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I can’t think of a better time to pursue a life that’s simpler, richer and more fulfilling than right now.
Year-round NWEI helps you to experience the “Aha!” moments that change the way you live, work, create and consume. NWEI’s work to spark the conversations that create change, through our discussion courses and the EcoChallenge, wouldn’t be possible without your support.
As we reflect on the past year, and a year of inspiring stories of positive action relayed by our participants, we also give thanks for the donors who support our work. As a nonprofit, we rely on the support of the people for whom our work resonates. Perhaps you were inspired by a discussion course—recently or years ago– to take action to simplify your life. Maybe participating in the EcoChallenge launched a lasting new behavior to save water or energy, or choose more sustainable food options. Or, you might be one of the thousands of people each year who take part in a discussion course and find the inspiration to make changes at home or in your community to reduce your impact. Whatever your “NWEI story”, you are a valued member of our community. And, your support as a donor will go directly toward our efforts to create a simpler, richer, more sustainable future for us and generations to come.
Make your gift today knowing that your donation will be invested wisely. NWEI is a nonprofit with a strong volunteer base and small staff, and we work year-round to ensure that we’re having the greatest impact possible.
Every dollar truly does count. Thank you for your generosity today. On behalf of NWEI’s entire staff and Board of Directors, we wish you happy, healthy, joyful holidays.
With the holiday season upon us, I wanted to remind you that NWEI course books and memberships make wonderful gifts. Share the gift of simplicity with your loved ones, and wrap up a copy of NWEI’s newly revised Voluntary Simplicity book. Or, provide your friends and family with the information and inspiration to pursue sustainable food choices with a copy of our newest book, Hungry for Change.
To share NWEI’s mission and message with your dear ones year-round, an NWEI gift membership makes a perfect present. For $30 you can purchase a gift membership for a friend or family member, or for $45 purchase a gift membership package, which comes with the NWEI book of your choice (shipping is on us!).
Simplify your shopping and support NWEI in the process by ordering NWEI books and memberships for everyone on your list who’s interested in creating a life that’s simpler, richer and better!
To order gift membership packages (memberships+ a book) please call us at 503-227-2807 and reference the holiday gift membership package. Gift memberships and books can always be ordered separately on our website too: for gift memberships click here, and to order course books click here.
Happy Holidays!
Hungry for Change has arrived! Get your copy today!
Sometimes it can be overwhelming to consider how we can do the most good and the least harm wh
en it comes to what we eat. Until we got our own chickens, it took me at least five minutes to pick out which eggs to buy every time I went to the market. I’d try to figure out how to prioritize the qualities of affordable, organic, humane, local and healthy, and wonder what all the labels really meant.
You see, I think about the ethics of food quite a bit. If recycling was my entry point into taking responsibility for Earth, choosing to eat food that is better for the planet was my second step. I remember learning in my freshman year of college about the resources required to produce a serving of meat as opposed to a serving of grain (for example, it takes about 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat). From that moment on, I started eating less and less meat. Eventually, I became a (mostly) vegetarian for seven years, until I started eating meat again this February because of health reasons. My “going vegan” EcoChallenge the last two weeks has reminded me of the challenges and rewards of limiting my diet in order to live better for the whole planet.
While developing our new course Hungry for Change: Food, Ethics and Sustainability this summer, I was struck anew with how impactful our food choices are. I tend to think I know a lot about the impacts of our food choices because of my history of being a vegetarian, my background in sustainability education, and my residence in the foodie haven that is Portland, Oregon. But through Hungry for Change, I’ve been reminded of the complicated larger systems our food is entangled in. And I’ve been amazed at the new information daily made available, the challenging dilemmas that abound for conscientious eaters, and the myriad innovations that exist for positively changing our food system.
Each person comes to the intersection of food and sustainability for different reasons. For me, it was the environmental implications of what was on my plate. Maybe trying to live healthier brought you there. Maybe you’re concerned about your children’s future. Maybe you want to live with more independence and self-sufficiency. Maybe you just think organic and local food tastes better. Whatever the reason for your interest in food, Hungry for Change has something for you. Participating in a Hungry for Change discussion course will help you learn more about where your food comes from and the far-reaching impacts it has. The action plans and group project will help you invest that new learning in making change for good. And the opportunity to talk with others about food can lead to shared recipes, the planting of community gardens, or life-long friendship!
Consider organizing a Hungry for Change course in preparation for the upcoming food-filled holidays, and connect around food in a different way than you ever have before.
Our Fall EarthMatters newsletter is here, a little in advance of the change of seasons. In addition to the latest NWEI program news, inside you’ll find articles from:
- Scott Dodd, who writes for OnEarth Magazine
- Duncan Berry, a values-based business man, who also writes beautiful poetry about his place, the Oregon coast, and
- Barbara Duncan, a long-time NWEI volunteer and director of the Catamount Earth Institut
Inside, you’ll will also find all the latest details about the 2011 EcoChallenge. Join us from October 1-15, 2011 as we collectively prove that many people taking action adds up to real change!
Click here to download your electronic copy of the Fall EarthMatters newsletter.
Create positive change in your community and join the growing number of Certified Sustainable Building Advisors in the Country.
August 11, 2011 | Portland, OR
Free information session to register for the limited entry CSBA program, a national certificate program for building professionals approved by the American Institute of Architects.
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.
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!
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!
All this week, we’ve been focusing on reducing our use of plastics as part of our Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action.
We’ve talked about plastic bottles, those pesky plastic bags, and phthalates.
Well, today, we”re going to focus on reducing our packaging waste. According to EcoLife, containers and packaging make up over 30% of the average American’s trash bin, most of which is not recycled. And that packaging represents wasted resources such as petrochemicals, trees, chemicals, water as well as transport emissions – the heavier the product, the more greenhouse gas emissions emitted.
Here at NWEI, we focus on individual behavior change and small group learning through our discussion courses and in our EcoChallenge. So we’re challenging each of you to decrease the amount of plastic you use.
Today’s proposed action is: Consciously reduce the amount of products you buy that have excessive amounts of packaging.
How to reduce packaging waste
- Look for unpackaged consumer goods: Many companies have put in a lot of effort to reduce their packaging to zero. When the option is available, take it!
- Bring your own containers: Whether you’ll need a water refill while at the park or are looking for ways to take your restaurant leftovers home, you can reduce packaging waste by bringing your own reusable containers like glass water bottles, stainless steel coffee mugs, and collapsible food containers.
- Select products in refillable containers: Some personal care products and food items can be purchased in refillable containers like glass jars and reusable plastic bottles.
- Buy in bulk: Real bulk items are those in a single large container (refillable is even better) that holds many individual servings. Don’t confuse bulk with many individually-wrapped items bundled together in one large palette, though.
- Look for recycled packaging: Wrappers and boxes made from post-consumer recycled materials are definitely better than virgin-made packages, though this option should come only after you’ve looked for ways to reduce your packaging waste.
- Choose lightweight packaging: Minimal packaging is always the best and can significantly reduce the materials needed for packaging, the fuel needed to transport an item, and the energy needed to make it. Aluminum beer cans made with 12% less metal saved Coors 637 tons of aluminum.
- Seek out biodegradable packaging: This type of packaging is usually made of some sort of corn-based plastic that can be broken in a commercial composting facility (not your backyard compost pile) that reaches very high temperatures under just the right conditions.
**HERE’S THE BONUS ACTION OF THE DAY**
- Contact companies you support with your concerns: It’s not enough to merely avoid buying products with excessive amounts of packaging. As consumers, we need to communicate our decisions to companies in order to encourage them to significantly reduce the amount of packaging they use for their products.
This week, during our Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we’ve turned our focus to plastics.
Today, it’s all about the phthalates.
According to the Environmental Working Group, phthalates are a group of industrial chemicals used to make plastics like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) more flexible or resilient. Phthalates are also used as solvents and are nearly ubiquitous in modern society, found in, among other things, toys, food packaging, hoses, raincoats, shower curtains, vinyl flooring, wall coverings, lubricants, adhesives, detergents, nail polish, hair spray and shampoo.
Phthalates are known as “endocrine disruptors” because they mimic the body’s hormones and have, in laboratory animal tests, been shown to cause reproductive and neurological damage.
Here at NWEI, we focus on individual behavior change and small group learning through our discussion courses and in our EcoChallenge. So we’re challenging each of you to decrease the amount of plastics in your daily life.
Today’s proposed action is: Make your house phthalate-free.
Do a thorough sweep of your house — from your children’s toys and cosmetics to food packaging and shampoo — to minimize the phthalates in your house.
Phthalates aren’t often listed in an ingredients section, so here are some ways to identify them in your home:
- Read the ingredients. According to the organization Pollution in People, you can identify phthalates in some products by their chemical names, or abbreviations:
- DBP (di-n-butyl phthalate) and DEP (diethyl phthalate) are often found in personal care products, including nail polishes, deodorants, perfumes and cologne, aftershave lotions, shampoos, hair gels and hand lotions. (BzBP, see below, is also in some personal care products.)
- DEHP (di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate or Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate) is used in PVC plastics, including some medical devices.
- BzBP (benzylbutyl phthalate) is used in some flooring, car products and personal care products.
- DMP (dimethyl phthalate) is used in insect repellent and some plastics (as well as rocket propellant).
- Be wary of the term “fragrance,” which is used to denote a combination of compounds, possibly including phthalates.
- Choose plastics with the recycling code 1, 2 or 5. Recycling codes 3 and 7 are more likely to contain bisphenol A or phthalates.
This week, during our Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we’ve turned our focus to plastics.
Yesterday, we talked about the issues surrounding water bottles. Today, we’re focusing on plastic bags.
According to Environment Oregon, there are 100 million tons of plastic trash in the North Pacific concentrated by the ocean’s currents into a toxic soup 1000 miles off our coast where plastic outnumbers plankton 40-to-1. All this plastic pollution in our oceans poisons, strangles, starves, and suffocates millions of sea turtles, seabirds, whales, and fish every year.
For example, here in Oregon alone, we use 1.7 billion plastic checkout bags every year — that’s 500 per person! So many of those bags make their way into our ocean, onto our beaches, and into marine ecosystems. These bags are also notorious for clogging up the gears of recycling machines, creating constant mechanical problems at recycling stations.
Here at NWEI, we focus on individual behavior change and small group learning through our discussion courses and in our EcoChallenge. So we’re challenging each of you to decrease the amount of plastic you use.
Today’s proposed action is: Vow to always bring your own reusable shopping bag whenever you go shopping.
If you’re already doing this, give a reusable bag to a friend or neighbor to double your impact. My wife and I keep a few canvas bags in our car so that when we make those impromptu grocery shopping trips, we never have to use plastic bags.
Also, contact your local elected officials and urge them to ban the use of plastic bags in your community. Several states, including Oregon, are currently considering statewide bans on plastic bags. Make your voice heard!
During this week of Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, we turn our focus to plastics.
Take a look around — many of the items that we eat, drink, or use in any way come packaged in petroleum plastic. This plastic material is often designed to last forever, yet is commonly used for products that we use just once and then throw away. The effects of this throwaway mentality can be readily witnessed in our landfills and at our beaches that are being overrun with plastic packaging.
As the organization 5 Gyres points out:
“The short-term convenience of using and throwing away plastic products carries a very inconvenient long-term truth. These plastic water bottles, cups, utensils, electronics, toys, and gadgets we dispose of daily are rarely recycled in a closed loop. We currently recover only 5% of the plastics we produce. What happens to the rest of it? Roughly 50% is buried in landfills, some is remade into durable goods, and much of it remains “unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea.”
Here at NWEI, we focus on individual behavior change and small group learning through our discussion courses and in our EcoChallenge. So we’re challenging each of you to decrease the amount of plastic you use on a regular basis.
Today’s proposed action is: Reduce one piece of plastic that you use in your daily lives.
If you’re still using disposable water bottles, go get yourself a stainless steel water bottle. If you’ve got friends or family that are using water bottles once and then throwing them away, take this opportunity to talk to them about the long-term impacts of plastics.
Consider contacting your local elected officials and urge them to enact legislation that will decrease the amount of bottled water waste your community creates. This issue in particular is one in which individual communities can make a big difference, so contact your city council and county officials.
Ryan Harper
Deborah McNamara
Kerry Lyles
Mike Mercer
Lacy Cagle
Carolyn White
Rob Nathan
