The Change Gang: people making waves

Meet the first member of the Change Gang, a group of people leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and greener planet.

Demolishing neighborhoods is insane, argues urban activist Liz Dunn, when the numbers show that refurbishing existing buildings makes more green sense

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. Flavia de la Fuente.There are probably easier things one could do than to organize against the construction of a coal-powered electricity plant near the Gulf Coast refinery town of Corpus Christi, Texas. But Flavia de la Fuente wouldn’t want to …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. Leif Percifield.On a normal day, says Leif Percifield, New York City sewage travels from its point of origin to a waste processing plant. But when it starts to rain hard, the “astonishing volumes” of water pouring through the city’s combined …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. The notion that there might be some connection between the mission of Planned Parenthood and the problem of pesticide overuse in agricultural communities might surprise some people. But for Traci Townsend, leader of Planned Parenthood’s Pajaro Valley Health Action Team …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. Conventional wisdom holds that the forward-looking coastal enclaves of the United States are where we’re supposed to expect cutting edge experiments in building a green economy. But if Ted Howard has his way, every activist who wants to promote green …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. If you spend a little time Googling Mari Rose Taruc, the staff director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, you’ll find that the adjective most likely to be applied to her is “fierce.” Taruc laughs delightedly when told this. “I’m …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. As an architect, Brooklyn resident Dylan House has always preferred hands-on work. Instead of drawing up blueprints and sketching designs, he likes to build things. That may explain why one recent weekend in November he and some of his colleagues …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. As an African-American kid growing up in Oakland, Calif., in the 1970s and ’80s, Rue Mapp stood out. Unlike most of her peers, her family left the city as often as possible to drive two hours north to their ranch …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. Google Julian Rodriguez-Drix’s name and one of the highest ranked hits is an April 2010 article in the arch-conservative American Spectator magazine, “Lyin’ For Climate Indoctrination.” Writer Paul Chesser breathlessly alerts readers that the “slick” Rodriguez-Drix is nefariously spreading “the …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. When Karen Luken says she feels “blessed” to have had a career in solid waste management, she isn’t joking, even if you can hear the lilt of a laugh behind her words. For 25 years, Luken — currently the global  …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. Justin Maxson has learned at least one big thing in his 10 years as president of MACED, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development: When he tries to convince rural eastern Kentucky residents about the benefits of energy efficiency or …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. From the moment Alexi Arango walked into Professor Sue Carter’s physics lab as an undergraduate at U.C. Santa Cruz and started learning how to make his own photovoltaic solar cells, he was “hooked.” “It sounds really weird,” he acknowledges, “but …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. Kristofor Lofgren says he never imagined “in a billion years” that he would end up trying to save the world as “the proprietor of a sushi restaurant.” After graduating from U.C. Berkeley, having majored in political science and American studies, …

Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the Change Gang? Tell us why. Three blocks from his old high school in the historic Five Points district of Denver, Colo., recalls Ietef Vita, stands a youth penitentiary where friends Vita hasn’t seen since middle school are still locked up. Gentrification is now starting to …

From her Berkeley office, Andree Sosler distributes cheap, clean, efficient cooking stoves to women in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Ximena Prugue didn’t know anything about India before she went there to hand out solar flashlights. All she knew was that she wanted to make a difference.

Here’s how a Nashville resident remade herself into a crusader for healthy eating and built an oasis in a food desert.

Corey Rennell took what he learned as a contestant on a survivalist reality-TV show and packed it into the ultra-natural Core Meal bars he now sells.

Tim Whitley’s Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty bird-dogs big problems by connecting their solutions.