using today to support our overconsumption are having an impact on the replenishment of those resources, the quality and the amount. But those impacts are not represented in the prices we pay. And I didn’t even mention other impacts, such as health.
After earning the degree in economics and realizing that the environment was missing from the equation, I decided to head to grad school so I could merge economics and the environment.
I had an incredible experience in Monterey, where I got to learn from other economists and sustainability experts, meet the leaders in the industry, and learn a lot about the current sustainability trends and tools.
Right after grad school I joined a Sustainability Consulting firm as a waste expert and advisor. There I got to work with dozens of clients across multiple different industries, helping them conduct waste audits for compliance and for sustainability, create waste action plans, help clients establish tracking and reporting systems, and create a third-party waste free validation for a client that wanted to audit and validate their goals and progress but didn’t want to share their information publicly. The “downside” was I was travelling 3 weeks out of the month and sometimes working 16-hour days, which was starting to take a toll on me.
Out of a sudden an opportunity came along to work in the ski industry as a Sustainability Manager, overlooking three ski resorts in California, and working with the enterprise to achieve 3 major sustainability goals by 2030 at 41 ski resorts across the US, Canada and Europe. It was an incredible and fun experience, where I got to work with folks from every single department in the resorts, finding ways to incorporate sustainable practices into their work, without disrupting operations, and allowing us to reach our goals.
After a couple of years, life happened, and I won’t get into everything right now, but I decided to leave that job and go after my dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
That’s when I founded Waste Free Tahoe. When I was finishing grad school, I started to get a little overwhelmed hearing about the climate crisis and felt a little helpless. So, I decided to educate people and empower them to incorporate sustainable actions into their life. It all started as a weekly section in my friends WhatsApp group and evolved into an Instagram page, and finally into my business.
Waste Free Tahoe is a sustainable waste management consulting firm, helping businesses and organizations of any kind incorporate sustainability into their business models, achieving enormous savings and reducing waste to landfill. You can go check out what we do in our website: www.wastefreetahoe.com.
But this newsletter won’t be about my business. Sometimes I will share with you client success stories, and any news about the business, but the goal is to inform you about current waste trends, problems, solutions and news.
I believe education is the basis for behavior change which will lead us to establish more sustainable economies and processes. So, I want to share all my expertise, experience and knowledge with you, to help you figure out what your role is as an organization’s leader or simply a citizen.
I hope you enjoy the content; please share with others you think might be interested and stay tuned every week for a new issue of The Green Insight.
Cheers, xx
Maria Waste Free