Read more about this episode.
This week I speak to Ozzie Gonzalez, a former CH2M colleague. Ozzie founded P3 Consulting, dedicated to helping businesses grow while improving their environmental and social footprint. Ozzie calls himself an urban ecologist and has dedicated his career to designing and building solutions that bridge environmental health with community prosperity. Ozzie was Portland’s first Latino candidate for mayor.
Ozzie started P3 Consulting to bring people-, planet-, profit-centric solutions into projects. “I have a foundation in environmental science, and I apply it to a human ecosystem to try to figure out how to bring balance between the way human beings live and the quality of life that we would like to hold onto into the future.”
We spoke about his role on the TriMet board, where he’s helped bring transit-oriented development guidelines into the agency; create the first low-income fare program and decriminalizing fare evasion; and adopted a policy to decarbonize the entire TriMet vehicle fleet.
Then I asked him about Portland. Ozzie and I talked about the Black Lives Matter protests, the ongoing houseless and business challenges, and how to reboot Portland.
“The future is cloudy, but what I'm certain of is we we've got to come back...The Pacific Northwest is poised for livability for decades to come…there's a lot of fear of taking risks from our elected officials, and it was part of what motivated me to run.”
Then we moved into the issues of displacement and gentrification. I asked him how we design for equity. Ozzie shared his ideas for creating a model where people could buy into affordable housing but have a stake in it for the long term.
I knew Ozzie has a passion for sustainable food, so we delved into that topic in our conversation. “We have major things to change in our food system...we need to recognize it is unsustainable...the institution of food is heavily reliant on monoculture and mass industrialization, and on genetically modified seeds that depend on a very specific regimen of petrochemical-based fertilizers and insecticides.”
He’d like to see less reliance on mass food systems, more focus on dealing with food waste, and more local food production.
“I'm a big believer in love...I try to eat as much pure love as I can. And what I mean by that is I care about how it's cooked. I care about how it's grown. I care about how it's transported and in all those instances what I'm really looking for is a chain of custody filled with people that are doing something that they love doing that feel honored to be doing it. That's what I look for first.”
I asked Ozzie what’s next in his life after working as an urban ecologist, architect, dad and husband, sustainability manager, professional actor (we didn’t even touch on that role!), public speaker and activist, business mentor, diversity manager, and candidate for mayor. “I plan to die fighting to make this world a sustainable, equitable place.”
He’s working on a passion project, a development in a pueblo in Mexico. Ozzie wants to build an ecotourism playground where virtual workers can live, work, and play in the same location. He plans to create a net zero, highly efficient smart home for digital nomads, content creators, and others who can work virtually.
I asked Ozzie for his advice to others who want to create companies that care.
“Well, do it. Go for it please. We need them companies that care. It's the only way to ensure longevity. Every company out there is going to have to learn this lesson sooner or later of how to care for its people, for its natural resources. There's simply no way around that, and many companies will go bust, not ever having learned that lesson.”
Read more about this episode.
This week I speak to Ozzie Gonzalez, a former CH2M colleague. Ozzie founded P3 Consulting, dedicated to helping businesses grow while improving their environmental and social footprint. Ozzie calls himself an urban ecologist and has dedicated his career to designing and building solutions that bridge environmental health with community prosperity. Ozzie was Portland’s first Latino candidate for mayor.
Ozzie started P3 Consulting to bring people-, planet-, profit-centric solutions into projects. “I have a foundation in environmental science, and I apply it to a human ecosystem to try to figure out how to bring balance between the way human beings live and the quality of life that we would like to hold onto into the future.”
We spoke about his role on the TriMet board, where he’s helped bring transit-oriented development guidelines into the agency; create the first low-income fare program and decriminalizing fare evasion; and adopted a policy to decarbonize the entire TriMet vehicle fleet.
Then I asked him about Portland. Ozzie and I talked about the Black Lives Matter protests, the ongoing houseless and business challenges, and how to reboot Portland.
“The future is cloudy, but what I'm certain of is we we've got to come back...The Pacific Northwest is poised for livability for decades to come…there's a lot of fear of taking risks from our elected officials, and it was part of what motivated me to run.”
Then we moved into the issues of displacement and gentrification. I asked him how we design for equity. Ozzie shared his ideas for creating a model where people could buy into affordable housing but have a stake in it for the long term.
I knew Ozzie has a passion for sustainable food, so we delved into that topic in our conversation. “We have major things to change in our food system...we need to recognize it is unsustainable...the institution of food is heavily reliant on monoculture and mass industrialization, and on genetically modified seeds that depend on a very specific regimen of petrochemical-based fertilizers and insecticides.”
He’d like to see less reliance on mass food systems, more focus on dealing with food waste, and more local food production.
“I'm a big believer in love...I try to eat as much pure love as I can. And what I mean by that is I care about how it's cooked. I care about how it's grown. I care about how it's transported and in all those instances what I'm really looking for is a chain of custody filled with people that are doing something that they love doing that feel honored to be doing it. That's what I look for first.”
I asked Ozzie what’s next in his life after working as an urban ecologist, architect, dad and husband, sustainability manager, professional actor (we didn’t even touch on that role!), public speaker and activist, business mentor, diversity manager, and candidate for mayor. “I plan to die fighting to make this world a sustainable, equitable place.”
He’s working on a passion project, a development in a pueblo in Mexico. Ozzie wants to build an ecotourism playground where virtual workers can live, work, and play in the same location. He plans to create a net zero, highly efficient smart home for digital nomads, content creators, and others who can work virtually.
I asked Ozzie for his advice to others who want to create companies that care.
“Well, do it. Go for it please. We need them companies that care. It's the only way to ensure longevity. Every company out there is going to have to learn this lesson sooner or later of how to care for its people, for its natural resources. There's simply no way around that, and many companies will go bust, not ever having learned that lesson.”