Meet Laura Lemire, Crown’s New Content Manager
Vermont born, Alaska raised, California refined—Crown Electrokinetics’ new content manager has an intimate relationship with sustainability and has seen the impacts of climate change firsthand. With a background in journalism and psychology and over 10 years of experience in content creation and management, Laura is excited to join a team championing an innovative and sustainable smart glass technology. A former content strategist for Cisco Systems, she brings with her a strong passion for green technology, a background in subsistence living, and a unique perspective on our current climate crisis.
What is unique about the opportunity at Crown?
What caught my attention was that Crown was looking for people that care about sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. Growing up in rural America, I lived a subsistence lifestyle—hunting, fishing, and fostering a close relationship with nature. My parents were the type of folks that felt rural Vermont was getting too crowded, and it was my father’s dream to move north to Alaska. Alaskans have seen the impacts of climate change firsthand and understand the importance of sustainability and how our future depends on it.
When I learned more about the Crown’s smart glass technology and mission, I was immediately attracted to the opportunity. What makes the company stand out is that their electrokinetic smart glass technology retrofits easily—meaning that instead of having to replace the glass in existing buildings, it can be outfitted on top of it. This is exciting because it’s technologies like DynamicTint™ that will help create a more sustainable infrastructure for a better tomorrow.
What does sustainability mean to you?
Sustainability means something different to Alaskans. The Tlingit and Athabaskan tribes of Southeast Alaska knew the importance of a sustainable fish harvest, recognizing that the health of the local salmon run determined the tribe’s prosperity. Hunting and fishing put food on the table for your family (a 1,600-pound moose can feed a family of four for an entire winter). Many Alaskans are committed to a sustainable subsistence lifestyle, helping to preserve resources for generations to come. Of course, we have grocery stores, but there are no cows in Alaska and game meat is so much better than store bought meat.
When I moved 1,000 miles north from Juneau to Fairbanks for graduate school, I lived in a dry cabin (without running water). I split wood for heat, got water from the spring down the road, and hauled my trash to the local transfer site (this included the poop from my bucket outhouse). Doing dishes meant boiling water on the wood stove and plugging a sink that drained through a piece of PVC pipe into a five gallon bucket. Living that type of lifestyle, you really gain a unique perspective on consumption and waste.
How do you feel about climate change, and how does it factor into your daily life?
Climate change is a serious threat to the survival of our species. The Lower 48 has only really begun to see the drastic impacts of climate change in the last five or ten years—rising ocean temperatures have caused hurricanes to strike further north and become more devastating, raging wildfires continue to scorch the West, and heatwaves on top of heatwaves are setting temperature records everywhere from Washington state to Washington D.C.
Alaska residents have seen the effects of climate change on an extreme level. Our glaciers are receding at an alarming rate and Arctic temperatures have been rising steadily. When it’s pushing 80 degrees in Barrow (Alaska’s most northwestern point), that’s cause for real concern. The largest temperate rainforest on the North American continent, the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, went into drought for the first time on record in 2018 (a drought that lasted for two years and drastically impacted the local salmon runs).
I am not trying to sound like an alarmist, but climate change is here, it’s pounding on our door. Those “heatwaves” aren’t just heatwaves, this is the new normal. The time for action is now, and what that means is stepping up and taking accountability. While everyday actions are important—carrying your own cup or water bottle, using reusable shopping bags, driving a hybrid or electric vehicle—personal responsibility only goes so far. We must hold companies and corporations accountable for their collective actions. I’m excited to work for a company that’s committed to creating a more sustainable future through technology.
In your new role at Crown, what do you hope to accomplish; what are some of your goals?
I’m ready to put my content creation skills to good use as Crown’s new content manager. It’s amazing that Doug Croxall recognized that the engineers at HP (Hewlett-Packard) had developed something special and saved the research from being scrapped. This type of dynamic smart glass has the potential to help drive down carbon emissions in cities across the globe if widely adopted.
I’m fired up about electrokinetic smart glass technology because of the societal gains that could be made from widespread adoption. We have an entire infrastructure mired in energy inefficiencies, and buildings are an exorbitant source of carbon emissions in our cities. HVAC use has an enormous global carbon footprint. Making our current windows “smart” and more energy efficient will save business and property owners money while reducing their carbon footprints.
Temperatures across the world are rising and hotter summers mean more AC use. This isn’t environmentally friendly or sustainable. Imagine if we can alleviate the burden of the rolling summer brown outs that plague LA’s aging power grid. Imagine if we can help reduce the need for AC use in major cities in India. It might sound lofty, but you have to dream the possible. This is the story that I am excited to tell at Crown. I really believe in the technology and company’s commitment to maintaining a sustainable ethos.