Highlights of our program include:

Earth Education Institute, Earth education is the process of helping people of all ages live more harmoniously and joyously with the natural world. Learn about programs and activities developed by The Institute for Earth Education in an interactive workshop.

Tia Nelson, Executive Secretary, Board of Commissioners of Public Lands for the state of Wisconsin and daughter of former Senator and pioneering conservationist Gaylord Nelson will speak about Earth Day and Beyond.

Richard Kyte, Director of the D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership and Professor of Philosophy at Viterbo University in La Crosse will speak about Servant Leadership.

Lucy Slinger, Ph.D., Sustainability Degree Coordinator at Viterbo University, and Ecological Advocate of Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration will be facilitating an Awakening the Dreamer Workshop.

We will be offering continueing education credits for K-12 educators and people pursuing a teaching degree through the University of Wisconsin -LaCrosse. For more information, please click here.

Even though the deadline has past, we are still accepting scholarship applications on a first come first serve basis.

Please join us! Feel free to contact our office with questions: 503.227.2807.

Jubitz Family Foundation president Al Jubitz commented, “We’re highly concerned about climate change.  We want to do all we can to protect the planet and encourage a shift towards renewable energy.  For many years the Foundation has committed to a socially conscious investment strategy.  Divesting in carbon was a further step in aligning our investments with our mission.”

Bill McKibben, 350.org’s cofounder and inspiration behind Jubitz’s decision to divest, said, “It’s a remarkable and powerful thing when philanthropic generosity is coupled with a strong moral witness.  The Jubitz Family Foundation isn’t just doing good things with its money, it’s making sure its money is doing good things, too. What a model for others!”

The Jubitz Family Foundation was established in 2001 and is dedicated to children, the environment and peace.

Here are the details:

EcoChallenge Internship: July 1, 2013 – November 15, 2013

The EcoChallenge gives people the opportunity to change their life for good. For two weeks every October, we challenge people to change one habit for Earth.  They choose their challenge (water, energy, food, transportation or trash), we connect them with other EcoChallengers, and collectively we prove that small actions create real change. Visit vimeo.com/nwei to watch our short EcoChallenge videos to find out more.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our EcoChallenge Intern will help with a variety of tasks, and will have the opportunity to develop skills in a number of areas including:

*Working with our Development and Outreach Directors to conduct outreach to recruit EcoChallengers, coordinate raffle prizes and inspire participation in NWEI’s sustainability programs.

*Communicating goals and purpose of the EcoChallenge to participants and potential participants. Reaching out to businesses, green team leaders, sustainability coordinators and others who may have an interest in participating in the EcoChallenge.

*Assisting people who sign up for the EcoChallenge with logistics, including setting up profiles on the EcoChallenge website, disseminating materials and connecting via phone and email.

* Utilizing NWEI’s social networking sites to raise awareness about the EcoChallenge; assisting with other efforts to publicize the event as-needed.

* Helping to coordinate the EcoChallenge Launch Party.

* Project assistance, including data entry, follow up calls, editing, and pledge payment processing.
Skills required:

Candidates must be detailed-oriented, self-directed, and can manage multiple tasks at once. Individuals will need to keep to schedules and timelines; volunteer or work experience in the environmental, community organizing or communications fields preferred; editing and proofreading skills desirable; experience with social networking websites preferred.

Time Commitment:

10-20 hours per week. The ideal candidate will be able to intern from July 1 through November 15^th.  A schedule that works with both the candidate NWEI staff will be established before the internship begins.

Application Instructions:

Please submit a resume and a cover letter, which includes why you are interested in being our EcoChallenge Intern, and at least two references to rob@nwei.org.

- See more at: http://www.nwei.org/4124-2/#sthash.sF2MEii9.dpuf

Professor Richardson notes that “I have had good results with the Choices for Sustainable Living course book, and extremely positive feedback from the students. At the end of both semesters, I asked the students for their feedback about whether to keep the discussion course for future class offerings, and they have responded with unanimous support for keeping it.”

Professor Richardson conducted a pre- and post- measurement of students’ attitudes and values, measuring the impact of the Choices for Sustainable Living course. Students responded to questions about whether they take environmental issues more seriously after participating in the NWEI course. Survey questions addressed environmental quality, loss of biodiversity, climate change, limited natural resources, consumption, land use, waste and pollution. Most students took these issues more seriously after completing NWEI’s discussion course in class.

NWEI Executive Director and friends and neighbors prepare for his “bike move” in May

Even with the busy launch of NWEI’s new website and 20th anniversary celebration in May, NWEI’s Executive Director Mike Mercer found time to downsize into a smaller home, moving his belongings by bike! Several NWEI staffers turned out with bikes to help with the move, and the group of bikers managed to move most belongings by bike.

Bikers move Mike Mercer’s belongings from one Portland home to another in May – “Bike Move” underway!

I made some new friends, laughed my head off through the entire process and got much more moved by bike than I thought possible. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!”

If you haven’t yet, check out the “Our Model for Change” page on our new website and begin your community of change. What does a community of change look like? It starts with you, plus 8-12 of your peers!

NWEI’s new website highlights our “Model for Change” – and how to cross the “say-do gap”

You can also visit our “Where Change Happens” pages, with information on offering discussion courses on campus, in the workplace, in communities and organizations, or at centers of faith. Take a look and create your community of change today!

Our new homepage, featuring video resources and a new interactive map

Intel’s Bala Cadambi accepts Change for Good Award at NWEI’s 20th Anniversary Celebration

The NW Earth Institute is honored to name Intel Corporation as its first recipient of NWEI’s Change for Good Award. The Change for Good Award is given to an organization who in their own right has integrated sustainability principles into the core of their operations and, working in partnership with NWEI, has helped make our surrounding community a healthier, richer place to live.

As the number one purchaser of renewable energy credits in the US since 2008 (according to the EPA) and a strategic investor in renewable energy start-up companies, Intel is helping lead the development of the clean energy industry. An imperative that is closely linked to clean energy is to help make smart energy a global reality.

Over 200 attendees joined to celebrate NWEI’s 20 year history

More than 400 Intel employees around the world have participated in NWEI discussion courses. The local contingent of Intel employees are worthy of special recognition for their efforts, both internally and externally. Of special note, in 2011, 35 Intel volunteers took the NWEI discussion course program into 20 local high schools. In doing so, Intel employees created 20 more communities of change through a process of shared learning, shared stories and shared actions. This then rippled to each student’s family and friends, with the end result being small group’s reach rippling outward to touch and positively impact 4,500 people.

“We are honored to be the first recipient of the Change for Good award. Our relationship with the Northwest Earth Institute has informed our strategies to address sustainability issues within our operations and the communities in which we live and work.” – Michael Jacobson, Intel’s Director of Corporate Responsibility

Founders Earth Leadership Award Nominees and Recipients at the 20th Anniversary Celebration

Last week the Northwest Earth Institute celebrated its 20th Anniversary with a celebration in Portland, Oregon with over 220 people in attendance, including past and present board members, staff, community partners and discussion course organizers from throughout the region as well as the country. Barbara Duncan, of Fairlee, Vermont and Betty Shelley, of Portland, Oregon have been selected to receive the NW Earth Institute Founders Earth Leadership Award. They are the second recipients of this award, which was first conferred at NWEI’s 10th Anniversary Celebration in 2003.

Vermont’s Barbara Duncan receives one of two Founders Earth Leadership Awards at NWEI’s 20th Anniversary Celebration

The NWEI Founders Earth Leadership Award recognizes the contributions Dick and Jeanne Roy, founders of Northwest Earth Institute, have made to their community and the sustainability movement at large. The Award is bestowed upon those individuals who, using NWEI’s programs, have demonstrated leadership toward creating a thriving future for all. Peter Senge, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Sustainability at the MIT Sloan School of Management, says, “The essential characteristic of leadership is the capacity to make people believe they can change their future and that it is possible to alter the reality of today’s society.”  Recipients of the Founders Earth Leadership Award have demonstrated a high degree of effectiveness in creating communities of change.

The contributions of the Founders Earth Leadership Award winners reflect the NWEI model of change: regular citizens taking leadership to create an environment for shared learning, shared stories and shared action. NWEI is fortunate to have many leaders amongst its membership. At its 20th Anniversary Celebration, NWEI paid special tribute to award winners Barbara Duncan and Betty Shelly, whose contributions span nearly the entire 20 years of NWEI’s history.

Barbara might very well be considered a sustainability maven in Vermont and New Hampshire. She has worked with the Northwest Earth Institute community since the late 1990s and has worked tirelessly to begin courses via two nonprofit organizations she helped to create: the Vermont Earth Institute and Catamount Earth Institute. “I am honored and humbled to receive the Founders Earth Leadership Award. While the Vermont Earth Institute board and I were very excited by the quality of the discussion courses when we started offering them in 1999, we had no expectation of their (and our) power to build community and community leaders,” says Barbara. She has been an active community organizer, setting up NWEI courses in businesses, food co-ops, homes, libraries and also helping to set up a network of sustainability groups throughout the state of Vermont. By 2012 she played a role in starting over 600 NWEI courses and engaging some 6,000 people in Vermont and New Hampshire!

NWEI Executive Director Mike Mercer presents Betty Shelley with a Founders Earth Leadership Award

Some people do a great job of creating an example in their personal choices for others to emulate. Others set a very high standard in their public contributions to the sustainability movement.  Betty Shelley does both.

Betty has been an NWEI volunteer for nearly 20 years. In her role as a volunteer, she has been a key member of the curriculum committee for almost every discussion course NWEI has created or revised—a 150+ hour commitment for each course! Hearing the news of her selection, Betty said, “To say I am honored to receive this award is a great understatement– I treasure the impact NWEI has had on my life.  Through NWEI, I have been offered so much: the enlightening discussion courses and resulting conversations, a connection with a community of inspiring and good-hearted individuals, and a means to help the Earth.”  She and her husband Jon were so inspired by NWEI discussion courses that they have reduced their household trash to just one can per year since 2006. Betty also uses her knowledge and passion to inspire others to live a lighter impact lifestyle through waste reduction courses she hosts at NWEI’s office. Interest in her class continues to grow, and in March she taught three sessions simultaneously.  If there is a job that needs to be done and involves others, Betty can always be counted on to say yes and make sure it’s done well!

Congrats to NWEI’s Founders Earth Leadership Award Recipients, and thanks to all who joined us last week to celebrate NWEI’s 20 years of impact!

At NWEI, we believe the solution to many of Earth’s biggest challenges lies in the power of collective change: by taking action in our own lives and inspiring the people around us, each of us contributes to a world of impact. Over the last 20 years NWEI has helped nearly 145,000 people around the world make small steps that lead to big changes for our planet.

Today, on the day we celebrate NWEI’s 20th anniversary, we are launching new tools for you to create your community of change: a brand new website and online community EcoForum. All of our new tools make change even more social, fun and possible.  

NWEI’s new online platform will build a global network of people changing for good, connecting the many small communities around the globe who are using NWEI programs. This state-of-the-art online tool will expand opportunities for shared discovery and support.

Please visit our new website, explore our new course organizing support tools and share your stories of change and “aha!” moments today in our new EcoForum!