B-Change Blog: Reducing Food Waste Helps the Climate
A Candid Conversation with Glenmede on Climate and the Economy
A second conversation with Glenmede.
June 2025
Dear Friends,
We may be heading into the bright days of summer here in the United States, but it’s a dark and difficult time in the world of climate change.
I won’t pull punches: the administration’s moves to curtail clean-energy growth and double down on fossil fuel dependence are truly dangerous. We are “all in” for energy abundance and security, and recognize both the need to meet skyrocketing demand, and that fossil fuels will continue to play an important role into the future. But the administration’s perspective is outdated and myopic – we now know beyond a doubt that climate change will create great insecurity and economic pain on a scale that dwarfs any short-term benefit from reverting to fossil fuels. And abandoning our research and support of newer technologies will make us much less competitive on the global stage as the rest of the world embraces these new resources.
Audiences who have seen our Primer understand this. They know the extraordinarily high economic costs of continuing the unabated use of fossil fuels at our current rate. They understand the pain climate change will bring to our communities – the hotter temperatures, more extreme rainstorms, higher levels of disease. They also understand how climate change is expected to harm access to affordable home insurance, home values, and broader investments.
Our audiences also understand the remarkable potential of new and emerging low-carbon alternatives, and the energy security, independence, and economic growth they provide.
In short, they understand the big picture: A 360-view that enables them to be more knowledgeable citizens who can use their influence to help control their – and collectively, all of our – futures.
C-Change is out there fighting misinformation and creating buy-in for action. We are truly nonpartisan – we’ve even been asked by the President’s supporters to bring our presentation to the White House to share with the administration. We believe this underscores how we view this challenge: as a human issue, not a partisan one.
It is a critical time and we need your help. Introduce us to new audiences. Support us financially. Share our blogs and podcasts.
We are all in this together.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Biggins
Founder and President
C-Change Podcasts are Streaming
C-Change webinars and interviews are now available as podcasts for millions to follow on multiple streaming platforms! You can follow us on Substack, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. We hope you’ll subscribe and spread the word!
And if you don’t already, please follow us – and share our content – on our other social media channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
And Speaking of Podcasts
We were fortunate to be featured on three podcasts recently – and you can listen to all.
Don Gordon, founder of Christians Caring for Creation (C3), a nonpartisan organization, featured Kathleen on the C3 podcast, which addresses key issues related to ecology and theology. Don attended a Primer presentation in Charlotte, N.C., and was enthusiastic about sharing our approach and message with Christians around the world. Don is a Baptist minister, and he and Kathleen spoke about many points, including the ethic of stewardship, the Christian belief that we are responsible for leaving the world in as good of shape – at least – as we found it. Take a listen.
And on a trip to her hometown of New Orleans, Kathleen sat down for an interview with Melanie Young, host of the podcast “Fearless Fabulous You.” They talked about how life can give us “second chapters,” and discussed Kathleen’s journey from advertising to launching C-Change. Melanie also does podcasts on food and wine – her take on how farmers and vintners around the world are feeling climate change’s impacts is an eye-opening one.
Kathleen sat down with Shannon Maganiezin, host of “Climate Corrections,” to talk about why it’s essential to bridge political divides if we want to create meaningful climate action. They discussed how to engage climate-change skeptics — and how to talk about this charged topic without sparking conflict at the dinner table. “Climate Corrections” is the podcast of the VoLo Foundation, a private organization that strives to “accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.”
An Interview with New York Times reporter David Gelles
Want to share some compelling insight on climate change with your family and friends? Consider forwarding our interview with New York Times climate reporter David Gelles, recorded during our April 24th Spring Benefit in Princeton, N.J. If you haven’t watched it yet yourself, we hope you do – David’s thoughts on what we’d face in a “3-degree world” are sobering, but his ready sense of optimism that we can still navigate to a safer future left us inspired and hopeful!
To pre-order David’s forthcoming book, Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It Away, click here. (Publication date is Sept. 9, 2025.)
Connections in New York City and Philadelphia
In April, C-Change Conversations treasurer Catherine Sidamon-Eristoff and Kathleen presented to the Junior League of New York. Catherine is a long-time Junior League member and it was rewarding to present to so many engaged audience members. There was even an international climate expert in the audience who not only commended our efforts, but offered her assistance! We hope this is the first of many events with the Junior League.
Talking about how climate change will impact our financial security is a priority for C-Change. In May, Kathleen moderated a discussion on investing in climate solutions at ImpactPHL’s Total Impact Summit in Philadelphia. More recently, Kathleen joined Mark Hays, director of sustainable and impact investing at Glenmede, a wealth investment firm, for a webinar about the intersection of climate, the economy, and investment strategy. We’ve enjoyed an ongoing partnership with Glenmede and look forward to more events together this summer!
Growing as a Trusted Messenger
C-Change is presenting programs in more places than ever before – and we’re increasingly called upon by respected organizations and institutions to talk about our nonpartisan approach. Recently, we have been invited to discuss our outreach with the Carnegie Center for International Peace and the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
C-Change was also interviewed about the impacts of climate change for a USA Today special edition on Earth Day (print only).
On the Road in North Carolina
Kathleen was delighted to head to Asheville, N.C. in April. It was the first time that C-Change has presented in this part of the Appalachians, but not Kathleen’s first trip to the area. She was shocked by the lingering destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene last fall – vibrant commercial centers still empty, trees like matchsticks still littering the hillsides, drowned railroad cars that had been pulled from the river onto its banks. It was a stark reminder of the magnitude of the damage that storms fueled by climate change can wreak. Studies show that climate change made Helene’s devastating rainfall 70% more likely in the Appalachian Mountains.
With Helene still fresh in their minds, the audiences in Asheville were particularly appreciative of our Primer presentations. Kathleen kicked off a public speaker series that featured other climate-oriented speakers including renowned climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe and New York Times columnist and author Margaret Renkl. This standing-room-only event was held at Trinity Episcopal Church, which partnered with the French Broad River Garden Club and the McCullough Institute of UNC-Asheville for the event. Kathleen also presented at the Ramble Biltmore Forest community and at Warren Wilson College, where students gathered at the end to say thank you for not leaving them alone in this fight against climate change.
From Asheville, Kathleen headed to Charlotte, N.C., where she co-presented with Dr. Catherine Wright, eco-theologian and professor at Wingate University, as part of “Bridging Faith and Science: Spiritual Insights and Climate Change Conversations” at St. Peter’s Catholic Church. Kathleen also presented to the International Women’s Forum of the Carolinas, a live event that was simulcast on Zoom for viewers around the world, as well as to Women in Business, a local organization.
B-Change: Helping Solve Climate Change by How we Shop
Did you know that our wardrobe choices can contribute to climate change – or can help solve the problem? Our latest B-Change blog is a fascinating look at the global fashion industry’s carbon footprint. There’s great guidance here on simple changes we can make while clothes shopping to reduce our own. We hope you’ll read and share.
C-Change, Athens Georgia
The Athens Area Community Foundation Clean Energy Fund has officially launched, thanks to the efforts of affiliate member Sally Coenen. She has been brainstorming ways to raise money for the fund with AACF Director Sarah McKinney and Director of the Southern Sustainability Institute Laura Iyer. The fund will support projects and initiatives that promote renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate resilience within the community.
Affiliate member Helen Kukendall recently attended a meeting of representatives from local climate groups to discuss alternative funding for clean-energy projects given the recent federal funding cuts.
As co-chair of the Sustainability Advisory Committee for the Clarke County School District, affiliate member Ramsey Nix helped present the committee’s final recommendations to the Board of Education in April. Committee members have met monthly since January 2024 to write plans to help the school district implement renewable energy and green infrastructure, minimize waste, and reduce its carbon footprint.
Ramsey also recently joined members of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Moms Clean Air Force, and Climate Action Campaign to deliver letters to Senator Jon Ossoff’s Atlanta office in support of electric buses on World Asthma Day. Her essay about the experience was published on the SACE Website.
After participating in the 2025 Georgia Power Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) training program offered by Southface and Georgia Interfaith Power & Light, the affiliates are focused on advocating for increased renewable energy through the Public Service Commission. The IRP will be up for a vote this July, so the Athens C-Change newsletter has been publicizing speaking and letter-writing opportunities.
Athens affiliates have been encouraging state legislator Spencer Frye to introduce a clean-energy bill, and this February he wrote and then held a hearing on House Bill 402. The bill proposes facilitating the generation, storage, and transmission of renewable energy. It did not move past the committee this session, but the Athens affiliates will continue to push for it when the Georgia legislature reconvenes.
Finally, Ramsey and Sally are participating in the C-Change speaker-training program with hopes of delivering educational programs about climate change in the Athens area.
Upcoming Events
July 24, Stone Harbor, NJ – Glenmede wealth management
Sept. 22-24, Jacksonville, FL – multiple events
Oct. 1, Princeton, NJ – Windrows community
Oct. 1-4, Memphis, TN – multiple events
Oct. 17, Villanova, PA – symposiumDr Catherine Wright, eco-theologian and professor at Wingate Universitye
June 2025
Dear Friends,
It looks like America is heading for a King Midas moment. You know the one: the king in the Greek myth who was granted by the gods his wish that everything he touched be turned to gold. For a glorious moment he was thrilled, touching everything around him and amassing greater and greater wealth. And then, a horrible moment of reckoning as he tried to eat food and hug his daughter – and both turned to gold. His gift was really a curse, threatening his very existence and his daughter’s future.
Doubling down on fossil fuels parallels that choice – creating fleeting gains but ultimately imperiling our well-being and our children’s future.
We’ve said it before, and we will say it again here – we need fossil fuels for the short- and midterm, and finding safer ways to use them makes sense. We can’t power our economy without them for quite a while. But we can, and should, wean ourselves off of them as quickly as feasible. That means building a more modern energy system that is safer, more reliable, and more affordable. And while the U.S. appears to be retreating, other countries are stepping forward, building this new system based on electrification and a suite of clean-energy sources.
Amazingly, in what is perhaps a true gift from the gods, several of these sources – industry-scale solar and wind – have gotten so inexpensive that, even coupling them with storage, they are becoming cost competitive with building a new fossil fuel plant. And given that the cots solar and wind in the U.S. had been on track to drop another 60% by 2060, you can see just how lopsided this competition is becoming. The real riches come in the savings from scaling and improving these and other new technologies – and from avoiding the escalating damages we are accruing from using fossil fuels at such high levels.
King Midas was released from his curse, but real life isn’t a myth. As we double down on fossil fuels and retreat from the benefits and savings of the new, modern energy system, reversing the damage will be much harder to do.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Biggins
Founder and President
Notable Quote
“Extreme heat used to be considered the ‘invisible peril’ because the impacts are not as obvious as of other natural perils. With a clear trend to longer, hotter heat waves, it is important we shine a light on the true cost to human life, our economy, infrastructure, agriculture, and healthcare system.”
– Jérôme Haegeli, chief economist, Swiss Re Group
News of Concern
It appears that the world is on track to blow past our stretch goal of keeping the global surface temperature increase to 1.5°C, the number agreed upon by most countries 10 years ago in the Paris Agreement. And indeed, we’re feeling it right now. Summer has just begun in the Northern Hemisphere – already, Alaska issued its first-ever heat advisory and 40 states sweltered under a record-breaking heat dome of excessive heat and humidity.
We’re in uncharted territory now. Earth’s atmosphere hasn’t held this current level of carbon dioxide in millions of years, and it’s still climbing – at an alarming rate. It’s so hot, even the oceans are experiencing heat waves. The water off the usually chilly coasts of Ireland is so warm – up 7.2°F from normal – that algae is blooming and octopi (a warm water species) are raiding crab pots and gobbling mollusks, posing a risk to shellfish fisheries. And the warmer water is making sonar less reliable, putting our submarines and sailors at risk as they navigate deep in the sea.
But instead of embracing efforts to slow emissions increases, new federal policy is accelerating their rise, with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright saying the Trump administration sees climate change as “a side effect of building the modern world.” The Energy Department is canceling $3.7 billion for clean-energy projects that aimed to reduce emissions, pivot from fossil fuels, and capture carbon from the atmosphere. The EPA plans to roll back rules on air pollution from fossil fuel power plants. And in a move that surprised utilities and regulators, the administration is forcing aging fossil fuel plants that were scheduled to close to keep running – a decision that is expected to cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
That’s far from the only hit to our wallets. Our grid is woefully inadequate for our burgeoning electricity demands and costs are rising rapidly, up 6.2% versus last year. It will only get higher as we scramble to find enough energy sources to power AI, data centers, electrification, and our greater use of air conditioning as temperatures ratchet up.
Meanwhile, natural gas turbines are facing severe supply chain constraints, pushing new plants out five years and tripling their costs, and international conflict is causing oil and gas pricing to be very volatile. On top of energy costs going up, HVAC equipment is as well, in part due to tariffs.
Even more financial stress for taxpayers and homeowners is ahead as our costs of repairing and rebuilding from disasters caused by climate change have skyrocketed and our insurance premiums leap to mirror the increased risk. In the past year, the U.S. spent almost $1 trillion on disaster recovery – an amount equivalent to 3% of our GDP. And experts say our GDP will lose another $1 trillion in climate costs to public health, households, and the economy by 2035.
And if we want to step outside of our homes to enjoy the outdoors … well, that’s getting more fraught, too. Higher temperatures have led to a tick explosion, allowing them to expand into new territory like the Canadian north, and to have a longer biting season. Ticks carry a wide range of debilitating diseases so we all need to enhance our precautions.
News of Hope
But even as American energy policy shifts to promote fossil fuels, the energy transition is still accelerating, with clean-power sources providing the majority of our electricity in the U.S. for the last three months running. And Texas – a deregulated energy state where market forces, not regulatory favoritism, have made the state the top producer of renewable energy – has figured out how to use battery storage to keep the lights on and air conditioning humming on even those hottest Lone Star days, with blackout risks diminishing to under 1%.
We see hope in the coalitions that are forming to push forward with climate action. States are bonding together to support the domestic growth of electric vehicles. Pension funds and insurance companies are uniting to prevent investors’ portfolios from contributing to deforestation. And neighborhoods are coming together to decarbonize en masse, moving from natural gas to electrical appliances and HVAC, driving down their electricity costs and making the air cleaner for their families.
Electrification is key to this developing new energy system. Electric appliances, heat pumps, and even cars are much more efficient than their fossil fuel counterparts. That means electrical versions take a lot less energy to provide the same utility. (Think about it: your car gets hot when you drive it – that’s a whole lot of wasted energy – while an electric car stays cool.) Globally, heat pumps and EV sales are skyrocketing. Electric vehicles now comprise 20% of car sales, with EV penetration tripling since 2021. Even in the U.S., EV sales are still growing, and our charging network is finally improving as well. We added 10,000 new chargers in the past year, and they’re not just for Teslas. And as new models hit the market for about $29,000, EVs are becoming way more affordable here.
Intriguingly, new technology developed in China could make our EV cars last a lot longer by enabling us to reenergize spent lithium batteries. Remember, EVs are basically batteries and computers on wheels – there are few other maintenance costs. So if we can revive their spent lithium-ion batteries, not only will we reduce our waste but it will extend the life and value of our cars.
Another ray of hope? Thanks to attribution science, we now can now identify and measure climate change’s influence in individual extreme weather events. This data can help us be better prepared – and it may alter the legal landscape around climate change as well. The first wrongful death suit targeting fossil fuel companies was just filed in the United States and a landmark ruling in Germany said that corporations can be held liable for their contributions to global warming. Such actions are opening up the fossil fuel industry to punitive action for climate damages. The fossil fuel industry is concerned. In a counterpunch, the Trump administration announced it is suing four states that are litigating against or charging “superfund” fees to fossil fuel companies for their role in climate harm.
We leave you today with what might be a worldwide gamechanger. Rice – the primary food for 50% of the world’s population – is a major contributor to global warming, due to its water-intensive nature and its high methane emissions (10-12% of global levels). Scientists in Chile may have figured out how to make rice less thirsty, a discovery that has vast potential for reducing water use as well as methane emissions. We do love a win-win story and we’re crossing our fingers while we watch this one play out.
Notable Graph
Notable Video
Expert meteorologist Jeff Berardelli (whom you may remember from this C-Change webinar) marked “Show Your Stripes Day” on June 21. This eye-catching chart shows how warm it’s become – and how quickly – around the world. You can find more “warming stripes” charts and information at Climate Central.
A Conversation with Glenmede on Finances and Climate Change.
Kathleen Biggins, C-Change founder and president, and Mark Hays, director of sustainable and impact investing at Glenmede, a wealth investment firm, discuss the intersection of climate, the economy, and investment strategy. Their conversation sheds light on the crucial role that investors and communities play in the clean-energy transition. Our takeaway? The more we understand how climate change will impact our finances, the better prepared we will be to build a secure future for our children and our grandchildren.
After this webinar, Kathleen and Mark had a shorter conversation about how business leaders are assessing federal shifts in energy policy. Watch it here.
Kathleen Biggins Featured on the C3 Podcast
Don Gordon, Baptist minister and founder of Christians Caring for Creation (C3), a nonpartisan organization, featured Kathleen Biggins on the C3 podcast, which addresses key issues related to ecology and theology. Don and Kathleen spoke about many points, including the ethic of stewardship, the Christian belief that we are responsible for leaving the world at least as good as we received it.
Kathleen Biggins Joins Melanie Young of the Fearless, Fabulous You! podcast.
Melanie Young hosts the weekly national radio show, Fearless Fabulous You!, Wednesdays, 12 noon EST on W4WN Radio – the number one ranked internet radio station dedicated to women and empowerment, with listeners in all 50 states and 197 countries. This show is available on demand at www.iHeartRadio and everywhere the iHeartRadio app is available.
April 2025
In its first 100 days, the Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to cleantech and climate action…