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We know that change can be tough. That’s why each fall the NWEI EcoChallenge makes it easy to recommit to your eco-friendly lifestyle and take your eco-consciousness to the next level.
The EcoChallenge is an opportunity to change your life for good. You pick a category—water, trash, energy, food or transportation—and set a goal that stretches your comfort zone and makes a difference for you and the planet. The possibilities are endless and the collective impact is impressive.
Rich parked his car for two weeks. Mark went on a 100-mile diet. Carrie cut her family’s trash by 80%. Steve set up a grey water system and saved 150 gallons of water. Over the course of the two-week EcoChallenge the car miles converted to alternative transportation, waste diverted from our landfills, energy and water saved, and food sourced sustainably adds up to substantial impact. But the impact doesn’t stop on October 15th when the EcoChallenge concludes because if you can stick with a new behavior for 14 days in a row, you’re a lot more likely to keep it up forever.
And that’s the exactly kind of change we’re looking to inspire!
The EcoChallenge is still 3 months away, but it’s the perfect time to start considering your next eco move. This October, we challenge you to choose one action to reduce your environmental impact and stick with it for two weeks.
Stay tuned for more information, stories from past EcoChallengers, and registration details coming this summer.
Today’s post is a guest post by Gregory Zimmerman, a Biology professor at Lake Superior State University.
According to us boomers, we invented everything. If we didn’t invent it, we popularized it. Following the natural progression of the generations, now the millennials think that they invented everything. Only, here’s the thing– some of what we (boomers and millennials alike) invented may not be real. There’s a long list of physical, mental and social maladies unverified by social or natural science. In the words of 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon, “is that really a thing?” Which brings me to today’s question: is sense of place “really a thing”?
Sense of place has been getting a lot of attention lately—from conservation types, artists, authors, architects, city planners, public health professionals and others. This has led me to wonder what elevated the construct of Place, and what societal influences are triggering the conversations about a “sense of place”.
Does a desire for a sense of place come from a resistance to the inexorable growth of suburban development and its homogenizing influence? Is sense of place in the news now because planners want to capitalize on it? Is sense of place on our minds now because we are able think of the land differently, as something to appreciate, not something to master?
It’s easier to appreciate woodlands if your livelihood doesn’t depend directly on the board feet of lumber they can produce. As we move farther away from land-based economies, the land is increasingly seen as resource for more than just extracting commodities. The history of organized place-based conservation movements shows us that the debates between appreciations of place versus economic exploitation are not new. Conservationists in the late 1800s and early 1900s were seen as outsiders who could afford their romantic notions but didn’t understand economic reality. The sagebrush rebellion echoed the same sentiments in the 1970s. In my region, a new mine and a wood technology plant are currently reinvigorating the age old debate of money now or greater, but less tangible, value later?
Perhaps a sense of place represents a desire to return to something we used to have, when more of us were tied closer to the land? After extensive conversations with my grandparents and grandparents-in-law, who were born in the late 1800s, from what I could tell, they had a sense of place but it was not today’s sense of place.
They were connected to the land and seasons. Much of that connection was grounded in making a living off the place in which they were born. Years ago I was traveling with one of the grandmothers in my family, through what to me was absolutely gorgeous country — a wide sweeping river valley in the northern Great Plains. When I commented on the sheer beauty of the landscape, grandma replied, ‘I wouldn’t give anything for it, the land doesn’t look like you could grow anything on it at all.’
My grandparents had a strong “sense of place”, but would not have used those words to describe it. I heard them speak thoughtfully of the land, its natural history and their history on that land. As far as I know, my grandparents didn’t read Wallace Stegner, but they knew their place in the world. They knew of its beauty, and of its challenges. They were attuned to natural cycles. Sense of place runs deep if you’re living in the place where your forbearers lived and were buried.
I don’t think what we mean today when we say “sense of place” is quite the same as the connection that my grandparents held to their place. I don’t think those currently interested in discovering their sense of place are necessarily trying to recapture something we, as a culture, used to have and lost. But, yes, sense of place “really is a thing.” It seems to me, what we mean now by sense of place is an evolution of our natural desire to be connected, to each other and our environment–whether a natural or built environment.
Gregory Zimmerman is a Biology professor at Lake Superior State University in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. He serves on the Binational Public Advisory Council for the St. Marys River Area of Concern, and other local boards related to environmental protection. This essay was adapted from a post on his blog, www.know-your-place.blogspot.com
Today we have a guest post for you from Bill Gerlach who blogs at The New Pursuit. Many thanks to Bill for sharing his writings on living deeply with us.
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world…as in being able to remake ourselves.” – Gandhi
The more you look around the more you see a movement underway. The status quo is being challenged from every angle.
People are feeling a subtle yet constant tug – like an eager toddler at your legs – that something is awry in their life and the life of the world. Many have put their hopes in material happiness. Yet now, those same people are seeking a new balance in their lives; abandoning the pursuit of ‘more’ that consumerism has pushed upon us and the resulting disconnect with the natural world it has fostered.
For me, deep living represents the convergence of three major pillars of our existence:
- LIFE // From the literal breathing, eating, moving kind to the qualitative how-we-spend-our-time kind, Life is the basis on which we all connect, experience and hopefully thrive.
- NATURE // This is the living world around us. The eco-sphere. The amazing manifestation of creation without which we would be unable to survive.
- BEING // The sentient-self. The essence of who we are, expressed both internally and externally. The ability to recognize such qualities in other life forms.
This is just my definition though. What I call “deep living” you may call something else. It’s not about the label, rather how we each approach the call to get more out of this one and only life. Some aspects or elements may be more important to you than they are to me. That’s OK. It’s more about the end, not so much the differences between the means.
What IS critical though is how we approach this deep living as we go about our day-to-day. It is a way of being more than a to-do list. In my mind, when you live deeply, deliberately and with intent you:
- Strive towards a minimalist lifestyle, shedding the unnecessary and embracing what remains
- Are one with Nature, not apart or above it
- Allow mindfulness to bring the present moment into focus
- Live by example and share this insight with others, especially children
Let’s be clear: This is a journey that takes time and patience. It is not an overnight wonder pill that we pop to clear the ailments of our personal and collective situation. For me, I am still a beginner navigating the ups and downs of this path. Each day brings new opportunity and new perspectives; new awareness of short-comings and new lessons learned. I don’t know all the answers and probably never will.
The effort is well worth it though! For all of us there are immediate tangible benefits to living deeply:
- You are not bogged down by unnecessary possessions and thoughts
- You are outside more, appreciating the awesomeness of nature
- You enjoy all that the present moment has to offer
- You find common ground with others
- You enrich the lives of children around you
But think of what could happen if such a shift in how we live happened on an even grander scale:
- A re-balancing of humanity with the natural world around us
- A re-awakening to the sacredness of all life
- A passion for the pursuit of that which brings each of us true happiness
- An embracing of harmony rather than the sewing of discord
Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic. You know what? I’m OK with that. When more and more people think big like this the exponential power of focused intention starts to take over. Momentum builds—albeit slowly at first—and before long, we start to see the fruits of our happy ‘labor’.
Bill Gerlach is freelance writer, blogger and public speaker exploring the intersections of Life, Nature, Being and Community. He lives in Rhode Island with his family, gardens and other simple joys. You can read more of Bill’s writing at: www.thenewpursuit.com.
If you are a NW Natural gas customer, please keep reading. If not, feel free to skip the rest of this friendly message.
NW Natural is running a promotional campaign to enlist customers in paperless billing–which is great in and of itself because it’s less mail for you to deal with and less paper making its way into the recycling bin. But to make things even more exciting, they are offering $25,000 to a small group of local nonprofits–every paperless billing customer gets to vote for the organization of their choice. This is where you come in–NWEI is one of the four nonprofits who will benefit from the campaign, and we need your votes.
If you are already a paperless customer, that’s great–just log in to your account and then vote (this link takes you straight to the campaign webpage too). If you are not already a subscriber, follow the link and enroll today to cast your vote.
This is an easy way to support NWEI, and reduce the clutter on your kitchen counter in the process. To sweeten the deal, we’re also raffling off a copy of the newly revised Voluntary Simplicity book and a $25 Portland Nursery gift card–just email us (staff at nwei dot org) and let us know you voted and we’ll enter you into the raffle. The campaign runs through June 30, 2011 but don’t delay- cast your vote today.
2011 350 HOME & GARDEN CHALLENGE: *Go Grey* from TINBIKE on Vimeo.
As you may have seen on our blog last week, NWEI is partnering with Transition US and 350.org to get people involved in this weekend’s Home and Garden Challenge!
Already, over 700 people around the US are signed up to take action in their communities. Organizing a Home & Garden Challenge in your town (or city, village, county, parish, island) not only helps raise awareness and continue to build local resiliency, it offers an opportunity for citizens to be a part of something much larger. This is the perfect opportunity for communities across the country to come together on a single weekend and show their solidarity.
Let’s get some NWEI folks on the map! Learn more about signing up and taking action here.
NWEI is searching for a dynamic, proactive, self-starter to lead our Outreach efforts.
The new position, Director of Outreach and Technology, is an integral position for NWEI. As having “Technology” in the title suggests, in addition to finding a candidate who is comfortable with new and existing outreach, we’re looking for someone with who has skills to work our database (Salesforce), update our website (Plone is our CMS) and generally knows their way around a computer (PC based office).
The ideal candidate will have experience with outreach, as well as interest in sustainability issues and a personal commitment to living lightly on the planet. We are a small team, and are looking for another team-player to join us here at our office in inner Southeast Portland. If you, or someone you know, is interested in the job, please send a cover letter, resume and short writing sample to NWEI by emailing contact@nwei.org with “Director of Outreach” in the subject line. The application deadline is Thursday, May 5th, 2011 at 5pm.
Today’s proposed action is: advocate for a food issue you care about. Write a letter, call a representative, meet with your legislator, or engage your community– and make your voice heard!
As we near the end of the month, we hope that our Month of Action inspired you to take on at least a few personal eco-challenges, and today we turn to the “next step” of advocating for change. In a world that can feel overwhelming at times, making your voice heard can be incredibly empowering. Today we encourage you to pick an issue–or issues!–that matter to you, and take the next step to become an advocate for change.
Whether your personal issue of choice is school food offerings, food access for all, GMOs, or organics, today is the day to take a few minutes and advocate for change. For more ideas on how to get started with letter writing advocacy or contacting your legislator, the California Food Policy Advocates is an excellent resource (and the info can easily be extrapolated to your state too). Another way to get involved in your local food system is to find out if your area has a food policy council.
Let us know what you choose to speak up about too!
Today’s proposed action is: Eat lower on the food chain today–by eating a vegetarian or vegan diet over the course of the day. And consider making it a weekly tradition!
Today we turn to an issue that never ceases to spark debate, the impact of the meat industry. The following table via Lloyd Alter of Treehugger is a good visual of the fact that meat products are more intensive to produce.
With “roughly twenty-five times more energy required to produce one calorie of beef than to produce one calorie of corn for human consumption” there is reason to consider at least a partially vegetarian diet.
For those who are already eating a completely vegetarian diet, the next step perhaps is eliminating dairy part of the time.
You may have heard of the Meatless Mondays movement, made popular most recently by Oprah. Check out the website for more on the health and environmental benefits of moderating meat consumption, as well as recipes to try.
And let us know how your Meatless Wednesday goes today!
Continuing along the path of sustainable eating, we turn our attention to the processing and packaging of food. Over the course of the last century, the food we eat has taken on many new forms. Food has shown up in the stores in increasing layers of packaging with more and more energy used to both process and package what we eat.
Today’s proposed action is: Consume only unprocessed foods today in order to cut down on the energy used to process and package; and, similar to what you focused on a few weeks ago when we addressed plastics: avoid items that are heavily packaged.
The issues surrounding processed foods are two-fold: processed foods are more resource-intensive to manufacture, and they are sold to us in more layers of packaging. Think about a typical frozen dinner, even an organic relatively healthy meal will generally be packaged in plastic and then inside a plastic-coated paper box. In addition to being healthier for you, unprocessed foods are more often available in bulk, which means less packaging (or none if you bring your own containers).
Currently, Americans spend 90% of their food budget on processed foods! Today, we propose getting back to basics with the foods we eat–and eating simply, for the health benefits and for the planet!
This is the final week of our Month of Action, and we’ve saved one of the most interesting, and complicated, issues for last: food. Three years ago the NWEI community started talking about and acting on sustainable food issues, with our Menu for the Future program. Since then the conversation has moved into the mainstream media– with movies like Food, Inc., Ingredients, and Fresh calling attention to the realities of our industrial food systems.
The food systems that we depend on are inextricably linked to fossil fuel consumption. From beginning to end, our food system uses energy–every step from growing practices (generation of fertilizers and pesticides, for example), to food storage, to transporting edibles depends on fuel. And right now, 85% of the energy used in the United States is generated by fossil fuels. While we’re hopeful that alternative fuel sources will be part of the solution (think hybrid trucks transporting goods) and that organic farming will play a role (organic farming practices eliminate the need for artificial fertilizers and pesticides, which currently account for 40% of the energy used in the food system!), we’re also of the mind that we, as consumers, have a very big role to play in making the shift to a lower impact food system.
This week we’ll propose actions you can take in order to eat a “low energy diet” (and don’t worry we’re not talking about a “diet” in the traditional sacrificial sense of the word). Over the course of the next few days, we’ll focus on ways you can act, eat and garden your way toward a more sustainable food future.
Today’s action is: Vote with your food dollars.
We encourage you to adopt the mindset of “voting with your food dollars” when you grocery shop and eat out. Casting your vote for local foods is a simple way to immediately support a lower-impact food system. The math is simple: the fewer miles your meals travel to you, the less fuel required. If you make a trip to a grocer or restaurant today focus on local options–and if you’re unsure which options are local, ask!
If you’re not shopping or eating out today, consider doing some research on locally owned grocery stores, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in your area, and local farmers markets, so you’re prepared the next time you need to go shopping.
This is also the perfect time to plant a spring garden–and come summer you’ll be eating super locally.
And if you’re already eating a locally focused diet, then consider taking the next step and becoming an advocate for change. Reach out to a friend or family member to encourage them!
For all our friends in the Tigard, Oregon area: the Tigard Whole Foods is featuring us as one of their “Change for Change” organizations from now through Earth Day. If you’re shopping at the store and bring your own bags you can direct your bag refund to NWEI. A nickel is donated to us for every reusable bag! It’s a quick and easy way to support NWEI. 
The winter edition of our print newsletter, also titled EarthMatters, is here. Click the icon to download an electronic copy of our newsletter. Inside you’ll find the powerful “Beyond Oil: Nature and Adaptation” piece by David Gessner, information about our upcoming 2011 conference, and much more. We hope you enjoy this edition of EarthMatters!
The holiday season is upon us again. The holiday season is a two-sided coin for many people–on the one hand, there are family traditions we look forward to, favorite holiday songs that instill cheer every time we hear them, and fun parties and social events that are a time to share with friends and family. On the flip side of the coin, there is the pressure to bestow gifts upon friends and family, commercial pressures, busy stores and holiday crowds to contend with, and the inevitable holiday rush–it can be enough to make anyone question their holiday spirit at times.
It doesn’t have to be this way though–we can opt out of commercialized, materialistic holidays and commit to a simplified holiday season. What would a simplified holiday season look like? Well, it will look a little different for everyone–but it doesn’t have to mean holidays devoid of gift-giving or tradition. There are many ways to instill some “voluntary simplicity” in your celebrations, and in the process take back some of your precious time, money and energy (not to mention lessening your impact on our environment).
Here are a few ideas to consider if you, like many other people, are looking for ways to simplify gift giving this holiday season:
Simple Gift Giving:
Consider giving homemade gifts–everything from canned goods to baked items to meals that can be easily frozen and cooked later make excellent gifts, and you can use the time you’re saving by avoiding the time-consuming shopping process to create your homemade presents. Some of our favorite homemade gift ideas include: family recipe books adorned with family photos, homemade jams and salsas, and homemade soaps and candles.
Give gifts of time–if you have a skill to share, consider offering it as a gift to a friend or family member (perhaps create a little coupon book that can be wrapped); offer your babysitting, pet-sitting or house-sitting services; or help someone green their home by offering to help them set up a compost system or rain barrels.
Experience gifts–instead of giving material gifts, consider giving your loved ones “experience gifts” like theater or concert tickets or an annual membership to a museum so that they can check out exhibits for the entire year. Restaurant gift certificates are another great idea too–perhaps treat your loved ones to a meal they’ll remember long after the holidays.
Charitable gifts– many organizations (including NWEI) offer gift memberships, or the opportunity to donate in honor of a friend or family member. Consider making a donation to an organization as a gift for a loved one this year.
Further reading:
If you’d like to learn more about voluntary simplicity check out NWEI’s Voluntary Simplicity program. For an entire book on simplifying the holidays (Christmas specifically but many of the suggestions can be carried over to other holidays too), check out Simplify Your Christmas by Elaine St. James. For info on simplifying the holidays with kids, check out this blog post from PBS.
Add your suggestions to the comments:
If you have ideas to share on how you have successfully simplified the holidays, we’d love to hear them! Add your suggestions to the comments, or join the discussion our our Facebook page.
After much hemming and hawing about what to take on for my EcoChallenge this year, I settled on a combo approach. I set out to eradicate my plastic “consumption” and to reduce our household energy use.
The no-plastics challenge was inspired by recent efforts to reduce our household garbage—and the resulting realization that many things that we were throwing away were hard to recycle or non-recyclable plastics. I went into the EcoChallenge knowing that a hard-line “I will not purchase plastics” approach was not very sustainable for the long term, but during the two week event I realized that there were some simple changes I could make that were sustainable.
A month after the EcoChallenge here are the changes that have become the new norm for me:
1) I started a grocery shopping “kit” that contains jars and bags to reuse for the bulk bin (I’m still not ready to dive into washable bulk bin bags yet—since it’s one more purchase to make and one more thing to manage). It was simple to throw together with things I already had, and I’m generally good about remembering my reusable bags, so now I just grab one more bag and I can leave the store with fewer plastics to throw away or recycle.
2) I am much more aware of packaging. In addition to being easier on the planet, buying items in bulk results in time savings—less recycling to sort, and fewer trips from the kitchen recycling bin out to the bin at the curb. Lately our lives have seemed very full, and every little place I can cut a corner and “buy some time” is welcome.
3) Eating on the go is a major source of waste and plastics, so I’m trying to make very conscious decisions around where and when I buy meals and snacks on the go. I run a lot, which means I eat a lot, and the amount of plastic that grabbing lunch or snacks on the go results in was one of the more eye-opening aspects of the EcoChallenge for me. Since many places won’t let you bring your own container for to-go items, I have been planning ahead more—and choosing food options that don’t entail containers whenever possible.
While plastics were my primary focus, I also set out to find ways we could cut our household energy use, both during the EcoChallenge and beyond. My husband installed an energy monitoring system, which made it very easy to see our energy consumption in real time. We established our baseline energy levels during the first week of the EcoChallenge and then starting making adjustments to reduce our energy use wherever possible.
The changes that we’re sticking with include:
1) Our dryer is the main energy sucking appliance in our house, and I’m still struggling with the dilemma of replacing our very inefficient—but still very functional—dryer with a super-efficient one. For now, I have recommitted to air drying as many of our clothes as we can—it takes longer for sure, but having the instant knowledge (provided by the real time energy monitor displays our kwh usage) that we’re keeping our energy use at a very low level has inspired me to keep this up. Now if only I could convince the kitten to stop pulling all the clothes off the drying rack, thereby requiring that I hang them all up multiple times…
2) Our energy meter made it very clear that our energy use was quite high when our basement lights were on—which turned out to be because we have five bulbs down there. Unscrewing two of the bulbs made very little difference in the lighting and reduced the energy use.
3) Power strips make it very easy to take care of “phantom energy use”—or the energy that continues to pull when items are plugged in but turned off. We put a power strip in most rooms, and can quickly cut the power off.
On the surface, none of the changes I’ve proposed seem very radical, but cumulatively they move our consumption levels down a notch, which is exactly what I was hoping. I was hoping to finish the EcoChallenge up feeling like we had a few new eco-friendly practices in place, and to identify some habits that we’d be able to sustain over time.
After last year’s EcoChallenge, when we took on the 100 mile diet, and for two weeks ate nothing that didn’t originate in Oregon, save for olive oil and salt, we added three chickens to our family. I knew that our changes this year wouldn’t be quite that dramatic (or demanding), but I finished the EcoChallenge feeling just as inspired. Taking on the EcoChallenge with so many members of the NWEI community makes me very grateful for the passionate and committed NWEI volunteers and staff!
(Sidenote: The photo of the energy monitor was taken shortly after we installed it–the top number is our baseline for both of us being home on a weekend morning, but sadly the bottom number is not accurate–the bottom shows the daily average, and since it was day 1 with the monitor this reading is off. We’re averaging around 5-6 kwh/day, with gas heat and a gas stove.)
Ryan Harper
Deborah McNamara
Kerry Lyles
Mike Mercer
Lacy Cagle
Carolyn White
Rob Nathan
