Girls and gents, enable me to introduce you to a different local weather warrior and common CleanTechnica reader, Rob Simon. Rob is an entrepreneur, changemaker, frustratingly mediocre ex-golfer (his phrases), father of two, EV driver, involved local weather citizen, and general good dude who showers in warmth pump heated water that’s powered by photo voltaic panels.

He additionally occurs to be chargeable for the truth that CleanTechnica even exists — properly earlier than he grew to become our first investor two weeks in the past, and it’s why I needed him to be our first investor. Extra on that in a minute.

Rob, with Cynthia, Zach’s mother.

Rob and I am going method again. Because it goes, males are likely to not make as many new mates as ladies do as we age, which has positives and negatives. One of many positives is that we have a tendency to remain in contact extra with mates from essential durations of our life. Rob was my greatest buddy from an essential period of life — highschool — and we’ve stayed in contact our complete grownup lives.

Rob invested $15,000 two weeks in the past and formally grew to become CleanTechnica‘s first outdoors investor. However his connection to the corporate (that he now owns a chunk of) is way deeper than that. It requires a bit backstory. At age 17, I took a bodily examination as a part of a highschool requirement for taking part in varsity sports activities. The routine examination returned a non-routine consequence: my ldl cholesterol was properly into the mid 300s. The physician steered strongly that I get on a every day cholesterol-reducing tablet, one thing I must take for the remainder of my life to handle the cloggage in my arteries. My dad and mom had been terrific, however they had been additionally fairly “regular” for that time frame, and to them, this suggestion from a health care provider was merely the very best we might do and never one thing we actually wanted to suppose extra about.

However there was one thing that didn’t fairly sit proper with me about being 17 years previous and having to get on a tablet that I’d should take every day for the remainder of my life to handle my ldl cholesterol. In all of the pharmaceutical commercials of the day, ldl cholesterol medicine all the time appeared to be for individuals with lots of grey hair. So it simply didn’t really feel proper. Fortunately, I had one buddy in highschool who I believed might need one other concept for me, and that was Rob. Rob was all the time the child who introduced his lunch whereas the remainder of us wolfed down a number of slices of microwaved cheese pizza and washed it down with a few cartons of chocolate milk. After which once I went to his home and tried to discover a snack, I … couldn’t. I might open the fridge on the Simon home and wouldn’t acknowledge a factor. There have been no baggage of chips, no cans of Coke, no cookies. … There have been no … model names, actually. No less than none that I acknowledged. There have been, nonetheless, numerous baggies and glass containers with vibrantly coloured issues in them. Leaves. Roots. Stems. Fruits. Mushrooms.

See, Rob’s household ate a macrobiotic food regimen. It’s not vegan, however not removed from it. They ate seaweeds. They ate numerous greens. They cooked in forged iron and nothing of their home had teflon. Most of the issues of their fridge and cabinets had the phrases “Organically grown” and “Truthful Commerce” on them. They saved issues in glass containers, not plastic. They usually had issues soaking on the counter … little sprouts rising generally, and different instances, grains or legumes/beans tripling in dimension in a number of hours earlier than being transferred to a cooking implement and cooked.

This was within the Nineteen Eighties. These individuals had been wayyyyy forward of their time. And fortunately, Rob knew sufficient to take heed to my state of affairs, and recommend to me, “Certain, Scott, you may take a tablet day-after-day for the remainder of your life … or you may simply eat some f**king oatmeal.”

That second began my sustainability journey.

Rob and his superb household took me in for a week-long keep at their home, the place they taught me stay higher. They taught me about purchase substances in bulk on the well being meals retailer. They taught me how to consider my meals prematurely in order that they’d come out delicious whereas additionally being filled with wholesome substances. They taught me to take a breath earlier than simply beginning to chow down. They taught me to chew my meals and the significance of digestion. They took me for walks after dinner as an alternative of simply shifting straight to cake or ice cream.

I felt it instantly. Even at 17, whenever you’re form of indestructible, you may inform a distinction in the way you digest and the way you’re feeling whenever you eat higher and eat with intention. And the Simons imparted lots of information of how our meals is grown, and the way damaged the meals system was (and nonetheless largely is) that feeds us a bunch of processed and refined stuff, and subsidizes extremely unhealthy issues to maintain it in order that we will purchase a quick meals burger for 99¢. They gave me a number of books, together with Weight loss program for a Small Planet and Weight loss program for a New America, which I voraciously learn.

I went again to my house and proceeded to declare to my nervous dad and mom that I used to be going to eat this fashion. Fearful I might shrivel as much as nothing, my extremely loving and well-intentioned Italian mom tried to speak me out of it, suggesting I simply preserve a bit meat, cheese and, particularly, milk, in my food regimen day-after-day to remain wholesome. However I used to be 17, I knew every part, and I used to be having none of it. On the finish of her rope, my mother did one thing that was most likely probably the most ‘in contrast to her’ factor she’d ever accomplished. She lower me off. She advised me that I must begin not solely making all my very own meals, but additionally doing my very own procuring, paying for my very own groceries, and cleansing my very own dishes. I’ve by no means been one to again down from a problem, so I stated OK, and proceeded to grow to be kind of a vegan macrobiotic highschool senior in a fairly rural a part of southwest Virginia. The children after all couldn’t get sufficient jokes in, the cafeteria workers snickered, the academics simply shrugged … however I soldiered on.

And fortunately, I didn’t shrivel as much as nothing. If I had tried to do it by myself with out the Simon household’s help, who is aware of what would have occurred? As an alternative, I flourished. I lettered in a number of sports activities as a highschool senior, making second group all convention in soccer on the outdoors linebacker place, and simply making the wrestling group with out even attempting to shed pounds. After a number of months of maintaining a healthy diet, I had grow to be lean and muscular, and filled with gas that athletes these days are beginning to acknowledge provides a definite benefit. And by the tip of my senior 12 months, I gave my first environmental discuss, with among the extra curious academics getting me an opportunity to do a presentation in entrance of your entire college in regards to the a number of issues related to our agricultural system in addition to the unimaginable advantages of consuming higher and extra eco-friendly.

Rob modified my life. I might truly strongly argue that Rob and his superior dad and mom, Murray and Leslie, saved my life. Who is aware of what would have occurred had I continued with bleached white pasta, meatballs, and every part lined in cheese — and washing it down with all of the bovine progress hormone–laden milk I might deal with. However greater than that, the Simons gave me a objective in life. It’s a present that I’ve tried to repay my complete life by giving again, main by instance, and educating others.

On my LinkedIn profile (be happy to attach, by the way in which), you’ll see me listed as CleanTechnica‘s founder, former CEO, and present COO, however I didn’t truly begin CleanTechnica. No less than, not the web site. I truly acquired the web site that you simply’re studying proper now. At the moment, it had about 100,000 readers a month (these days, because of Zach, Derek, Jo, Danielle, and the unimaginable group of journalists we have now, it’s properly into the 4–5 million vary). The earlier proprietor simply didn’t see a path ahead. He burned out, and needed to do one thing else, so he had deliberate to fireplace everybody (together with Zach, are you able to think about?) and simply let Google search preserve sending visitors to the location’s older articles whereas the location ultimately wound down into oblivion. It could have continued to drive some income simply from the Google advertisements on the location, and the earlier proprietor had deliberate to make use of that cash to bridge him into his subsequent startup. I appeared on the income projections, acquired on the cellphone with Zach to ask him about his plans, and determined to purchase the man out, giving him the cash up entrance and persevering with to make use of Zach and another nice writers to develop the location.

None of this may have occurred if I didn’t have a objective. And Rob, bless his frikkin coronary heart, gave me that objective. That objective saved CleanTechnica, which has, since then, revealed greater than 60,000 articles and educated greater than 161 million completely different individuals about local weather options, a lot of whom cite CleanTechnica as the explanation they purchased EVs, photo voltaic….

I like you Robbie! Take a look at the distinction you’ve made. Louis and Zoey Paloma will stay in a greater world due to you.

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CleanTechnica is elevating a spherical of funding to ramp up our manufacturing and attain a billion individuals. Need to make investments and grow to be an proprietor of CleanTechnica? We’re taking funding now, with a minimal of $10K. Join right here, and I’ll be in contact.

I do not like paywalls. You do not like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Right here at CleanTechnica, we applied a restricted paywall for some time, however it all the time felt mistaken — and it was all the time powerful to resolve what we should always put behind there. In principle, your most unique and greatest content material goes behind a paywall. However then fewer individuals learn it! We simply do not like paywalls, and so we have determined to ditch ours.

Sadly, the media enterprise continues to be a tricky, cut-throat enterprise with tiny margins. It is a unending Olympic problem to remain above water and even maybe — gasp — develop. So …