Fighting for the Future

JOANNA DEHAVEN UNDERWOOD ’62 

Joanna DeHaven Underwood ’62, founder and trustee of the New York City–based Energy Vision, has always been interested in finding solutions to environmental problems and getting them adopted. 

She traces her success to her days at Bryn Mawr as a European history major. “The fact is you learn how to study things,” she says. “Bryn Mawr gave me confidence in my abilities. They gave women the right to say, ‘You can lead.’” 

Since the nonprofit’s start in 2007, Energy Vision has focused on advancing new technologies. One of the most promising, Underwood says, is the use of anaerobic digesters to capture methane released from decomposing organic food and animal waste. The result is a renewable natural gas (RNG) source that could greatly reduce the country’s reliance on oil, particularly carbon-intensive diesel fuel. 

At the same time, the amount of methane—one of the most potent greenhouse gases—released into the environment would be cut. 

“Methane capture is what this country needs now most,” Underwood says. “It’s a sprint, and if you don’t win the sprint, then the long-term race to master CO₂ almost doesn’t matter.” 

Without methane reduction, she says, the world would face “runaway climate change.” Warming temperatures would lead to melting glaciers, which would lead to the release of enormous stores of methane trapped underneath. 

“Bryn Mawr gave me confidence in my abilities. They gave women the right to say, ‘You can lead.’”  

According to Energy Vision’s 2023 assessment of the RNG industry, there were 305 facilities producing enough methane fuel to power 96,900 refuse trucks and displace 843 million gallons of diesel annually. An additional 126 facilities were under construction and 111 were in various planning stages. In total, that’s a nearly 34 percent increase over the previous two years. 

“Now, of course, the federal government backed out of all climate involvement,” Underwood says. The Trump administration broadly froze disbursements of Inflation Reduction Act monies on its first day in an effort to dismantle the Biden administration’s funding of climate change projects.

Although cuts would be a setback, Energy Vision won’t stop its outreach, she says. It’s already helping the state of Washington design plans for anaerobic digesters. Vermont also has expressed interest, she says. 

“There are states who consider this a huge priority,” Underwood says, “and want to move ahead regardless of what the federal government is doing.”