It’s a blustery winter’s day. Jessica Lass bikes into work, her face flushed, her nose red from the cold.

She waves “hello” to her colleagues as she effortlessly glides to a stop just in front of a shed attached to the building that houses the Natural Defense Resource Council.

When she unlocks the shed, a bike rack with three other bikes — all belonging to co-workers — secured to it comes into view.

Asked how the six-mile ride between her apartment and the Santa Monica-based NRDC office went, Lass breaks into a wide grin before replying in a still slightly breathy voice,” Not too bad, actually!”

The NRDC’s staff of more than 300 lawyers, scientists, and policy experts work on some of the most pressing environmental issues of the day, from global warming to getting China to go Green to making sure all people have access to safe, clean water. The organization has received recognition as the nation’s most effective environmental advocacy group.

But for these passionate environmental watchdogs, caring for the Earth represents much more than just their day job; it’s a way of life.
And just as charity begins at home, so does environmental activism, says employee Jessica Wall, who works on water issues and heads up a volunteer group of NRDC employees that looks for ways the company can operate on an even greener level.

Wall has organized the company’s Earth Day celebration and pushed to get an extra composter installed in the employee break room upstairs.

 “It’s a path, it’s a process, there’s always something more you can do,” she said.

For Wall, landing a job at the NRDC marked the fulfillment of a childhood ambition.

“I remember being sixteen and driving by this building and dreaming of working here,” she said. Wall plans to eventually go to law school and return to the NRDC as an attorney.

Wall says her parents, who also worked in fields related to environmental preservation, always encouraged her to remain conscious of her impact on the Earth and take only what she needs. As a college student at University of California, San Diego, Wall led Green Campus, a group that promoted sustainable living amongst the university community.

Wall says she does her best to live what she preaches. At home, she recycles, uses energy-efficient light bulbs, turns on the heat or air conditioning only in extreme weather, and bikes or takes the bus to work.

“Anybody,” Wall said, “can make small changes” to live greener lives.

Employees such as Wall help drive the NRDC. A group of law students and attorneys at the forefront of the environmental movement founded the NRDC in 1970. Since its founding, the NRDC has helped shape environmental policies at all levels of government, said Lass, a spokesperson with the organization.

One of the NRDC’s proudest accomplishments include taking legal action to force the Port of Long Beach to drastically reduce air pollution caused by the aging trucks that service the port. The Clean Trucks Program will ban all trucks that don’t meet 2007 emission standards by 2012, with the goal of drastically improving air quality. According to port officials, the program has reduced truck air pollution by 80 percent as of Jan. 2010.

The NRDC combines grassroots online campaigns, scientific studies, and legal action to accomplish its mission “to safeguard the Earth, plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depend.”   The organization has more than 1.3 million members and online supporters, and boasts offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing.    

Molly Greenwood has worked at the NRDC ‘s Santa Monica office almost since she graduated from New York University in 2005. A native of Idyllwild — a bucolic town nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains with a population of around 4,000 — Greenwood has always enjoyed growing her own fruits and vegetables.

As a vegan struggling to support herself in an expensive, sprawling metropolis, Greenwood has turned to a community garden to keep her grocery bills reasonable and her belly full.       

For $10 a month, Greenwood rents a space at Fountain Community Gardens in Hollywood, where she grows produce such as tomatoes, a variety of herbs, and fruit. Every day as soon as she gets off of work, Greenwood hops onto her Vespa and heads to the garden to tend her latest crops.

“I love it,” Greenwood said of the community garden. “It’s work, but totally worth it.”

Aside from getting to enjoy fresh vegetables free of pesticides or other chemicals, Greenwood says she also appreciates the fact that no truck had to drive for hours to deliver her produce, wasting precious fuel and other resources along the way.  

For Greenwood, having the opportunity to pursue her passion for environmental causes in her personal and professional life is a dream come true. And like many NRDC employees, Greenwood believes that saving the environment will take one step, one person at a time.

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