Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you are. It’s Dr. Jan Portman with Relationship Matters TV. I hope everyone is having a beautiful day or evening. We are here in Chicago and I’m looking out the window and uh it’s cloudy oh and I hear thunder and there’s a tornado watch so hopefully it doesn’t just knock us off the air. We’re going to keep on going. So, I have Ms. Renita Dixon and I’ve known her for a little while but I didn’t know all of the things that she did. She’s one of those kind of people that does not toot her own horn so what I’m going to do is toot her horn for her before I bring her on. She is a Visionary professional with exemplary leadership communication and project management skills. She is a sustainability professional and she administers and maintains resource consumption and water recycling. She manages greenhouse gas emissions inventory for over 50 countries. This girl is dynamite plus the fact how do I know her? She is a Toastmaster, she is an exemplary speaker. But anyway, I’m going to bring her on because and I’m going to toot your own Renita the whole time we’re here. Hello!
Renita Dixon
Hello, how are you?
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Great, how are you?
Renita Dixon
I’m doing pretty good, thank you. I’m also enjoying that loud thunder so if you see me jump it’s the same reason.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay, all right. So, let’s you know what I didn’t know uh that you I just I know you as a Toastmaster and a dynamic speaker but I didn’t know of all what you did. So, what is a sustainability professional?
Renita Dixon
Well, a sustainability professional can do quite a few things but I’ll start with what sustainability is. It’s meeting the needs of today without compromising the needs of future Generations. So for example, let’s say maybe you’re a Fisher you don’t want to overfish an area so that in the future there’s no more fish for your people or your company to continue on your business. So I work for a large company and before I start anything I say here is my personal opinion it has no reflection on the company which I work for so it’s Renita not them. And for the company I work for, I work for a very large manufacturing company we are in over 50 countries and for them I look at how we’re using energy, how we’re generating waste, where we’re doing it and water. I also look at the cost for each of those things because there is we have I’m sure you’ve heard of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. We get a lot of inquiries from our customers and from the investment Community because everyone wants to fight climate change and if you’re going to fight it you got to know what you’re fighting against so you need to know where these emissions are coming from and most of them are coming from energy use for companies.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay, so we’re talking about vast emissions so what about the cars and you know I know you talk about the companies and corporations but what about us as individuals?
Renita Dixon
Yeah, a lot of it does come from Cars. I don’t remember the percentage but a large percentage it comes from our homes, buildings, and our cars. Living in the Midwest and other parts of the country and the world where it gets really cold when we’re heating our house with natural gas that creates more greenhouse gas emissions and for the electricity use we create greenhouse gas emissions from that as well. So now you’ll hear a lot of cities and countries saying that they are aiming to reduce their emissions to Zero by 2050. And to do that they’re taking measures like switching from natural gas heating to heat pumps taking heat from the ground and pumping it to warm your homes and your buildings and also switching to electricity.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Now heat pumps I’ve never heard of that so that would be like going down I guess to the Core of the Earth and getting heat from there?
Renita Dixon
It’s not going as far as the core but it’s pumping usually pumping water down into the Earth where it’s warmer and recirculating it and taking the heat from that and you can also use it for cooling because you know the soil it has a it has its own cycle it’s hot then this gets cool and you can always have that energy exchange between the air and the soil.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So are we doing anything like that in this country?
Renita Dixon
Yes, our big push is for electrification and trying to increase the amount of ways that we can use electricity but if we all get electric vehicles we don’t have ways to charge them. We have to have some sort of infrastructure set up where we can charge our cars and increase Public public um I guess you would call it electric Station instead of the gas station and maybe even having combinations of the two.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Well then you are thinking about uh and you’re talking about the oil industry I would think that there would be a push against that you know as far as the oil industry is concerned so that’s probably a challenge with what you do.
Renita Dixon
It is and it’s become politicized because we have the push from some of the governing bodies in parts of the US they want to get rid of it they think it’s some distracting businesses from their focus and a lot of us because of the lobbying of the energy the oil and the gas industry they want to survive.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay, okay yeah we’re uh what’s happening where I am I mean good grief it’s raining like I don’t know what and lightning and thundering so every now and then it you know our pictures go off so I’m just letting people know that yeah that’s what’s going on it’s really a good affected the internet so let’s oh now let’s talk about our carbon footprint I hear a lot of what okay we’re breaking up a little bit I think you asked me what a carbon footprint is so that’s your greenhouse gas emissions yeah if you think about it if you wanted to calculate your personal carbon yeah it’s the same thing so um greenhouse gases they’re made of carbon dioxide right okay well let me let me let me go here to this this question uh before I ask my question uh about carbon footprint and so I was trying to bring it up there it is um when you talked about can you see that Jacqueline Rogers question is our grid up to that our grid is being improved so that it can be up to that there’s been a lot of debate and talk for many years about improving the grid here.
Renita Dixon
Okay so so we’re here in Chicago are we improving the grid and and what is the grid?
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
The grid is how our electricity is getting producing and sent to us but you all have to remember I don’t work for combat they will tell you better information than I can about what’s going on with our grid because I haven’t been tracking it.
Renita Dixon
Okay so it’s how we get our electricity.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Uh-huh.
Renita Dixon
Okay and and okay so where do we get it from the the sun we have some solar hey if you guys have an electric bill if you take it out you can look at sometimes it’s on the back of your bill they’ll give you the breakdown of where your electricity is coming from we have some nuclear in it some solar I don’t know if we get much win but I think there might be some win and a lot of it’s from coal and natural gas it’s going to vary depending on where you live because if you think about it if you’re driving around in um Zion Illinois you can see where the nuclear electricity electricity is being produced and also down in where that outlet mall is in Michigan City there are some nuclear reactors there as well so the electricity makes varies depending on where you are.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay so how to do decide to go in go into particular fields?
Renita Dixon
I was an engineer and a lot of people don’t tell you this about the engineering field it you reach your limit pretty quickly and what you can do in a field there’s not a lot of growth in it but the benefit of being an engineer is you can go in a lot of different directions so I wanted to I wanted to move up higher in the company I wanted to have more career options so I went to school for business but NBA has kind of coming down a dozen so I wanted something that would set me apart and I wanted something that spoke to what matters to me people matter to me and the environment matters to me so I came across the concentration of sustainable Enterprise which looks at how a business interacts with the environment and the communities and that’s how I ended up in this field.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh okay so did you have to take to take classes or you know special training for this?
Renita Dixon
I took classes I took a lot of business classes but I also took some classes on environmental law and environmental environmental ecology and also some there are a couple of combination courses where you talk about like the Capstone course was analyzing business strategy but including environmental and social impacts in it so instead of just looking at the financial bottom line you look at what’s called the triple bottom line so you have people planet or profits a traditional Business course you tend to focus on the profits and maybe the people in your organization and your customers but you don’t think about the inputs and how you’re contributing to that particular Community because like say for example you wanted to open up a business in one of the areas of Chicago you should consider how your business affects them for example are you bringing a lot of trucks into the area are you increasing the noise level are you increasing the pollution are you polluting the water these are the things that you think about when you’re looking at the whole business impact are you taking out a lot of trees are you affecting any species that could be endangered so it takes traditional business and it just expands how how you look at it.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Hey comment and she said it’s fascinating to hear the view of mbas as a dime a dozen [Laughter] well I hope I don’t offend any other NBA so a question that came in a test came in it says uh what will it take for the those in the coal industry to accept the fact that cold use will someday be eliminated?
Renita Dixon
You’re asking me about a mindset shift huh I don’t know what it’s going to take for them to accept that the ship is sailing in a different direction and maybe you should switch to something different it’s going to take some some changes of some minds and hearts really and maybe some consumer pressure.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay so now water recycling how do you recycle water what is that?
Renita Dixon
Well it’s water and recycling but to recycle water all of our water is recycled all of it is once we pour water down a drain or flush it down toilet it goes to the sewage treatment plant well it goes to the Sewer first then it gets cleaned up at a treatment facility it goes in looking black and icky and it smells terrible of course then once they clean it through either different types of processes they can use different enzymes different types of Osmosis they can filter it they probably do all those things and once it leaves it’s nice and clean and it goes back to the lake then it comes right back into our faucets so that’s why it’s scale recycling.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay all right so now on your end is there a water shortage?
Renita Dixon
There is we have water stress here in the Midwest we have the largest amounts of fresh water in the Great Lakes but there is a lot of people pulling from that water we have homes businesses and we’re also putting things back into that water that makes it you know it’s it’s not the best thing for the water and for us as people so it’s not really a shortage but we should be careful in how we use it because just because it’s there doesn’t mean it’s good quality doesn’t mean it’s it’s safe and it has to be cleaned before we can consume it so even though we don’t have a shortage here there are parts of the country and other parts of the world where there are water shortages so water water is a local issue it really depends.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh really so okay so when so now you do things in in a a different uh so I read something it says something about water inventories so what is that is that like how much water is available is that what that is?
Renita Dixon
I look at the water that we would draw from different locations and I compare that to databases on what that Watershed looks like in those different regions so for example you mentioned Mexico earlier we do have some operations in Mexico well the company I work for does so I look at how much water we are withdrawing from our plants and I’ll go to the database from the Water Resources Institute and I’ll look in that region and look at graphs of how that the water stress is and now how it is expected to be 10 years out and maybe another 20 years out and communicate with the business and tell them these are the risks that you need to consider as you plan your business going forward in this area.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay so do you have a lot of success does your company have a lot of success with different businesses as far as being aware and not only we’re not being aware but being concerned and you know following these these guidelines?
Renita Dixon
Yes I would say we do have success and another thing too it’s it’s legally required that you monitor your water consumption in certain places and also your water quality is very important.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay so now ask this question too so every now and as a homeowner you get uh these uh statements and it tells all what’s in your water so now is is that something that is a part of what you do I mean as far as as measuring and and watching all the different I guess whatever it is compound because whatever it is just in the water you know because sometimes you look at it and this and it might say something like it’s often you know so is that something under your purview also were there a certain amounts of different chemicals?
Renita Dixon
No no that I don’t do that someone at the plant level handles that but as someone who gets one of those statements I tend to read it and wonder well why is this in the water just as a homeowner.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay okay so Renita um I read something about the fact that uh Americans eat a lot of meat that that has a lot to do with carbon emissions is that true?
Renita Dixon
That’s what I’ve heard too because of the methane that comes out of the animals when they pass gas methane is a greenhouse gas and it’s more it’s more intense than CO2 so yeah they do contribute to climate change.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Really yeah okay so so it would help uh on a personal level if we are concerned with climate change that that we can do certain things on a personal level that uh that would reduce climate change and and carbon emissions in other words if if I cut down on eating meat would that help?
Renita Dixon
That would help your opinion in my opinion I think that that would help to reduce your carbon footprint and it also help your health a little bit too.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay all right so what do you do on on a personal level to you know to because I I know that you are very very concerned about which is why you’re the uh career that you’re in so what do you do personally?
Renita Dixon
Personally I I drive a hybrid I don’t have a garage so I I can’t buy an electric car no place to plug it in I tend to be very conservative with my energy use I barely turn on the lights during the day because I’ve got a lot of sunlight naturally and I don’t blast the heat all day and all night that helps too it also saves you a little bit of money and I I eat a predominantly plant-based diet I wash my clothes in mostly cold water but I every now and then you know you need to have some hot water because you’re working out those clouds get a little and fresh and that those are things I do on a daily basis.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And so some of those are some of the things that we can do also to help our okay so you recycle?
Renita Dixon
I recycle and another thing what do I recycle I recycle um all my paper well not the stuff that you need to shred but you know the the junk mail the magazines all those things get recycled cans bottles I don’t use a lot of plastic bottles I tend to carry a water bottle that’s another thing we can do because plastic waste is an issue I recycle I compost my food waste so if you have a home you can get a tumbler or another way to compost and you can use it in your garden and that it’s amazing how little trash I actually throw out because I compost the food waste and I recycle everything else I only have a little bit of trash.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And so see what is that?
Renita Dixon
That’s when you you put all of your food scraps into a container and it starts to break down it decays and it doesn’t stink if it starts to smell bad because you need to have a better mix you you put in paper too like you use paper towels so that’s your brown your old vegetables and fruit scraps and peels though that’s your greens you want to have a nice ratio of brown and green and over time it doesn’t really take that long it starts to decompose and it looks like it’s like you’re making dirt when it’s all done it looks just like dirt you can put it in your plants it’s nutrient rich and it’s nutritious for it for your plants so if you’re a gardener you can dump that in there and you can take your vegetable scraps and you have your own little cycle.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh okay well Jacqueline wants to know do you have a garden?
Renita Dixon
I have a container garden so I grow tomatoes and I tried some potatoes once they came out pretty good they’re small and this year I’m looking forward to trying potatoes and onions this year and of course some tomatoes and maybe salad throw some salad into window seals well lettuce different types of lettuce.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So what do you mean it’s in-house in a yard what is the outside in in pots and flowers container container interested uh-huh uh oh Janice I cannot hear you if you’re talking wow okay I can hear you now we picked a good night okay because uh okay yeah well at least we’re not gonna have a tornado I see maybe some blue skies trying to come so uh no so when you said a container garden I was interested in what a container garden is rather than just a garden.
Renita Dixon
You you grow your plants in pots so instead of growing them in the ground you just use pies.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay all right so that answers your question Jacqueline and um uh Sarah Crowley had made an had made a uh comment and I think that’s when we were talking about uh people who are in the coal industry and she said that she read that they are being groomed for other careers so yes she had put that comment in it came in late uh a little storm and uh but anyway and yeah yeah right so uh when we come back I have to make a a couple of commercials but when we come back I want to talk to you about what else you do uh because I see some things on here that um I I think it’s very very very very interesting and something else that you do in uh uh you it’s fascinating because I want to ask you I’m going to ask you this before we go when you said you were an engineer what kind of engineer were you?
Renita Dixon
I have a background in mechanical engineering and I was a design engineer for about 10 years I designed gears for military Aerospace a couple of recreational items and then I went on to be a project engineer where I worked on automotive automotive parts so it’s mainly headlight Adjusters and I didn’t like that so much I like the first one better so recreational gears fishing reels yeah I did some fishing reels that was kind of fun and also one of my last projects yeah I did some robotics so if you see those little robots like the police robots that go in and scope out a location before they send in people that was one of my last projects I did some gears for one of those and also I was looking at one from military use but unarmed robots.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh so you can make a robot?
Renita Dixon
I can make you gears for a robot.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh wow very interesting okay so um I’m gonna come back and get a little bit more about some of the things that you are involved in okay all right all right so we will be right back if this storm lets us come back about don’t go away I just need to talk to you just a few things that um that you need to know about now the first one I want to talk to you about is the legacy of Hope and the legacy of of Hope is a mission trip so um let me see if I could find it hopefully I can’t find it because this storm is really messing with my computer hugs dear wait I’ll show you some of the things okay I can’t really find the commercial it’s kind of just kind of like messing around but anyway uh and hopefully this will come up the legacy of hope it’s the legacy of Hope two or two Romania and what it is doing it’s the mission trip to highlight what’s going on in Romania as far as children are concerned and what’s happening is that the um it’s a group going from all over the world and they also are doing a GoFundMe what they’re doing is uh they’re having children here to to write letters and be pen pals to children who are suffering from abuse uh they’re homeless and um it is a tour it is a legacy of Hope to give hope to the children in Romania and that is if you’re interested in donating um you can either take your phone and you can uh scan the QR code or the flow code as some people call it and or you can just go and you can donate um you can go to GoFundMe and that’s running along the bottom um I think their goal is about ten thousand dollars they’re taking backpacks they’re taking um all kinds of things for children to help the children in Romania so that’s uh if you go to GoFundMe and just click on this particular link you can donate it will be appreciated so let’s see will this let me do this is you know this is really really something okay I was on uh Zoom this morning and we were doing the same thing just going in and out in and out now let’s talk a little bit about me at 1pm since Standard Time I will be appearing on the spotlights on your podcast with Dr Patricia Rogers and if you would like to tune in as I talk about relationships especially the adult daughter aging mother relationship you can click on the Facebook page you can click on my Facebook page or you can go to Dr patch Patricia Rogers okay this isn’t it okay now I need to give do another hope that this comes across [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] so the other commercial wouldn’t play so where we’re going to just move right on ahead and we’re not going to worry about this storm it seems like it’s trying to clear up a little bit so hopefully that uh um hopefully hopefully our reception would be now Renita I see here on your bio that you also create opportunity [Music] increase profitability profitability and engage employees and you took charge of leading the annual corporate social responsibility reporting team which resulted in producing itw’s which I don’t know what that is first as subsequent CSR reports now what is all of that?
Renita Dixon
Well that is mainly well ITW is the company I work for and it’s Illinois tool works.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh okay yes all right.
Renita Dixon
Is the corporate social responsibility report so pretty much I tell stories stories with numbers that’s in the nutshell so we look at we look at the communities in which we operate how we contribute icw is a big philanthropic company and it started here in the Chicagoland area we’re headquartered in Glenview and a lot of the contributions are done here in Chicago there’s a charter school that focuses on stem education and they have a really high graduation rate the majority of the students go to college so those are some of the things that the company is proud of and I help making sure that the team comes together and has that that report done each year it’s a big undertaking and it takes a lot of time and that’s why I disappear in March.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh okay so do you you get a chance to go into the schools yourself?
Renita Dixon
What we do a day of service once a year at least and I’ll I’ll be going to that in June and we’ll also have an intern coming in from the school this will be the first time that I’ve worked with a high schooler we typically have college interns so this would be fun I’m looking forward to it.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay great great great so now you you you touched a little bit on something that I want to really ask you about you you’ve been visited a custom head like headlight adjusting solution what’s that?
Renita Dixon
Every headlight in the car has to be adjusted so it’s suggested before you get the car and if you go out and you have a wreck and you replace that headlight that has to be adjusted too you change the bulb it needs to be adjusted again so that your car is not cockat so there’s always a way to adjust those headlights.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So when you said Justin that’s not inner inside the head like this just like how the headlights look you know on the on the front of the car is that what you’re talking about?
Renita Dixon
So the little glow part the bean has to be adjusted so that it’s not this way or that way you want your lights to be straight ahead but that was many years ago.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah well again so so you are an inventor also?
Renita Dixon
Co-inventor we we applied for a patent we didn’t get it but we tried.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay was this on your own or was this with a company is this something that that you know you partnered with someone with you thought of this is what the company?
Renita Dixon
Yeah is this this was um yeah this was my second engineering job and that was part of part of what I did but they were really big about how can we get patents so we were always taking things and trying to find new ways to turn we even took a pump out of a lotion bottle and trying to figure out how can we turn this into a headlight adjuster because one of the ways to stay um because if you’re making something as simple as that or a screw you want to maximize how much money you can get out of it so you want to come up with a unique solution and that was the big Focus if you can find something that can be patented that that was a winner.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay so I Gwendolyn Dunbar asked this question how can you how do you think you can get more young minorities interested in this career choice because actually when you think about Renita I did not know there was such a thing I mean it’s you know a a sustainability professional so how can who do you think we can do to get more my you know young minorities in this year?
Renita Dixon
We have talk about it we have to they need exposure because you tend to gravitate towards careers that you’re familiar with you have a lot of police officers teachers and of course athletes and actors and actresses but no one talks about jobs like the engineers or the sustainability people so it starts with just having more exposure I’m available for career day I like getting out to talk to the youth.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay that that would be great um we talk about the environment but really A ears yeah bye um and bring it up um okay do you have CO2 emissions from different communities in Chicago?
Renita Dixon
I do not but you can check the the US EPA website and they have a section on environmental justice you can put in your zip code and you can see all of the different pollutants and air quality by day that’s going on in that area so the US EPA has a nice amount so.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay so this is a question I’m going to ask and this is I know this is your opinion according to the different communities within a city would you think that do you think that uh low-income communities produce more carbon emissions than say upscale communities in Europe opinion?
Renita Dixon
In my opinion I would say no and the reason I say that is typically when you have more money well you know when you have more money you tend to be a little bit more loose with how you you use your resources growing up on the south side of Chicago I I don’t know about you but if I heard turn off that light less than 15 times a day it would be a miracle we tend to be a little bit more conservative because we have to watch our dollars when you don’t have that kind of money you’re not opening the windows with the heat on you’re not running Heat and the air conditioning that fireplace going at the same time so those things will help to reduce your emissions I think that one of the things we do have a disparity on is maybe money to do some of the projects that would help insulate our homes better money to fund if you wanted to put some solar panels on your roof well there are different opportunities different programs that will help you with that I think those are the things that may make the most difference and also if if you have an older car you’re going to have more admissions than someone who has a newer car which is more fuel efficient.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay all right okay so um when you’re not of being a sustainability professional what else do you do?
Renita Dixon
I’ve been learning how to swim and I tried a lot of different times I’ve been back and forth to the park district the YMCA and I keep I just I just kept sinking Like a Rock so I tried something different I remember hearing about this nun who was I think she was 50 to 53 years old and she was overweight and she wasn’t doing anything she was lazy and she ended up being this Iron Man triathlete she’s like 92 now and has done 45 of them so I just planted this little seed of triathlon and one of my co-workers knew that I wanted to learn how to swim so she goes I want to sing you this email and it was from an organization called together we try and they were doing a 12-week Triathlon training program and I just reached out to them to see if I could learn how to swim through them so I ended up training for a triathlon in the last one I had my first indoor triathlon and I’m not a strong swimmer but I’m I’ve learned and if someone pushes me in the pool will think I’ll have to add boxing to that because I’m not ready to be pushed in pool laughs and also I do let’s see okay and Toastmasters and yeah okay yeah excellent excellent thank you yoga occasionally I I got a lot of stuff on my plate right now but when the weather is good I’ll do a class out in the park and learning okay there are many layers okay there’s been from Sandy Barney in it she says aren’t this stem schools to expose students to engineering yes that’s what the E is for science technology engineering and math they are.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay all righty okay and a question came in from a text okay how much time do and this is your opinion how many times do we have as a world to correct our emission problems before you all have the most interesting questions some say until 2030 some say that if we don’t do it tomorrow we’re doomed it’s gonna say 2050 but you know how the planet is planet will be fine but use it definitely we’ll have a hard time Bernita my personal opinion is I don’t know I think that I don’t honestly I think we don’t like change and I don’t think we’re going to make the necessary changes unless we’re forced to we’re very comfortable with our way of life and we don’t want to give it up I I again I think that the planet it always restores if you think about when we went home and went on shutdown Water started to clear up animals you hadn’t seen started to come back the plant is going to be fine without us Mother Nature does not need us we’re going to have some rough times even with just the difficulty we have just a little bit of the storm we had today but we talk about water a little bit earlier some places are getting way too much water some places are getting absolutely no rain at all and they’re drying out these are the things that are going to continue to happen if we don’t do some things different there are parts of the world we’re that where they’re just very below sea level well low close to being below sea level and the projections are that the sea is going to keep rising in some of these small islands with indigenous people are going to disappear a lot of people’s ways of life is threatened and if you really look at the source of the problem who’s got the biggest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is the U.S China it’s us and if we don’t do something different than the rest of the world pays right along with us.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah I saw a special on um television the other day and it was about um Sudan and how they uh I think five years strong uh there’s been a drought and then no not a drought uh uh over abundance of rain and so and then and then dropped their their environment and economy is just horrible and so now it’s so much water this uh their rainy season that um where they lived there on little islands and of uh their Source income is gone and it’s all because of the environment because things have shift so so in other words instead of a drop they’re having an overabundance of rain and uh they’re starving yeah uh you know and and so like say some areas and some areas are too wet and personally I think it’s like we need to do something post haste be you know but I don’t think the United States is going to do anything until we like you say we’re forced to do it now Julie Rogers has an opinion companion here says is that a i is going to force us to change Maybe baby so Renita if you could see somebody else here as far as and what you know about what advice would you give as individuals where we can contribute I know we said a few things that we can do but our mind and all what you how do you think or what do you think we can say and do to contribute to sustainability and to to Really to get the word out that we need to save our planet?
Renita Dixon
Uh-huh well again I would say start start at home with the basics conserve your energy don’t waste it um conserve your water also just be mindful of how you use water because even that it doesn’t get here without being pumped so there’s energy that’s increasing the emissions with that some some of the things that we don’t think about is shopping do you really need to get that five dollar item from Amazon can you can you hold off on it can you pick it so it’s packed and everything’s coming in one shipment and also be careful with the fast fashion increase the quality of what you’re buying so you don’t have to buy so much that helps too those things do contribute to conserving the environment and I would also say definitely eat more eat more plants they’re good for you they make you feel better and let’s see you know we can walk a little bit more too that doesn’t hurt good exercise I think that’s that would be my my easy steps for everyone and recycle some of those things if it’s almost Earth Day so look check your your local municipality and see if they have any events where you can get rid of some of the things that maybe you would have thrown in the trash maybe they have some recycling centers opening opening up or taking some special collections this this upcoming weekend.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay all right I’m gonna add one more thing well we’re going to all those things um check with your policy makers and see what they stand for if you want to fight for improving our chances of um not succumbing to climate change watch what they’re voting for because if they’re voting to hey let’s just dig out more code then maybe that’s something you personally oppose and if you do then work with them to share your opinion about hey this isn’t something I support and I want to have more more solar.
Renita Dixon
Okay all right well thank you so much Rita for being a guest of with and and I might have to have you back because a lot of some of the things you were saying was cut off cut off and um because of the storm it’s very very interesting and I think I wanted to have you on because I think we all should really be aware of what’s going on in our environment and what we can and do ourselves to make a positive are environment that a negative impact so I really want to thank you and maybe during the summer if you have time you can teach me a little yoga.
Renita Dixon
All right I’ll do that and thank you for having me.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Alrighty so you have a beautiful blessed uh evening don’t go outside because you will get dressed We Belong wait all right you have a few good rest of your evening.
Renita Dixon
You too good night everyone.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Alrighty bye-bye well it’s very very very interesting uh as I said I’ve I’ve known Renita for a little while and uh I uh was very surprised uh when I uh read her bio and I thought oh my gosh I didn’t know you did all that so I thought thought that that was you know really very interesting and it’s something that we we should think about I am going to think about um what I can do as far as is ordering things from Amazon and not having a and and waited and and they can all come into to one container that’s that’s something to do so I hope that you have received some information that’s valuable to you the evening and uh tune in for next week I’m going to have another guest on her name is Carol Pilkington and I will put in um on my Facebook page and Linkedin Pages what she’s going to talk about and Jacqueline Rogers I am so glad you you mentioned a i because I am going to have an a i specialist on my show in the near future and we’re going to talk about AI artificial intelligence where we are going it’s going to be another Matrix if you ever watch The Matrix or uh virtual reality are we going to be living in virtual reality and I have discovered AI myself and it’s fascinating but it’s scary also so I hope that um again that everyone got something out of the um the guest today and uh cycle watch your country mission and uh be blessed so I will see you again next week with relationship matters remember there are all kinds of relationships and their all kind of relationship matters see you again next week bye-bye thank you [Music] foreign [Music]