Emily Eckert

Viable Future: Improving Accessibility to Sustainability with Emily Eckert, GoViably

Episode 84

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Hosted by
Ron Kamen

Ron Kamen has decades of expertise & leadership in catalyzing exponential change in sustainable energy adoption with communities, governments, non-profits, and businesses.

Quantum Quote: “We are running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.” – Elon Musk

As we get more individually committed to making our homes and this planet a healthier and more sustainable place to live in, slowly, we’re starting to make the transition that we need in the first quarters of 2021.

Over 88% of all new electricity generation in the United States came from the construction of new solar, wind, and other renewable energy power plants. That 88% is because clean energy technologies tap into the forces of nature, and now provide the lowest total cost of ownership!

However, as we continue to pursue the positive impact we’ve been making these past few months, we also have to realize that despite everything, our efforts are just not enough.

Did you know that according to scientists’ calculations, the amount of greenhouse gases we’ve got in the environment now has the same impact every day as though we’re exploding 500,000 nuclear weapons every day, 365 days a year? That’s how much energy is being captured in the atmosphere from the greenhouse gases we’ve all created!

There’s no room for failure. We need to increase our impact now.

There are people and companies who are getting better at their game of greenwashing. We don’t want to spend our hard-earned money on products that aren’t actually produced in a sustainable manner.

Join us as we interview Emily Eckert, the CEO of GoViably.

Emily Eckert is a woman with a vision. With a degree in Global Economies, Human Rights, and the Environment, she was made to lead GoViably.com. As the Founder and CEO, Emily brings a lifetime of environmental passion and commitment to the role. She also brings empathy, sensitivity, determination, and authenticity – traits born from her experiences as an adoptee, woman, and person of colour. The obstacles she has overcome have equipped her to face challenges and thrive. She became the leader of a company poised to transform business in ways that will help save this planet.

Sign up for a free webclass to discover how easy is it to get ultra-efficient geothermal heating and cooling installed in your home – without the pain of emptying your savings account.

In “The Power Of Earth With Comfort” From Climate Master webclass, you’ll discover the answers every homeowner needs to know, including:

• How geothermal heating and cooling can draw energy from the ground beneath our feet (for pennies)

• Why homeowners everywhere are making the switch

• The secrets to securing utility incentives and tax credits to pay for a large portion of your new geothermal system

and much more…

If you are tired of rising energy costs and want to save up to 70% on your energy bills, Go to www.AWESomeEarthKind.com and register now for this FREE special event that will show you exactly how to get geothermal heating and cooling installed in your home.

We’d like to hear from you! Please help us understand how AWESomeEarthKind can help you achieve your clean energy goals – and you’ll automatically be entered into a Sweepstakes for a Free LED Light Fixture:

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SuperNova #1. There is a lot of rebates and incentives that are out there to help both businesses and residential customers, and I don’t think they’re looking at them. More utilities are getting on that bandwagon. More utilities might be having some requirement to offer something like that. So if your heating system dies at home, reach out and find out if your utility has any support.

SuperNova #2. We need to have more conversations about this. It’s in the news all the time, but there’s no comparison to having a genuine conversation with somebody that you know and learning about their perspective and sharing yours and saying how you can support each other. We’ve reached this point where there’s a lot of independent living and thinking, but in the end, we’re one society and one planet – our home. We’re all in this planet together. Let’s work altogether and support each other. Instead of saying “shame on you for not doing this or that”, we need to say “I understand that that’s how you’ve been taught, but have you ever thought about these ideas?” Giving suggestions and general conversations are really important.

SuperNova #3. Every one of us has an impact. It’s up to us whether that impact is negative or positive. Oftentimes, we don’t think about the impacts that we don’t see. Let’s think beyond what we can see even though it seems like our decisions and actions don’t make a difference; they really do, because people are observing what we’re doing all the time. They may not tell us and we may not know, but just when you don’t think somebody’s paying attention, somebody’s paying attention. Whether it’s friends, family, co-workers, they don’t need to say they’re paying attention, but they’re seeing your actions – they’re seeing what you’re doing.

Aha Moment: “I was about 17 years old. At the time, I lived in Mystic Connecticut and I worked in an aquarium as an exhibit educator. Although I’m not a huge fan of those types of institutions now, for me, it made a positive impact education-wise. I remember, as an exhibit educator, I would have my preset spiel about whatever animal that I was talking about to the visitors, and then this particular day, I was talking about the beluga whales. We have three beluga whales there. I remember finishing that spiel and then thinking to myself, so I’m standing here talking about the conservation of animals, but then I go home and I eat them. And that was my light bulb moment. If I love animals so much, why am I eating them? And after that, I started doing more research about the industry in general, which then also sparked research about climate change and carbon and off I went from there.” – Emily Eckert

Best Advice She’s Ever Received: “Keep smiling.” – Emily Eckert

Personal Habit that Contributes to Success: “Routines. I have a nightly routine because sleep is really important to me. I like to be clear headed and I’m not if I don’t get enough sleep. So sleep and a nightly routine is a habit that I believe keeps me going.” – Emily Eckert

Internet Resource: National Geographic

Book Recommendation: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Magic Wand: “Less fear. There’s a connection between the lack of cooperation and fear. The more fearful people are, the less likely they are to cooperate. And so if we have less fear and more love, I think that we would cooperate together and drive these solutions and these actions together more.” – Emily Eckert

WTF or F: “I’ll pick the first one, although I did not personally experience it at the time, but I experienced the after effects. My dad lives in Massachusetts, and this must have been about 10 years ago. They had a tornado go through their town. Luckily, my father lived on the outside of town when the tornado went right through the town, and at one point, my boyfriend and I went to help volunteer to clean up some of the homes because there were some homes that were just levelled and I had never experienced seeing that devastation firsthand until that point. I didn’t even have words to describe it. There was one woman that came in – we were going to help start clearing out the debris – and she didn’t want us to touch anything. This was within a few days of it happening. So you could still see and it was palpable that she was still in shock. There was still a lack of full grasp of what had happened and just not even wanting anything to be touched because she’s still processing what’s happened. And we’re seeing – we as in the world – is seeing more extreme weather patterns these days. Saw hurricanes and tornadoes. We still see in specific pockets, but we see them more often. There’s more often than I will see a tornado warning in the New England area. But still, that devastation is, I mean a flood can cause that same devastation where you just can’t rebuild the house that you already had there. You need to start completely from scratch. You can’t renovate it. So to me, that was my experience of this is what nature is really capable of.” – Emily Eckert

Most Energized About Today: “I’m most energized that it was actually sunny. We’re in November and it’s sunny and beautiful.” – Emily Eckert

Next Step: “We’re continuing to create a scoring system for our sustainability certification. But actually, what’s very exciting and I’d like to share it today is that we are going to be posting a one-day sustainability event – The Viable Future Event – on March 3, which is a Thursday and it will be a virtual event, but the goal there will be that every attendee or participant will walk away with concrete action steps. So we have talking about getting away from green washing and showing that transparency and helping people realize what tools and resources are out there. I invite everybody to keep an eye on our website https://www.goviably.com and we will be announcing more about the events. But I’m very excited because I want to make it a fun, engaging event. I know people are tired of these Zoom workshops where somebody talks at them for an hour, so we’re going to strategize and make it much more engaging instead of having the speakers talk for 60 minutes while everybody else is off their videos and sleeping.” – Emily Eckert

Parting Advice: “Don’t be afraid to try something new. Instead, be grateful that we actually live in a time where most of us – at least in our country – have the ability to try something new and have something new to even try in the first place.” – Emily Eckert

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