Podcast: Carl Duivendvoorden On Why The Price Is Right For Electric Vehicles And Solar-Powered Homes
Huddle recently published a story on plans for a new solar-powered neighbourhood in Moncton that was read by more than 10,000 people. A couple of years ago, Carl Duivendvoorden’s commentaries for Huddle on the costs and benefits of buying an electric car generated the same level of interest. Just two weeks ago, Carl took another step toward a fossil-fuel-free life when he installed a solar power system to power his house and charge his car that generated a lot of interest when he posted about it on Facebook.
Curious about the public interest in green initiatives like solar-powered homes and electric vehicles, “Home Office” host Mark Leger invited Carl for a chat on the show. A writer, speaker and sustainability consultant, Carl tells Mark about why going green is easier, cheaper and more popular than you might think.
For Carl, the most effective way to learn, and then teach about practical ways to make difference was to do it himself. So he researched and purchased his own EVs that made sense for his lifestyle and budget. And now he’s done the same for reducing the carbon footprint in his home using solar power.
“Doing something is the best way to learn more about it and perhaps the best way to inspire others by your example,” says Carl.
“In Canada, the biggest carbon footprint that the typical person would come from transportation and from the use of electricity in their homes. If you imagine our carbon emissions as a pie chart those are the two biggest slices of the pie.”
Carl learned at a very young age that the environment had a huge impact on the community and his own personal health. Growing up in the Belledune area, he was surrounded by industrial operations that spewed pollutants into the air. As he grew older, he resolved to do something about it which eventually led him down his current career path.
“I can remember very clearly as a kid going to school and some days the smoke from the fertilizer plant, which was just upwind from our school, would hang over our schoolyard like a fog and we weren’t allowed to go outside,” he told Mark. “If we were allowed, we come back inside with a burning sensation in our throats.”
Listen to Mark’s conversation with Carl in the player above, or on your preferred podcast platform.
The Huddle “Home Office” podcast – available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Apple Podcast platforms – features conversations with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia community leaders, entrepreneurs, analysts and Huddle reporters about the issues and events that accelerate and enrich the growth of the region’s economy and culture.
Check out the Huddle podcast archive for more conversations about the Atlantic Canadian economy, which include feature interviews with regional leaders like Frank McKenna, Blaine Higgs, and tech entrepreneurs Marcel LeBrun and David Alston, our very first podcast guests. And please go to your favourite podcast platform, search for “Huddle Home Office” and subscribe.