Auden Schendler

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Auden Schendler is a Colorado-based climate activist and author. His books include Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution (2009), [1] and Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul (2024). [2] He is Senior Vice President of Sustainability at Aspen One. [3] His website is www.audenschendler.com. [4]

Schendler has written extensively about the failure of the modern environmental movement, and its complicity with the fossil fuel economy status quo. Early in his career he documented the difficulties of enacting sustainability initiatives in the business world and the ineffectiveness of conventional green business practices in the face of climate change. His writing has been published frequently in the New York Times, [5] the L.A. Times, [6] and Harvard Business Review. [7] His latest work is about the gap between what we say we care about as parents and citizens, and how we respond—or don't--to a threat to all those things: climate change. He has been featured in Men's Journal, [8] Businessweek, [9] Outside, [10] Fast Company [11] Harvard Business Review, [12] Slate , [13] and Scientific American's Earth 3.0. [14]

He has published numerous essays on climate change, politics, parenting, and the outdoors [15] and speaks regularly about climate change and what constitutes meaningful action. [16] At Aspen One Schendler is part of a team that has developed several innovative utility-scale clean energy systems, including a microhydroelectric plant, a solar photovoltaic farm, and a coal mine methane-to-electricity project, the first of its kind west of the Mississippi.

The bulk of Auden's work is around scale solutions to climate change, primarily through movement building, policy, and power wielding from the outdoor industry. Auden served on the board of Protect Our Winters [17] for a decade, as the organization grew from a hundred thousand dollar budget to four million and beyond. He has enacted climate legislation—including rules on methane leakage, HFCs, and clean cars—as a Governor-appointed commissioner on Colorado's Air Quality Control Commission. He was elected to Basalt, Colorado's town council in 2016 and served through 2020.

Auden previously worked at Rocky Mountain Institute in corporate sustainability as the field was just evolving. He has also worked as an ambulance medic, Forest Service Goose nest island builder in Alaska, High School math and English teacher, ski instructor, trailer insulator, Outward Bound instructor, auction-company junk sorter, and Bobcat driver. [18] An avid outdoorsman, he has climbed Denali, North America's highest peak, kayaked the grand canyon in winter, and ascended Mt. Rainier's Liberty Ridge. He lives in Basalt, Colorado with his family. [19]

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References

  1. ↑ "Getting Green Done". Getting Green Done. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
  2. ↑ Schendler, Auden (2024-11-26). Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN   978-1-64782-975-9.
  3. ↑ "/ Company Information / Environmental Commitment / More About Us / Staff Bios". Aspensnowmass.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
  4. ↑ "Coming Soon". www.audenschendler.com. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  5. ↑ Schendler, Auden (2021-08-31). "Opinion | Worrying About Your Carbon Footprint Is Exactly What Big Oil Wants You to Do". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  6. ↑ Schendler, Auden (2018-07-13). "Op-Ed: Finding rare glimpses of unity in an ominous wildfire season". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  7. ↑ Schendler, Auden (2022-06-30). "How Businesses Can Hold Their Banks Accountable on Climate Change". Harvard Business Review. ISSN   0017-8012 . Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  8. ↑ "Aspen and the End of Snow - MensJournal.com". www.mensjournal.com. Archived from the original on 2014-01-20.
  9. ↑ "Little Green Lies". Bloomberg.com. 29 October 2007. Archived from the original on July 2, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Snow Job?". 4 November 2008.
  11. ↑ "Degree of Difficulty". February 2007.
  12. ↑ Schendler, Auden (2010-07-19). "Climate Change: Too Many Visionaries, Too Few Grunts - Auden Schendler - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review". Harvard Business Review. Blogs.hbr.org. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
  13. ↑ Thompson, Clive (2010-04-19). "Is the planet really warming up? Just ask the corporations that stand to make—or lose—billions because of "climate exposure." - By Clive Thompson - Slate Magazine". Slate. Slate.com. Archived from the original on 25 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
  14. ↑ Schendler, Auden (2009-03-18). "How Business Can Influence Climate Policy". Scientific American. doi:10.1038/scientificamericanearth0309-64 . Retrieved 2011-03-06.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ↑ "Blank". www.gettinggreendone.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-28.
  16. ↑ "speaking". www.gettinggreendone.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-28.
  17. ↑ "Homepage". Protect Our Winters. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  18. ↑ "About the Author". Getting Green Done. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  19. ↑ "Our Team | Sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company". Aspen Snowmass. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
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