cc  >> Welcome back to  "Entrepreneurialism in Society,"  a course offered through the  University of Wisconsin School  of Human Ecology.  As we begin I'd like to extend  thanks to our partners in  supporting this course, the UW  Office of Corporate Relations,  the UW College of Engineering  for their technical support, and  financial support from the Ewing  Marian Kauffman Foundation,  which is committed to advancing  academic education and  entrepreneurialism.  Additionally, we'd like to thank  our media partners, Wisconsin  Public Television and their  University Place crew for taping  today's lecture.  Today I am very pleased to  welcome Dr. Sonya Newenhouse,  founder and president of Madison  Environmental Group.  Madison Environmental Group is a  sustainability consulting  firm.  Sonya is also the founder and  president of Community Car,  Wisconsin's first car-share  organization, with more than a  thousand members and seventeen  cars.  In 2009, Sonya authored "Enact:  Steps to Greener Living."  She is on the board of Thrive,  the Madison Community  Foundation, and Sustain Dane.  In 2001 Sonya divorced her  paid-off Honda Accord and now  travels by bike, bus, and  carpooling to reduce her output  of CO2 emissions as well as save  money.  She lives part-time in Viroqua  Wisconsin.  I've asked her to speak with us  about entrepreneurialism as it  pertains to sustainability and  specifically about her journey  as an entrepreneur in the green  movement. 

 Please join me in welcoming Dr  Sonya Newenhouse.  (applause)  >> Can you hear me?  So can you hear me in the back?  Sort of?  A little bit louder, is this  good?  Yes?  Can you hear me in the back?  Okay.  Are you sure, because you're  going like this.  Yep, okay, I'll talk a little  louder, how does this sound?  Okay.  So, I'd like to share my story  with you today, I'll give you a  little bit of background about  myself, and then follow through  my career path since I was about  11.  And if you'll notice in this  story, the introduction of sort  of my personal life, buying real  estate, how that has helped my  career path.  So there's a lot of connections  that you might not realize till  the end and I'll try to let you  know as we go.  So just to start out with, I was  building things with my cousin  from the time I was little, here  it's this little floating raft  that we built, it looked like it  would sink but it still worked,  we could go all across the lake,  and then my cousin and I built  this fort, and my first  motorized vehicle was this  tractor and I built a green roof  with some family friends and  classmates on this yurt in the  70s.  And this was where we spent the  weekends in Lone Rock,  Wisconsin.  My first business was selling  tomatoes at a farmers market, I  think I was about 11 here. 

 My second business was having a  carpool system to take kids to  high school, so I had a driver's  license, an old car, and drove  some other kids to junior high  and high school and I think I  received three dollars, per  person, per week and had three  riders.  In college I went to school for  hotel and restaurant management.  And at that time I was following  my passion because when I turned  16 or 17 my father took me to  lunch and said, "Sonya, what do  you want to be when you grow up?  What are things you like to do?"  I like to travel, I like to  entertain, I like people.  He said, "What about  hotel/restaurant management."  Oh, my eyes just lit up.  I thought that would be just  perfect.  So I went to business school at  Michigan State, they had a minor  in hotel/restaurant management,  and these were the tools of my  trade at that time.  I worked as a catering  supervisor throughout college  for the president of the  university, and this was the  cook, she was great, I learned a  lot from all the fine dining  experience, and then I lived  very cheaply, I had to pay my  room and board, so I lived in  the cheapest place on campus  that had food.  And that was a co-op called  Monty House.  It was a little bit sort of like  an "Animal House," we had  amazing parties, but I learned a  lot, it was so much fun.  And in this process, I was the  "landlord," I was the president  of the co-op. 

 And we were the only student-run  co-op on campus, we were not  part of the university system.  So there was a lot of  responsibility and I learned a  lot, we renovated the place, we  had three meals a day, we had  fresh bagels delivered every  morning to our co-op, and we  organized parties and had a lot  of fun.  It wasn't until my senior year  in undergrad that I joined an  organization called Mortarboard,  which is an honors society, and  that society had a service sort  of requirement, and that service  that year was to try to convince  the president of Michigan State  University to institute a  recycling policy on campus.  And I had so much fun trying to  convince people to sign a  petition, I set a personal goal  of getting 1000 signatures on a  petition, that when I met my  goal, I reached 1000 people, I  decided that hotel/restaurant  management was no longer for my  future.  And I went home at spring break,  and mind you, this was my last  year in college, just about to  graduate, and I looked at my  parents and I said, "You know, I  don't think I want this degree"  - well, I wanted to finish the  degree, but "I don't see myself  as a hotel/restaurant manager.  Instead I would like to get into  recycling and garbage."  And they looked at me like,  Sonya, but you're so social.  I don't see you as a scientist,  but they were very supportive  and just went with it.  Lucky for them, when they were  helping me research schools, and  maybe this was their ploy all  along, we found out that  University of Wisconsin Madison  actually has a fantastic  environmental program called the  Nelson Institute.  So I went from the tools of my  trade being fine dining with  silver utensils to studying  garbage.  Here I'm weighing garbage and  sorted garbage for about seven  years, it took me to get my PhD. 

 And you can't tell, but this is  a little house on Johnson  Street, 1000 East Johnson  Street, and I bought this house  when I started graduate school,  for $30,000.  It was so run down, I learned  later that my father told my  sister that he would never spend  the night in it.  My sister told my brother it was  a bulldozer house.  But my step-mother said, "Sonya,  it's cute, just paint everything  white, and it's your first  house," and she smiled.  And so I bought this house with  earnings I had made since I was  about 11 or 12, and through a  university professor at Michigan  State who was a real estate  professor who said, buy a house  as soon as you can.  Don't buy a new car, don't go  out to eat and do all the  expensive things people do with  their first paychecks.  Just save money and buy a house  as soon as possible.  So that's what I did, and let me  tell you, I'm really happy I did  that at 24 years old.  And you'll see why soon.  So in college I needed a job to  pay for graduate school and to  pay for my expenses so I went to  Wisconsin Power and Light  because they had an internship  offering. 

 Remember, I had no environmental  training, had just waited tables  and was a catering supervisor  and this job, the intern  application said, "If you have  experience in environmental  issues, in soil management, etc.  and/or a law class, please  apply."  Well, I did have one law class  as an undergrad, so I applied.  Sitting in the interview,  completely not qualified for  this internship except for this  one class and I couldn't be very  confident because it was so  obvious I wasn't qualified.  So when the supervisor  interviewed me and then said,  "What do you want to do in five  years, Sonya?"  I told him the truth.  I said I wanted to start a  business helping other  businesses recycle and that's  why I was in graduate school.  So the next morning, he called  up and said, "We hired someone  else for the job."  Obviously.  "But we'd also like to hire you  to set up a recycling program  for Wisconsin Power and Light."  And so that was my first  reminder, just be yourself and  follow your dreams, and doors  might open.  Whoops.  So these are two programs I  developed at my four-year stint,  the internship turned into a  four-year job, I just kept  convincing them to keep hiring  me, and the one program was Just  Re-do It program for recycling,  and then I also started Stewards  of Nature which is an  employee-based stewardship  program there.  And now Wisconsin Power and  Light is Alliant Energy, for  those of you who might not know  that. 

 So here's the house I bought for  $30,000, almost near the end of  my PhD studies, maybe I should  say 80% of the way through.  I went through a major  renovation because I wanted to  expand.  My house was only 600 square  feet and I had a roommate.  I lived in the living room, I  rented out the bedroom, and I  felt like I needed a living  room.  So I found a loan in the city of  Madison and renovated it through  this low-income loan since I was  a grad student and expanded it  into maybe 790 square feet when  it was all done.  And then in the meantime I had  to tell my boss at Wisconsin  Power and Light, that, "I'm very  sorry, Joe, but I need to quit,  because I'm going to do my PhD  studies on Madeline Island,"  which is in the Lake Superior  area.  And the reason I picked Madeline  Island was because on the island  setting your "n" is very easy,  your sample size.  You can study everything and be  very thorough when your sample  size is very small.  So studying the garbage would be  a manageable scale on the  island, and besides, it was a  beautiful place to be.  So I go into his office and I  said, "Joe, I'm really sorry. 

 I love my job here, but I need  to do my PhD research and I need  to move to Madeleine Island."  And he looked at me and said,  "What do you really want?"  It did not occur to me that he  would ask me this question.  And I thought on my feet very  quickly.  "Well, what I'd really like is  to keep my job part-time and  work from Madeleine Island as a  consultant."  And so that's how I started my  business and became a  consultant.  And that wasn't Madison  Environmental Group, I was just  an environmental consultant for  them for the remainder of the  year.  This is what I did on the  island, so my PhD study was  looking at how we study  environmental issues.  It actually wasn't so much about  recycling and garbage but rather  the methods of studying  environmental issues.  And I used a triangulation  approach of listening,  examining, and observing, and  traditional science really just  looks at the more data-driven,  the examine side of things.  So the more traditional side of  studying garbage is sorting  through garbage.  We sorted through 3,000 pounds  of garbage, grape by grape, you  can imagine what else we found  in the garbage bins.  Every little item we put in 22  categories and weighed them in a  statistically significant  manner. 

 We also conducted interviews.  I conducted 75 interviews and  talked to people about garbage  with methodical questions, and I  did 99 hours of field  observation of garbage,  literally walking around the  same exact kind of transept  walks, and picking up garbage --  and documenting what I saw.  Well, my funding for the  research was only for a year and  my stint at Wisconsin Power and  Light, that consulting project,  had ended.  And just before that had ended,  I saw on an email another  announcement for a full-time  consultant to start a nonprofit  called WasteCap Wisconsin.  And it was the DNR that had put  this offering out.  So as I looked at the email  announcement, I thought, I'm  still in grad school, a  full-time job would be really  hard.  But this job sounded perfect,  because it's really what I  wanted to do when I grew up, to  help businesses reduce waste.  So I called them up and said,  "Can I apply for the job at 50%  time?"  And they said yes.  And I won the bid and I beat out  a contractor out of Milwaukee  and they appealed it, but my  score showed that it was very  clear that I won, there was no  favoritism going on.  I didn't know the people, but  people were surprised and I was  very happy, and maybe they just  saw my passion shining through. 

 So that was a two-year stint of  that contract for the DNR, was  two years.  The DNR didn't know that I still  wanted my first dream and that  was to have my own business  helping companies reduce waste  and recycle, it wasn't  necessarily a nonprofit.  So after my two-year contract  was done, I returned to my dream  of building my own business.  And I found somebody to take my  place as executive director,  she's done a fantastic job,  she's still there, and the  organization WasteCap Wisconsin  is growing.  So in business school I learned  that first impressions matter,  and marketing, marketing,  marketing.  So I decided to get an address  on the square for Madison  Environmental Group.  So my first office was teeny, it  was six feet wide, 14 feet long,  but it was only $350 a month,  and it was an address on the  square, so it made Madison  Environmental Group sort of look  and feel bigger.  It was also very easy to make  more connections because you're  right downtown.  And so I started this business  really combining what I had  learned in my graduate studies  and trying to offer a consulting  service that was very  interdisciplinary and focused on  problem solving using the  triangulation method that I  pointed out earlier.  So here are our services today,  we're ten years old and we have  ten employees at the firm, and  we offer strategic  sustainability planning  services, so that's our sort of  main umbrella, then we move into  base lines, or ecological  footprint analysis, because you  need to measure what you manage  to get good results. 

 Then we employ eco-solutions  which is just a generic title  for some of the services that  you'll see soon.  And then we also offer green  communications and marketing  services, but really based on  the good results of our  projects.  And then the core sort of love  that I have, or strength that we  have, is research and  development.  And I didn't realize how  passionate I really was about  this R and D until a little  later, you'll see.  One of our first projects was  working for Alliant Energy,  which was the company I had used  to work for, so they hired me  back as a consultant.  Integrated land-use planning for  manufactured gas plant sites.  Mind you, I didn't know what a  manufactured gas plant site was  when they first called, I  quickly called some friends and  asked them, who were in the  energy fields, what is this?  I think I can do this job, but I  don't really know what  manufactured gas plants are.  But I did know how to solve  complicated environmental  problems, and that's what they  were looking for.  So at three of these Superfund  sites, we developed green spaces  and came up with plans that  worked with the city and worked  with Alliant and with the  potential risk involved.  So from there, Madison  Environmental Group, and we were  just two employees in the  beginning, and three after about  two years, we moved into  construction waste recycling. 

 Because from my PhD I learned  that in the recycling arena,  construction waste is one of the  biggest problems.  So Overture here, right downtown  on State Street, was one of our  first main construction waste  recycling projects, where we  recycled, upwards of a 90%  recycling rate.  So here's a stat that you should  see and also appreciate why it's  a good place to start more  strategically within  construction waste is that 46%  of our landfills in Dance County  are filled with C and D waste,  construction and demolition.  And it's not rocket science to  recycle construction waste, it's  not very contaminated, it's  quite simple but yet it takes up  so much space in the landfills.  So here are some of our, excuse  me, our recycling rates now are  upwards of 95%, we've learned a  lot since we first started.  Here, the construction recycling  was 54% and the deconstruction  was 74% on Overture.  And we also saved them a lot of  money and Findorff is one of our  best clients and keeps hiring  us.  Just like you in school, you're  reading and learning, as  consultants we need to keep  reading and learning, or in any  field you enter, to stay on top  of your game.  We're members of many  associations, one of them is the  Union of Concerned Scientists,  and in about the year 2000 or  so, we read this book, The  Consumer's Guide to Effective  Environmental choices and it  changed our lives.  We realized we needed to get  into the transportation sector,  because transportation is where  it's at environmentally, meaning  that if there's only one thing  you can do to improve the  environment, only one thing,  that's to drive less. 

 The second most important thing  to do is to eat less meat or  become a vegetarian.  And they put recycling actually  near the bottom.  I disagree with them, as a  critical thinker, I think  recycling, yes, it might not be  as important from an  environmental contamination  standpoint, but I think it's key  from a social standpoint.  In that, changing behavior is so  hard and we need to learn how to  change our behavior in order to  help the environment and that's  one of the hardest things to do.  But when you recycle, or when  you drink some water, you know  what to do with this at the end  of its life, you recycle this.  And that's a good behavior to  start.  It's simple.  It's harder to turn off the  lights when you leave a room.  It's harder to drive less.  In Wisconsin, 29. 9% of  global warming emissions,  greenhouse gas emissions come  from transportation. 

 This is the Wisconsin statistic.  And then I learned that 98. 9%  of this, of the 29%, is from  individuals driving  trucks and cars.  It's not from airplanes, it's  not from buses, it's from you  and me.  So there is something we can do.  And for every mile you drive,  you emit one pound of CO2.  One pound of CO2.  That's if your car gets 20 miles  a gallon.  So if you're driving a hybrid  and you get 40 miles to the  gallon, you're only emitting  half a pound.  We didn't know anything about  transportation except for  walking ourselves or bicycle  riding or owning a car.  So we looked up some grants, we  found a grant with the  Department of Transportation  that we could do a feasibility  study to see if car sharing  might work in Madison,  Wisconsin. 

 But mind you, I had never even  heard about car sharing in the  year 2000 either.  So I was wondering, how, if we  need to get into transportation,  and I don't want to be an urban  planner, what can we do?  Well it just so happened that a  grad school friend had written  an article about how he and his  wife, in Portland, Oregon, had  joined a car sharing  organization and it had changed  their lives.  And I read that article and  literally within 20 minutes I  turned to Rebecca and Jerilyn  and said, that's it.  We need to study this for  Madison.  Because for me it was a more fun  way to get into transportation,  providing a solution to  individuals.  So we used our research and  development skills in launching  this business.  We did survey research, we read,  I read this book, "Divorce Your  Car," and after six weeks, I  didn't even finish it, I decided  to divorce myself.  And what turned me over the edge  is realizing that the bus isn't  just for going to work or to  school, but the bus could take  me to visit my sister who lives  on the west side.  It never occurred to me to take  the bus for family or for a fun  activity.  I just saw the bus as commuting. 

 And then before car sharing  existed in Madison, we had had  Enterprise, Rent-a-car, and  other car companies.  Well I calculated that if I  rented an Enterprise car for  three weekends a month, it was  cheaper that owning my paid-off  Honda Accord.  And that means I could've just  rented the Enterprise to go to  Target, just to run some  errands, not necessarily to get  out of town.  So it was when I did that  financial calculation, I'm like,  that's an easy decision.  Get rid of my car.  So the environment motivated me  to think about it, but it was  the money that actually pulled  the trigger for me.  So I sold the car that I bought  from my mom.  That's my mom, that's me, that's  the new owner, and I hopped on  my bike.  And about one and a half years  later, I launched Community Car.  Are any of you members by  chance?  Oh, not yet. 

 At the UW it's only $25 to join,  you get half off for joining  Community Car.  We have over 1000 members, we  have 17 vehicles, we have  hybrids, a pickup truck, a  minivan, a mini cooper, a  convertible, all at your  service, and it's very easy.  You just apply online for the UW  faculty, staff, and students,  there's a special application  form just for you so you get the  discount.  Once you apply and you go  through our online orientation  you reserve a car by just going  to our reservations page and you  can reserve it within 15-minute  increments.  But you do need to reserve it  for at least an hour, up to  three days.  You go to the car and then you  press the key fob on the  windshield that unlocks the door  and activates the ignition, and  that key fob is connected with  our reservation and our billing  system, so it's very, very easy.  And every month you just get a  bill on your credit card for the  hours that you drive.  Our rates are from $7.75 to  $9. 25, and actually,  we have an insomniac rate  of $3 an hour, in  the middle of the night, if you  want to do a Woodman's run.  And everything's included.  Everything. 

 Your gas, there's a credit card  in the glove box, so if you need  to fill up the tank, it's all  paid for by Community Car.  So we launched that business in  2003.  This was a busy year for Sonya  Newenhouse.  We also launched a program  called Enact, it's a "steps to  greener living" program.  And this is the book we just  authored recently.  And basically it's an  action-oriented book club, if  you will.  And it's a free program, and  it's paid for by sponsors, so  the city of Madison and various  utilities and organizations help  provide this outreach program.  People get together, they take  actions, there are results,  there are pre and post surveys  so you can really measure what  you're doing, sort of like your  own R and D for your house and  yourself and changing your  behavior.  So Madison Environmental Group  was growing, I launched  Community Car, we started a new  program called Enact, and my  lease was going to be up  September 1.  And in the beginning of that  year, I said to myself, by the  time I'm 40, I was 37 at the  time, I'd like to own my own  building for my businesses so  over time I could control costs  for the businesses and also  build equity for myself for my  retirement. 

 And it all happened much faster  than I'd planned.  I also put out the dream, and  the dream would be to own a  building on the capitol square  because of the address and  because I love the capitol.  I had a wonderful mentor, Gail  Selk, and she just really  encouraged me to walk around and  talk to people, and she always  said, don't wait for something  to go for sale.  Meet people and learn about  things.  So this building, this is my  house, on the one side, and the  building I bought five years ago  on the capitol on the left, and  it's where L'Etoile is housed,  and Cafe Soleil.  You might wonder, well, how  could you afford that building?  And I might wonder that myself.  So it was very simple.  This is all that it was, and you  can do this, too.  The first house I bought, I was  24, it appreciated, sold that  ten years later and bought this  house on Rutledge, that I  would've not been able to afford  if I hadn't started early in the  game.  This house on Rutledge near  Willy Street Co-op appreciated  and appreciated, and so what I  did, when interest rates were  very low in 2003, I pulled out  money even before I had found a  building, and put it into  T-Bills, and my mortgage rate  was the same, my mortgage did  not go up because interest rates  went down so much. 

 So here I'm living the same  monthly expenses, pulled out  $50,000, I had that $50,000 then  as a down payment for this  building.  Normally this building would've  needed a down payment of much  more than $50,000.  But what happened was, I met an  owner who was a wonderful  person, Odessa Piper, I did not  know her before, she was the  owner of the restaurant and the  building, and she was getting  ready to sell.  She put an article in the paper,  it wasn't an article that said,  "building for sale," it was an  expose about her and her life,  her story, and then the very  last sentence said, "I'm looking  for a building partner."  I thought, hm, I need to meet  this person.  So then she speaks at Downtown  Madison Inc the next Thursday,  and mind you, I was already  ready, I had pulled out my cash  and there's more to the story, I  won't go into that, I had an  offer on another building in the  meantime.  And she announces after she gave  her speech, I'm looking for a  building partner.  I'm like, you had to announce it  to the whole world again?  So after the DMI event, some  lawyers go up and want to meet  with her about the building, and  then I go up and I wore my blue  suit and heels that day and  pearls and just said to her,  "I'm very interested, and I have  the financing ready."  So she knew how serious I was.  And so she said, "Well, let's go  over and look at it right now.  " So the two lawyers and I went  to the building and then I just  stayed and chatted with her, and  then when the lawyers left she  said, "I pictured selling my  business to another small  business person, and I'd like to  keep having conversations with  you."  So we had many, many  conversations, hours of  conversations, because she had  never done this before, I had  never done this before, but what  we did is, we entered into a  land contract agreement.  This is how some people that  have big farms and can't sell  that farm that easily, it's hard  to sell a million dollar farm,  hard to find a farmer who can  afford that, well land contracts  are a ways for the land sellers  to kind of finance the buyer's  purchase of a business and it's  a very win-win situation. 

 So this way she was able to  accept a very low down payment,  and I was able to acquire this  building, and I just share that  story a little bit longer  because if there's one message I  have for you today, it's to save  your money very soon, at an  early age, and if it's not real  estate, invest in something you  feel very comfortable in to  build your future and give you  the financial freedom and  flexibility to follow your  dreams.  So I only had seven weeks to  renovate the building for my  business, because if you  remember, the lease expired  September 1.  And we hadn't closed yet on the  building and I looked at Odessa  and said, "I have to start  renovating now, otherwise we  won't be done by September.  " And she just looked at me,  gave me the keys, and it was  that act of faith and trust  before our closing that was a  wonderful experience.  And so this is what it looked  like when we started, and then  seven weeks later we were moved  in.  We were an environmental  company, so I needed to renovate  the building green.  It never occurred to me to do it  any other way, but I was  learning and doing at the same  time.  So all of our light fixtures are  from Habit ate Re-store, they're  all secondhand, every door is  secondhand, all our paints are  safer.  We refurbished the wood floors,  etc.  And here's a before and after  shot of one of the rooms. 

 These bright green cabinets  actually come from our  deconstruction projects.  And here are some of our  materials that were recycled and  salvaged.  And so our first entry into the  green building expertise was on  our own building.  And then afterwards, we kept  going on the construction waste  recycling side, but we moved  more into the deconstruction of  reuse and recycling.  And for example, I have a couple  examples of student projects you  might remember.  But these are some houses right  at the bend where the Equinox is  right now, so these houses, we  were hired.  .. we were hired to manage the  reuse and recycling prior to the  demolition.  We were also hired to help them  find a buyer to help figure out  the moving of one of these  houses.  So what's surprising when you go  into the deconstruction field,  arena, is that so much furniture  and what we call depreciated  assets is left in buildings.  So part of our job is also  marketing this furniture very  cheaply so it moves fast. 

 And these wood floors that  Habitat Re-store took out then  turned into wall paneling for my  office, so that's fun.  And we just, sky's the limit, we  put "free" on the shrubs just to  see if someone will take them,  and they do!  It's amazing.  So from our deconstruction  effort we notice so many  commercial doors going into the  landfills.  So many, they're heavy, solid.  Imagine if this building was  demo-ed one day, how many  beautiful wood doors there are  and what you could do with them.  So one of the projects we did,  which worked to a point but then  didn't work as well as we had  hoped, was starting a line of  furniture called Full Circle  Furniture, made out of salvaged  doors.  I think our line of furniture  turned out beautiful, this is  one of our sets, the Madison  set, and then this is the  harvest table and benches, these  are all made out of salvaged  doors.  But in this experiment, one  venture, I wouldn't say failed,  but didn't go as fruitfully as I  would've liked.  We learned that it was difficult  to scale up this venture and  make the furniture more  affordable.  What happened was, when we took  the designs and the prototypes  to be made they were done  beautifully, but then when we  tried to scale up and work with  some manufacturing firms, they  tried to sand the veneer with a  machine sander and it didn't  work, the veneer was too thin. 

 So that means that all of the  furniture needs to be  hand-sanded.  So imagine 12 hours of  hand-sanding at $8 an hour,  that's the labor, and the  furniture becomes expensive.  So we've just used this line  basically to inspire people and  show our creative side, and then  we developed sort of a how-to  kit and an instruction plan, so  you can make this furniture  yourself, and we sell that for  $25.  So then we really moved into the  lead green building consulting  services.  And here, as you might remember,  I talked about how we learned  about green building on our own  green building project, and then  we're reading and made aware of  the leadership in energy and  environmental design  certification process, so we  have certified consultants in  lead on our staff and they help  people build greener buildings.  Especially ones that will be  certified, like the Union, and  like WID, so your neighbors  here.  We're on those two projects and  it's very exciting to be on so  many large green building  projects in Madison.  These are just two of them.  Again we keep learning and  reading and trying to stay ahead  of things, and then more  recently found out about the  climate registry.  So as global warming is  increasing in severity and as  legislation, now both McCain and  Barack have said in their  campaign speeches that they  would have some kind of  regulation for greenhouse gas  emissions and climate change,  well now it's coming to  fruition, and some states have  already moved forward,  specifically California is where  much of this started. 

 So what we're trying to do, or  what we are doing, is offer  greenhouse gas assessments to  companies to prepare them for  this regulation, but most  importantly to give them a  baseline of their energy and  transportation use so then we  can follow up with a strategy of  how they can conserve and make  better decisions and save money  and help the planet.  So this climate registry, the  protocol was just finalized last  May, in 2008, and it's being  used in 39 states, we're one of  the founding members in  Wisconsin.  And here are some of the  greenhouse gases that are  assessed.  I predict that by 2012 we'll  have regulation, I hope it's  sooner, but I think by 2012, we  won't know yet, is it a  cap-and-trade system, there are  many different kinds of systems  that could be.  So two of our clients for this  work are Organic Valley and  American Family.  And many of our clients, I  really see them, they're the  leaders, because it's not, the  services we offer are so new, my  whole industry, car sharing and  Madison Environmental Group,  it's very new so there isn't  that industry of knowledge yet,  and sharing, it's just wonderful  that in Wisconsin we have so  many progressive businesses  moving forward.  So I'm at a point in my career  path where I'm stepping back and  looking forward at the same  time.  I'm 42, I'll be 43 soon, this is  my grandmother in Finland at 78,  and I wonder when I'll be  knitting on a porch or sewing,  what I'll be thinking about and  looking back at.  Thinking, what does she do with  the next 20 years of her career?  Well, a program called  Environmental Leadership  Program, it started out of Yale,  was a pivotal turning point for  me.  Again this is another  extracurricular activity, I  applied for it through the  suggestion of a professor here  on campus, and went through this  program of environmental leaders  about three years ago. 

 And what they did is they pulled  24 leaders together across the  states to try to diversify the  movement and empower us.  And one of the things they  suggested was, look back, and  what did you want to be when you  grew up?  What did you want to be when you  were ten or 11 years old?  Well, I found this picture a  couple years ago, I didn't  remember it, but it was a  science fair and it's all about  solar collectors, the basic  principles of solar energy.  If you remember in the very  beginning of the slides, too, I  loved building things and being  part of that back-to-nature  movement of the 70s.  And at first I wanted to be a  carpenter, when I was 11, and in  high school I wanted to be an  architect, but was discouraged  from that because of the science  aspect of architecture.  And now I'm going back to my  childhood dreams and I'm really  taking the time to step back to  look forward for my next ten  years.  And here's one thing I want to  do, is launch a new business  called Casa Kit Homes.  In about two years, so we're in  the R and D phase right now.  And they'll be smaller, smarter  homes for green living, and  again, it's motivated for  reducing ecological footprint  and providing an affordable  alternative, very similar to  community car.  The vision is to provide radical  green living solutions for  pioneers who want to simplify  and live lightly on the earth.   These are my friends, Julie and  Craig, that own this little 600  and some square foot house. 

 And I use the word radical  because radical doesn't mean  extreme, so I sort of want to  bring back that word.  It means grounded, connected.  So the business model  inspiration for me comes from  Sears Roebuck kit homes.  They sold over 100,000 kit homes  in the turn of the last century,  and they really brought  architecture to the middle  class.  And good quality craftsmanship.  Here's one of their catalogs of  400 homes that you can buy, and  they included everything.  They included options for the  appliances, interior design,  just like we'll be including a  Community Car option and Enact,  steps to greener living option  with our houses.  And at that time, appliances  were high tech, really high  tech.  So we'll start with three  options.  We'll have a one-bedroom  accessible home that's 600  square feet, a two-bedroom  that's 750 square feet, and our  largest home will always be 1000  square feet unless it's a  two-unit. 

 And we're picking 1000 square  feet as our largest because it's  less than half the size of the  average American home, which is  2400 square feet.  Why do we need 2400 square feet,  especially if there's just two  of us, maybe, or a family of  three.  We'll have a classic option --  for our house, and a more modern  option.  And this all goes back to, I'm  almost done here, one of my last  slides, when I think back to my  first house, you can't really  see it, I don't have a good  picture of my first house, 1000  East Johnson, behind these  shrubs.  But this was a little house, 600  square feet, and it was, for me,  an affordable way to start my  career and learn about being a  homeowner.  So I think about what did I want  to be when I grew up when I was  11, and just followed the  threads through some of my talks  about how I learned and grew at  the same time.  And then I'd just to remind  people that being an  entrepreneur is hard.  It's hard work.  Most jobs are hard, but it's  very risky, and highly  leveraged, and I'm leveraging  that Rutledge Street house that  I still live in again for my new  venture.  And in the end of the day  though, what if I go bankrupt or  if something happens?  What's the worst thing that  could happen?  Business-wise, nothing. 

 You can lose your money, it  doesn't matter.  You can build it up again.  But spend time and remember to  have friends and family because  your friends and family and your  health are really the most  important things, and I feel so  fortunate that I have this  amazing knitters group, and this  hockey group.  Now that I'm living in Viroqua  much of the time, I don't spend  as much time playing hockey with  my buddies here, but your family  and your friends and your health  are what really matters, and  money you can just build up  again.  So if you lose it on a venture,  don't worry, it'll come back if  you work hard.  So please come and visit us at  Madison Environmental Group.  The second Friday of the even  months we host a lunch that's  open to anyone in the community.  It starts promptly at noon, and  we end with a tour and we hope  you visit us.  And now I'll take time for  questions and leave this slide  up.  Thank you. 

 >> I had the opportunity to hear  Sonya so many times over the  last handful of years.  And every time she speaks she's  got something brand-new and  inspiring, so I want to thank  you as we get started.  And just a reminder to the  students that I am gonna watch  for your hands as you have  questions for Sonya and then  I'll hand off the mic to them so  that we can register the  questions that they have on  tape.  Sonya, just the breadth of the  entrepreneurial projects that  you've been involved with over  time in your very young life, is  really impressive.  If you were to look back at this  point and say what your greatest  risk was, especially given the  close that you just offered us,  what was your greatest risk?  >> Hm.  My greatest risk, I think, is  more selfish, the fear of  failure.  And when I look back on even  some of my financial risks that  I'm involved in, even currently,  highly leveraged.  It isn't so much that I'm  nervous about losing that money,  it's that I'm nervous that if I  would lose it, I'm disappointed  in myself.  So I think it's more  psychological, so if you can get  beyond fear and stay positive.  I have the motto, make no  assumptions and think  positively. 

 And I really believe in the  power of positive thinking.  But I would say maybe my real  estate ventures and leveraging  is probably one of the more  risky, also one of the more  satisfying from the recent stock  fall that just happened.  Let me tell you, am I glad I  have money in real estate.  I couldn't be more pleased.  >> That's great, and I  appreciate your candor in  talking about fear of failure,  because I think we all have  benchmarks and expectations for  ourselves, and sometimes it's  hard to even admit that as  something that would be  potentially a point of major  risk for us.  But I think on some level we all  experience that.  I'm fascinated by your Casa Kit  Homes, and that I will offer, I  have a good friend who actually  lived in one of the Sears  Roebuck homes, it's one out in  Middleton, I don't know if  you're familiar, it's right off  University Avenue, so I'm real  familiar with how those homes  came together.  Do you have investors in this  venture, the Casa Kit Homes, or  are you doing this all on your  own?  >> Not yet.  And I have investors for  Community Car, so Madison  Environmental Group, I'm a sole  owner, I own 100% of the shares.  For Community Car, I didn't have  cash, but I had a good idea and  had assets to leverage, so I  took two business loans,  leveraged against my home, and  then found seven investors to  raise the funds and I own 66% of  that company. 

 For Casa Kits, I think I want to  start smaller and self-finance  and/or find people to build the  first houses for their  investments, so I think it's  actually a unique business in  that it'll be quite easy to find  investors in a different way,  because the investors can just  build the houses, either for  themselves or for an investment  property.  And as soon as I have maybe ten  houses built, I think people  will see those houses and then  the business will grow from just  seeing the physical asset.  Because a house is so tangible  an investment, I think the money  will be there, and I've decided  against currently the route of  seeking major capital investors  and starting a little smaller.  >> It's an interesting point and  it almost seems to be a thread  through the other kinds of  projects that you've had in the  past.  Almost investing to the degree  that you feel you can eventually  get to a tipping point, where  others, many others, will start  to see the value in the product  or the service or whatever.  Would you say that Community Car  falls in that category?  Tell us a little bit more about  how it started and how it grew  and whether or not that growth  surprised you.  >> When I look back on it, I'm  very happy I started Community  Car the way I did, not being  that methodical about it,  looking back, but thinking we  started only with three cars, so  we started that business quite  small.  I could've raised a million  dollars, started with a bang,  and been still in the red but  with a growth potential, growth  model.  And many business borrow lots of  money, have venture capital, and  sort of go out there with a big  bang.  I prefer, and now I realize  maybe I'm just giving my advice  to myself again, thank you very  much for humoring me here. 

 But that I had enough money from  investors and from the banks to  start with a very good first  impression, with Community Car  off to a solid ground with three  cars, and then we just grew from  there.  So the income that came in did  finance the huge growth.  So when the business was in the  black in year three, and that  was earlier than I had  anticipated, because they say  three to five years your  business will break even.  And we broke even in three  years, and we're growing  strategically through  partnerships and sponsorships.  So the university here is a  sponsor of Community Car and  because of that relationship  we've been able to grow faster.  We're moving into La Crosse  right now, we're expanding to  that new market through a  partnership sponsor model.  And again, in light of what just  happened this past fall, where  people are sort of playing with  money that might not really be  there, but I'm really glad I  didn't go that route and risk so  many other people's money in a  bigger way.  And I think I'm taking that  lesson and strengthening it.  >> One of the other areas that I  have always found interesting  about you, and I don't want to  misspeak about your background,  so please articulate it  differently if I don't do a good  job of it, is that you did study  something completely different  academically, and then you made  a decision that you wanted to  follow this other path.  You finished your graduate  programs in what we know as the  Nelson Institute, which a lot of  people presume has a lot to do  with biological and physical  sciences, but of course, the  social sciences are part of  that. 

 But you weren't afraid of moving  into an area that was completely  different from what you had  learned or what you knew.  Can you talk a little bit about  that?  Because I talk with students  pretty regularly who have an  interest in something but  they're fearful to follow it  because they don't think their  degree or what they've learned  to date is necessarily going to  put them and connect them with  that.  >> Two things that have  benefited me that can benefit  anybody in this room, or that's  listening, and that's by being  continually engaged in  extracurricular activities where  you're meeting people, you're  building your network, but  you're also continually learning  and evolving what your interests  are.  And then two, being a good  student, if you will, is someone  I believe is a good learner.  And any degree that you're in,  you're probably getting very  good at learning.  So to me, I feel it's not as  important what the topic is, but  are you in the university really  learning about how to learn and  how to develop your thinking  skills and your tools of your  trade.  And those methods are  transferable between topics.  So my call to you is not to feel  stuck in a topic.    Like for me, it was hotel and  restaurant management, but I  learned very good business  school skills that I then  transferred to my new topic, the  environment.  >> You also talked about having  some pretty important partners  in your professional journey. 

 Odessa Piper, who became a  partner in helping you get to  the physical place that you  needed to be, Gail Selk, as a  mentor.  How important were those people  to you, or how important do they  remain?  >> And Joe Shefchek at Wisconsin  Power and Light, and Earl Davis,  and could go on and on, but  mentors have been a key to my  success, and people volunteering  their lunch hour to give me  advice, and my parents.  I don't think I'd be where I'm  at without all the wonderful  people that help me, but I've  sought their help out, too, so  it's not being afraid, and if  any of you want to have lunch  with me, I'll be happy to be  your mentor for a day.  Actually, many people are my  mentors and they don't even know  that they're my mentors, but I  look up to them.  Right now, for example, Kathleen  Walt at Madison Community  Foundation, and Jennifer  Alexander, the president of  Thrive, I watch how they  interact and how they do their  job so well, and they're  teaching me continually and I  have meetings with them.  >> It's such an important part  of the growth process.  I have just one last question,  and if any one else has a  question, please just feel free  to raise your hand.  But one of the other interesting  threads about the story you  shared, at least from my  perspective, was that you've  really always been a consultant.  And then periodically you would  take a job with somebody else,  but you would still be available  as a consultant and it seemed to  me that you were doing that  perhaps partially to pay the  bills, but also to kind of keep  your options open for learning  and opportunity, and I guess, do  you have a comment about how you  approached that, always having  something else going on in  addition to a job or a project?  >> I guess getting my PhD I was  one of the few of my colleagues  that didn't become a professor  or go that more academic route,  and I would say to them, well, I  will be a professor in a  different way, but I want to  profess to colleagues and  friends and be a teacher in a  different way.  As much teaching is learning, so  I guess I'm just addicted to  that research and development  side of my personality and so I  think I have an interesting mix  of the academic and people  skills, I guess, but I don't  know if I'm really answering  your questions. 

 >> I think you are.  Thanks.  Anything else for Sonya?  >> Any question, I might not  answer it, but anything you  have?  >> It's a quiet group today, but  I could grill you for another  hour.  We want to thank you very much  for being here, we have a little  gift for you, and let's say  thank you to Sonya Newenhouse.  (applause)