3 posts tagged “summer of solutions”

So I don't have many pictures to share for this post, but I do have some exciting things to share about what I've been learning and doing!

Since I last wrote, on Friday last week I went into Minneapolis for the first time in search of Mexican food! Me, Callista, Kate, Ruby, and Laura took the bus into Minneapolis and headed to Lake Street, a section which has a lot of Hispanic culture, markets, and restaurants. We had a lot of restaurants to choose from, so we walked into one that looked nice and small and interesting. So we walked in, and I noticed we got a couple weird looks from some guys sitting at a table. The place was small and there was no sign of a waitress or menus, so we just sat down. After waiting a couple minutes, no one came over, so I got up in search of menus to grab. When I started walking over, I was met by our waitress who was wearing a little cowgirl outfit and lots of make-up. Hmm....She then brought us our menus, which we opened to find lots of bikini-clad women showcasing food, which was all listed in Spanish, but from the pictures we could tell it was mostly seafood and meat. Considering 3 of us are vegan, we decided this might not be the best place for us and left. We walked down the street and soon found another place called La Poblanita which was a much better atmosphere and a great choice of food! I got a Gordita and we had some amazing guacamole and fresh-made tortilla chips!

On Saturday I went into Minneapolis again with Heidi and Callita, but this time I got to see more of it because we rode around on our bikes.

We headed into the city on the Greenway, which is like a mini-highway for bikes, and then rode the Light Rail (which is like the T) in the rest of the way. We got to see some great sights in the city! The only bummer was when Callista's bike broke down (her tire got messed up), but luckily we were about 100 feet from the only bike shop we saw all day when it happened! I don't think we could have been more lucky. We got some great food at a nice restaurant and then had a leisurely bike ride around and out of the city and back to St Paul.

On Sunday a bunch of us took a trip to Sibley's Bike Depot where we worked on our bikes and learned how to true a wheel and fix the brakes!

On Monday I went to my Experimental College class and learned a lot about energy efficiency and how much potential there is for easily reducing the amount of energy we use with pretty minor modifications and upgrades. Fun fact: most of the potential for reducing carbon emissions will come from increasing energy efficiency rather than generating clean, renewable energy. Also interesting to think about is the fact that more than half of the buildings that will exist in 2050 (a year that has been cited as a crucial point as far as reducing carbon emissions) are buildings that have already been built and exist today. So that really drives home the point that we need to focus on working with what we already have and not just thinking about how to build better buildings in the future. It was exciting because it's so relevant to the work we're doing with Cooperative Energy Futures, which is focusing on helping people make their homes more energy efficient!

On Tuesday, my excitement for the day was when I tried out a new Experimental College class called Body Appreciation through dance. It's a small class where we just do some exercises, stretches, and routines that draw from ballet, jazz, hip hop, and modern. It was so fun! And the instructor is really interested in eating disorders, so she teaches dance to help people love their bodies and not worry about what they look like but just be amazed at what they can do!

Yesterday, on Wednesday, I think one of the best things I did all day was talking to Callista and starting to do research about how we can bring these awesome projects back to our homes and to Worcester! We are looking for connections between what we're doing here and what could be done over in the east. We're researching economic development, green jobs, transportation, history, and zoning in Worcester to see what there is for potential or where we can be inspired to work with other people and envision awesome things for back home. We're talking about doing something like ARISE in Worcester for re-vitalizing a lot of the manufacturing that has been lost over the years, working on creating an Experimental College, and seeing if there's potential for energy efficiency projects in the city. It's exciting to think of how we can be inspired by the people out here to do incredible, transformative, and positive things once we get back to Massachusetts.

Last night was also great when Callista and I hosted a group gathering at our house. We had most of the Summer of Solutions group over for some of our famously delicious Vegan Flourless Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies and a check-in discussion about how we all think the summer is going and what we  think about Summer of Solutions so far. It was great to get everyone together and really hear how everyone is feeling and hang out in a space that is not work or project-centered. It made me feel really happy and generated a lot of positive feelings about how things are going with Summer of Solutions!

Today I had my first 1-on-1 meeting with a homeowner interested in being a part of the Cooperative Energy Futures pilot project. I basically just went to her home and talked with her for a little bit about her thought about energy efficiency, if she's had a home energy audit, if she has insulation, if she has any neighbors who might be interested, and what she envisions for the project and building community around it. She had some great questions and input, so it went really well! It's great that people are so excited about really organizing their communities and getting people together to make their homes more energy efficient to save money and reduce their carbon emissions. I think it's just such a win-win, people really want to be a part of it!

Well I'm getting sleepy, and I need to rest up because tomorrow is a busy day full of meetings from 10-6:30. Being a part of Summer of Solutions has really been like a full-time job! We definitely spend about 40 hours a week working on and discussing our projects! It sounds like a lot but the reason it's really great is because I'm loving what we're doing, we mix fun in with work, and the people I'm working with are just incredible.

Wow, I guess this week really escaped me! I thought I'd be blogging every other day or so, but it's been almost a week. I can't believe it!

Well there have been some really exciting highlights to this week.

On Tuesday I did some research for the ARISE project about greenhouse gas calculations and ways of reducing greenhouse gases on site. It's really complex trying to figure out how we will estimate the emissions from our proposed mixed-use site, but I'm hoping to learn a lot about how to do these things because it will be incredibly important in development and planning in the future, as well as with what I would like to do. I'm reading and studying Life Cycle Analysis, which means calculating the energy used and the resulting carbon emissions from the whole cycle of something: what the raw products are, how they are collected, transported, and processed, what the manufacturing process is, how the product gets to the site where it will be used, how it functions on the site, how long it will last for, and in some cases, how it will be disposed or replaced. Yeah, that's a lot of pieces to consider! But it's important to take the whole Life Cycle into consideration when deciding on what is the most eco and climate-friendly product or building material to use.

On Tuesday we also had our first meeting about our public art project. We're hoping to organize an arts and music festival to creatively engage ourselves and the community. A lot of us are really into art or music in some form, so it's a really important part of us that we need to consider and use and develop! So our festival is going to be something that incorporates all of our different creativities and provides a way for others to be creative. It's going to be called Fest de Sol or Fest de Sol or Festi-sol or something like that. Should be exciting! I'm hoping to do some drawing in the coming weeks to see what I can contribute.

On Wednesday we worked a lot on Cooperative Energy Futures and did some real solid timeline planning for the project. Basically this summer we will be running a pilot project to show that there is need for or interest in this project of providing communities with energy efficiency upgrades in their houses in a cooperative and community-based model. We have a list of 20-30 homeowners in St Paul, organized

around Unity Church, who are interested in taking part in this pilot project! This coming week we'll be calling the interested folks and working on getting all the homes audited and scheduling 1-on-1 meetings with them to answer questions and get moving forward. There's a lot of work to do, but it's great to see that we're really laying out a timeline and getting the ball rolling!

Wednesday night we watched a really incredible Van Jones video about social justice and the environmental movement (or the broader movement for social change). Van talked a lot about inclusiveness, racism, privilege, class, and really paying attention to how we are transforming social structures and systems that have kept people divided based on race or economic status in the past. In the video he was speaking to a primarily white audience and really challenged them (and us and anyone watching) to really push ourselves to expand our comfort zone and change our own personal selves, actions, and thoughts in order to change society and work towards a more socially just and equal society. It was really intense and emotional and led to some great dialogues afterwards.

Friday my highlight was having lunch with the Environmental Justice discussion group where we talked about global environmental justice and some issues going on in specific places around the world, such as water issues in Lesotho, issues of displacement in South Africa, the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, and more.

Friday night I went to a barbecue at our friends' and fellow solutioners' house and had a great time just eating delicious food, hanging out, and dancing.

Today I had a beautiful day! This morning Ruby came over and we baked a cheesecake for her birthday. Not vegan, but I was still happy to help! After that I had a Cooperative Energy Futures meeting with a couple members of the Unity Church to talk about the project (and I had the most delicious falafel ever at Shish, the local restaurant we met at!) After that, Callista and I rode our bikes to meet a bunch of our friends at a Lake in Minneapolis. It was a beautiful (probably 40-minute) ride over the Mississippi River, through bike trails and parks, and past beautiful scenery to a beach on the lake! We had a great time lounging in the sun, swimming, and hanging out. The water felt like bathwater compared to the Atlantic Ocean!!

After riding home, Callista and I baked some incredibly simple and amazingly delicious vegan peanut butter banana chocolate chip cookies for Ruby's birthday party. We had dinner with our friend Laura who lives next door, then headed over to Ruby's. Everyone loooooved the cookies! They were so good!

We had a little scare tonight when the weather all of a sudden changed and it turned cold, windy, and stormy. Then the tornado sirens went off! I was scared, but everyone else seemed calm, so I stayed calm too. We just grabbed some food and games and drinks and headed down to the basement. A couple people called friends and found out taht that sirens were just a warning for severe thunder storms, so we headed back upstairs and resumed our game playing and eating.

Now here I am. Tomorrow holds some grocery shopping, research, book club reading, potlucking, and book discussion in store. Should be great!

So here I am in Minnesota for the Summer of Solutions program! It's been an exciting first few days! I can't believe it's only been 4 1/2; it already feels like I've done A LOT. But I decided that it's really important for me to write down what I'm doing not only so I can remember what I've done, but also so that others know what I'm up to and the amazing work that's going on out here! So I created this blog for that purpose. I'm going to try to write a little bit every day and also include lots of photos!

The first few days we've spent really getting settled in Minnesota and doing all sorts of introductions and meetings and debriefings and updates and catch-ups and explanations, so those of us who came from elsewhere know what has been done so far and also what we will be doing for the next two months! And these are big projects! My mind was blown when I heard what the college kids out here have been up to. The main project I'll be working with, ARISE (Alliance to Re-Industrialize for a Sustainable Economy) was introduced to us yesterday in a couple meetings. First we met with Lynn Hinkle who is a long time worker at the huuuuge Ford manufacturing plant here in St Paul and union leader at the plant. He explained to us how the plant is being planned to be shut down in 2009. This is a major issue for St Paul, because the facility currently provides jobs for 2000 people! So, Lynn and others have stepped up to provide a positive solution to this problem, using a vision of sustainable community development. They told us all about their plans to create a mixed-use site on the huge lot that will combine housing, clean energy manufacturing, clean energy production, green architecture, public transit, retail, jobs, child care and elderly care facilities, etc. Basically they are designing a model sustainable community for the site! It's really a win-win-win situation because it's good for the city, good for the people, and good for the environment!

So we will be working on helping to design this project, doing research about community development, clean energy installations and possibilities, environmental and social justice, and holistic communities to try to make this plan as awesome as possible and a great opportunity that the city of St Paul could not pass up!

If you can't tell, I'm INCREDIBLY excited about this project! I got really excited and energized and even emotional hearing them talk about it because I know these types of projects are what we need. Also, it's nice to be a part of a project with people that have such vision and imagination that is so in line with what we all want to see our future look like.

So that was the big news yesterday! Today we worked on a couple different things. This morning we talked about another project called Cooperative Energy Futures, which is the proposal to create a business which will link up investors with community energy efficiency projects in the Twin Cities (and eventually beyond). The idea is that energy efficiency is REALLY helpful for people, but most cannot afford the upfront cost. So this business would be organizing communities of people and their homes to get efficiency future-fits (as opposed to retro-fits) in a more efficient and cost effective way since there are more people getting them done at the same time in the same location. Also, a big part of this project is getting investors to pay the upfront cost and the home-owners would pay back the loan over time (with interest) as they save money on energy bills. So we'll be designing a business plan to make this happen and work on getting some pilot projects off the ground to figure out the best way of organizing communities and attracting investment.

After the Cooperative Energy Futures meeting, one my fellow solutioners Kate ran a skill-share on public speaking. I'm really excited for her skillshare/classes because public speaking is one of my major weaknesses and I definitely need to improve. So 5 of us did the skillshare and she ran us through different exercises to work on diction, projection, and posture. It was so helpful! I learned a lot from this first class already, I can't wait for the rest!

Later this afternoon we went to another meeting for another one of the projects, WeCAN. WeCAN is going to be a web-based networking resource for environmental activists. The idea is to create a web site that combines ideas from Facebook, Google, Wiser Earth, and other networking sites to create a place for the environmental movement to quickly share resources, information, and connections! It's going to be really great and an important tool for finding people working on similar things or interested in joining together! I don't know a lot about computers and websites, so this one was a little harder for me to follow, but it should be really exciting to learn more about it!

Lastly tonight is one of our three weekly potluck dinners (they're on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays) so we all met at the house next door for dinner at 6. It was great! We had veggie stir fry, a beautiful salad with strawberries and blueberries in it, delicious baked tofu, a mushroom and veggie curry stew, and then for dessert a pineapple blueberry upside-down cake and nectarine rhubarb pie! It was so good!

After dinner we had a m eeting with the whole group to talk about scheduling, then when the meeting ended around 9, we all hung out and had a music jam session.

A great day! Even though it was really rainy and stormy with downpours, thunder, and lightning.