March 4, 2026 • 56 mins
"There is a degree to which the work I've been doing for 25 years has been a failure, and a degree to which we collectively as a generation of people working on the problem haven't moved the needle as much as we need to." – Dan Ackerstein, Ackerstein Sustainability
Dan Ackerstein reviewed 35 of the first 45 LEED for Existing Buildings projects. He's worked with big companies doing big, creative sustainability work—public waste audits, imaginative projects that made building operations fun. Then those projects evaporated.
In this conversation, Dan processes what it means when the momentum stops. He talks about "the massive con"—the idea that individual choices can solve systemic problems while letting corporations and governments off the hook.
Ackerstein and host Tristan Roberts discuss climate grief, the fragility of corporate sustainability, acting locally, and the San Lorenzo River as a metaphor for irreversible decisions.
Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS
Get in touch: tristan@tristanroberts.org
Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org
Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus
Dan Ackerstein reviewed 35 of the first 45 LEED for Existing Buildings projects. He's worked with big companies doing big, creative sustainability work—public waste audits, imaginative projects that made building operations fun. Then those projects evaporated.
In this conversation, Dan processes what it means when the momentum stops. He talks about "the massive con"—the idea that individual choices can solve systemic problems while letting corporations and governments off the hook.
Ackerstein and host Tristan Roberts discuss climate grief, the fragility of corporate sustainability, acting locally, and the San Lorenzo River as a metaphor for irreversible decisions.
Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS
Get in touch: tristan@tristanroberts.org
Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org
Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus
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