Planning Meeting Harvest

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Welcome – Ben Mates

Presencing – Jane Holt – Cranes are ssymbols of peace and prosperity

Check-in: What curiosity brings you here?

Pat Sanders – Transitions: sustainability or better; community at the local level

Philippe Wyffels – process needs to be taken care of

Ed Firmage – “The Power of Community” The inspiration of Cuba’s transformation following its oil shortage when Soviet imports stopped.

Carrol Firmage – Environmental humanities; Utah pioneers as a model of self-sustaining community

Ben Mates – Curious what is in the hearts of those present, what passions; commitment to health: healthy people, healthy communities, healthy environment

Jen Colby – Can’t have healthy people on a dying planet; big quick sustainability networks; the strength of weak ties; a lot of debt currently being thrown around, let’s make sure sustainability is in the mix; connect social movements and politics

Stephanie Rosenfeld – Food Policy Council; Crossroads Food Co-op; Who is going to create sustainability? How? What does sustainability mean?

Deborah McCoy – We made it up (economy, credit score); competition (not enough) – cooperation; come from spirit; opportunity to come together

Andrea Ashbridge – too much stuff; we’ve forgotten how to depend on each other; re-connect w/ our community; we’re just one of many groups; getting the message out in the media

Jane Holt – what can we create together, especially at the neighborhood level

Kathy Wilson – what’s emerging form our consciousness?; intent à connection with other groups; trans-humanists, singularity

Tom Tilton – make up for the harm I’ve already caused; create a better world

Misc. comments: organic processes that lead to emergence; tipping points; trim tabs (small tweaks that lead to big shifts)

Vision/framing: Ben Mates

Crazy idea: Sustainability in SaltLake is possible

Network à Community of Practice à System of Influence

Core group à Stewardship group à Summit à Sustainability in SLC

What is the scope?: Philippe Wyffels

What does sustainability in this valley look like?

- Local economy – subsistence

- energy (pre-industrial examples)

- local food production

- how to apply technology

- life-cycle cost of materials (costs currently externalized?)

- balance of social, economic, ecological

- local can’t be disconnected from global

- deep democracy, equity; what would a people’s budget look like?

- human-to-human connection

- living systems (water, animals)

- zero waste (cycles, not linear)

- biomimicry (how would nature do it?)

- small-scale, decentralized, local

- distributed [power generation, food production, leadership]

- what do we want to sustain? …invent?

- feed ourselves, basic human needs, healthy relationship with nature

- restoration (heal abuse)

- long-term survival

- Natural step: harmful substances do not travel from the Earth’s crust to the biosphere, nor are such substances manufactured

- nature’s diversity not compromised

- resources used fairly and efficiently to meet human needs

- learn form the past, move forward to create the best possible future

- greatly reduced carbon

- how to meet people where they’re at; include the whole community

- quality of life (true wealth)

- cultural diversity

- values aligned with sustainability

- taking care of the whole group

- connect (with land, people, plants, animals)

- arts, creativity

- translocal connection

- economy, trade

- shelter, workplaces, good work

Stewardship of the scope: Ed Firmage

How do we create sustainability … locally?

What do we want to do as a group?

Continue the Summit? If so, how?

-         many local groups

-         include indigenous people/ways

-         synergize each one’s unique skill

-         identify what’s missing for sustainability to be present

-         comprehensive vision

-         groups work in synergy around specific issues

-         systems analysis, work strategically

-         community-based social marketing (www.empowermentinstitute.org)

o       eco-teams, block by block

-         meta-organization

-         connect w/ new top-down efforts (Obama administration)

-         build on what’s already been created

-         focus on building community

-         what’s the call/invitation?

-         What’s the goal of community building?

-         Take these questions into a summit

-         Are we just spinning our wheels?

o       Not if we involve others not previously involved

-         Our neighbors, the banks, businesses, schools, churches, other leaders, institutions

-         Both/and, not either/or

-         Involve the media

-         People connect through what we consume

-         Connect through existing natural communities

-         Craft the message and the vision

-         Diversity can flourish

www.storyofstuff.com/

Howard Mason, Metro United Way, Louisville, USA

l      Change always starts within us—in our hearts—then in our organizations and communities.

l      Vision powers and unites everything. We must be able to vision from a quiet place.

l      It takes people with a passionate commitment to a vision to ignite progress. But it does not take a lot of them in the beginning.

l      If we want new results, we have to do new things.

l      Acting on the vision begins with a “What if we…?” question. Discovering one’s personal role in the vision begins with a “What if I…?” question.

l      People support what they create. Local ownership and a meaningful role in decision making are necessary for energy, creativity and commitment.

l      When partnerships are united by common vision and values, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. The effort will look and act more like a social movement than a chain of command.

l      When committed people self-organize to solve common problems, new solutions emerge. But we cannot control or predict what those solutions will be or when they will happen. Prepare to be surprised.

l      Small actions produce enormous results. The most important, global, systematic actions and changes are also the most personal, local and human in scale.

l      Results can come surprisingly quickly once a tipping point is reached.

Photos can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sustainablesaltlake/ Click on "Sets".

Work

Learn

Build Relationships

10:15  

What is going on in the world that makes this gathering on sustainability

important?

Deference to authority

Dependence on oil, coal (pollution, high prices) à Alternatives?

Making $

Centralized utilities

Consumer culture

No one wants pain

What are you learning about sustainability that helps our collective effort?

Young people – education

Who can set the example? Who will lead?

Bottom up or top down? Meet in the middle

Consumer Culture

Nuggets &Gems:

Ecological Education Awareness

Hope Work for the best but prepare for the worst

Networking through hands-on, service learning, technology, barn-raising model

Using crisis in business as usual model to mainstream sustainable values & actions

Make it feel very real & personal

Change social norms thru documented/known to work marketing methods

Transforming crisis to opportunities & re-examining our values

Education (curiosity)

$ - purchase power, boycott, economic feasibility

Institutional changes to make the “me or humanity” question a non-option. Allow educated people to make the necessary actions without affecting (negatively) those who prefer the “me-now” time preference

Modeling & Sharing

Carbon use à buy carbon credits à bottom line does not equal zero à buy more credits

Feel empowered by group

Be the change

Democratic emphasis on community and change – leadership 7 pioneering

Redefine & expand definition of economics

Be at least 50 % sustainable

Conceptualization of a co-ordination & alignment of sustainability resources & efforts, e.g., website, listserve, wiki, sustainability community calendar

Creating connections between community, industry and leaders

What is it? Measure & quantify sustainability

Identifying political candidates who have sustainability as a priority & passing the list to attendees here

Cross the religious divide

No oil, less pollution, more awareness as to what we are eating, no GMOs

Using education and outreach to connect people to their place & their innate motivation to be sustainable in life & community.

We can make positive change without agreeing on the problem.

Focus on what really motivates people (or is a barrier) to change.

We have the tools and the technology.

Education – consumer demand

Bail in Government Venture Capitalists

Create market place for new systems

Adapt message to different audiences

Promoting Open Communication

Living in sustainability because it supports the morals/ethics of: respect, care, kindness, compassion, sharing

Collective website for sustainability: define the vision for SLC; all share on a wiki

Encourage & inform our religious communities about sustainability

à go back to your roots: community; food; connection

12:30 What wants to be born here?

Oneness of humanity

Education

Reverse-education

Sacrifice zones

Equity – Justice – Equality

Willingness for change

1)      Education – consume/demand

2)      Bail In – Market Place – Gov. Venture

3)      Create new system

1)      How many acres does it take & of what kind of foliageto sequester my annual gas consumption?

Cap & trade

-         survival

-         equilibrium

-         environmental refugees

defragmenting ourselves

Choices                  Modeling &Sharing

Changing energy

Time of transition

-         to new awareness

-         hope for positive change

Bangladesh has shown improvement in many areas in last 25 years

½ of school stays ‘at home’ to learn on computer then change the other ½ at school

How to connect with our neighbors

Changing transportation to communications

Get away from fast, cheap & easy

Berkana

Meg Wheatley

Urgency

-         species, civilization survival

-         activate community

green the LDS network

Make it feel real                        Generate Visceral sense

Real                                         Make it Real!!

Touch

                                                Survive without a lifestyle based on “credit”.

                                                Natural or financial

How do we help people understand the urgency?

Where is the willingness for drastic change in our lifestyles?

Making all decisions based on what’s best for Every living thing on earth!

Reality of oneness of humanity & what does this mean to our own actions?

Talk is cheap

Let’s do!

                                                                        Create incentives

to recycle

reuse

change/influence

our children

on how we

want to be

Connections –

Community

Energy

Flow

Activism –

Work place education –

Early education

Change

#1 What are your critical needs?

#2 How do you make them local?

Bail in

(lack of leadership)

Election

Media

Emotional

(survival)

(population)

(resource crisis)

- consumer –

            What is happiness?

(materialistic)>              consumer

(emotional)>                             critical *

needs

in

your

life

Session Title: Standards for Sustaianable Business

Convenor: Bridgette Steffen

Participants:

Summary of discussions: What does a business need to be sustainable?

Session Title: Social Justice - Sustainability

Convenor: Jen Colby

Participants: Shane Smith, Stacy Blaylock, Emily Smith, Jordan Christopher

Summary of discussions:

-         Complexity of socio-economic & Sustainability Issues

Less complexity à Less consumption

àà perceptions of poverty/lack of access

                        à vs. “Green is expensive – only available for wealthy”

-         example of trying to legalize chicken-keeping in WVC

“wrong image” – immigration

-         example of transit – bus vs. train funding

trains à for middle class/wealthy

buses à poorer people

-         public libraries as open forums to welcome everyone

break down social barriers

-         ways of including a broader diverse group of citizens

in public community design

-         can’t solve many environmental problems without addressing social ones

homeless people, gangs

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

-         Re-defining the American Dream

Engaging the people who are left out – seen as “problems” into creating solutions – at the library?

-         start a time bank?

-         library example – participating management, open to all as long as behavior not disruptive

-         tangible model – the RebuildingCenter, Portland

-         need to build affordability into “new urbanism” & downtown redevelopment

-         

Session Title: Movement in Design

Convenor: Allie Kesler

Participants: Chris Noble, Mary Whitesides, Kay Robison, Kinde Nebeker, Elise Lazar, Philippe Wyffels

Summary of discussions:

Sustainable art movements

(solution 350) 350.org – Awareness carbon levels through photography

SUWA (Google) Project – Women protecting wilderness

SLCC – Fashion Program (get them to do green design event)

Leonardo – Sustainable art event??

Making bags from extra fabrics (Leonardo)

Utah Arts Council – Sustainability & Community

                                    Jean Irwin

Session Title: How can the average citizen benefit financially by supporting solar power?

Convenor: Carl Clark 243-5300

Participants: Carrol Firmage, Laura Flower, Mary Whitesides, Eddie Firmage, Deborah McCoy

Summary of discussions:

Talked about Concentrated Solar Power – the principles behind it – building one big central plant or putting single ones on each home that would not only supply electricity to home but also would heat and cool it. You can convert your vehicle to an electric car & not need gas either.

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

Copy what St. George is doing – build a power plant that we can all

Session Title: Making Business Green through Education and Action

Convenor: Michael Jeppesen

Participants: Bridgette Steffen, Kathy Olsen, Paul, Brody Leven, Jennifer Briggs

Summary of discussions:

Discussion of what would consumers like to see in sustainable business – Also what can we do for promoting green in business and buildings

Talked about greenwashing and different certifications

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

Educate Educate Educate

Enroll with E2 – Salt Lake City to market to business

Library discussion groups

Session Title: What should go into a complete budget and monthly expense report for SLC Carbon/Eco footprint

Convenor: David Hoza

Participants: Jay Larsen

Summary of discussions:

Gas carbon credit

Budget /Expense Rpt.

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

A blog or website to be set up and e-mails sent out to everyone in the know requesting during a comment period

a) everything that needs to be put on a residential or small business budget & expense report

b) any information or any  information location-person, book, website – where specific footprint information on specific behaviors or purchases or consumptions already exist.

Session Title: Global Warming

Convenor: Mike Mielke, Naomi Franklin

Participants: Hans Ehrbar, Devon Hill, Elise Lazar

Summary of discussions:

This meeting is called Sustainability Summit. We should organize to coordinate and coalesce the actions of organizations represented in this meeting.

Session Title: Learning Center/Model/Prototype

Convenor: Ben Mates

Participants: Tom Tilton, Helen Peters, Ramona Sierra, Carol Curtis, Monika Ferreira, Deanna Anderson, Philippe Wyffels, Kathy Wilson, Bonnie Christiansen, Andy Hultgren, Deb McCoy, Jay Larsen

Summary of discussions:

Center for workshops

Education         – reach out to schools, Roots& Shoots, USEE

-         elementary, high school university

Coalition? SLCEC to sponsor

Create an identity

Does any org. already exist who is doing it? Post Carbon?

Org. that transcends all the issues          LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability)

Master org. w/ other org’s as members

Coordinated calendar

Include industry, business, gov’t (State Legislature)

Information clearinghouse to stream line, summarize

Be part of 211 functionality on telephones?

Meeting space - booked by member org’s as needed

Beaming Bioneers model would obviate the need for travel – UEN

Bldg. to embody the principles we are teaching

Here at the Leonardo?

Sustainability award

Discussion of the vision of the Leonardo

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

Plan an event within the next year to launch the larger association

Steering committee to meet and create a plan

Circulate an invitation to sign up to be informed of meeting to further explore these ideas and include others

Session Title: Sustainability & LDSChurch

Convenor: Ed Firmage

Participants: Don Adolphson, JordanRichmond, Susan Hayward, Cherise Udell, Willy Littig, John Kesler, Deb McCoy

Summary of discussions: Good discussion about resources for wanting to get the LDSChurch involved in sustainability

Another good discussion about one practical way for making this happen by approaching women in the church both at a grassroots level and at an institutional level in conjunction with the Utah Moms for Clean Air group.

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

Coordinate in several cases with Cherise Udell, the founder of Utah Moms.

Session Title: Local Ecological Food Gardens/Farm

Convenor: Eileen/ Paul/Vaughan

Participants:Chris Riggle, Doug Stark, Benjamin Rivkind, Paul Overall, Eileen McCabe, Pat Sanders, Tim DeChristopher, Joan Gregory, Kathy Lung, Renee Zollinger, Dave Hoza

Summary of discussions:

We need a way to grow our own food in an ecological way; families & neighbors sharing, growing, trading, creating local exchange rates

Gardens in schools

How to facilitate connections between people & land

Socio-economic issues of computer access & language

Creation of knowledge network

LDS Church & their knowledge

*water issue must always be addressed

Craigslist style trade/barter food & services board

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

Kathy: will become central contact point – starting neighborhood block gardens & compost project

Kay: will take tomatoes to UnitarianChurch to teach food preservation

Vaughan & Tim: will work w/ Fred & Office of Sustainability at U to work on connecting interested students to available land

Vaughan: will work w/ Greta @ Catalyst on ideas for spreading the word

Eileen: will talk to Wasatch Community Gardens & Baxters Restaurant to determine their interest re garden project w/ SLCC

Benjamin: volunteering w Open Space Lands

Paul: landscape/garden

Session Title: Solar Power Net Metering to encourage renewable energy in Utah

Convenor: Jim Frnech, Andy Schoenberg

Participants: Bob Berets, Chris Noble, Kathy Olsen, Bonnie Christiansen

Summary of discussions:

Solar power to the people is a no brainer.

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

Solar should become mainstream, like a furnace. Net metering should be improved to encourage renewable

1)      Excess power production should be credited at least the retail rate

2)      Increase the total net-metered power limit from 0.1% to 2% to 5% of RMP total power generation in 2007

Lobby Public Service Commission

Session Title: Identify & Resolve Perceived Barriers to Sustainable Behaviors in SL Valley

Convenor: Andy Hultgren

Participants: Laura Flowers

Summary of discussions:

Finding ways to spark individual interest in order to create community activism.

How do we connet with people who aren’t as interested in sustainability?

Survey of sustainable (or non-sustainable) behaviors and what are motivations/barriers behind them. Use that data to indentify & address barriers

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

Lack of expertise to execute on this!

Session Title: New Ways to talk about sustainability

Convenor: Christopher

Participants: Lisa Romney, Sherri Krassner, Paul, Vanessa, Jeff Ward, Sophia, Sarah Grant

Summary of discussions:

Looked at instances where “sustainability” or “environmental” was a liability – what were the judgments behind that?  Then brainstormed words that describe sustainability

What will we do now? What needs to happen next? 

Go back to our work, family, neighbors, and see if the way we’re talking about sustainability matches the words we came up with

-         communicate about more topics to more constituencies

-         bigger forums to talk about sustainability

-         building cooperative diverse community

People in survival mode – naturally consume less, ride bus à not cool if by necessity

à Frugality, getting the most from a dollar

à Community aspect, connectedness

à Consciousness

à Discomfort w/ term “environmentalist”

What are impediments to spread the word? “Righteousness” “Constraints”

Evaluation Question (mail-in) What is alive now for you that was not present before the Sustainability Summit?

Responses:

- That people in SLC care about sustainability

- I gained an appreciation for the approach to sustainability by various members of the community.

Leonardo Center

Salt Lake City, Utah

Opening:  Welcome by Philippe Wyffles of the Leonardo Center

Introduction by Ben Mates of the Robert Hemingway Foundation and Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community; a neutral trusted convener of conversation as communities face challenges and work together.

Introduction by Jane Holt, Coordinator for the Sustainability Program within the Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community.  Growth comes from the heart of community engagement.  Gathering of the Summit represents a seed that has sprouted and our hope is that this meeting with help the seed set root.

Introduction by Tenneson Woolf of the Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community.  The radical act of bringing people together in conversation.

Schedule:

                   Welcome

                   Exploration of what makes gathering important.

                   Lunch break

                   What wants/needs to be born here?

Work – Learn – Build Relationship “If you want a system to be healthy, connect it to more of itself.

World Café:

What is going on in the world that makes this gathering on sustainability important?

Group A ideas and conversation:

1.                Survival

2.                Too much expansion on one side takes something from somewhere else.  There is a need for equilibrium.

3.                Fundamental need – what kind of policies are needed for environmental refugees.

4.                Diversity in community.

5.                Reverse education – re-education.  Opening of conversation from crisis.

6.                Willingness to change through knowledge and mediation and change through force (i.e. policy).

7.                Local advocates:  Changing the stigma (of barter, purchasing used, buying local) of sustainable choices.

8.                Simplifying life.

What are you learning about sustainability that helps our collective effort?

          Group A ideas and conversation:

1.      The basis of consumerism is misery.

2.      Need to start telling the truth.  “Wake up, freak out, get on with it.”

3.      Need to be able to have a civil dialogue and community.

4.      Recognition that we are too isolated.  Not aware of what is going on around us.

5.      How to communicate from a humble place.  Going beyond the level of I am right and you are wrong to how/what can we do together.

6.      Listen

Principles to support collective effort:

All

1.      Be at least 50% sustainable

2.      Feel empowered by the group.

3.      Growing our own food, preserving it, therefore being sustainable.

4.      Cross the religious divide.

5.      Coordination of efforts.

6.      Using crisis in existing model to create change.

7.      Networking as a community with democratic emphasis.

8.      Identifying political candidates that have emphasis of sustainability and pass it on through networking.

9.      Use current economic situation to bring awareness to help people connect to place.

10.Education.

11.Using purchase power.

12.Be the change.

13.Working for the best and preparing for the worst.

14.Make it feel very real and personal

15.Connection of community.

16.How to communicate with those who have different languages (words mean different things to different people).

17.Working through religious communities.

18.Defining a vision for Salt Lake City – much like Envision Utah.

19.Broadening the definition of profit.

20.Instead of a bail out of Wall Street, have a bail in of venture capitalists.

21.Creating a market place for new ventures.

22.Living with respect, compassion and caring.

23.Do not need total agreement of the root of the problem to make change.

24.What really motivates people and how to work with what people oppose about change (i.e. It takes too long to take the bus).

25.What is sustainability – defining what it means?

Lunch (examples of sustainability by catering company).  Using biodegradable cups, utensils, and bio-diesel in delivery fleet.

Rainmaking Exercise:  Bringing it down to earth.

What wants/needs to grow?   Seed – Sprout –Rain

          Open Space Technology Process

1.      Name topic

2.      10 groups

Principles

1.      It starts when it starts.

2.      Ends when it ends.

3.      Whoever shows up are the right people.

4.      What ever happens is the only thing that could happen.

5.      Law of two feet – it is ok to move.

6.      Need both passion and responsibility.

7.      Cross pollinate.

What needs to grow from here to sustain the Salt Lake Valley’s sustainability?

Groups:

A.       Benefit from the sun with Carl Clark.

B.       Sustainability standards for business – Making business green.

C.       Local ecology – Food garden/farms.  Integrating grass roots conversation about localizing food and energy.  Act now – integrate all in sustainable community – Paul.

D.      Strengthening survival institutions – Tim.  Creating process for political will.

E.       Global warming urgency – speaking with united voice.

F.        Sustainability in LDS Church – Ed Firmage.

G.      Solar systems for your home.  Encourage renewable energy by improving net metering – Public Service Commission – Jim.

H.      Carbon credits – Jay.  Creating a carbon and ecology footprint monthly report for small business and residences.

I.           New incisive ways to talk about sustainability – Christopher.

J.          Social justice and sustainability.

K.      New movement in art and design through sustainability.

L.        Learning center/model/prototype – Ben Mates.

M.     Identify and resolve perceived barriers to sustainable behaviors in the Salt Lake Valley – Andy Hultgren.

Group Headlines

1.      Laura Flowers/Andy:  How to get people interested who don’t necessarily have any interest?  Create surveys to identify barriers.

2.      Christopher Thomas:  How to talk about sustainability.  Definitions of sustainability and judgments (impediments).  Using words like thriving and respect.  Are we using the correct words for sustainability?

3.      ??     Social justice.  Living on less.  Changing the mental framework around sustainability (having less) means you are impoverished.  Changing the image that going green is only accessible to the wealthy.  Engaging at risk communities in finding solutions to sustainability.

4.      Jim French – Solar power and net metering.  Solar furnace, access to solar power at a retail level, lobbying.

5.      Carl Clark.  Solar power creation by using mirrors to make steam to create usable energy for both commercial and residential and to power electric cars.

6.      Kathy – Creating community and neighborhood gardens and gardens in schools.  How to connect those who have land with those who garden.  Explore issues around volunteering land and water issues.  Formed a potential networking community to further exploration.

7.      Ed Firmage – LDS Church and sustainability.  Plan of action – leveraging Utah moms through the Relief Society.  Having them engaged at a grassroots and institutional level.

8.      Ben Mates – Learning Center Model.  Need a place to demonstrate how to live sustainability and teach classes, etc.  Create an association that can bring all interested under one umbrella and create a calendar of events to prevent overlap and inform those interested.

9.      Hans – Global warming.  Rebel with a cause.  Group expressed frustration.  Too much overlap.  Need organization to pull together an association of sustainable service.  Work together on a few issues and at time.  Coordinate – Concentrate - Mobilize.

10.Movement Design Center – create exhibits for sustainability.

11.Carbon credits – create a budget/expense report for carbon footprint.  Create a blog and email a) expense report b) link to useful information.

12.Green Business – what do consumers want; how to promote green in business, multiple certification levels and the problem that creates in consistency, green washing.  Education is the key.  Suggested working with E2Business and the Salt Lake City Library who is already teaching classes on sustainability.

End of Summit:

Principal of a living system:  “Start anywhere and follow it everywhere.”

What is working?  What is possible?  And follow the spark of Yes!

Final question:  What is alive for me now that wasn’t present before this Summit?

Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) is a public, open-access, comprehensive community college serving more than 60,000 students through credit and non-credit courses and workshops each year, making it the largest institution of higher education in Utah.  SLCC is concerned with the growing interest in and need for curriculum focusing on various aspects of sustainability.  SLCC already has responded to this need by recognizing that two distinct populations might have an interest in the area of sustainability:  working adults who need training to meet the growing demand for green building, energy management, and related fields, and transfer students who want to acquire expertise in this area.  SLCC has begun to respond to the first group by creating two non-credit courses on Solar Voltaic Installation and Energy Manger Training.  The College has responded to the second group by inventorying and evaluating current credit courses that focus on sustainability issues and considering how to focus and augment those curricula into a Sustainability Certificate.  The purpose of this Certificate will be to train students to meet increasingly complex intellectual and real-world sustainability challenges of the 21^st Century.  Additional information is available on our website: www.slcc.edu

4600 South Redwood Road

Taylorsville, UT  84123

(801) 957-4650

deanna.anderson@slcc.edu

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

> - Why did you choose to come to this sustainability summit?

I believe that this forum will present an excellent opportunity for a wide variety of Utah organizations to share information and insight into challenges facing Urtah, and to share ideas on how to address them.

How do we address the escalating loss of farmland as  food transportation costs become prohibitive?
How do we encourage an environment for small business to flourish, when zoning, taxes, and development goals of local and county government stacks the decks in favor of large chains?
How do we manage and allocate water resources to residents and businesses, in the face of  demands to sell it to the highest bidder, and private property rights that trump sustainability?
How do we educate our neighbors about thinking, investing, sustaining locally?

regarding what you our your group does to support sustainability in the SL valley.

The Green Party of Utah  (www.gput.org Deanna Taylor 801-631-2998 or Eileen McCabe 801-201-0219) supports the 10 Key Values of the Green party of the US, which include grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom,decentralization, community-based economics, responsibility and future focus. We seek to work with local non-profits and local, county and state government entities to  preserve family farms and organic farming, local energy production through small to mid-scale wind and solar projects that are community,farm-cooperative or school district owned and operated; to develop local ordinances that require water use assessments for any development; for changes in local ordinances to  favor local businesses and small mixed use development over large scale mall-type developments.

Thanks!
Eileen McCabe
Alternate Delegate and Local Coordinator,
Green Party of Utah

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Education for evolutionary change in health and wellbeing.


What is Integrative Health (IH)?
•    Health, wellbeing, and healing of the whole person including physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing aspects.
•    Vital interconnections for educational dialogue about wellbeing and healing among individuals, families, work or social groups, communities, organizations, institutions, and environments. 
•    Facilitation of individual, group, and community self-awareness, self-empowerment, self-care, and self-development, along with openness and commitment to the healing process. 
•    Promotion of the integrative use of conventional Western medicine and complementary alternative medicine for optimal wellbeing of patients (The Best of Both Is Best).  Yet IH is much broader and deeper than an emphasis on healthcare alone.

What is the Integrative Health Network (IHN)?
•    The IHN is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt, Public Charity licensed in the State of Utah.  It is the first Public Charity organization to pursue education for integrative health and wellbeing in the inclusive scope described here. 
•    The IHN is a charitable organization and association that promotes personal integrative learning and growth process, combined with an educational and communication network that enables healing inner and inter-relationships.
•    The IHN facilitates networking and operational connection among health care and education, healthy community projects, and healthy sustainable environments.
•    The IHN endorses a more expansive view of “community” that includes those of place and those of practice.  This includes, for example, neighborhoods and towns, work and professional groups, and organizations/ institutions/ companies. It also includes the cultural context for and the democratic civic capacity of community in action.
•    The IHN promotes these integrative activities as a Public Charity that enables “for the people” action that is “free” from the operational goals of healthcare consortiums, educational institutions, government or community-related service organizations, or predominantly commercial interests.

Who is the IHN?
•    IHN members consist of health professionals and educators, complementary/ alternative therapists, community service professionals, those concerned about optimal environments for health and wellbeing, community residents and citizens, and consumers passionate about the integrative process for optimal health and wellbeing.
•    IHN includes individuals and groups who want to participate in a community-based forum for group-conversation, self-help and self-healing, and action-orientation.


 
What does the IHN do?  
•    Educate, mentor, support, and integrate for health and wellbeing: (1) individuals such as health and community service professionals, as well as the general public; (2) groups such as health professionals, complementary/ alternative therapists, and community service organizers; (3) institutions such as colleges/ universities and hospitals/ clinics, together with community, government, and service organizations; and (4) special needs populations, such as soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.
•    Hold quarterly meetings and annual conferences on integrative health and wellbeing topics.
•    Orchestrate the Charitable Purpose project:  Supporting Our Returning Soldiers and Veterans: A Community-Based, Educational, Outreach Program to Include Spouses and Significant Others. 
 

Educational  and  Charitable  Service  Action  Projects
IHN Regular Meetings
    Over the past five years, the IHN has held over 6o regular meetings, on an approximately monthly basis, for educational presentations concerning both the science and the experience of a variety of holistic health practices.  The intent of the meetings is to provide a forum for academic faculty, conventional medicine and complementary practitioners, and the general public to dialogue and network on issues concerning Integrative Health as described above.  Selected previous presentation topics and presenters are provided below.
Title    Presenter
Integrative Health. Why Now?   The U of U College of Health Integrative Health Graduate Program    Glenn Richardson, PhD; Uof U faculty; Jim Overall, MD, President IHN; John Kesler, JD, Chair, IHN Board
Big Mind Process for Integrative Health:
Eastern Wisdom for the Western Mind    Genpo Merzel Roshi, Abbot
 Kanzeon Zen Center, SLC
Clinical Hypnosis: Evidence-Based Support    D. Corydon Hammond, PhD, Psychology, Pain Clinic,    
U of U Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Clinic
Optimal Nutrition for the Prevention &Management 
of Atherosclerosis: An Inclusive Approach    Joseph Carlson, PhD, RD, Foods & Nutrition Division, U of U College of Health
Biophysics and the Body/Mind/Spirit Connection    Hugo Rodier, MD, Family Practice and Integrative Medicine, Pioneer Medical Clinic, Draper, UT
Laser Detection of Carotenoid Antioxidants in
Human Skin and Eye: Potential Correlation with
Nutritional Status in Disease and in Health    Werner Gellermann, PhD,  Research  Professor,  Department  of  Physics,  University  of  Utah
Energy Medicine: Meridians and Chakras
Anatomical and Theoretical Perspectives    Yeou-Lan Chen, RN, PhD, Professor, School of
Nursing and Health Sciences, Westminster College

Integrative Health Conferences  
    Over the past five years, the IHN has sponsored four conferences for local conventional and complementary health providers and educators, community service professionals, and the general public.  The conference themes and dates are listed below:
Theme    Date
Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine    October, 2003
Integrative Health and Wellbeing: More Than Medicine    May, 2005
Integrative Health: Many Pathways to Wellness    May, 2006
New Paradigms for Healing: The Science of Integrative Health    May, 2007

 
From 120 to 150 attended each two-day conference in Salt Lake City.  The general format included four to five one-hour plenary presentations, and four breakout sessions each with four to five simultaneous 1-2-hour workshops (16to 20 total).  Academic co-sponsors with IHN for these conferences included The Colleges of Health and of Nursing at the University of Utah, the College of Nursing at Brigham Young University, and the Dumke College of Health Professions at Weber State University.

2008 IHN-Sponsored Conference: 
    An exciting, three-day, five-event conference was held May 15-17, 2008, Freedom from Stress and Addictions Through THE WORK of Byron Katie, at the Varsity Room on the 6th floor of the Tower of the U of U Rice-Eccles Stadium.  This event was a working partnership between Byron Katie International (BKI, http://www.thework.com/ and the IHN.
For these events, Katie and the BKI generously donated two different free workshops on May 15 for: (a) leadership individuals and health professionals from regional Military and federal/state Veterans Affairs institutions and facilities and (b) another event for returning soldiers, veterans, and their families.  In addition, Katie and the BKI donated all the profits from three additional paying events on May 16 and 17 to the IHN for use of THE WORK and other holistic educational / training modalities for returning soldiers, veterans, and their families.  Flyers and other information for these events are available: http://www.ihealthnet.org/.  See the next section for the soldier/veteran-related events.  

Charitable Service: Program Supporting Returning Soldiers, Veterans, and their Family/Friends
•    Importance of Project.  The public is well aware of the pain and suffering the lives of returning soldiers, veterans, and their significant others.  The IHN’s charitable efforts are directed towards this population.  We provide an educational/training program to enable relief and inspire freedom from pain and suffering in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing dimensions in their lives. As a nation, we have an obligation to care for those who have served their country. 
Over the past two years, the IHN has offered community-based, free, weekly, educational evening programs for this purpose.  Weekly programs were offered initially in Midvale with the support of Mayor JoAnn Seghini, and then in Ogden with the support of Bruce Penland, Executive Director, Operations and Support Services for Ogden City Schools.   Significant collaborative ded to market and “get the word of mouth” going among returning soldiers, veterans, and their families/friends.  However, the turnout was too small to continue the effort.
The IHN is now working in collaboration with professional medical and family support leadership in regional military and Veterans Affairs facilities to offer charitable programs for the leadership and health professionals, as well as for returning soldiers, veterans and their families/friends.  The working partnership with Byron Katie in the workshops described above is the initial offering in this new and inspiring effort to serve and facilitate the healing process for military personnel and their families.
•    Project Support will come from philanthropy, proposals to foundations where this project fits within their mission, grants from civic and government service agencies, community fundraising efforts, and IHN resources.
•    Offerings are provided free of charge to veterans, spouses, close family members, and significant others.

Kathy Wilson
 

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-         Why did you choose to come to this sustainability summit?

I would like to learn about the issues surrounding sustainability in Salt Lake. I would also like to look at what solutions are being offered.

- What are your most burning questions about sustainability in the SL valley?
What is being done to reduce the pollution (white, air, water, etc)?

- Share one paragraph on your organization, including contact information, regarding what you our your group does to support sustainability in the SL valley
Salt Lake Solutions is a project-based approach to engaging the community in public decision-making.  Salt Lake Solutions projects involve the community, all levels of government, business and non-profit organizations in collaboratively solving problems that cannot be achieved without the integration of public and private support.  The Salt Lake Solutions program is jointly funded by the Salt Lake City Council and Mayor Ralph Becker’s Office.  Our next project will identify and implement community-based activities to reduce air pollution levels across the Salt Lake Valley; the recent anti-idle campaign at elementary schools is an example of this type of collaboration.  Contact information:  Michele Straube, Mediator/Facilitator, 801-535-7971, SLSolutions@slcgov.com.  More information about Salt Lake Solutions projects is available at www.slcgov.com/SLSolutions.  

 via Molly Jones

Michele Straube, Mediator/Facilitator

Salt Lake Solutions

SLC Mayor's Office

451 South State Street, #306

P.O. Box 145474

Salt Lake City, UT  84114-5474

801-535-7971 (o); 801-455-5789 (cell)

SLSolutions@slcgov.com

www.slcgov.com/SLSolutions

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As I indicated originally, I represent Great Salt Lake Audubon and will be particularly interested in issues related to creating perpetual sustainable habitats for the non-human inhabitants of the area in the face of ever-increasing encroachment by we human inhabitants.  We are currently managing a project along the Jordan River at 106th South to restore 120 acres of former farmland to wetlands and wildlife habitats which will eventually become a Wild Bird Sanctuary. 

Contact information:

Bruce Heath, Executive Director

Great Salt Lake Audubon

P.O. Box 520867

Salt Lake City, UT 84152-0867

801-512-7290 cell

bruce@greatsaltlakeaudubon.org

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Ben Mates, Operations Manager, The Robert G. Hemingway Foundation

I am participating in this event because I know there is power in being in conversation with others who share their passion with me. Together we may be able to take action to ignite others to shift to a community that works for everyone and lives in harmony with all of life.

Burning questions: What vision for our seventh generation of descendants do the participants of this summit hold? How can we mobilize the resources we have right here and right now to create and sustain healthy communities, healthy people and a healthy environment?

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  Jane Holt - Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community

       I am a Minister and Counselor by training.  I am a community activist by passion. I have been in the practice of living simply for many years.  I have a deep concern for the future. What am I leaving for the generations who will come after me?    

       I am committed to this Sustainability Summit because I believe the only way we will come through the environment crisis we face is by talking, visioning and working together to solve the myriad of challenges we face.  Being in conversation with each other is a powerful way to be inspired. I look forward to listening to what people have to say and also sharing my vision of what a sustianable future means.

       My "Burning" question is: How can we who are committed to a more sustianable future,  inspire more citizens to be actively involved. People will become more aware if there is a personal reason. How can we make this environmental crisis more important in people lives, beyond expensive fuel.

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Ed and Carrol Firmage are founding members of Be the Difference (www.bethedifference.net), a new community of citizens committed to practicing sustainable lifestyles that include growing food locally, supporting local economy, retrofitting homes and commercial spaces for energy conservation and efficiency, using energy from clean and renewable sources, and most importantly creating a culture of community in which these practices flourish. Ed and Carrol started Be the Difference in part out of a sense of frustration with the present political climate, in which real progress toward sustainability is stymied, and in part from a growing sense of their own need to live more sustainably as a family. This Sustainability Summit is an outgrowth of Be the Difference in its infancy. The burning question they bring to the Summit is to discover how we as a community can begin to take bigger, more meaningful strides towards true sustainability.

Ed makes his living as a fine art photographer in Salt Lake City. He is the author and publisher ofRed Rock Yellow Stone, an award-winning combination of photographs of the American West and haiku from Japan. Ed is also a board member of HEAL Utah, an alliance of citizens and organizations working to protect the health of Utahns from nuclear and toxic waste.
 
Carrol, a homemaker and mother of four, is presently a graduate student in environmental humanities at the University of Utah. The principal force behind her family's garden, Carrol hopes to become a master gardener.

Date: Friday, October 3, 2008 10 a.m. - 3 p.m

Place: The Leonardo, Third Floor Conference Center, 209 E. 500 S., SLC (the former public library building)

The public is invited. Details and Invitation. 

A rich site devoted to subjects relating to electric and hybrid vehicles.

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One Town in Japan Shows the World How

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This appeared as an op-ed commentary in the Salt Lake Tribune, July 4, 2008

The Real Energy Minutemen

Senator Orrin Hatch ("Delegation Slams Oil-Shale Moratorium," SL Tribune, 7/2/08) suggests that oil shale companies are our energy Minutemen, and Senator Bob Bennett believes that it is "malicious" of congress to keep these guardians from their appointed task. I think Senator Hatch needs a history lesson and Senator Bennett a better dictionary.

America's Minutemen were our defenders on the front line. Oil shale development is front line only as a means of destroying Utah's remaining wild land, for oil shale development will involve the destruction of Utah land on a colossal scale.

To what end? Even with development of oil shale, the U.S. does not have the capacity to significantly influence the price of oil on the global market. We're simply too small a player.

The true front line in the energy battle is not oil or any other fossil fuel. These are the modality of the past, and every attempt to prop up a system based on fossil fuels is a rear-guard action. The front line is renewable energy, and the Minutemen are those people who are working, in spite of backward-looking politicians such as Senators Bennett and Hatch, toward refashioning American society along sustainable lines. These people, like the men of Concord and Lexington, are revolutionaries.

There's nothing revolutionary about oil shale. A revolution is a new beginning. Solar power would be a new beginning. Wind and geothermal energy would be new beginnings. Fossil fuels are a dead end. They're a dead end quite literally in being the means by which we are driving the planet toward environmental catastrophe. They are also the means by which we here in SLC are driving ourselves to death through pneumonia, asthma, heart disease, low birth weight, and autism. One in 79 Utah boys is born with autism, the leading suspected cause of which is environmental mercury. And the leading source of environmental mercury is coal. We don't need more of this fossil fuel monopoly. We need out of it, as Americans in 1776 needed out of England's mercantile monopoly.

Our true Minutemen are engineers like Arjun Makhijani, author of Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free, a roadmap for making America independent from fossil fuels and nuclear power by mid-century.

Our true Minutemen are companies like Nanosolar, creating next-generation solar cells that can be produced at a fraction of today's prices, making solar accessible to every American.

Our true Minutemen are citizens who belong to organizations like Salt Lake's own Post-Carbon Salt Lake, who make conservation the foundation for daily living.

Our true Minutemen are true conservatives. They value self-reliance and independence above all else. They see that there is no possible way for America to be energy-independent as long as we are dependent on fossil fuels. Under no realistic scenario can oil shale contribute meaningfully to America's independence from foreign oil and therefore foreign influence.

America's true energy Minutemen are those who are bold enough to tell foreign kings that we want to be rid of them. I want to be free of Saudi Arabia. I want to be free of Iran. I want to be free of Russia. I want to be free of the necessity, if such it is, of a major war in the Middle East every decade to ensure our access to oil. Oil shale will not give me this independence. Solar cells from Silicon Valley will. A viable electric car produced in Detroit will. Wind power produced here in Utah will.

Senator Hatch, I'm an energy Minuteman and you are one of the obstacles on my path to independence. It's time you got out of my way.

Ed Firmage, Jr. 

The full article, Toward Sustainable Living: Our Continuing Story, is a 46-page, 11.7 MB PDF file that takes a little over a minute to download. A high-speed Internet connection is strongly recommended.

Two smaller excerpts (1.4 and 1.3 MB) of the article are also available:

Recognizing the Hidden Costs of the Way We Live

Easy Ways to Save Energy