Jennifer Atlee
jatlee
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Connected with 14 organizations
Connected with 5 people
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Connected with 8 wikipages
Areas of Focus
Ecolabeling and Certification
(961 people) | Sustainable Materials
(1539 people) | Business Firm and Organization Sustainability
(1949 people) | Sustainable Building
(2141 people) | Energy Efficiency and Conservation
(1737 people) | Sustainable Urban and Regional Planning
(1443 people) | Sustainable Forestry
(1390 people) | Life Cycle Assessment
(904 people) | Industrial Ecology
(628 people) | Natural Resource Management
(986 people) | Sustainable Production
(1857 people) | Recycling and Reuse
(1888 people) | Natural Capitalism
(1766 people) | Indoor Air Quality
(547 people) | Art and Sculpture
(1102 people) | Ecological Economics
(1463 people) | Ecosystem Services
(932 people) | Fiscal Policies, Institutions and Taxation
(391 people) | Sustainability and Technology
(1514 people) | Socially Responsible Investment
(1942 people) | Democracy and Civil Society
(1387 people) | Education, Government and Sustainability
(1390 people) | Energy Security and Sustainability
(926 people) | Climate Change
(3172 people) | Emissions Trading
(860 people) | Greenhouse Gases
(1017 people) | Transnational Corporations
(741 people) | Global Governance
(791 people) | Consumption and Green Consumers
(1674 people) | Environmental Justice
(1521 people) | Indigenous People and Culture
(1959 people) | Environmental Law and Policy
(853 people) | Toxic and Hazardous Substances
(536 people) | Pollution Prevention and Reduction
(885 people) | Sustainability, Religious and Spiritual Issues
(1909 people) | Infrastructure
(761 people) | Sustainable Communities
(2834 people) | Sustainable Transportation
(1325 people) | Biomimicry
(1198 people) | Green Roofs
(1215 people)
About
Inquiry: The primary inquiry of my life (though not always
with these words) is how do we make the system changes needed so that
human and organizational creativity naturally lead toward sustainable
and restorative practices? My thoughts on this have changed
substantially over the years - and it's still a quest.
Work: I am research director at BuildingGreen, publisher of Environmental Building News (EBN), the GreenSpec Directory of green building products, and the online resource BuildingGreen Suite. I provide technical and research support, write the occasional EBN article, update criteria for GreenSpec’s product screening process, and collaborate on a variety of consulting projects - and I totally love what I do.
Path: As a child I had a direct and intensely personal connection to the natural world. This morphed into a stewardship commitment while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail after high school. Studying environmental science at Brown led to the realization that demand for resources drove environmental degradation – and that supply/demand economics had more power than science in determining policy and market behavior and the resulting environmental impacts. So I went to work at an energy efficiency engineering consulting firm to focus on the demand side of the equation (learning engineering on the job). During that time it became obvious to me that efficiency would be overshadowed by increased production unless the underlying dynamic was changed so that industry was environmentally benign or even restorative. This led me to an internship at Rocky Mountain Institute, and then to MIT for a dual MS in technology policy and materials engineering. After MIT I dabbled in consulting/contracting work - for the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, and a few other places, before finding work at BuildingGreen in my hometown of Brattleboro, VT.
Process: The process has been one of traveling further into industrial/organizational/engineering realms to acquire the tools I felt I needed to do the work I feel called to – and a concurrent cycle of connection, loss, and reconnection to my spiritual and emotional center. I have now come full circle in many ways. I have rooted myself back in community, place (Brattleboro, VT), and spirit. Professionally and in my studies, I followed the line of power and impact only to discover (1) the extent to which it seems people at all ranks and positions can feel disempowered - or empowered, and (2) the extent to which today’s problems are system level issues which have to be addressed through people’s collective wise engagement in the face of radical uncertainty.
Interests: I tend to be obsessed with standards, certifications, infrastructure, taxation systems, and other behind-the-scenes rules that determine how we engage with the world, and in my own little way, I get to play with some of these at work. I'm also frequently amazed by how often, despite my engineering training and focus on ACTION, I tend to return to the need for - and transformational potential of - quality dialogue (my father's CII world). I have to get outdoors a lot to stay sane (hiking, kayaking, skiing, etc., etc.), and love to create (pottery, sculpture, murals, gardens, etc., etc.), The scope of my interests is limited primarily by time, and by self-imposed activity limits that provide both balance and time for reflection in my life.
Work: I am research director at BuildingGreen, publisher of Environmental Building News (EBN), the GreenSpec Directory of green building products, and the online resource BuildingGreen Suite. I provide technical and research support, write the occasional EBN article, update criteria for GreenSpec’s product screening process, and collaborate on a variety of consulting projects - and I totally love what I do.
Path: As a child I had a direct and intensely personal connection to the natural world. This morphed into a stewardship commitment while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail after high school. Studying environmental science at Brown led to the realization that demand for resources drove environmental degradation – and that supply/demand economics had more power than science in determining policy and market behavior and the resulting environmental impacts. So I went to work at an energy efficiency engineering consulting firm to focus on the demand side of the equation (learning engineering on the job). During that time it became obvious to me that efficiency would be overshadowed by increased production unless the underlying dynamic was changed so that industry was environmentally benign or even restorative. This led me to an internship at Rocky Mountain Institute, and then to MIT for a dual MS in technology policy and materials engineering. After MIT I dabbled in consulting/contracting work - for the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, and a few other places, before finding work at BuildingGreen in my hometown of Brattleboro, VT.
Process: The process has been one of traveling further into industrial/organizational/engineering realms to acquire the tools I felt I needed to do the work I feel called to – and a concurrent cycle of connection, loss, and reconnection to my spiritual and emotional center. I have now come full circle in many ways. I have rooted myself back in community, place (Brattleboro, VT), and spirit. Professionally and in my studies, I followed the line of power and impact only to discover (1) the extent to which it seems people at all ranks and positions can feel disempowered - or empowered, and (2) the extent to which today’s problems are system level issues which have to be addressed through people’s collective wise engagement in the face of radical uncertainty.
Interests: I tend to be obsessed with standards, certifications, infrastructure, taxation systems, and other behind-the-scenes rules that determine how we engage with the world, and in my own little way, I get to play with some of these at work. I'm also frequently amazed by how often, despite my engineering training and focus on ACTION, I tend to return to the need for - and transformational potential of - quality dialogue (my father's CII world). I have to get outdoors a lot to stay sane (hiking, kayaking, skiing, etc., etc.), and love to create (pottery, sculpture, murals, gardens, etc., etc.), The scope of my interests is limited primarily by time, and by self-imposed activity limits that provide both balance and time for reflection in my life.