Baby of the Group - SB ’12 from a Millennial Perspective

As the youngest participant at SB’12, I had a unique millennial perspective. Yes, that includes being vivacious, altruistic, excited, and somewhat star-struck, but also particularly aware of the apathy of my generation and the cataclysm we’ll have to deal with (to put it lightly).  One of the most common icebreakers floating around the conference went something like “So how did YOU get involved in environmental sustainability?”  It’s one I had to answer frequently because of my overflowing enthusiasm and age, and a toughie because it’s somewhat of a mystery where my passion came from.

I grew up in Manhattan with parents who have always lived in NYC. They still believe that garbage can be thrown “away,” and on a recent trip home I discovered they had gotten rid of our recycling bin (I’m a failure…). They refused my bids to install a wormed compost bin under our sink, so I green-stormed my school instead – installing a composter on the terrace and imposing Meatless Monday, PowerDown hours, and Xlerators. The environmental blog I took on for my senior independent project led to Experts’ Opinions on Sustainability and Allan Clout Consulting (a social media consultancy) and catapulted me down a road of endless projects.  The more I learn, the more passionate I become - and that’s the cycle that leaves me bubbling with excitement when I meet others interested in sustainability and fizzing at conferences like SB.

Paradise Point view

As part of the first generation that won’t live longer than our parents, I acknowledge that we’re on a downward slope but am still optimistic that we can reverse the course with dramatic changes to business and policy.  I’m also a member of what I would call the ‘Hippie 2.0’ movement – a distinct subculture of the millennial generation deeply involved in social justice and grassroots organizing and enchanted by “the simple life” of our great-grandparents. We canvas, march, lobby, and organize; plant urban gardens and work on farms; and ­­­­­­­actually care. In general, we believe in the power of the constituent to affect change in policy and business but are all too familiar with the apathy of our “I don’t give a damn because I’m just too cool” contemporaries.

On the flip side, our generation has grown up with the word ‘sustainability’ actually in the dictionary.  Even though most aren’t actively involved in the environmental movement, I believe it registers via the osmosis method (the same concept behind the sleep-with-the-book-under-your-pillow trick).

Similarly, my generation has grown up embedded in social media – coming of age during the Crackberry, smart phone, and Facebook revolutions. I, particularly, believe in the power of social media to communicate, organize, and collaborate and am attune to its integral role in our lives (and I might just base my self-worth off my Klout score…@SaraBAllan). The information age that put a googol of facts and figures into cyberspace has led to web 2.0 that can actually make use of it. This is where our generation can come in handy – we created SM etiquette and understand better than anyone how to pull our friends in by making the tidbits of our life seem note-worthy.  Crossing over, we intuitively understand the best ways to use social media to engage customers, constituents, and especially the rest of our millennial generation. Two of the biggest themes at SB’12 were millennial engagement and social media best practices, and the Gen-Yers in the room had unique insights on both. 

        Although I do my best to remain realistic, I face a passion fueled by my altruistic vision.  I am optimistic about the effect corporate sustainability can have and the amount they’ll be willing to do because, although grassroots organizing is crucial, it can only provide the pressure through which businesses and government realize change.  So, unlike many of my hippie counterparts, I want to work in corporate sustainability. (This would be the star-struck part because almost every attendee of SB has my dream job….) For me, living the crunchy life isn’t enough – I want to go bigger – to the top of the chain that actually creates and shapes U.S. consumerism.

Paradise Point observation tower

      All of this has led to my specific passion for collaboration in the environmental movement that I believe is necessary to prevent our imminent doom (to draw from my emotions after getting through the first 50 pages of Eaarth). This is also why I was so set on traveling from Philadelphia to Sustainable Brands and was behind the co-create I pitched, called Spark[!]Box – a platform to facilitate project-based collaboration among small environmental organizations.  Moving forward, I will continue to develop SparkBox with the inspiration and empowerment I gained at SB’12.

 

            I do have to say…the party scene does almost rival that of college – good job staying young at heart!

Environmental Facebook

Credit

I've written a number of posts concerning collaboration. It's probably my biggest passion within the environmental movement. In fact, yesterday, during my Environmental Case Studies class, I was asked what my passion is within environmental sustainability. While other people mentioned sustainable food or energy, I just can't pick a topic that is most important. I believe that they are all almost equally important and need to be worked on by everyone. Most importantly, people need to be working on environmental issues in a collaborative manner. 

Collaborative sites have started to pop up, but none has had the type of interactive success that the general sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have had. Of course this is due in part to the more targeted audience of sustainability, but I would still like to see a more comprehensive site. Hopefully I will eventually be able to put together some such site, or witness its creation. This is, after all, about advancing the movement as quickly as possible, not about who gets credit for it. Components of my dream site would include:

1. Quora Factor - a component where members can ask questions and receive answers from professionals and then vote up and down each answer. Quora has been incredibly successful in my eyes in promoting interactive discussion
2. Klout Factor - This encourages users who receive positive feedback from the community and ranks members based on actual knowledge. This also deters spam and uneducated posting.
3. User Profiles / Facebook Factor - This would actually be more like about.me where users can link they other accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and company pages, and write a short about me.
4. Pinterest Factor - The boards on pinterest and Quora have also taken off, exposing people to interesting and cool pictures and articles. These boards could be linked to people's profiles.
5. Categories/Tags: No more than 10 categories or tags to organize information. When people are able to independently tag their material, organization becomes difficult and people who may be working on similar projects often don't realize it. Of course each category can be further subdivided. 
6. Events / Meetup Factor: The site Meetup.com has been incredibly successful in connecting people with similar interests and uniting them at physical events. This helps increase attendance and promotes networking.

Oh I wish I knew enough code to actually create this...

What else would you

Collaboration

When I started my blog, I didn’t really have a sense of direction. I knew I wanted to contribute something to the environmental blogosphere but wasn’t exactly sure where to start or what to focus on. As I wrote random articles and used social media to market my site, a pattern became evident: competition and isolation within the environmental movement rather than an atmosphere of collaboration. 

I encountered many experts at the events I was attending and blogging about, but as one speaker said, there were “silos of information with no conduits connecting them.” In order to make the biggest impact possible, people from all sectors need to be working together – sharing ideas and resources.  Rather than create just another blog among the thousands that focus on “going green,” I wanted to contribute a solution to the discontinuity I was witnessing.  I came up with Experts’ Opinions on Sustainability and asked bloggers from around the world to answer questions on sustainability. Combined we could harness our over 20,000 Twitter followers and multiple sites to really create a discussion. 

I’ve now begun to see a trend towards these uniting sites – The Urban Cnoversion, 2Degrees, EcoDesk, and other sites with multiple contributors.  I hope the environmental movement can continue in this direction to harness the incredible ideas and resources we have as a combined force. Collaboration within the environmental sustainability movement is really my passion and I hope to continue working on projects that help this sector in the coming year. 

Follow the Experts on Twitter

Jeffrey Davis - @EcoSnobberySux @JSDavis82
Edward Hall - @TedwardHall
Jin Kong - @rethinki3
Jessica Reeder - @JessicaReeder
Shane Shirley-Smith - @EnviroBooty
Brendan Seale - @BSeale
Sara Allan - @TheGreen_Blog

Fun Fact: Combined, we have a total following of 18,451!

Meet the Experts

The first question set of Experts' Opinions on Sustainability will be published tomorrow! Here is your first chance to get to know the experts.

Jeffrey Davis - Eco Snobbery Sucks

Jeffrey Davis is a blogger, writer, speaker, personal trainer, and web designer. In January 2007 he helped kick-start (and remains senior editor of) The Fun Times Guide to Living Green. In addition to being an avid Twitterer, he is the Green Tech and Green Business editor atGreenwala.com and writes for Mother Nature Network. He has also had work appear on Forbes.com. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Snobbery-Sucks.

Edward Hall - LightSource

Edward Hall is the Next Gen 2011 artist of the year, TEDxGotham speaker, and co-founder/CEO of LightSource. LightSource's vision is to "innovate the process by which we innovate." They do this by "transparently-engaging", "recursively-focusing",and "holistically-uniting" the core tools, practices and approaches that help people lead fulfilled and sustainable lives. Through the LightSource vision they built LightSource Co.; the openly-developed structure to support LightSourcing sustainable, creative, and practical collaboration. LightSource Co. Is a holistic, evolving, and open company that develops methods of LightSourcing positive human capabilities - focusing on sustainable, creative, and practical collaborations. They are building technical, social, and legal structures to support such collaborations. Their major collaborations are with 

AcaWiki, WindowFarms, OpenRTMS, and SarapisFoundation.  

Jin Kong - The Green Elephant

Jin was born in Lanzhou, a city of the Silk Road. He moved to Beijing at age five, then to Cincinnati at age eleven. After college, he served a tour in Iraq as a combat medic. Upon his honorable discharge from the US Army, he sought to continue his oath to protect and defend this great nation. He founded iCube to further his dreams of becoming a social entrepreneur.

Jin is a certified: Six Sigma Black Belt, PADI Rescue SCUBA Diver, Emergency Medical Tech (EMT). He is currently an evening law student at IU - Law in Indy. He and his fiancee, Lauren, with the help of their friends from around the world, launched The Green Elephant hoping to help make the world a little more sustainable. Jin is the founder, current publisher and editor of The Green Elephant.

Meris Michaels - Towards Better Health

Meris Michaels is creator and editor of two blogs focused on health and sustainability, Towards Better Health and Mieux Prevenir. She is an American currently living in Geneva, Switzerland and is a regular contributor to Geneva's main newspaper on topics of health and the environment. 

Jessica Reeder - Love and Trash

Jessica Reeder, also known as The Hun, is a blogger, DIYer, gardener, artist, and sustainability advocate. In 2008 she quit her job, got rid of most of her possessions, and backpacked across the United States to meet and work alongside farmers, sustainable builders and bike-wielding anarchists. When she returned from her two-year journey, Jessica founded LoveandTrash.comwith a cadre of compatriots. Love and Trash's mission is to provide positive inspiration and ideas for people who want to change their lives in even the smallest of ways. Love and Trashies believe that every action is a step to creating a better world, and that there's no right way to create change.

Shane Shirley-Smith - Environmental Booty

"I have a B.A. in Communications from MSU and my professional background is in business development, social media and medical sales. I have been married for almost 20 years and have three daughter ages 5, 10 and 14. After the birth of my first daughter, I found fulfillment in raising my family & volunteering. I was settled in life's daily routine. Then I experienced a life-threatening health crisis due to a reaction to aspartame. During my journey to wellness, I began searching for ways to provide myself and my family with safe consumables and began spreading the word to others. Through my website, www.EnvironmentalBooty.com, I offer consumer information, products and creative partnerships for a greener life and world. My goal is to help consumers and companies become aware of how their choices impact our health and the health of our environment. By providing a forum for open dialogue with consumers and suppliers, I believe that we are all creating a greener tomorrow."

Brendan Seale - The Interconnectedness of Things

Brendan specializes in strategic planning for sustainability, project management, communications design and delivery, group process facilitation, and learning design. He draws from each of these areas to lead organizations and groups to enact positive change toward a sustainable future. He has delivered customized lectures, workshops and short courses in Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands, and has led sustainability planning processes for a variety of organizations.

Brendan earned a Masters degree in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) fromBlekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden, authoring his thesis on educational design for the development of an interconnected worldview. He also holds a Combined Honours Bachelors degree in Communication Studies and Multimedia from McMaster University in Canada, where he specialized in culture change studies. Brendan has previously worked in corporate communications at a multinational mining company, and founded and operated a communications consultancy.

Bonnie Lane Webber - Grass-Roots Organization

Bonnie received her Masters in Nutrition from Columbia Teachers College in 1978. After graduating, she did nutrition counseling and ran a school lunch program, cooking food "from scratch" with as many ingredients as possible bought from local farmers' markets. During this time, she wrote "Bonnie's Nutrition Basics." 

In the late '80s Bonnie accepted the challenge of the NYC Department of Sanitation to design and carry out an experimental source separation recycling program in her upper eastside neighborhood. That experience led her to being part of the team writing NYC's Recycling Local Law 19. She helped initiate the law as one of the Sanitation Department's Community Educators on Manhattan's Upper East Side and was a member of the Solid Waste Advisory Board for many years.

13 years ago, Bonnie created and has since directed Grass-Roots, a neighborhood environmental education group hosting prominent guest speakers monthly and publishing a newsletter. Under Bonnie's leadership, Grass-Roots established the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) on the Upper East Side in the Carnegie Hill/Yorkville neighborhood.

Recently Bonnie combined her food and environment passions in co-producing a 15 minute animated video entitled The True Cost of Food.  

In addition to leading and participating the above programs, Bonnie also serves as co-chair of the Northeast Energy Conservation Committee, which is in the process of establishing joint initiatives between the Sierra Club and Habitat for Humanity to create housing that is completely energy self-sufficient.

Experts' Opinions on Sustainability

In the blogging process, I have found that the biggest issue is not something specific, but rather that there are so many experts working in isolation and competition instead of collaboration.  My first project to help environmental bloggers and readers connect is Experts' Opinions on Sustainability.  

This project was inspired by the McLaughlin Group Discussions started this year by gymnastics blogger Blythe Lawrence of The Examiner (her blog, Gymnastics Examiner). Thoughtful and knowledgeable bloggers from around the world were chosen to occasionally answer relevant questions. The bloggers then posted their results at a predetermined time. This simultaneous action helped bring together the entire gymnastics community to discuss one important question – it stimulated a discussion. And that is the goal of the project: to create an informed, multidimensional discussion among environmentalists.

I will moderate questions on topics of sustainability ranging from innovation to corporate social responsibility, public health, over-population, pollution, energy, politics, and resource depletion.

If you have questions you would like to propose or are an environmental blogger who would like to participate in the project please email me: ContactTheGreen@gmail.com.