Explores the motivations, successes, and visions of individuals working tirelessly to heal our planet through over 100 personal stories. Everyday, countless individuals are hard at work, seeking solutions to environmental problems and creating new ways to live sustainably. From electric vehicle owners to animal lovers, journalists to artists, scientists to indigenous communities, it takes the combined effort of many to make a difference in preserving our planet. But what is it that motivates people to act on behalf of the planet? That is the question at the heart of Our Journey to Sustainability: How Fellow Heroes Make a Difference. Compiling over 100 stories from personal interviews, research, and his own experiences, Jon R. Biemer explores the varied motivations that inspire environmental action and presents 25 sustainable wisdom tips that readers can implement in their own lives, answering the question of what it takes to create sustainability. Readers will visit cities and towns across the country, indigenous reservations, and wildlife preserves. They will be introduced to the heroes in the trenches working to create a healthier environment, on scales both small and large, while learning how actions can add up to great results. Biemer profiles a mix of modest and impressive efforts by youth advocates, professionals in the prime of their career, and post-retirees. Some folks are just doing a day's work, while some are fighting for environmental justice. Our Journey to Sustainability shows what it really takes to recycle, repair cell phones, recover a brownfield, and halt a freeway, and highlights the real-life dreams of entrepreneurs who are revolutionizing geothermal energy, the clothing industry, the way boats are built, and much more. Eco-heroes are everywhere, and their initiatives are the substance of realistic hope for our planet.
Jon R. Biemer has more than forty years of experience creating sustainability, including repair cafes, free cycling, village building convergences, and ballot initiatives for outdoor school and clean energy. Biemer is a mechanical engineer and holds a certificate in process-oriented psychology. He has managed utility energy conservation programs and now provides organizational development consulting to non-profits. He offsets his carbon footprint and buys resale clothing. In 2013 he walked the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route from Alberta to Nebraska with the Compassionate Earth Walk. Over the years, Jon and his wife have planted food forests, eco-remodeled their home, and lived without a power clothes dryer, refrigerator and car. He is the author of Our Environmental Handprints: Recover the Land, Reverse Global Warming, Reclaim the Future and a member of the Society for Environmental Journalists. He lives with his wife in New Mexico.
