Who We Are

Main Menu

Email List

Enter your email address below to receive our email alerts about upcoming events.

Home

Who We Are

Philip Botwinick is the founder of Local Energy Solutions. He was born and raised in Brooklyn and Queens and graduated from Baruch College with a BBA in Statistics and Accounting. For over 20 years he worked as a Systems Analyst in the financial world. The economic downturn after September 11, 2001 forced him to reevaluate his life goals. He returned to bookkeeping for small businesses to allow him time to educate himself in sustainability and energy. During 2003-2004 he was Co-Election Supervisor for the first Local Advisory Board election for WBAI. In 2005 -2006 he took on the role of Conference Coordinator for the three day Local Solutions to the Energy Dilemma Conference held at Cooper Union in April 2006. He holds a Permaculture Design Certificate from the Permaculture Research Institute. He’s in the process of transforming his life to leave as small an impact on the planet as possible by reducing his consumption and buying seasonal and locally grown food.

Andrea Jansz is a Maritime lawyer, a mother of five and lives in Manhattan (not necessarily in that order). She is extremely concerned with the planet her children are destined to inherit and changed her lifestyle to bring about a more sustainable world for them. She believes we are stewards of the planet and it is this ideal she instills in her children. She was born and raised in Hong Kong and Australia and holds an undergraduate degree in history and psychology. She has been admitted to the High Court of Australia and will be admitted to the New York State bar in 2008. She is a certified Permaculture Designer and a regionally certified referee for the American Youth Soccer Organization. She can take apart computers, run worm condos, knit, change tires and repair cameras.

Sharon Kimmelman, has been a NYC school teacher and health rights advocate. A West Side Community Garden member since 1981, she now teaches it's school outreach programs, planting food gardens with children from nerby schools and leading hands-on field trips for visiting classes on how community gardens function. She established a "Butterfly Lane" to feed and harbor pollinators, "The Little Tree Trust", a nursery for PlaNYC's million new trees by 2030, and created two board games to teach about composting. To support her greening projects she has taken Citizen Pruner, Master Composter and Urban Permaculture Design courses. Her vision is for urban neighborhoods to meet peoples' needs through fostering self-appreciation, meaningful contribution and respectful cooperation on common ground.

Tom Nielsen keeps both feet planted in nature and society. He has been a librarian for the past 12 years, working at the US EPA Region 2 Library and the Information Research Center at Hazen and Sawyer, PC, an environmental engineering firm. Currently, Tom is Member Services Manager for the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) where he handles all new and existing members and is planning and implementing an expansion of membership to individual librarians. Tom is also revitalizing his relationship with the Earth. He assists his dairy farmer friend, Deb Tyler, in her old life skills workshops, such as Keeping a Family Cow, and Eggs-perience Chickens. He recently completed a permaculture design certificate course taught in New York City by Christopher Robin Healy and practices permaculture principles by helping out on farms in High Falls, NY and Cornwall, CT. Tom is also knowledgable about food issues and peak oil and is featured along with is partner in the documentary, Escape from Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream.

Ermin Siljkovic is a recent graduate of the Department of Urban Affairs master's degree program at Hunter College in New York City. While in graduate school, He dedicated his studies to understanding the vital issues concerning the long-term sustainability of the New York metropolitan area. During the summer of 2005, he served as a special project intern for the Office of Congressman Maurice Hinchey in the early planning stages of a greenway development program in Middletown, New York. After graduating, Ermin helped Peak Oil NYC and Local Energy Solutions organize a three-day conference on resource depletion and relocalization titled "Local Solutions to the Energy Dilemma" held in the Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York City. Ermin has since been diligent in working to develop the organizational capacity of Local Energy Solutions as a grantwriter.