From Cooking Oil Cars to AI: My Journey as an Accidental Eco-Warrior

Growing up, my oldest sister was the kind of environmentalist who made you side-eye her choices (lovingly, of course). Case in point: When she visited me in Pittsburgh years ago, she met with an engineer that built her a car that ran on used cooking oil she’d collected from restaurants. Yes, it smelled like french fries. Yes, I thought she’d lost it. But her mantra stuck with me: “Just do what you can, and if we all do that, we’ll collectively have an impact.”

Oh, and in case you doubted her dedication? She married a guy born on Earth Day. 🌎💘 Talk about commitment to the cause!

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All kidding aside, her message shaped my life. Today, I drive an electric car, obsessively turn off lights, and co-run a company that’s been proudly paperless for five years. Small acts? Maybe. But together, they added up—until two years ago, when I starting building AI software and realized tech could supercharge those “small acts” into planet-saving superpowers.

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Turns out, my sister (and her Earth Day-born husband) weren’t just ahead of their time—they were onto something bigger. Now, AI and tech are doing victory laps for the planet 365 days a year, proving that Earth Day isn’t a date… it’s a mindset.

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Let’s dive in! There are so many fun facts that I could share about AI and how it is saving our planet and it was hard to narrow the list. If you find yourself enjoying this, please take time to check out some of the tools highlighted below. You too can be a planet-saving superstar!

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1. My Sister’s Grease Car vs. AI’s Big Brain Energy

My sister’s DIY grit taught me that creativity fuels change. Today, AI is that creativity on steroids:

• Predicting climate chaos: Tools like Google’s GraphCast forecast disasters with eerie precision, giving towns time to prep. Take that, hurricanes! 🌪️
• Renewable matchmaking: AI balances solar/wind grids so your Netflix binge is powered by sunshine, even at midnight. ☀️📺
• Pollution detectives: Startups like CarbonQuest use AI sensors to sniff out methane leaks.

My sister’s cooking oil hustle? Quirky, but groundbreaking. AI? Same energy, just scaled globally.

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2. From Paperless Offices to Planet-Saving Bots

When Michelle Allan and I built our paperless company, it felt radical to us paper pushers. Now, tech makes “radical” easy for everyone:

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• “Bye, fax machine!”: Tools like DocuSign save millions of sheets yearly.
• Cloud chaos = energy wins: Migrating to Google Cloud slashes server energy by 80%.
• AI recycling ninjas: AMP Robotics’ bots sort trash with laser focus. ♻️🤖

Our paperless journey started small—but tech lets companies leapfrog from “doing our part” to leading the charge.

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3. When Whales Text and Your Fridge Joins the Rebellion

Tech isn’t just for corporations—it’s for whales, leftovers, and YOU:

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• Whale translators: AI decodes humpback songs to protect migration routes. This one is for my whale loving business partner, Michelle Allan. 🐋🎶
• Fridge heroes: Apps like Too Good To Go rescue “ugly” veggies. 🥬💚
• Citizen science: iNaturalist lets you snap bug pics for science. 📱🐞

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4. My AI “Aha!” Moment: Small Acts Meet Big Tech

Two years ago, I started building AI software. This was a dream realized and has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences to date. Suddenly, I saw how code could tackle problems I’d once thought too massive. You are never too old to learn something new!

We will be launching our new software, KAboodle, soon and I cannot wait to tell you all more about it. But in the meantime, for your learning pleasure:

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• Plastic-eating enzymes: AI-designed proteins (like Super-PETase) munch plastic waste.
• Carbon trackers: Apps like Joro shame me into offsetting my flights. ✈️🌎
• Tree-planting drones: Swarms plant 150 seeds a minute. Sorry, deforestation—tech’s got hands. 🌲🤖

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Final Takeaway: Earth Day is a Team Sport

My sister’s cooking oil crusade taught me that every small act matters. Building AI taught me that tech can multiply those acts beyond imagination. Together, they’re proof that saving the planet isn’t about perfection—it’s about showing up, whether you’re coding, carpooling, or collecting fry grease.

This Earth Day, I’m celebrating the quiet heroes: the sisters, the startups, the algorithms, and everyone in between. Because when we pair human grit with tech’s genius, “just do what you can” becomes “look what we did.”

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🌍 Earth Day isn’t April 22. It’s every day we choose to try.

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