Your opportunity to protect Organic

When people ask me for one simple thing they can do to protect the environment. I tell them to buy organic when possible.  This is one of the easier choices people can make for many reasons.
Organic has a certification system behind it, so when you go to the grocery store you can see that it is labeled organic and see which company certified it. So there is trust in that supply chain.

And why do we want to support an organic supply chain?  Organic agriculture is done through not using synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. The environmental benefit comes from not creating these chemicals to begin with and the prevention of those chemicals in the soil and water of that land and surrounding area.  These chemicals impact animals and plants who the chemicals were not intended to harm.
I also feel that organic is a human rights issue.  By not choosing organic we are choosing to have farm workers be exposed to chemicals in their daily work.  Why should we get to pay less for our food and put people's health at risk?

Organic needs help in the upcoming Farm bill. There is an opportunity to put more money towards organic and support the farmers and industry as a whole.  The more we support better practices, the healthier our society can be.  Also if organic grows, the cost difference between organic and conventional food will close.
Take some time today and support Organic in the upcoming farm bill
http://capwiz.com/ota/issues/alert/?alertid=55233501&queueid=[capwiz:queue_id]

It is Fair Trade Month

Fair Trade month is about bringing awareness to the Fair Trade movement.
I recently wrote a blog post for Fair Trade USA about prAna's Fair Trade apparel program. check it out
http://fairtradeusa.org/get-involved/blog/wear-fair-carving-fair-trade-path-apparel 

To the Clinton Foundation

I received an email from Chelsea Clinton today asking me to give feedback to her father's foundation - the Clinton Foundation.
Now I fully realize that I am one of a few million on this email, but I wanted to share my thoughts with you on what I responded.

"Firstly I want to thank the Clinton Foundation for all of the great work that you have done over the years.  My suggestions come from a place of building on this work not from a place where what has been done is not sufficient.

I feel that inspiration has pulled people to act in a way that is outside of themselves.  The stories of social and environmental change are those that remind me of the strength of the human soul - the globally shared human core that we all share - to be loved and to love others.

I am inspired by the work that gives people the opportunity to follow their own dreams and better their communities.  So I would suggest continuing focusing on education, especially women and children to build better futures for themselves.  This is not only about economics, but about survival skills for growing food, health, sanitation and strong self esteem.

The other movement that I see great strength in is the Fair Trade movement - this is not charity but a systems change. Where more money is spent to not only provide more money to the working poor but to provide skills around democratically elected committees giving workers a voice within their places of work and ultimately their communities.  This is a great gift to any workers and while Fair Trade is focused in developing countries there is an opportunity for these same models to replicated in developed countries where the need for the voice of the poor and under privileged can be strengthened.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my voice.
Nicole"

Want to share your thoughts? Click here http://my.democrats.org/Clinton-Foundation

Connecting

Thursday and Friday of last week I had the opportunity to attend a great conference with my sustainability peers.  The International Society of Sustainability Professionals hosted their first annual conference in Portland Oregon last week.  I was inspired by the work that is occurring and felt supported and motivated to keep the work I am doing to continue strong.

I attended a few different lectures and workshops, but a couple of pieces stood out for me.

The first was - did you know the US Federal government is investing in sustainability, for instance renovating old energy inefficient buildings to be cleaner for employees to work in and to be more energy and water efficient.  This helps reduce our costs of operating as a country as well as reduce our dependance on energy.

I was also inspired on how to tell the sustainability story in a way that captures people's attention and gets them to act.  In his book "Don't be such a Scientist" Randy Olson talks about the need to arouse and fulfill in story telling, to tap into the emotional connection we have with each other to relay information.  This definitely got me thinking on how to tell stories in the future.

I also got the chance to see one of my favorite speakers talk again.  It was 7 years ago I heard Bob Willard speak in class while I was doing my master's of environmental studies.  He focuses on the business case for sustainability.  Over the years he has added to his tools for sustainability professionals help for organizational behavior change, because this is really what is at the core of sustainability.  The way we have been operating has created certain negative affects and we want to start to change that around.

Overall I get reminded by how many people are working in different facets of our entire system, and globally and I get excited that change is happening - right now as I type, more and more people are looking at their businesses, schools, churches, governments and saying we can do this smarter, better and take care of our planet and the people in our communities.

Take it seriously, but not TOO seriously

I think sustainability work has made me a bit of a downer.  Or maybe I am a bit of a downer and have been attracted to sustainability work.  It makes sense, there are a lot of problems to be "fixed" when we look at the way we live and work and play when we think about global sustainability.  And my personality gets caught up in it. 
I have been told that I analyze things a lot.  And interestingly enough I am learning this to be true.  So for instance, I was trying to decide what to make for dinner last night and had all these great veggies from a friend's garden I debated over and over again what to make that required the least impact, meaning what could I do without having to go to the store and buy more food.  And what would be the healthiest and what would be the easiest to cook so I didn't have to use a lot of water and fuel.  Well in the end we ended up with leftovers and it worked, we used up food we already had and were fed.
There are a lot of pieces to the sustainability puzzle and our brains can get caught up in trying to balance it all.  Sometimes this is helpful, but a lot of times I get to caught up in those details that I fail to see the big picture.  To stop and see there is a simpler answer and to laugh a little and take myself a little less seriously.  Making good decisions for sustainability isn't going to come easily unless we make the process of making those decisions fun and engaging.  So adding lighten up to the solutions for sustainability.

What I am working on today

I have to admit I get tripped up when people ask, in your job what do you do all day?  The field of sustainability is a strange one.  I feel that everyone in their job, no matter the job can be thinking about, learning about and implementing sustainability.  In fact as I read articles about new break throughs in sustainability it is starting to read like a engineering journal - with details in parts, operations, efficiencies, and all other types of improvements to how we operate.

So as a sustainability director what do I do?  The easy answer is I am a project manager.  I have to know enough about a lot of things, but more importantly I have to know where to find more information and experts. Then I pull pieces together and work with different teams within the organization to start implementing changes.
It differs all the time, so I thought I would let you in on what is on the dock for this week.

For prAna we are reviewing our sustainability strategy - every few years it is important to look at what strategy we set for ourselves, how we are doing and where we will go.  I find this time so exciting and scary all at once. There is SO much opportunity out there, but also there are limited resources.  My time being one of them, effective implementation, and of course bandwidth and money within the organization.  Balancing all of these leads to developing the strategy and if we do it right, some major headway will occur in the next few years.

For the Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association (FTSLA) I am only one month and one week into my new role as the Director of Education and Communications.  I am still learning the nuances of the organization, the language, the tone and the needs of our members.  This week I will be focusing on understanding and strengthen our reporting and review process.  Reporting is hard, starting with data collection, tracking, reporting and understanding the information for future goals. I am not strong in this area, so am enjoying the opportunity to learn more. And help our members make this process easier.

I think the biggest lesson I am learning in this field is that there is TOO much work to do in one lifetime and to learn to just do the best I can.  Every day I hear of a new cause, problem or need that pulls me away from my day to day work and I have to evaluate if it is worth pursuing.  Luckily there is a growing momentum for sustainability and so many more people are tackling the subject making solutions a lot more easy to find. 

Can't Afford Sustainability?

I get this comment a lot -

"Well I wish I could afford to buy Organic, Fair Trade, sustainable, etc. but it is just too expensive".

I felt I had to address this.  The reason why so many people look at the issue this way is that they are taking the old model of buying things and applying the surcharge for sustainability.  For instance, yes if you were to go to the store and buy a box of pasta for 99 cents and the organic option was $1.59 and you applied this to all of your purchases - then yes it looks more expensive.

This is a great example of how we need to look at HOW we buy and how to make better decisions.  For instance - how much do you buy and waste?  We don't value things that are cheap - I make the whole box of pasta and then throw out half because I made too much and I forget that I don't like day old pasta.  OR I make half the box of the organic, and the other half another day.
So with this example you can totally argue - well I could just be more resourceful and not buy organic and save money.  This is true, but the point of this conversation is to figure out HOW to support your values with what you buy.  So one approach is waste less of what you buy - use it up, be aware of how much you actually need before you go shopping and choose to buy products that are more sustainable when you do.

The other approach is to buy less - and spend your money in quality not quantity.  Yes that means 3 pairs of pants a year instead of 5, but if you could buy organic or recycled fibers, the impact your are making is significant.

And also I tell people - focus on the big things - like big purchases. When you go to buy a Fridge or Washing Machine, if you get the energy efficient option you actually end up saving money in the long run with your energy bills being lower.

Think about the entire cost all the way through how you use the things you buy, what you might waste and do you really need as much?