December 2005
Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows
Edie Farwell, Beth Sawin, Andrew Jones, Don Seville, Phil Rice, Daniella Malin
The Fellows Program has given rise to both an emerging alumni program and a dedicated second class of Fellows. The eighteen new Fellows completed their second of four workshops at SI's neighboring Cobb Hill Cohousing community in October, (see Report). Mike Dupee said, "These tools are completely relevant and shockingly useful. In all honesty, I can't for the life of me understand why these tools are not taught more widely." Between workshops, Fellows engage in ongoing homework, peer coaching calls and onsite projects in which they apply tools from the training. Already many are seeing results: increased clarity and purpose, enhanced communication skills, greater success building coalitions and finding allies. Jennifer Sokolove, Program Officer with the Compton Foundation said, "The workshop pushed me to be explicit about how I want to interact with the world, which can let me see more clearly what I need to do next in order to change the pieces of that world I would like to change." With the second class is underway, the alumni Fellows continue to deepen their level of engagement. Two-thirds of the alumni convened at Cobb Hill for a reunion weekend in September. Afterwards, alumna Chris Page said, "We're on to something. This group is worth an ongoing investment by all of us into a continuing learning journey." The alumni communicate via email listserv, professional collaborations and monthly conference calls in which Fellows compare notes on how they use the training in their work, look for opportunities for synergies and offer and receive coaching.
Sustainable Food Laboratory
Hal Hamilton, Don Seville, Susie Sweitzer, Nancy Gabriel, Daniella Malin
The Sustainable Food Lab (SFL) is a unique collaboration of leaders from private corporations, NGOs, and public sector entities working to improve the global food system. The SFL team met recently in Costa Rica and defined their purpose as "generating profound new understandings among decision-makers of the future of food systems by creating living examples of that future through a learning journey experience." Food Lab members represent more than 50 organizations as diverse as General Mills, Oxfam and the European Commission. Since its founding meeting in June 2004 the Lab Team has grown from 30 to more than 70 leaders on three continents engaged in six specific initiatives to demonstrate how to redesign food supply so that people, planet and profit are well served. Those initiatives are:
- Building a business coalition for sustainable food
- Raising the floor on standards of production for large scale agricultural commodities
- Linking fresh local food to schools and hospitals year round
- Boosting the supply of responsibly harvested fish
- Framing “sustainable food” more compellingly
- Bringing Latin American small-scale sustainably produced farm products to global markets
The Sustainable Food Lab creates a safe space within which new, deep, open-minded and open-hearted connections can be made among leaders across food systems sectors. Arie van den Brand, former Member of the Dutch Parliament said, "When people talk about the Food Lab, they have twinkles in their eyes." In one project, a large retailer and cooperative of small farmers are working together; the retailer wants to figure out how to improve the livelihood of the small farmers, and the CEO of that retail firm recently commented, "When we finally meet our maker, this is what we'll be most proud of in our whole lives."
Strengthening the Capacity of the Public Health System to Address Diabetes
Andrew Jones, Don Seville, Susie Sweitzer
SI and the Center for Public Health Practice at Emory University have been hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta to support their nation-wide effort to reduce the burden of Type 2 diabetes in the U.S. The SI team has developed a system dynamics model and is now using it to work with the states of California, Minnesota, and Vermont to set goals and develop strategies for reducing the burden of diabetes.
Training Leaders in Systems Thinking Skills
Andrew Jones, Philip Rice
SI staff provided introductory sessions on systems thinking during this summer and fall including a half-day session for the new Fellows of the Switzer Foundation Fellowship Program at their annual meeting and one full-day systems thinking training for the Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI). This Kellogg funded initiative offers leadership development to upper-level leaders in higher education, government, and industry to prepare them to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.
Upcoming: After the success of last year's event, when 25 people from various fields and parts of the country convened to learn systems thinking skills, SI will be offering the second-annual public, two-day training, April 6-7, 2006 in Atlanta Georgia. The event will be hosted by Faith and the City, an area non-profit, and will draw together diverse leaders in all aspects of sustainability -- environmental, economic, social, health, etc. The curriculum will include causal mapping, stock-and-flow diagramming, and other systems tools.
Supporting Electrical Utilities to Address Global Climate Change
Don Seville, Andrew Jones
SI is working with Donella Meadows Fellow Christina Page at Rocky Mountain Institute to develop a system dynamics model that explores the strategic options available to a state as it sets goals for reducing emissions leading to global climate change. The model builds on previous work by the same team using a systems model to support electrical utilities as they design carbon emission management strategies.
Addressing Global Climate Change Misconceptions: Our Climate Ourselves
BethSawin
Our Climate Ourselves supports people educating themselves, their friends, neighbors, and co-workers about climate change by producing materials and ways of communicating about how the climate system works and the choices open to us for living within its limits. As we continue to test the materials we are concluding that this task requires attention to three areas: Understanding -- how does the climate system function? Choices -- what values and attitudes do we choose to adopt once we are confronted by the physical limits of the climate system? Experiments -- what can we do today that will teach us something about how to live consistently with our understanding and our values? A recent grant from the Hidden Leaf Foundation is helping to support development of the program.
Tools and Resources at SIDiana Wright
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Contact Information
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For Publications and the Donella Meadows Archives:
Diana Wright — dwright@sustainer.org
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For Green Building:
Susan Sweitzer — ssweitzer@sustainer.org
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Hal Hamilton — hhamilton@sustainer.org
For the Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program:
Edie Farwell — efarwell@sustainer.org
For groups facing a social or environmental problem and wanting to explore potential solutions using The Embedding Goals Framework:
Elizabeth Sawin — bethsawin@sustainer.org
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Susan Sweitzer — ssweitzer@sustainer.org
Dear Folks is a letter continuing Donella’s monthly tradition of reflections, news, articles, and professional and personal accounts of community, farm and Sustainability Institute happenings.
Opinion columns by Sustainability Institute staff can be read on-line. Several of the SI staff also sends out their own columns by email. If you would like to receive these periodic emails of opinion columns, please write to each author:
Elizabeth Sawin — bethsawin@sustainer.org
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