AfterWords

Autumn Martin, the head chocolatier at Theo Chocolate, is one the recipients of the Edmonds Community College Foundation’s 2008 Distinguished Alumni Awards.

I remember Autumn ’s passion for community supported agriculture, sustainable organic living, and farm to table cooking, the first time I talked to her when she was taking Culinary Arts classes at Edmonds Community College — her instructors said she was a student to watch. They were right. Autumn went on to work as the lead pastry chef at Canlis restaurant and then became the head chocolatier at Theo Chocolate, an organic and fair trade specialty chocolate factory in Fremont. Take the factory tour (or read the Theonista Blog ) and you’ll learn a lot about chocolate and organic cocoa beans and may well see Autumn at work making confections. If you’re a fan of the 3400 Phinney Coconut Curry or Bread & Chocolate bars (among many other confections - I just picked my favorites), then you know her work. It was fun reading about Autumn’s success in this 2006 article in The Seattle Times. And then she, and Theo Chocolate, continued to make news and win some of the top awards in chocolate and confection. Most recently, I saw Autumn featured in the October issue of Seattle’s Conscious Choice magazine. Along the way Autumn has remained committed to her passion for sustainability. She volunteered at Oxbow organic farm and earned a sustainable farm scholarship at Quillisascut Farm School from the Seattle Chapter of Chefs Collaborative, where she serves on the steering committee, and she has plans to start a non-profit organization called GreenForGood to provide education about food politics.

And that’s all I know about Distinguished Alumna Autumn so far, but I look forward to talking to her next week and finding out what she’s been up to lately. I’ll share any updates.

You can also meet Autumn at the Distinguished Alumni Awards reception 6:30 p.m., Thurs., Dec. 4 in the Black Box Theatre in Mukilteo Hall. RSVP by Nov. 26 to lorrie.gomes@edcc.edu or call 425.640.1512.

I apologize for not writing sooner, but by the time the third day was finished, I was so exhausted, I couldn’t do anything but veg! Then I had to travel back across the country, messing up my internal clock. Here I am about a week later:)

Due to transportation logistics (or lack therof), I wasn’t able to make the 4th keynote, Vandana Shiva, “Good Food for All: How University Campuses Can Lead a Transition to Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems.” Vandana is a founding board member of the International Forum on Globalization. She also founded her own foundation and is leading an International Campaign on Food Rights. She also founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technologyand Ecology.. She’s a busy lady, and I heard her talk was great! I’m hoping to see the video once the AASHE site has posted that.

The first panel I attended was “Building Sustainable Local and World Community: Vision for the 21st Century Community College” moderated by Stephen Mittelstet from Richland College. In October 2007, 16 community colleges gathered at Wingspread on Sustainability Vision Implementation Project. At the AACC (American Association for Community Colleges) conference in the spring, the SVIP team will issue a Call to Action for community colleges nationwide. At present count only 140 community colleges (out of about 1500-1600 AACC members) are signed on to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (Edmonds is a member!).

Next I went to a Campus-Industry Partnerships paper presentation, which was chock-full of information. Highlights:
1. What is needed in terms of technology/sustainability right now?

2. Calera Corporation has a process of making concrete from CO2 sequestration from power plants. They are partnering with schools such as Middle Tennessee University, which has a concrete industry management program (CIM).

3. There was a lot of talk that people who have technical skills coupled with sustainability knowledge were in high demand.

4. Northern Alberta Institute of Technology publishes an annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

5. B.C. Institute of Technology talked about how they have integrated sustainablity into their curriculum and programs at the School of Construction and the Environment, and indeed have adopted a Sustainability Framework from which to work. Because the school is active in natural resources and the built environment that they must be involved in sustainability.

6. Unfortunately I can’t remember the school now, but one school has agreed upon and published Sustainability Themes to Guide Action. Faculty, staff, and administrators can use these to guide curriculum development and operations at the college - similar to the framework.

The conference ended with a Government Plenary, “Higher Education, Sustainability, and the Political Landscape.” This was a very interesting discussion about how higher education and government can partner to promote and cultivate sustainability within communities. There is a national movement going on right now - some national activities: Campus Climate Challenge, Focus the Nation, and the National Teach-In associate with Focus the Nation. My favorite idea came from Debra Rowe, Presdident, U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. She talks about the need to create effective change agents within education and create positive scenarios for the future of society - students can : work in small, interdisciplinary groups to create a positive scenario, present their ideas, get groups to go out to local busineses, non-profits, and gov’t. who are trying to tackle real-world problems, work on solutions, create and participate in a Postitive Futures Fair. Getting students engaged in solving real-world problems is key!

Politically, we all need to be aware that carbon cap & trade legislation is impending. An important thing to lobby for is to get the gov’t. to auction off the credits (instad of grandfathering in certain industries). This goes back to what Van Jones was saying about making the polluters pay instead of paying them.

Other tidbits: congress passed the Higher Education Sustainability Act this past summer establishing a grant program for colleges, but is unlikely to get funded. We need to push for funding. The same is true in Washington State in terms of the Climate Action and Green Jobs Bill. A fund will be established and distributed thorugh the State Board for Technical and Community Colleges for training programs, but the bill is currently unfunded. We need to let out legislators know how important this is!

Okay, I think I’ve babbled enough. Thanks for your interest in the conference and the issue of sustainability.

As I reminisce the warmth of the sun from the past four-day trip for NACA West conference in Ontario California, I rediscovered my ongoing struggles with transitioning to a more sustainable lifestyle. The conference showcased musicians, comedians, and speakers to the west region campuses’ programmers to determine which entertainment to bring to their campus events and the prices are discounted through a block booking system. The leadership educational sections in this conference was informative and well taught by expert presenters.

Through this conference, I came to the realization that it is hard to stay on the path of sustainability once I step out of my daily structured routine. I attempted to recycle and reduce my waste by saving dirty recyclable containers in the hotel room to be washed only to be thrown away by housecleaning the next day. To satisfied my caffeine needs, I had to break my personal guidelines and lowered my standards as I ordered my first latte at Starbucks in months. With discomfort, I accepted my latte and acknowledge that this coffee mogul had also monopolized this area of Ontario.

This was my first conference that was supported by EdCC’s Office of Student Life in which I attended with a fresh pair of green eyes. It was nearly impossible for me to hold on to the urge of sorting through the waste bins as I watched individuals discard empty plastic bottled water and consumed energy cans. The green eyes I have developed through my journey of transition has given me a sixth sense that I cannot ignore. I could not suppress the discomfort and the disappointment in the amount of waste produced just for mere convenience. As I become flustered watching the unnecessary consumption, I reminded myself of my personal goal in saving the world from itself and the desperate need for an environmental revolution.

Web links:
Office of Student Life
OrganicConsumers.org (information on organic, shade grown, fair trade coffee)

The Sustainable Development Task Force of Snohmish County also provides some good info at their blog with updates about Snohomish County Green Drinks events and their Brown Bag Lunch Series. And they gave a shout out to AfterWords here.

Wow - a jam-packed and crazy day today!

First, Van Jones this morning. This guy is so inspirational, I get emotional every time he speaks (this is the third time I’ve seen him). Van Jones co-founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and recently authored, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems. He spoke of our “obligation to make history.” Since the floor dropped out of the economy, and President-Elect Obama broke the political ceiling, we have the choice now to “fall or fly.” He talked about the fundamental flaw in our economics: our system is based on boundless resources and few people, but actually, we now find ourselves in the opposite situation: too few resources and too many people. He described our current functioning economy as one based on:

1. consumption not production
2. debt and not based on smart savings and thrift
3. destruction and not restoration

We need three world-historic achievements to change this nation:

1. put a price on carbon, i.e. “stop paying the polluters and make the polluters pay.”
2. retrofit America, i.e. weatherizing, energy efficiency. Create new jobs, increase values of homes, decrease carbon, decrease asthma rates.
3. repower America, i.e. use the plain states for wind and the sun belt for solar - connect clean energy production centers to population centers.

It’s time for us to “invent, invest, and include.” It’s our turn now!

After Van Jones’ address, I went to several sessions listening to what other folks are doing around the country. Some highlights:

1. Elon University created the Faculty Sustainability Scholars Programs to support the integration of sustainability into curriculum. There is an application process. Chosen faculty are provided with resources and assistance and $1000 stipend to go through a year-long process. Some faculty provided examples of what they did during the program.
2. Antioch New England defined social justice as inclusive of sustainability and recently completed a social justice audit.
3. Pomona College recently completed a sustainability audit using a collaborative approach with a staff liaison, consultant, and team of six students.
4. Harvard has an amazing sustainability program to help create “deep institutional transformation,” according to Leith Sharp an initiator of the Green Campus Initiative. She talked about some challenges sustainability practitioners face today. We need to employ a systems-approach and manage stakeholder complexity. We have to work to bring stability to the process of change so we can institutionalize a capacity for change and reduce fears when people are faced with change. We need to focus on building and maintaining trust-based relationships. She also emphasized using life-cycle costing in all areas of project development, but especially to bridge gaps between operating and capital funds (when building).
5. An organization called Clean Air Cool Planet has developed a tool for campuses called the “Campus Carbon Calculator Version 6.0″ One area that is not being measured is the impact of food production/transport in regards to dining services. Apparently, this part of the food supply chain accounts for 1/3 of carbon emissions worldwide, and more campuses are seeing a need to incorporate this in their measurements. Clean Air Cool Planet teamed up with Johns Hopkins to develop a FOODprint tool to add to their calculator.

Enough - so much here and so much going on! The night ended with a keynote from Peter Senge, an MIT lecturer in the field of system design and management. He is founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning. He co-authored the recently-released book, The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World. He talked about sustainability in terms of healthy communities. He asserted that we are still living in the machine age with mechanized education systems as well as mechanistic ways of thinking and being. He quoted W. Edwards Deming, “Our prevailing system of management is destroying our people,” and according to Deming, management by objectives is at fault. The primary school education system was modeled after an assembly line when it was developed. The two main values of a good assembly line: conformity and productivity. There is one problem: nature has so much variety. The “nature” in us is coming out in our drive to be “who we are,” something central and core to each of us that is unique. This conflicts with mechanistic thinking. He wrapped up by saying this collision of environmental, cultural, and social issues is “about the ending of an age.” “It’s about us: how we think and how we interact.”

The very long, yet inspiring day ended with AASHE announcing their (with several other organizations) important work in coming up with a new carbon offset protocol to help colleges navigate the complex carbon market.

Whew! Sorry for the long post - more tomorrow!
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