Hello!

It was a great first week at Green Columbus! I spent the first few days getting acquainted with the office (its wonderfully cozy!) and my new responsibilities! Erin Chacey, my supervisor, had a great meeting this week to review my first round of tasks and our long-term goals, specifically designing and funding a supplementary education program for elementary students called Elements. The program will be used to educate the fundamentals of recycling, reducing and reusing and explore the elements of earth, wind, air and power and how they interact in our everyday lives.  I am very excited to get started on designing the program but first we have to draft a proposal and submit it to the Ohio Office of Environmental Education (OEEF) for review and approval. The approval process is a bit complicated because there are several requirements and guidelines for programs to be funded by the OEEF so I will have to learn and apply these guidelines. As we work on the proposal, I am also going to work on table materials (essentially informational sheets) about Green Columbus and its programs for community events we will be attending this and next month. I just finished my first draft of this info sheet so I will be submitting it to Erin tomorrow. In addition to these assignments, I also attended a workshop series called Training for Transition, a program that works towards creating fun and effective community solutions and resilience in the face of economic and resource instability and crisis.

The workshop was incredibly fascinating–our group explored the root of our dependence on oil, reviewed the seriousness of climate change and oil dependency, and discussed ways to shift away from the harmful practices that are negatively influencing our planet while also finding way to build bridges and reach people who understand the issues but don’t know how to contribute. Transition also works to strengthen community resilience and cooperation in the face of the instability we are facing. As someone who is educated on the importance of shifting to sustainable lifestyles but lies on the ‘less involved in a larger movement’ side, meeting a larger group of people who were discussing community rather than individual solutions environmental issues was initially intimidating but in the end a very interesting and moving experience. Transition could certainly be considered a more extreme environmental policy movement than simply those who choose to recycle or bike to work. These individuals are really about tackling the problems in a larger, community way that comes from a place of cooperation and compassion. I was worried about feeling polarized (due to my inexperience) because at times, extreme sides can be polarizing but one of the ideals of Transition is that there is not one way to solve the crisis of climate change and peak oil. However, the group does agree that a crucial way of solving the problem is making our solutions based on community and dialog. Successful Transition groups have formed all over the UK and have spread to the United States.

If you are interested in learning more about the Columbus branch of Transition (Transition Central Ohio) the organization Living Simply has links and contact info and can be explored at http://www.simplyliving.org/transition. Perhaps my favorite thing about attending the workshop was having the opportunity to meet so many wonderful new people from the environmental community. I’m looking forward to this coming week and getting more involved in the Elements proposal and continuing to learn the ropes of Green Columbus!