Season 5 Wrap-Up - The Conversations That Stuck With Us

[00:00:05] Dominique: Hello, and welcome to our season five wrap-up episode of Green Champions.

[00:00:09] Christy: Thanks for joining us all season long in conversations with real people sharing sustainability success stories. 

[00:00:15] Dominique: This podcast, as always, is a platform for green champions to share their stories and plant new ideas. I'm Dominique.

[00:00:21] Christy: I'm Christy.

[00:00:21] Dominique: We are sitting here wrapping up season five of Green Champions, and this was actually our very first season with Christy. So Christy, congratulations on finishing your first season of Green Champions, and I gotta just say, like, thank you for doing this with me, and this has been really fun.

[00:00:36] Christy: Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. I'm so glad we did this, and it was fun to get to work with you in a different way. I love it.

[00:00:43] Dominique: And this is your first wrap-up, but at the end of every season, we always kind of take a pause and reflect a little bit on who we talked to, some of our favorite things. I think you and I can get really caught up in doing episode after episode. We have so many great guests, and I'm really glad we get these pauses.

So I really wanna hear who stood out to you from this season, maybe even things you learned or surprises. What do you got for us? 

[00:01:06] Christy: Oh my gosh. I had so much fun, so many amazing conversations. Gosh, if you want me to pick a favorite, it's like, you know, picking your favorite child or niece or nephew.

That's kinda hard, right? I love them all.

[00:01:17] Dominique: Yeah. I wanna say I won't tell them, but we will air this.

[00:01:21] Christy: I know. That's I'm feeling some pressure in my chest.

[00:01:24] Dominique: Okay, maybe not favorites, but maybe what are some conversations that sitting here right now stand out 

to you?

[00:01:29] Christy: You know, I think some unexpected things. Like, I love having conversations with people and you can see a moment when they feel seen and they share with you in an open way. Like you can see where people are like, "Oh, I was coming to this thinking I'm gonna talk about this experience," or, "I'm gonna talk about, you know, this work thing."

And you just reach a point, and they're just like, "Oh, we're just talking." 'Cause sometimes people can feel pressure on a podcast. And I think back to when we were talking to Nancy Zavada at MeetGreen. And 

[00:01:59] Dominique: I loved talking to Nancy.

[00:02:01] Christy: It was so fun.

[00:02:02] Dominique: Blackberries in Oregon?

[00:02:03] Christy: Strawberries. And I had a work conversation with Nancy just, I think it's been two weeks ago now, and she's like, "I am still trying to figure out how to get you freezer strawberry jam to you and Dominique." Yes.

[00:02:18] Dominique: Now she's my favorite. If other guests want to be my favorite, they must send me food.

[00:02:23] Christy: What was something fun for you?

[00:02:25] Dominique: Ooh, there also have been really great conversations. I think one that just stands out to me from, like, a personal connection standpoint was having Vin Valentino on because he was someone that was really impactful for me early in my sustainability career and, like, seeing what our podcast is doing, like seeing how people combine their talents together to do cool stuff.

And I just love the way he talked us through some big ideas. I think also he's just someone that gets you, like, rallied. And I think a lot of what I come to Green Champions for is to remember why we do all this and get that, like, big picture, like re-energizing us, why we're doing this. But yeah, I think he was fun.

[00:03:01] Christy: I do too. He was fun. He had great energy, but he also was able to explain complex issues and situations in a way that I think anybody could be like, "Ah, a-ha, I got it. I know what you're talking about," and why it matters. I liked that. 

[00:03:15] Dominique: Yeah, I think Jake was also really great. On a similar note, I think, you know, thinking about like an island landscape and all these factors he has to consider, I think obviously that's gonna sound fun. But he did a really good job of walking us through like so many multifaceted components and how it connects to people, land, and 

experience. So that was also a really great one. 

[00:03:38] Christy: Yeah. That was amazing, and it's kind of interesting that I happened to be in the Dominican Republic before we recorded that with Jake. 

[00:03:45] Dominique: That was a genuinely wild coincidence. 

[00:03:48] Christy: It was. It was happenstance. And so I got to tour the sustainability facilities where they have the marine, coral research and where they're doing this whole area about indigenous peoples and the beehives and all these things that we didn't even cover. But it's kind of interesting that sargassum, which is one of the things we talked about, the invasive seaweed, has now overtaken my social media feed, 'cause we talked about that briefly, and there's been a lot of news across island nations and coasts about what's going on with that. And, I felt like Jake did a, gave us some, some ideas and thoughts of really how to tackle that when you're a country focused on tourism, and how to take something, the word's invasive, and have it be a resource. So I thought that was a pretty cool conversation, too. 

[00:04:33] Dominique: I honestly hope more of that gets on my feed.

[00:04:35] Christy: Yeah. It's kinda cool. It's kinda cool. 

[00:04:38] Dominique: Well something else I think that I thought would be entertaining for us, is if we handed out some superlatives to our guests from this season. So, right now Christy and I are sitting here with a screen in front of us with some superlatives. And so we might just toss them back and forth to each other as we go.

But maybe, a funny one I think, 'Most Likely To Curse On The Podcast' definitely goes to our, our buddy Vin. Yeah.

[00:05:03] Christy: I think we can both agree on that one. 

[00:05:05] Dominique: Yeah, had to have a conversation of if Green Champions has any kind of restrictions on language. We decided it does not. 

[00:05:14] Christy: A couple of F-bombs. Yeah. But, well used. Yeah. Great at grammar. 

[00:05:17] Dominique: All right, what are some superlatives you wanna hand out?

[00:05:19] Christy: Ooh, oh my gosh, 'Most Likely To Have A Spreadsheet For That,' I'm gonna tell you right now, Andrew Shakman. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I remember seeing that at one point.

You know, there's different athletic things that happen. You can win awards and trophies, and then there was one for Excel, and I'm like oh my gosh, Andrew Shakman, winner for spreadsheets. 100%.

[00:05:43] Dominique: Honestly, most of the time to respond, that's a great question for every answer. I don't even have someone for that, and I honestly wanna give kudos. I think our guests are just really great, and usually it feels like we're really just chatting. And hopefully the nerves aren't there,

so. 

[00:05:56] Christy: Yeah. I agree with that. And, that's actually something I look for 'cause sometimes when people say, "That's a great question," it's like, "Is it?"

Or, "Did that catch you unaware?" And we didn't get many of those, really. It was like, "Oh, that's really thoughtful." And they seemed intrigued, so I loved that.

[00:06:11] Dominique: Okay, what would you say for 'Most Likely To Break The Podcast Time Limit'?

[00:06:15] Christy: Break the podcast time limit. My memory goes back to a dear friend, Karima.

Karima, we love you, and we love to talk to you. It did run a little long. And I wanna give Karima some kudos and say that was our very first podcast that Dom and I did together with Karima, so it was kind of a test there. So she was great and gracious. And it was fun. It was fun, so check that one out. 

[00:06:40] Dominique: Yeah. I think 'Most Likely To Use The Phrase: Systems Change,' is a funny one, and I think I would think about our interview with Elizabeth and Marissa. I can't separate them exactly between those two. But I think they could maybe have that trophy.

[00:06:54] Christy: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I think that, too, Angela Huffman focused on food systems, farmer related issues. I think that that could come up with systems change, 'cause we certainly need some systems change there.

[00:07:06] Dominique: Yeah. Oh my gosh, I loved Angela's energy. 

[00:07:09] Christy: It was so interesting. And it's been fun to see her work continue to evolve. So it was great to learn more about that. You should check that out. 

[00:07:16] Dominique: 'Most Likely To Convince You To Change Careers.' I think maybe I felt that with Jake 'cause I was like, "I need to go move to the Dominican Republic," but I don't know who you think of.

[00:07:24] Christy: Well, I certainly would like to be able to scuba and check out some coral.

[00:07:29] Dominique: On a Wednesday morning.

[00:07:31] Christy: Yes, on a Wednesday morning. But you know what? I really liked talking to Josh Lloyd.

Turner Construction, talking about a couple of things. One thing that, like, kinda blew my mind, and I shared this with someone else, and it really blew their mind, but the way he thinks about all the aspects around construction. Really interesting. I don't know a ton about it. I learned a lot.

But, you've gotta check out the podcast episode because there was a really cool example that he shared. And I'm not gonna share it because you need to listen to his episode. 

[00:07:58] Dominique: Yeah, and Turner is the number one green builder for the last, like, I don't know, 10 years. 

[00:08:03] Christy: yeah. So that's amazing.

[00:08:06] Dominique: Well, Christy. Thank you so much for doing this season with me. This has been awesome. I'm very excited about season six. We got some cool stuff coming. 

[00:08:14] Christy: We do. I'm so excited. What is coming, Dominique? Tell us.

[00:08:17] Dominique: We next season, we'll be digging into a conference partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, MORPC. They're located in Columbus, Ohio, and they host an event in the fall. And it's all around bringing folks together to talk about how we really plan our community spaces for better systems, from transit to pathways, to the ways we engage the local economy, to how we engage even like political sides of the conversation.

And we will be partnering with them to showcase some key voices that are coming to the conference and tell you a bit about what's going on, and hopefully just encapsulate what's happening at that event every year into a bit of our Green Champion style material. So we are very excited about that.

More to come in our next episode. Christy, anything else you wanna add?

[00:09:03] Christy: It's fun to work with you in this way, and it's been an honor to talk to so many amazing green champions, and I can't wait for season six.

[00:09:11] Dominique: And don't worry, Christy and I will talk less in the next season, and you'll hear more from our guests.

[00:09:16] Christy: Maybe.

[00:09:17] Dominique: You can find our episodes, donate, or reach us at thegreenchampions.com. Our music is by Zayn Dweik. Thanks for listening to Green Champions. We'll be kicking off our next season in our next episode.