Recycling success story
San Francisco sets an example for other cities to follow.
I hope through viewing the slideshow below you will be encouraged on you road to sustainability.

Wilder Foundation
You may have heard of it.  You may have benefited from it.  You may have no clue what it is.
Let's take a look.

About the Wilder Foundation

The Wilder foundation is a nonprofit organization that works to help vulnerable people in the east metro area of the Twin Cities ( Minneapolis/ St. Paul MN.) What they do is first research the needs of the targeted population and then look for the best practices to meet peoples needs.

The programs aren’t meant to be a band aide to cove up the problem but a solution which allows their clients to “ Thrive”.

The Programs that the Wilder Foundation offers are designed to work with three specific groups.

First : children and families.  The unique needs of individuals are met by designing culturally- specific that help children and families with health needs, school success, housing, mental health, and even jobs support.

The child guidance clinic is nationally recognized as providing a safety net for children who would otherwise fall through the cracks.  Children who are uninsured ,low income, unavailable to get the services they need.

My life is touched by Kofi services.  This is a part of the organization that reaches out to African-American Students in the school where I work, and helps to meet their needs in a personal way.  They never force themselves on a family.  I can talk with a family that might benefit from the services they provide, and only if they agree, will someone contact the family to offer services.  The primary purpose of the program is to increase and/or support the positive functioning of young African-American youth in the home, school, and community. The services are designed to help a family thrive with in a culturally sensitive setting.

Second: older adults.  As with all of their services, the services provided to older adults ,are those underserviced.  Low-income and disabled adults are provided with the services that they need to live a healthy independent life.  The services for older adults actually were the first services that Wilder provided.  They date back to the 1906 visiting nurses program.  They address everything from heath care to mental health to housing. They even have an arts program called Life long learning in the arts. According to their surveys this has allowed seniors to feel more confident, less lonely ,and even more physically fit. 

 Thirdly:  Community, Research, and Leadership.  They bring together nonprofits, business, foundations and government to work on finding solutions to the communities critical social issues.  They work together to help the create the governmental changes needed to meet the needs of the communities on the east side of St. Paul.

The Wilder is a long-standing, trusted, service organization, that is here to meet the communities needs ,now and in the future.  This is possible by donations from individuals, corporations and an endowment.

Wilder Reaches beyond the east metro area that it services.   Through an agency called Minnesota Compass Wilder does research throughout the state to provide information on issues that impact the quality of life through out the state.  It provides people with the information they need to improve the economy and quality of life within their own community’s

The services, research, information and education provided by Wilder help people to feel safe, understood, and appreciated for who they are.  They allow people to have  positive identity within their community.  They allow them to create a life with meaning.

Leadership Revisited 

What are some of the most valuable characteristics leaders(hip) must have to take on 21st century challenges?

These are the characteristics listed by Joseph Jaworski in the article Leadership-Six Essentials:
 1  Clarity of purpose.
2  Commitment
3  Listening
4  Yielding
5  Acting in a field of others
6  Opening doors


Listening to the people who want to work on sustainability and understanding the world around them is where the leadership needs to start.  It is realizing one person does not have "THE" answer.
What we can derive from all of the frameworks that we have been looking at is that none of them is "Just right".  Most of the frameworks need to include some aspects of a different framework to achieve what will be optimum. 
In order to get started and  make a viable plan  for change you must start out with clarity of purpose.
You cannot lead others or set a direction or goal if you do not know what you are aiming for. 
What is the goal of your team or project.  Which of the framework, most clearly,  meets your needs.
The leader most not work in isolation but draw in the people that have the expertise to get the job done.

Margaret
Wheatley
 with 
Debbie
Frieze

.
 Gave us the example of going from hero to host  embodying the idea of not being the hero and going it alone.  Instead of being the hero with all of the answers ,become the host that welcomes all to the table and encourages and enables everyone to contribute what they do best. Use the experienced people you have to provide the background that others need.



What examples can you identify that have already embodied this type of leadership? Is there a person, project, or movement that is particularly inspiring to you?

I only know this person from the reading we were assigned .  Again I will have to keep reading to get better understanding .  From Guardian Qualities for 21st century leadership.

Baptiste Raymond, climate change initiatives manager, Lafarge

To me, 21st century sustainability leadership is about courage, creativity and faith in people. It is a values-based leadership.
Sustainability opportunities and challenges are so complex, both of global scale and yet deeply rooted in people's cultures and beliefs, that tomorrow's leaders will need four core qualities to achieve success:
• systems thinking to identify paradigms driving change
• mediation skills to facilitate knowledge sharing, ensure stakeholders' ownership and foster innovation
• vision rooted in community service and ethical behaviour
• decisiveness in ever changing environments with blurred boundaries
To me, 21st century leadership is about leading with the heart and to serve rather than rule.

How can these characteristics be accelerated to catalyze sustainable development?

The thing that I see over and over again is systems thinking.  What I would love to see is ethical behavior.  I think the catalyst  that will work is collaboration and the evidence that those who are leaders are actually working towards a change and not just throwing orders which others have to follow.  It is a team approach where there is a director but not a dictator. 
The work I have seen about IDEO seems to be this type of work  though I don't know how sustainable their work is. Found this kink after I posted this bloghttp://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/ideos-steve-bishop-on-the-future-of-sustainable-design-thinking/249225/
Again the journey.  Taking what we know and looking for something that's new with better results. The ripple effect is what happens.  People are getting listened to.  Ideas are getting exchanged.  New ideas are emerging.  Old thinking is transformed.  Innovation and progress catalyze each other.  People enjoy where they work and who they are with .  They want to do more because they see results and rewards.

Defining Sustainability........
Isn't it lovely?       The deep blue sea and terra firma.  None can compare.
Though there are countless stars  similar  in size and shape to our sun and companion planets similar in size.  None, within reach, during  our life span, can compare.

I think everyone stepped into this class with some idea of sustainability.  I did.  It was vague. Now it seems to be ever expanding and this assignment is forcing me to put constraints on my definition.   I didn't have any idea how much information there would be to digest.
 What I think is great is that "sustainability" isn't a bunch of people saying  "Something needs to be done!"and doing nothing.  "Sustainability" is people living in a real world running businesses and deigning products and building structures who are thinking about the impact of what they do. What they do Right now,in a complex system, effecting more than just there current project.  What people do ripples out in all directions and into the future.
While trying to read and digest and clarify my thoughts I also had the TV on and what is there but ,http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/objectified/, Independent Lens and it just happens to be a show about how designers effect the way people live there lives.  Watching this show, and listening to well known designers,lets me see what is going on in the design process that I never contemplated.
 Sustainability, has to be a key word in all design, or the economic bottom line can take over completely.
 I think in the world of design ,beauty, is an essential element.  When people think of sustainability, beauty, is not really what comes to mind. People may think of   Life-cycle assessment and
consider  many of  the resources involved, but whether or not something has enduring beauty ,is on the sidelines.  Whole system design can not leave out what makes things aesthetically enduring. 
Looking back to the assignment on GNH, we need to look at how things effect the ability of people to have a happy and fulfilling life.  The definition  of sustainability  needs to be  broad enough to be resilient and enduring.
So I started to think of a list of words that might help me to come up with a definition. Survival,enduring,evaluative,replicable, discernment,beauty, happiness, equitable,measurable, environment,economy,policy makers,people,systems.

Definition:

Sustainability involves evaluating things, in a systematic  and discerning manner to determine solutions that are measurable,replicable and enduring.  Sustainable solutions must  be: environmentally sound, economically feasible, socially equitable, consumer friendly, aesthetically appealing and enduring.

Now ,looking at this definition in a practical way, each of these elements cannot be weighted equally for each situation.  A medical device does not need to be aesthetically appealing if it will hardly ever be seen.   A device which someone will out grow and cannot be used by another consumer does not need to have  50 year longevity.  Things that will be outdated could be made so that they were modular.  While the exterior could be durable the internal components need only be designed to last until they upgraded.  It will take a lot of input and evaluation to make sustainability happen.  Looking at all of the frameworks that are out there it can happen.  It takes people looking at the best ideas ,and those that are successful ,and combining them into the newer, better framework.  Cooperation and collaboration,  using the integrated systems, can lead to the results this Big Blue Marble needs.

New Look

I've changed the look . The map background reflects  my background in cartography and the importance of a global perspective .  I kept the green to emphasize a sustainable world.

Living Building Challenge/ Living Future

https://ilbi.org/lbc

Interested in Local (  Twin Cities, MN,USA)

Tour a home that achieved MN GreenStar Silver Certification and talk about green practices with MN GreenStar trained professionals during the Homes by Architects Tour. Be sure to visit Home #13, a Minnesota GreenStar Certified home!

https://www.aia-mn.org/hba/HBA/TOUR_EXTRAS.html

Random thoughts on the road to developing understanding.
I guess I am unclear as to how often we are supposed to be posting but I had a bunch of thoughts after working at my job and taking my footprint test.  Schools and Businesses thrive on creating waste.  Part of my job is to distribute waste so no one  misses vital information.  This is a system problem.
 I got a catalogue the other day that must weigh 10 lbs. I don't have an outhouse to put it in.  It will get recycled.  What is the cost of that recycling?   We don't live in a society where everyone really has easy access to information because no one has taught them how.

The web is great.  It is also a vehicle that takes people away from human interaction .     We require people to apply for jobs on-line when they have no computer and are unfamiliar with the computers at the public library.  Children have to take tests on computers when they have only played computer games and never learned using a computer.  Through no fault of their own.  The computers are being used for testing.  Then (paper)notes have to go home to tell their parents about computer testing. 

I love the benefits of computers.  The problem is children need a  lap and a book to love learning how to read.  Yes you can use a tablet to read but if you have ever seen the YouTube,  of a Help desk with subtitles,You really don't want us to forget how to turn a page in a book.  

 If we are going   to evaluate so much stuff.  We have to have enough background knowledge to judge the accuracy of the information we take in. Human interaction is important here.

The problem I see is that there is very little going on, around me, to do with system analysis.  Most things are from the perspective of "I have this great idea!"  without looking how that "great idea" messes around with everything else. 

The Learning Journey into sustainability on-line has begun.
What does this mean to me??? This is something that changes every time I do more research.
One day you are looking at the practices that run your daily life and the next you are looking at how the whole world can be changed by whole system design ramifications. 
I live about 40 miles from where I work so I to often think about the resources I am using for transportation.  The Prius I drive lessens the carbon footprint I leave on a daily basis but I never thought about the whole system when I bought it.  I thought about 50 m.p.
I have seriously thought about where I live in relation to where I work.  I have tried to sell my house.  Walking away is not something I am willing to do.
 Trying to change what I do is an option.
In my little corner of the world I'm working at being a better at recycling.    I'm  trying to reuse things I can reuse.  Reducing waste is a constant challenge. 
The little thing I am doing that I love is eating locally.  In my case this means growing things I like to eat in my flowerbeds.  What is really cool is that many plants reseed themselves but the next generation is sometimes a little different.

Strawberries and dill in my flowerbeds. Yum

Volunteer Tomato

 Marigolds from saved seeds, 3ft tall

  Pumpkin that decided to besiege my patio.

Sustainable humor

I threw in a few pictures because digging in the dirt  locally and trying to make things pretty is part of my picture of sustainability.  Farmers markets and community gardens. Restaurants cuisine reflecting the availability of local produce. Deserted buildings changed into urban fish farms. Divergent yet connected thoughts. Is our sustainable future something we choose to direct? (from the book Design is the Problem)pg.12 We shouldn't be afraid of cooperating on standards,systems and understandings  because this is a necessary precursor to higher order development and advancement.  Ecological stability is of interest to me.

I really am on a journey with this class because:
 Leaving the plants of my yard.

 My mind goes back to what brought me to this class. Looking at all the engineering and cross disciplinary work that goes into whole system design that can change the lives of third world people in need of life saving vaccines. This was what I read about while looking at redesigning a refrigerator and got to see what some college students did with designing a solar refrigerator.  Sustainable and practical for meeting the needs of people without the resources to meet their own needs.

I know my mind needs to do a lot more reading and interpreting and digesting.   I know I have to try and construct some kind of order with all of the things I am interested in.

All of these things take me back to my early studies of geography.  There is the physical geography, the natural unreconstructed world. And then there is cultural geography.  All that man made design stuff of the environment.  The definition I like is "the character of place"  which puts the physical and cultural into one big picture  of the world we see.  We need to look at what we have here on this planet and what we want our future to be.

I certainly hope to be changed by this journey because as you can see I am not the most focused.  I am very curious.

At the very least I want to be responsible "to the world"  because individually I can not be "responsible for the world" .  I certainly would like to make some contribution to the world that lasts seven generations into the future and is for the good.

This course can be of service to me by educating me about what needs to be done and where
I have some skills and abilities to affect the change that is needed.

I will try to make more connections and references to all of the readings in the future.  But for this first week I hope these thought will do.  I hope you all enjoyed the "blue moon".  It can see every thing we are up too ;)

Sustainable Design Blog Startup

This is all very new to me.  The blog is getting going at the end of a very long week when my sustainability seemed questionable.  Yet here I am and there you are. We are both still functioning at some level.  I am thinking about what a large picture 7 generations forward is. So many variables we  can't even imagine.  Tonight we take care of here and now. The next blog will be more focused.  Good Night, to week one of sustainable design.