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Jennifer Schwab
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As Chief Sustainability Officer, Jennifer is responsible for all environmental information, education, and other initiatives at SierraClubGreenHome.com. She developed the Sierra Club Green Home (SCGH) “GreenCheck” validation program and directory for green suppliers. She is also the founder and cocreator of Green Leader®, an internationally recognized sustainability training program for individuals and business professionals.

Jennifer studied environmental design and sustainability at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Following Art Center, Jennifer earned a Masters in Urban Planning and Sustainable Design at the University of California, Irvine. Jennifer is a LEED Accredited Practitioner and served on the Orange County USGBC Education Committee.

Jennifer has been recognized for her work in sustainability with a number of honors, most recently “Best Green Entrepreneur” by the 2013 Mumbai World CSR Congress, and the 2012 Piece by Piece gala honoree. She was an American delegate to The Economist 2013 Arctic Summit and has been accepted as a Fulbright Specialist Grantee for 2013-14.

Jennifer consults on energy efficiency and sustainability for various corporate clientsincluding Eye-R Systems, a technology company originated at MIT which uses high-throughput infrared imaging, geospatial data integration, and highly scalable predictive analytics to identify energy leaks in residential structures. She is a member of the Board of Advisors for Source Intelligence, a carbon footprint assessment company based in San Diego. Jennifer also serves on the Board of Advisors for New Media Expo, America’s largest social media conference and tradeshow.

Jennifer is a frequent speaker at a wide variety of environmental conferences and forums. She is a widely quoted media analyst in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Dwell, Fortune, Forbes,CNN Money, CNBC, andConsumer Reports, among others. She has also appeared on WSJ Lunch Break, NBC-U, CBS, NYT, and Fox News. Jennifer is a frequent green expert guest on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Away from work, Jennifer follows art and design avidly and is also a trained Cessna pilot. She serves on the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Photography acquisitions committee in Los Angeles. You can read her innermost green thoughts as a contributor to the Huffington Post, LOHAS, BllogHer, Healthy House Institute, Intent.com, as well as on the home page of SierraClubGreenHome.com.

Blog Entries by Jennifer Schwab

Fortune Green: Consumers Won't Pay Extra, But Companies Will

(0) Comments | Posted May 10, 2013 | 3:34 PM

LAGUNA BEACH - The top movers and shakers of the corporate sustainability world recently gathered at Fortune Brainstorm Green to examine, analyze and summarize the success of green B to B, and the simultaneous failure of green B to C commerce. At the end of an intense, informative and insightful...

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Mumbai: Jenn Goes Jain

(0) Comments | Posted April 10, 2013 | 3:33 PM

MUMBAI-- As a person of East Indian descent, but an American through and through by birth and upbringing, I have always wanted to journey to the motherland to explore my Jain heritage. An invitation to attend Mumbai's second annual Global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Conference as a speaker and award...

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World's Most Dangerous, Sustainable Swamp

(0) Comments | Posted February 11, 2013 | 12:59 PM

OKAVANGO DELTA NATIONAL PARK, BOTSWANA, AFRICA -- It sounded like a pig, but not just any pig. Louder, deeper, but snorting nonetheless, and really close by. Startling indeed as I sipped South African chardonnay and enjoyed my antelope filet.

2013-01-29-MotherandSonRhinocerosjpg.jpg

Like mother, like son...

...
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24 Hours In Cape Town (PHOTOS)

(8) Comments | Posted January 6, 2013 | 9:00 AM

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Imagine Del Mar or La Jolla without the density, retail shops and franchised restaurants on every corner and houses built on every square inch of land. Welcome to Cape Town, South Africa.

I had heard glowing reports about this southernmost mecca from...

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Diving With the Dream Team

(0) Comments | Posted September 6, 2012 | 9:40 AM

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Example of living coral reef in Aitutaki. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Earle.

AITUTAKI, COOK ISLANDS - In answer to your first question, I am scuba diving in the South Pacific, about six hours due south of Hawaii by air. As exotic and remote...

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Slipping Green Through the Back Door

(2) Comments | Posted August 15, 2012 | 1:18 PM

Laguna Niguel, CA -- America is going green, but not the way environmentalists had planned it. The unlikely hero is none other than Corporate America, which is giving consumers the green whether they realize it or not. Why? Because it's good for the customer, it's good business, and let's face...

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Modern Family, Rockefeller Style

(6) Comments | Posted April 5, 2012 | 4:48 PM

The ocean is a great equalizer, inspiring love not linked to geography, race, nationality or socio-economic status. A noteworthy ocean worshipper who has the talent, contacts, resources and desire to not only love our oceans but try to save them is Susan Cohn Rockefeller.

My first memory...

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Sundance Film Festival Highlights Best-In-Class Green Docs

(1) Comments | Posted March 13, 2012 | 12:31 PM

PARK CITY, UTAH -- The glaciers are melting, temperatures are rising, nuclear disaster is just around the corner, the sky is falling. Most of us have read and studied environmental topics enough to understand that many of these oft-repeated epithets are true. So, why would I want to sit through...

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Going Back In Time At A Remote Eco-Resort (PHOTOS)

(1) Comments | Posted February 3, 2012 | 6:00 AM

When I bid on an "Eco Resort Experience" last March at the Christie's Green Auction, I thought we were probably headed to a typically exotic deluxe vacation spot on the other side of the world. It turns out that I was in store for one of the most...

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Give It Away Now

(0) Comments | Posted November 22, 2011 | 2:16 PM

LOS ANGELES - "Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now..."

Think of the Red Hot Chili Peppers hit song, which preaches love not materialism. While co-hosting last week's successful Opportunity Green conference held at Los Angeles Center Studios downtown, I couldn't help but think of this song...

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Netflix Subscribers See Red, But Video Streaming Is All Green

(39) Comments | Posted September 21, 2011 | 6:28 PM

When Netflix CEO Reed Hastings raised prices dramatically to discourage use of mail-in DVD service in favor of internet streaming, all holy hell broke loose with both customers and investors. The company has lost nearly half its market value since July and nearly one million customers...

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The Great Downsizing Debate Continues

(8) Comments | Posted July 19, 2011 | 4:53 PM

So I guess I've started the great downsizing debate.

Which is a great thing, really, because it focuses attention on this important sustainability issue. To downsize, or not to downsize, that seems to not be the question. The point of contention is how much to downsize...

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Car Collecting: The Ultimate Reuse, Restore and Recycle

(1) Comments | Posted July 14, 2011 | 11:10 AM

ORANGE COUNTY, CA -- I spent Saturday morning at one of the world's best car museums, viewing a mind-blowing collection of classic automobiles from the 1930s -- arguably the modern era's high point of car design as art. These cars are owned by General William Lyon, an octogenarian renaissance man...

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Downsizing -- A Thousand Square Feet Per Person, A New American Standard

(47) Comments | Posted June 9, 2011 | 4:07 PM

Let's face it, the Great Recession has not been a plus for the green movement overall. Most ordinary Americans are still sympathetic to the cause, but their willingness to spend even a penny extra for environmentally friendly products has been dampened by four dollar gas, five dollar cereal and loss...

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New York Times, Take This!

(0) Comments | Posted May 23, 2011 | 12:52 PM

A recent New York Times article, in classic "all the news that's fit to print" fashion, declared that the bevy of green consumer products introduced over the past five years is going the way of the buffalo and Circuit City, i.e. headed for extinction. It should be noted...

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Cautiously Optimistic at Laguna Niguel

(14) Comments | Posted April 8, 2011 | 6:36 PM

LAGUNA BEACH, CA - "FORTUNE Brainstorm Green" is probably the number one environmental business conference in the world. A host of top CEOs, heads of NGOs, and a variety of consultants, private equity investors, venture capitalists and journalists descend upon the spectacular Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel each April -- this was...

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Nonprofits Get Creative to Keep the Donations Coming

(36) Comments | Posted March 25, 2011 | 1:30 PM

Over the past few years, most charities have been challenged, to say the least, on fundraising efforts. Many previously flush donors have been forced to cut back on their generosity. Asking the remaining contributors to dig deeper is not the answer in most cases. What's a nonprofit to do?

One...

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The Year of Living Dangerously in Power Generation

(15) Comments | Posted March 14, 2011 | 6:24 PM

Over the past 12 months, we've had caved-in coal mines, underwater oil spills and now compromised nuclear facilities. What does it take for us to accept that renewable energy is the way to go, both from a safety and ultimately a cost effectiveness viewpoint? We are quick to forget the...

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We Can Send a Man to the Moon, But Can't Invent a Green Credit Card!?

(27) Comments | Posted March 3, 2011 | 9:53 AM

You just received your new credit card, and have to destroy the old one. Good luck, the darned things are seemingly indestructible. Better have industrial-sized scissors. Too bad these are not recyclable; I just learned this after having dropped them in the recycling bin for years.

If you think...

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Sundance Explores The Last Mountain

(3) Comments | Posted February 4, 2011 | 2:30 PM

PARK CITY, UTAH -- Sundance to the film industry is like the NCAA championship in collegiate basketball: the best of the best in what is designed to be a purist format. It's about the film makers and directors and actors, the writing and the plots, not unlike the two best...

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