A funny sort of trouble

Today at work I was researching the Vancouver Peace And Justice Fair, thinking my agency might do some outreach there. I printed something from the website but didn't retrieve it right away. My boss summoned me to his office and chided me for the printout, reminding me of our ethics rules and the ban on personal printing. Imagine his surprise when I told him it was for work! He asked if it were approved. No, said I, we are planning.
This amused me. But probably it shouldn't. Maybe the boss has it in for me, or has polarly opposed views.(yeah, who could oppose peace, love, and justice?)

So you think you know about sustainability?

Rude awakening for thine truly. I just found a survey from the International Society of Sustainability Professionals --the ISSP Sustainability Knowledge Competency Study. Thinking I was fairly knowledgable, I clicked to take the survey. Hoo boy.

Here are a bunch of events. I have some familiarity with some of them...
Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
Bruntland Commission/Our Common Future
Commission on Sustainable Development
Convention on Biological Diversity
Intergovernmental Forum on Forests
Kyoto Protocol
Limits to Growth/Club of Rome
Millennium Development Goals 2000
Montreal Protocol
Silent Spring/Rachel Carson

How are you doing so far?
Keep going....
UN Environment Programme
UN Forum on Forests
Vienna Convention for Protection of the Ozone Layer

Now, some organizations
AccountAbility
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)
Carbon Disclosure Project
Earth Policy Institute
Environmental Protection Agency
GEO-4
Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI)
Hadley Centre for Climate Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
International Society of Sustainability Professionals
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
World Business Council on Sustainable Development
World Resources Institute

Not through yet with humbling myself
Now for sustainability frameworks
Herman Daly's Triangle
Triple Bottom Line

Now for some principles
Adaptive management
Agenda 21
Caux Roundtable for Business
Ceres
Cradle to cradle
Earth Charter
Equator Principles
Hannover Pronciples
Melbourne Principles
Precautionary Principle
Talloires Declaration
UN Global Compact

Had enough? But wait! There's more!!
Practices and Protocols
AA1000
Closed loop recycling
Dematerialization
Design for environment
Ecological footprint
Environmental/Sustainability Management System/ISO14001
General Reporting Protocol
Global Reporting Initiative
Green Chemistry
Greenhouse gas protocol
Industrial ecology
Life Cycle Assessment
Life Cycle costing
New urbanism
Permaculture
Product stewardship/EPR (extended producer/product responsibility)
SA8000
Smart growth
Socially responsible investing

My humbling is not over but I am tired of tapping. So I'll continue layer with more stuff I think I should already know about.

Peace, y'all

Molly (the humbled)

If It Was My Home - Visualizing the BP Oil Spill

If It Was My Home - Visualizing the BP Oil Spill

Start wherever you are

That is one of the key messages I got at the low carbon diet training.

Climate change has begun. We must address it!

It will take at least 10 years to scale up renewable energies and new technologies. Conservation is available today. It's the low-hanging fruit. And when we are in a conservation mind frame, we are more inclined to embrace the new technologies that come along.

US citizens are 5% of the planet's population and use 25% of its resources. And we waste up to 75% of it through inefficiency and ignorance. Americans are a huge part of the problem--so we also can - and n
must - be big part of the solution.

We like to think we are the world's most innovative. Fine. (and no let hago and tend the garden).

Join me in reducing my carbonfootprint. I'll start where I am. Thee do likewise.

Peace, y'all

Molly

On reducing our carbon footprint

I said I would blog about it when I registered for the teletraining for the low carbon diet, so here goes.

I'm always looking for ways to build peace in the world, to make the world a better place, to form a more perfect union. A new way has opened. When one Seeks one can find. And I did.

A sweet convergence. I am my program's sustainability chair. By default, but nonetheless. The state legislature passed a law in 2008 or 2009 with specific goals for state agencies to reduce carbon and our governor charged my agency with showing other agencies how to go about it.

For Earth Day my agency rolled out a program they call 'Carbon Smart.' It has two parts -- greening our office by what we do there and how we get there. The other part is to reduce carbon at home. This hits us, so to speak, where we live.

I have a leading to lead carbon reduction teams.

More about this soon.

Read grist!!

Today I have been reading articles from the Daily Grist. Great stuff. Several times today I've thought "this is good, I should share it on my blog!"

Grist has several newsletters. Today I'm reading the weekly assortment. You should too.

Carbon reduction

I am on the verge of kicking off a low-carbon diet team at my office. Wish me luck!

Sustainability starts with me - phase 1

Sustainability is my present focus. At work I am the default, de facto lead for the team that is supposed to to some good with no impact on staff time. At home I am always looking for ways to walk more gently.

This leads me to right here. At home we bought a new, energy-efficient fridge. So new and clean, my husband doesn't want all those magnets and flyers to go on the new fridge. What to do with those things? One of these is a small poster from the E3 conference 2 years ago. E3 stands for economy, education, and environment. It illustrates the interconnectedness of what we do.

I quote:
it all comes down to personal choices--at work, school, or church, people must choose sustainable behavior. Imagine e3 as a wheel and the spokes carry messages (goals) out from the center (individual behavior). People may learn at school, work, or club, and bring that behavior home, changing their own behavior.

I am seeing this interconnectedness very clearly. Hope to harness it to amplify my peacemaking.

One day at a time

I seek to build peace all the time, nearly. I hope that each week I can point tosomething I have done and say "that builds peace in our [world] [town] [home]. Friday we made and served dinner for the Vista Youth Center.

Yesterday...hmmm...well, during the ton of shopping, we only collected one bag? That is something. And we patronized a small local business or two. Not a Red Letter Day for peacemaking, but I like to think I have ordered my life to be gentler and kinder to the planet. Sometimes big steps, sometimes smaller ones.

I hope to take some stronger strides soon. I'll need to call on my Inner Light to heed the call -- leading carbon reduction teams not just at work, but with my friends, family, neighbors, and--who knows?

Wherever you go, there you are

Deep down I feel like an Easterner, though I love my home in the West and am happy to live there. Yet when I am East I feel settled. Even though I don't know my way around, don't have all the connections. Something deeper. Why? Maybe it's sentimentality, since I grew up there (here). (the same way I scoff at my friend who has lived in my town for 35 years but still calls Kansas "home.") Or it is because I so miss having a meeting, and the East is teeming with them.

I don't have to make any decision today.

No matter where you go, there you are. So I will do what I can, where and when I can.

Peace, y'all

Molly

On guilt, graciousness and God

My password, one of my dozens, has the word Miracle in it and whenever I type it I wonder if one will become evident to me. I think I experienced a wee one two days ago. My mood was very fragile. After a weekend of mostly depression I was intensely hoping for some joy. Then I prayed the formal, thorough way I learned of in "the year of living biblically." The acronym ACTS stands for adoration, contrition, thanksgiving (my favorite part), and supplication. My prevailing supplication was to find joy and lose the funk. And a little while layer, I did!

About guilt--should I feel guilt over the carbon price of this trip to Pa and NJ? I don't think guilt is needed but mindfulness is. Thinking of how to mitigate our carbon for this trip, and think I'll find a few ways.
And the coworker who was challenging me over the carbon from this trip--that's my business, not hers.

I don't need toxic tips from people close to me.

Peace on a few levels. Peace in my heartthrough a funk- lifting prayer, peace in my soul by seeking and doing what I can to mitigate this trip, and peace in my house by keeping toxic people at arm's length.

Peace y'all, wherever you need it

Molly

On sharing what I receive

I receive tons of great information from Quaker sources and always think--I'll share that in the blog! And sometimes I actually do. But like so many of my great ideas, it clutters my life and surrounds me with one more "shoulda." I sure don't want more of those.

In a recent bulletin from Friends Committee on National Legislation, a (the?) Quaker lobby group in Washington DC, came a gem from Dr King: "coalitions of concience to close the gaps in broken community." These few words make a phrases that inspires me to keep sharing messasges and ideas, to keep living according to my faith and practice, to be a shining example of simple living and loving, to gently encourage others.

The broken community I see is the oil-addicted society and its members. When we can't do without our car, we are expressing that addiction.

The broken community is our now polarized partisan political system. My community received almost $2B in stimulus funding but our congressman voted against it. Guess what party he is in?

The broken community is the "us" and "them" culture, wherever we find it. I am ready to form a coalition of conscience with anyone, everyone. Any takers?

Peace, y'all

Molly

On Driving Less

I have deepened my faith and practice. I have decided to STOP driving to work until.... maybe a medical appt, or if I must be somewhere RIGHT after work.... I have bought a bus pass for the first time. The first 2.3 years of riding the bus, I didn't do it enough to make it less expensive than buying 10-ride books. Since the price of riding rose and I ran out of cheap 10-ride tickets (I stocked up before the price changed) I'm now in the ranks of bus pass users.

I hope to use the car way less. I'll measure this by frequency of fillups. This month will be light because we'll park the car while out of town. Putting miles on a rental car, alas.

I also hope the walking will help me improve my health and fitness.

I will gently encourage others to give up their cars. At least sometimes. How I'd love to get my husband onto the bus. Baby steps first.

Peace, y'all