The Scythe

By Dan Kempner, Managing Editor, Valutus Sustainability R.O.I. One pleasant afternoon there was a knock on our door. Several little neighborhood children looked up at me hopefully and asked, “can we play in your grass?” Just then the cat pushed past me and dove off the front porch, disappearing in the tall stalks with only…

Monorail: Can I Have One Please?

Dan Kempner, Managing Editor, Valutus Sustainability R.O.I. Canada celebrated its bicentennial 52 years ago and threw a big party called Expo ’67 in Montreal. As an 8-year-old American, seeing Queen Elizabeth’s face on the money during an independence celebration was disconcerting, but the whirl of colors, the crush of onlookers, the fascination of the pavilions,…

VBlog #3: Sargassum Dreams

By Dan Kempner, Managing Editor, Valutus Sustainability R.O.I. [Originally published Aug. 2019, VBlog] Growing up, I loved my family’s edition of the Life Nature Science set, big hardcover volumes that were shilled by door-to-door salesmen. One was called The Birds I remember, another titled The Primates, then The Forests, Reptiles, and so on. I cannot…

VBlog #2 Mr. Rogers to Hanoi Hilton: Hearing Only the Bad News is Unsustainable.

[Originally published July 2019, VBlog] Late last year I had dinner here in Saigon with a friend of Daniel’s, John B. Izzo. Best-selling author, columnist, sustainability thought leader, world traveler, and general mentor-to and hobnobber-with captains of industry. In other words, someone I was eager to meet. We ate at a high-end vegetarian restaurant downtown…

VBlog #1: A Walk on the Beach, 2019 Style

In July, 2019, my family and I spent a weekend in a town north of Vũng Tào on the coast of Southern Vietnam.

We found sand, shells, waves and cheerful fisherfolk. We also saw, swam in, and stepped on, plastic. Lots and lots and lots of plastic.

Having sampled the world’s coastlines over many years, this was a shock to me.

This installment of V-Blog sees the beach through a new lens.