Sustainability Journo Requests

In writing news, this will be a big week for pitching, so please see media opps below: I’m looking for remote, nature-immersive lodges where the landscape is the amenity (really honing in on Australia, Africa, the Nordics, and Patagonia). Strong design and sustainability are a huge plus.

Blue Finance Project Staff - Anonymous Failed Funding Case Studies

The usual explanation for a failed blue finance project is a lack of capital. What I want to know is why it couldn’t raise more money. I’ve said before that we need to know more about the failures in ocean finance. If I were building the record, it would be a catalog of failed case studies, anonymized and easy to look through by instrument and by geography. The people who worked on each project would contribute to it. What gets recorded is the timeline, the runway, the specifics of the project and the reason it didn’t work. Then I’d feed all of it into AI to see whether there’s a pattern. There’s so much to learn from failed deals and failed projects. Two things make it hard. The first is stigma. People don’t want to talk about failure, and when it happens, they want to turn the page. Sitting down to say “this is what happened and this is why it failed” takes another layer of self-awareness. The second is being honest about the cause. Sometimes it’s obvious. Such as, we didn’t have enough customers. But often it isn’t and you can blame a gazillion things, none of which may be the real reason. Failures in ocean finance also remind me of something I learned from Prof. Leith Sharp when I studied Sustainability Leadership at Harvard University. She calls it the "Squiggle" - the messy, non-linear part between the start of a project and the clean story we tell about it afterwards. Projects rarely fail in one neat moment. They change direction, hit constraints, lose momentum, adapt and sometimes stop. If we only record the beginning and the outcome, we lose the part that may teach us the most. Having the big picture would be a very useful step. If you’ve worked on a project that didn’t make it and you’d be willing to record it anonymously, I’d like to hear from you.

Berlin Travel Experts - Sustainability & Tech-for-Good Features

Three years after my last trip, I've decided to once again take an eight-hour train ride from Amsterdam to return to one of my favourite cities...Berlin. #journorequest: I'll be there in early November and will be looking for several travel/sustainability/tech-for-good stories during my trip there. Feature pitches work best for me rather than news or profile pieces. Look at my portfolio + DM me a story idea. Whilst there I'm also running my How to Secure Media Coverage half-day workshop, holding it once again at my talented pals Kerstin Bock's and Carolin Lessoued's Openers office. If you want insider knowledge on how to build stronger relationships with journalists and create pitches that hacks are more likely to say yes to, do come along on November 5. (There's also sessions coming up in Brussels, Amsterdam, Cheltenham, Zoom and London.) I'm also looking for a sublet or petsit in/around Neukolln, where I first stayed in 2015 on my first nomadic stint abroad (picture of me below standing next to the Berlin Wall on said trip). Links below. #Berlin #journalism #stories #mediaconsultant

Women in STEM - Onstage Representation in Water Tech

What will it take to see more women at the table - and on the stage - when we talk about water and other technical issues? I had the opportunity to attend the Rice WaTER Institute Water Nexus Conference in Houston today. Thank you to James Rees and everyone involved in bringing together researchers, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and innovators to address some of the most pressing challenges facing our water future. I left with a lot to think about. It also left me with an observation. Of the 24 speakers, only 6 were women - 25%. As a female scientist, representation matters to me. When I began my career, women represented only a small share of chemistry graduates. Today, women make up more than half of chemistry bachelor's degree recipients. That is real progress. But getting more women into STEM is only part of the equation. Are we also getting women into the rooms where technical issues are discussed, decisions are made, and the future is shaped? I spoke with Lauren M Barnum, a panelist and environmental scientist like me, and shared my observation about the conference, along with my personal experience of encountering relatively few women in scientific leadership during my career. Lauren noted that things are getting better in STEM - and I agree. Another female colleague pointed out that the number of women in sustainability is increasing, which is encouraging. But I keep coming back to a question that is also at the heart of my upcoming book, Choosing Us: 45 Years of Insight on Smart Decisions That Drive Environmental Stewardship. What will it take to get more women into scientific leadership and decision-making roles? Women are deeply engaged in environmental issues. Yet we remain underrepresented in many of the technical conversations and leadership roles that shape decisions about our environment. The water challenges discussed at this conference - scarcity, infrastructure, treatment, reuse, the energy-water nexus, emerging technologies, and resilience - will affect all of us. We need the best minds and the broadest range of perspectives contributing to those conversations. This isn't about taking a place away from anyone. It's about making sure the people who have the knowledge, experience, and perspectives to contribute are actually being invited to the conversation. For me, Choosing Us is ultimately about the decisions we make and who gets to make them. So my burning question remains: What will it take to see more women speaking on technical topics like water, and more women in scientific leadership and decision-making roles? I'd genuinely like to hear from women and men in STEM, water, sustainability, academia, industry, and leadership: What do you think needs to change? #WomenInSTEM #WomenInScience #WomenInLeadership #Water #Sustainability #EnvironmentalScience #STEMLeadership #ChoosingUs

Groningen Data Center Operators & Water Managers - Water-Smart Growth

🌍 GRONINGEN 2030–2040: THE AI BOOM vs. THE FRESHWATER CLOCK What happens when a region becomes increasingly important for AI, data centers, renewable energy, hydrogen and industry — while freshwater becomes a more strategic resource? I started looking at this question from a simple perspective: Follow the water. Where does it come from? Who uses it? How much could large digital infrastructure require? What happens during drought? And can Groningen grow digitally without increasing pressure on freshwater? I turned the investigation into a 13-poster visual atlas covering: 🔹 Groningen’s emerging digital infrastructure 🔹 Eemshaven, Winschoten and Westpoort 🔹 Industrial water and North Water 🔹 Data-center cooling technologies 🔹 Illustrative water demand for a 100 MW IT campus 🔹 Drought and groundwater pressure 🔹 Industry, hydrogen, agriculture, nature and households 🔹 Circular water opportunities 🔹 Three possible Groningen futures toward 2040 🔹 A proposed Groningen Water Standard 🔹 Sources, methodology and limitations One important distinction emerged: The question isn’t simply “Do data centers use water?” The better question is: What water source + what cooling technology + what location + what season + what competing demand? That changes the discussion completely. Some numbers in the investigation are verified public data. Others are clearly identified as engineering calculations, scenarios or proposals — not forecasts or claims about individual facilities. My proposal is simple: Don’t stop digital growth. Make digital growth water-smart. That means prioritising industrial/reclaimed water where appropriate, efficient cooling, drought resilience, groundwater protection, water transparency, heat recovery and genuine circular-water systems. The future of Groningen doesn’t have to be digital growth OR environmental responsibility. It can be both. What would you add to the Groningen Water Standard? 👇 I would especially like to hear perspectives from people working in data centers, water management, energy, hydrogen, agriculture, nature, infrastructure and local planning. #Groningen #DataCenters #AI #WaterSecurity #Freshwater #Sustainability #Energy #Eemshaven #Hydrogen #CircularEconomy #Netherlands #DigitalInfrastructure

I have another source request for Forbes. Urban Luxury Hotels with Green Roofs or Living Walls in Europe or in the United States I’m working on a story re green roofs and living walls in urban hotels. I’m looking to compare policies in Europe and U.S., but I also want to feature hotel examples. It can be both old or newly installed! I’m looking for hotels who can answer the following questions: Why did the hotel decide to invest in a living wall or green roof, and what was the main goal? Guest experience, sustainability, building performance, planning requirements, brand differentiation or something else? What measurable benefits have they seen since installation, whether in energy use, cooling, stormwater management, biodiversity, guest feedback, or commercial performance? What have they learned about the cost and maintenance of the installation? Would they make the same investment again today? Is there any plans in the future or expand the area or refresh? Please also include a few photos that highlight the green roofs/living walls? I’d love to have them by next Wednesday (Sep 16). Email: [email redacted]