Reading Kimberly’s “Under the Sky We Make” broke me free from feeling powerless in the pursuit of stabilizing the climate. After better understanding my own carbon “hotspots”, I felt empowered me to make small changes in my daily transportation, and hopefully created a ripple effect too! I’m lucky to work with some close friends in the small town of Waterloo about 25 miles East of Madison. With a flexible hybrid work schedule, we oftentimes come and go to the office as we please. But the thought of all three of us separately driving our cars to and from the same general place at the same general times didn’t make a whole lot of sense. We decided to make a conscious effort to coordinate our commutes into the office, creating a carpool planning and tracking document! This allows us to significantly reduce our transportation cost and carbon footprint and also better utilize our employer’s incentives for carpooling. Moreover, the fun time in the car together is an added bonus! Does that make a win-win-WIN?? Big thank you to Sustain Dane and Kimberly for the inspiration!
—Max Ackermann