Two years ago, Kyle Kornack was sitting in a bus trying to get to a party which he was probably going to miss because of a blizzard in New York that had trapped them. Kyle, however, did not want to wait for the weather to clear up, so he decided to get out of the bus through the emergency exit and take the subway. He got to the party just in time.
This party was held by Forbes to celebrate its annual “30 Under 30” lists of 600 young entrepreneurs, including six from the Northeastern University, who have exploited their ingenuity, ambition, and critical thinking skills to launch trailblazing enterprises.
Kornack and David Cooch were honoured for their contribution in co-founding Green Gas, a non-profit organization that enables drivers to offset their carbon emissions by making donations to environmental causes at the gas pump. Their project had a wide appeal to the people. In Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Virginia, two dealers had renewed their connections with the Green Gas project which enabled the pump stations to ask users to donate an extra ten cents per gallon to projects that can prevent climate change.
This was a very unique step as nobody had ever seen donations being collected at a pump station before. This idea worked, as Kornack explained, because of the noxious smell of gasoline which would help inspire drivers to contribute. It has been proven that these donations made to Green Gas, have immensely contributed in removing pollutants from the atmosphere equivalent to almost 1 million miles driven by cars.
“We studied the problems for four and a half years, and it was kind of depressing and awakening,” said Kornack, who graduated in 2013. “I threw up my hands and was like, OK, where are the solutions? What can we do about this?”
It was because of Kornack’s uncommon spirit of never accepting anything sitting down and his impulsive nature that he was able to complete the Green Gas project successfully, as well as get out of the bus to attend the party. He did not stop his contributions after the success of Green Gas but tried to reassure the others present at the “30 Under 30” party that they were on the right track and how everyone should work together to fight climate change.
Sometimes we just need to decide in a matter of seconds what our lives are going to look like, to help us add value to whatever little things that we do. Here, like Kornack, many others from the Northeastern University have taken it upon themselves to save the world and make it a better place. And needless to say, they are doing a great job at it.
Devika Mulye