I was at the Stand Festival yesterday and ran into this woman who looked sweet with her dog. I approached her for an interview for Green Streets and here’s what she had to say:

PPnG: What’s your name and how old are you?

NC: My name is Nicole Cordan and I’m 42.

PPnG: What do you do for a living?

NC: I’m an attorney for a non-profit organization working on salmon restoration. I feel very lucky.

PPnG: What do you think of the whole green movement in Portland?

NC: Oh, I think it’s fantastic. It’s such a wonderful place to live, to be surrounded by so many like-minded people who care about the environment. It’s a wonderful place to grow up. I have a little three year old daughter and I feel very blessed. I grew up on the East Coast and back there I have to watch her all the time. Here she is a little pixie. She’s a free spirit. She gets to run about and she knows the difference between a fir tree and a cedar and a salmon and a trout. And those are really remarkable things because people here are so cognizant of our environment.

PPnG: How do you practice sustainability in your personal life?

NC: My partner and I use one car. We switch off biking to work and that means, biking the baby. We recycle and compost. We eat sustainable foods that are grown locally. We buy local and have a garden in our backyard where we grow vegetables. We’ve created a shared garden with our neighbors and each of us grow different things and our kids get to run back and forth and pick things from the garden. It’s all the little things that add up that matter. We also use energy saving appliances and we get a tax break from doing all that which is kind of amazing.

That’s so inspiring. Thank-you Nicole for sharing.