Jared has spent the last two decades fighting to create tangible benefits for communities and ecosystems alike. He has been at the forefront of the global zero waste movement and believes recycling is one of the single most important actions we can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Jared trained as an international environmental lawyer at UC Berkeley. Working for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Jared started his career by tracking the promises made by leaders at the Rio Earth Summit (1992). Mr. Blumenfeld went on to lead a coalition of fishermen, Mexican grass roots organizations, and international NGOs in an epic five year battle to protect the gray whales’ birthing grounds in
Laguna San Ignacio, Baja, from industrial development. The victory was described by Cox News as: “The most significant environmental victory of our generation.”
Jared was appointed by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Jr., in 2001 to run one of the nation’s first city Departments focused on the environment. Mr. Blumenfeld helped transform San Francisco into the “greenest city” in America by focusing on what a municipality could do to reduce carbon emissions. Jared worked with communities and businesses to establish the city’s “zero waste by 2020” goal. This involved creating
the country’s first curbside food scraps collection program; enabling the construction a $50 million recycling sorting facility; requiring recycling staff be hired from EJ impacted communities; and, banning plastic bags and styrofoam. San Francisco’s recycling rate went from 46% to 78% during Blumenfeld’s time with the city. In order to share best practices between cities, Jared helped found Green Cities California, which continues to thrive.
President Obama appointed Mr. Blumenfeld to serve as EPA Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest (2009-2016). Region 9 is home to 50 million people in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands, and 148 tribal nations. During his tenure at EPA, Jared focused on climate change, recycling, tribes, environmental justice, enforcement and drinking water. Blumenfeld established an enforcement division and
settled multi-billion dollar pollution cases. Jared made landmark decisions to protect California coastal waters and initiated a successful technology partnership to accelerate clean vehicle adoption in cities with nation’s worst air quality. Blumenfeld oversaw $3 billion in grants and made sure that states effectively spent these funds to solve community drinking water needs. Jared is committed to the importance of
building tribal environmental capacity and he travelled to meet with135 tribes on their reservations. Jared worked with many cities and states to help them implement food recovery and compost programs and he brought together EPA staff to develop comprehensive approaches to tackling the pacific garbage patch.
Mr. Blumenfeld is a trusted source for environmental stories and has appeared frequently in the New Times, BBC, Economist, San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, Los Angeles Times, NPR and other media outlets. Jared lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife the artist Alex Nichols and two children Markus and Anya. Jared loves the outdoors and recently returned from walking from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail.
