Jennifer Cole is the Executive Director of the Clean Fairfax Council. The mission of Clean Fairfax is to encourage environmental stewardship and urban sustainability in Fairfax County, Virginia through education, programming and community involvement. Clean Fairfax reduces littering and encourages recycling, reusing, and reducing consumption through community cleanups and adopt-a-spots. It also serves as a clearinghouse for environmental information in Fairfax County.

Why do you care about sustainability?

“Because without it we’ll end up in an untenable situation with regards to our very existence. It is like asking ‘why do you eat/drink water?’ Because without it, we cannot survive.”

How do you think about Corporate Social Responsibility?

“I think that 99% of the companies out there can do 100% better. If they won’t do it on their own (to create a cradle-to-grave life cycle for their products), then there needs to be policy changes and legislative efforts to force them to do so. If a cell phone or computer company bakes in planned obsolescence by making it impossible to add memory or a battery change, or swap out a hard drive or a processor, requiring us to buy new products every few years because our “old” ones are no long operable, then they need to take our old products back. This goes for everything from single-use plastic water bottles to washing machines, televisions, and air conditioning units and cars and computers.”

What is your approach to energy efficiency?

“Energy efficiency should be the norm and a surcharge attached for anything that is not. It is really that simple. We shouldn’t be paying more for something that is higher energy star rated. We should be paying LESS for it. We should be paying MORE at the register and thru our utility bills for things that are WASTEFUL.”

What is your approach to water conservation?

“This winter’s lack of snow will be a good test of whether people can handle some hardcore water conservation. I am not a meteorologist so I do not know whether we’ll be in a drought situation here in the Mid-Atlantic this year but I do know that we haven’t had nearly enough rain and snow this year to cover for the incredible searing heat we’ll have from June to September.”

“I grew up in the country and had well water, so I am still in water conservation mode because when your well ran dry you were out of luck until the next rain. Folks on municipal water here have no concept of what that means because even when we’re rationing water, or have a lawn-watering ban, water still comes out of their taps.”

“But this is part of a bigger jellyfish-tentacles of issues that are all related — if HOAs allowed for better landscaping in fronts of houses and less lawn, we would have less “need” for wasteful watering of grass. If HOAs allowed for rain barrels — if they required and encourage rain barrels, then residents could water their gardens and their containers with captured water. But until HOAs and municipalities get on board and make changes to THEIR policies, we’ll have households with sprinkler systems running on days it is raining (because they don’t know how to adjust it) and watering the lawn.”

What is your approach to waste management?

“We really need to get a handle on our garbage. But to put it on the consumer by banning straws (which I support, don’t get me wrong but banning straws isn’t going to get us out of this problem) is insane. Government and business need to get together and figure out a series of policy and legislative changes. And I say businesses need to be in on it, but honestly it just needs to get done and without business input because time and time again, business has shown that the bottom line is far more important than climate change, pollution, environmental justice, clean air/clean water.”

“Recently the head of Coke’s sustainability initiative said that they couldn’t get rid of plastic coke bottles because that is what consumers want. Except that is the only option in the US (besides aluminum cans in small oz. sizes that you cannot reseal like a bottle). So, if you don’t give consumers a choice, then how you can you say that they ‘choose’ plastic? That is disingenuous at best and a fallacy and condescending at worse. In the airport in San Francisco, the only bottle of water you can buy comes in an aluminum bottle that can be reused and absolutely can be recycled. That’s your choice! Either bring your own bottle and fill it for free at all the water bottle filling stations, or buy a bottle of water that can be reused.”

“Across the country, municipalities are feeling the pinch of the cost of dealing with waste. Some recycling programs are folding because not only is it expensive, but it doesn’t even come close to paying for itself because no one wants our filthy recycling. In other countries, governments say, ‘you can make two (or three) plastics and all have to be made from recycled plastic and all have to be recycled’, and in those countries (Scandinavian) they have a 90% recycle rate on plastic.”

How do you think about emissions reduction goals?

“If we don’t reduce emissions by factories and corporations, we will all end up with asthma or worse. AGAIN — cleaner emissions products should not cost MORE, they should cost less. If the government is going to give tax breaks to business, then they have to go to businesses that make things that are healthier and more sustainable for all of us.”

What are the challenges associated with sustainability, and how do you overcome those challenges?

“One of the biggest challenges is dealing with the business community who are not at all interested in sustainability except for sustaining their own bank accounts and bonuses. Just show up at any Chamber of Commerce meeting in Northern Virginia/Mid-Atlantic and try to bring up any kind of legislation that is ‘green’ and see the kind of reception you get. Business is keeping us in the dark ages environmentally and at some point they’ll need to be held responsible.”

“Second — a disposable culture is SO CONVENIENT to people who are either lazy, or over committed or constantly in a rush or all of the above. Why wash dishes over and over again (in your dishwasher!) when you can just throw plastic-coated polystyrene into the garbage? Once it leaves the trashcan and goes out on the curb it is someone else’s problem, right? Single-use disposables should be the exception, not the norm. I grew up with cloth napkins and dishtowels because paper napkins and paper towels were expensive. When I do talks I am shocked at how many people my age and younger just use all disposables in their house except for a few times a year when company comes. I say ‘presumably you’re not wearing disposable clothes, and not using disposable bath towels and sheets, so why are you defaulting to disposable napkins and dish cloths — You can throw them all in the same laundry!’”

“Third: Companies make more money when you buy paper towels, or plastic cutlery every week as opposed to having 24 cloth napkins that you wash once a week. So there’s a (wrong) idea that it is cheaper to buy paper towels at $1.50 a roll every week vs. a few dish towels at $5 each (but last for years — I have some dish towels and cloth napkins that my mother gave me when I turned 18 and started my own household. Needless to say they are now old enough for me to give to my own kids if I had any).”

What trends are you seeing in your industry related to sustainability?

“NOT ENOUGH. Since my industry is pushing for sustainability, I’m definitely not seeing what we need, which is support from legislators and companies.”

What do you see on the horizon related to sustainable initiatives?

“NOT ENOUGH. In fact, with this administration I am seeing a lot of environmental rollbacks that will take decades to fix. What I see on the horizon is climate science deniers in the White House because Climate Science is inconvenient to Business Interests.”