Without knowing any better, I would think a pool with a simple filtration system to remove debris would keep the water clean. After all, isn’t water the universal solvent? After a little research, I learned that bromine, chlorine, and other chemicals are needed because pools do not have a continual water exchange as it is in a lake. In addition to reusing the same water, pools are also often warm and – unless they are used for skateboarding – wet, which creates ideal conditions for bacterial growth.

Creative Water Solutions is a growing company based in Minnesota that has found a simple and very effective method for eliminating bacteria from spa and pool water by breaking up the biofilm. According to research at Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University, biofilm creates an environment that allows bacteria to attach to the water surface. Left untreated, bacteria colonies will  enlarge and small bits will break off to form new colonies.  The chemicals traditionally used to treat bacteria only kill those on the edges of the biofilm, leaving most of the colony unharmed and ready to multiple, quickly replacing those brave – or maybe just unlucky – bacteria that were lost on the front lines. When pool attendants see that bacteria counts remain high, they typically add more chemicals in an attempt to control the situation. This routine practice often fails to solve the problem and, in many cases, creates health issues for patrons.

At the end of 2011, a study was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, showing that over 60% of people experienced Exercise Induced Bronchoconstriction (EIB) after only a few minutes of swimming in chlorinated pools. This technical term basically means it becomes more difficult to breathe, and the study found that even athletes with no previous breathing issues were subject to EIB.

Eye irritation is another side effect to which most pool swimmers can relate. The quotes on the Creative Water Solutions websites rave about the lack of chlorine smell, no eye redness, and even no dry skin. In additional to protecting customer health, using moss to filter pool water actually makes Thompson’s job at Chaos Waterpark safer and easier. His biggest surprise was how simple changing the filters is with the new system. He also likes the decreased maintenance, which is a result of fewer chemicals in the water and  air leading to less of the major corrosion issues water parks typically face.

The decrease in resources used to run Chaos Waterpark is quite impressive. After installing the moss filtration system, the park now utilizes 90% fewer pool chemicals. Thompson is also able to decrease the water used to flush the park every year from one and a half million gallons just 150,000 gallons. In addition to this savings, much of the water that previously left the facility as waste water is now being cleaned with the moss filtration devices which allow Chaos to recycle its water back into the park, saving an additional 375,000 gallons of water every three months.

Sphagnum moss filtration is an excellent example of how items found in nature can be used to reduce the chemicals used in many of today’s products. The current sustainability revolution provides an opportunity to re-engineer all aspects of our modern lifestyle. I look forward to sharing more about such innovative companies as Creative Water Solutions and forward-thinking business leaders like Barry Thompson, to  provide examples of how anyone can move into a triple bottom line economy.

This article is cross-posted on Environmental Leader.

Over the past decade, hotel companies have implemented programs to reduce the waste generated and the energy used in their daily operations. Many have been successful in saving both resources and money as well as attracting environmentally conscious guests; however, the industry as a whole has yet to make sustainability an integral part of its strategic plans. The Two Tomorrow’s sustainability agency’s latest survey, the Tomorrow’s Value Rating (TVR) from 2009, indicates that the world’s ten largest hotel companies “are only just beginning to address the wide range of social and environmental challenges facing the sector.” Climate Counts, which scores corporations on the climate impact of their business, found similar results when researching six major hotel firms. “The world’s largest hotel chains may be seeking practical ways to address a range of broad environmental impacts in their operations . . . however, few appear to be aligning such actions as part of a larger and more comprehensive carbon management strategy. An average sector score of 19 out of a possible 100 suggests the sector has much work ahead.” Now that the low hanging fruit that has enabled hotels to claim they are going green has been picked, it is time for hotel companies to evolve their sustainability programs in order to address the new phase of challenges and opportunities they currently face.

After several years of running environmental programs, hotels need to evaluate if their current organizational structures supporting these projects continue to be effective. Early green programs were often developed in the Environmental, Health, and Safety department. Their initiatives to protect workers and the Earth from dangerous chemicals evolved into projects to reduce waste and operating costs. Other sustainability programs were managed by the social responsibility team, run through the Human Resources department, which focused on giving back to the community. As a result, many sustainability officers now reside in Operations or HR. These alignments made perfect sense ten years ago when changing out light bulbs and cleaning up local parks represented major sustainability programs within a lot of hotels. The benefits of these initiatives are real but, as our world enters a new era where stakeholders are demanding more transparency and third party certifications are evolving and becoming a requirement to conduct business, keeping these programs in their original locations is often limiting.

Sustainability has evolved into a much deeper practice than many business leaders initially believed was possible. It is a tool and philosophy that can be applied strategically to every department, from the new hotel design team and franchise relations to the sales, marketing, and food services groups. By using the lens of sustainability, it is possible to uncover new data points to track and reveal previously unseen metrics about current key indicators. Rather than having Operations or HR staff trying to implement sustainability goals for other departments, hotels need corporate sustainability officers that operate out of their own unique department and are empowered to assess and coach all other departments within the organization. Some hotel companies are realizing this and 2011 has seen the development of several new or revamped sustainability director and officer positions residing within environmental or sustainability departments. This organizational realignment will greatly increase the ability of hotels to address the new challenges faced by environmental teams in all industries, such as managing a green supply chain and deciphering what consumers will want one year from now.

Once these roles are established, hotels need to find visionary leaders who can inspire, educate, and spark excitement for sustainability from within the organization. One of their main tasks will be convincing departmental leaders that sustainability is not just another passing trend but a valid business model with real benefits. Each department within a hotel company should work with the sustainability officers to define how environmentalism affects their team, develop a clear strategy with measurable goals, and then create a plan to achieve their objectives. This will ensure sustainability goals are not in conflict with more traditional hotel aims of increasing occupancy and revenue per available room (RevPAR).

The bottom line according to the TVR survey is that “Only three companies (Accor, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Marriott) seem to see sustainability management as important for protecting and creating commercial value.” Recently announced programs are showing progress and are very encouraging. The Carbon Measurement Working Group, formed by the International Tourism Partnership and the World Travel & Tourism Council, has pulled together ten major players in the hotel industry and is working to standardize how carbon is measured and reported. Hilton Worldwide has earned ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications for all if its brands. Their programs should be applauded as well as emulated by other hotel companies. These examples make it clear that hotels can engage with sustainability in a deeper, more strategic way. As they do so, they will move the hospitality industry into the next phase of sustainability: one defined by strategic, proactive decisions instead of reactionary measures.

This article is cross-posted on Triple Pundit.

Zero waste is a movement that aims to minimize the material that goes into landfills by recycling or composting most items. It is the next generation of traditional recycling and a sustainability initiative, which I recently implemented as my company’s Green Committee chair. After months of planning, it was very exciting to launch the program in late spring. Now that we have the summer behind us, I am taking the time to reflect on lessons learned and following up on my promise to share how our zero waste project has been running.

The program was rolled out in the corporate headquarters of an international software company and is the first zero waste implementation to be put in place within a large office building in our state.  The transition to a zero waste system in an office building, specifically collecting compost, involves a significant cultural change on behalf of the employees and management. We knew our leadership team was on board when after being pitched the idea last fall, our CEO asked, “Why would we not launch a program like this?” With his endorsement in our hands, the Green Committee began turning our focus to our 200 colleagues.

Six months before we began seriously entertaining the idea of a full-scale zero waste initiative, we had used our Green Leaves educational program to provide employees with information about home composting. We placed paper leaves throughout the office that read, “Reduce trash, save money on garbage and lawn bags, and create great soil by composting organic scraps. For more info go to: www.HowToCompost.org“. Over the weeks that followed, Green Committee members made it a point to discuss the many virtues of composting with anyone who asked us a question, commented on the green leaf, or just happened to be standing next to us in the kitchen. Some people said they remembered their grandparents composting on the family farm fifty years ago and were surprised that the practice is becoming popular once again. Several people expressed concern over the odor and were very surprised when a few Green Committee members began keeping small compost bins at their desks to collect fruit and vegetables waste from themselves and their neighbors to bring home with them at the end of each day. We soon realized that compost can be a touchy subject and would most likely be our biggest challenge moving our zero waste plans forward.

After priming the pump with our suggestion that employees consider composting at home, during the annual Kick Off Meeting in February, I announced to the entire company that a zero waste initiative would be implemented in 2011. I officially unveiled the program several months later at our spring quarterly meeting by defining zero waste and explaining we had contracted a local company that was, at the time, providing zero waste hauling to over thirty area restaurants. I had one of the two customized zero waste stations we had purchased for each kitchen in our office with me in the meeting and used it to help me education people on the types of items that should be placed into each bin. Finally, I our displayed the names of all Green Committee members and asked employees to seek these people out with their questions and comments about the program.

The most complicated part of our implementation is the variety of bins we provide employees. Traditional zero waste programs include three options: Recycling, Compost, and Landfill. We chose to include two additional collections in our zero waste station, Cans and Bottles, and Mixed Paper, because during the past three years, these items have been taken away for free by local companies. The cans and bottles are collected by a local charity that turns them in to collect the deposit and all of our paper is collected by a business that has been recycling scrap metal and mixed paper in our region for twenty years. The Green Committee began working with him four years ago when our company moved offices and encouraged employees to recycle the paper they were getting rid of before the move. The free price tag comes with a request that we sort the paper ourselves so we have set up bins throughout the office to capture the paper in four groups: white copy paper, chipboard, cardboard, and all other paper (colored, glossy, etc.)

Not only would our new zero waste hauler, Eco-Movement, charge us for removing paper, cans, and bottles from our building, we would be asking employees to change a collection system that has worked well for years. By continuing the current process and adding composting to the mix, we chose to partner with three local organizations instead of one, save money, and make the transition to zero waste easier for the employees.

Almost immediately after launching the program, we began making adjustments. Prior to zero waste, we had been told by our facilities department they were unable to secure wooden coffee stirrers. Knowing this, we made sure to point out that the plastic coffee stirrers needed to be placed into the landfill bin. After one week the Green Committee received so many requests for wooden coffee stirrers from employees , including the Vice President of Human Resources, who were concerned about the impact adding plastic coffee stirrers to the landfill has on the environment that we went back to our facilities manager and asked him to widen his search for wooden coffee stirrers. After another week, we had completely discontinued using plastic coffee stirrers are now purchasing wooden coffee stirrers which can be composted.

The lessons I have learned from developing and launching this zero waste program revolve around ease of use and listening to employees. Making the program easy and optional allowed employees to begin fully utilizing the system soon after it was launched and harnessed the power of peer pressure rather than the mandate of the Green Committee to persuade the folks who were reticent of participating to give it a try. Stressing our hope for feedback and then acting on the information we received was key. If you are about to launch a zero waste program, I suggest gathering all changes and clarifications during the first two weeks of the initiative and then communicating them all at once though a zero waste update email. Finally, sending out a survey after the program has been running for several months is an important way to see to what degree employees have internalized the idea of zero waste. We plan to poll our colleagues soon and I will be back to let you know what we learn.

This is the second of three posts that provide Jamie’s answers to several questions I recently posed to her regarding sustainability education.

Can you please explain the distinction between educating about sustainability and educating for sustainability?

What people don’t always realize is that educating for sustainability is not always about sustainability. It is first and foremost about developing the knowledge and the ways of thinking that will help us to thrive over time.

It is clear that people educating for sustainability do not all have a shared vocabulary with shared meanings.

The Cloud Institute’s framework for Education for Sustainability is designed to contribute to our individual and collective potential and that of the living systems upon which our lives depend.

When we educate about sustainability we treat sustainability as a topic. In my opinion, its use strictly as a topic is limiting and does not allow for what I believe is its highest and best use. To us, sustainability and regeneration are the names for the desired condition we are educating for. I think the greatest value to us is that the concepts of sustainability and regeneration are aspirational and measurable destinations.

Why have you chosen to focus your efforts on K – 12?

The Cloud Institute believes that a sustainable community agenda is unsustainable if it doesn’t formally involve all the children, young people and their teachers. We unite schools and communities to learn and change together  to instigate, sustain, and scale up the innovations and best practices that contribute to sustainability and that characterize Education for Sustainability. We can accelerate the shift toward Sustainability by engaging the schools in Education for Sustainability and securing the role of children and young people as participants, innovators and leaders. We believe that K-12 education can substantially influence knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors related to sustainability. This is the most fertile ground for helping to shape a society committed to sustainable development.

In the most serious conversations about sustainability, I have not detected a shared understanding of the role of education, particularly K-12, in contributing to the shift toward a sustainable future. I have spoken to system dynamics modelers who assume that the time horizon for the return on an investment in K-12 education is twenty years. When I hear that, I ask them, “Do you know any children?!” In my experience, it takes children and young people very little time (especially compared to adults) to turn what they’ve learned into action at the local level.  On average, they are much more responsive, creative, and quicker to make change than we adults are.

Many people have given up on public schools and yet we keep sending the majority of our children there. It is a bad scenario. We can either give up on them and create something else instead, or we can transform them into learning organizations that contribute to our children’s individual and collective potential and that of the living systems upon which our lives depend  (we actually like a bit of both.) We cannot, I would argue, continue to send the majority of our nation’s children to places for thirteen years of their lives that we have abandoned financially, psychologically and emotionally.  That’s just a disaster. That’s part of the problem. I’ll say that upfront.

This is the first of three posts that provide Jamie’s answers to several questions I recently posed to her regarding sustainability education.

When and how were you inspired to develop “a different way of thinking”?

[JPC] – I was in one of the first experiments in global education from the 6th-12th grades.  As a result, my work began at the age of 11.  I grew up in Evanston, Illinois.  Our teachers were influenced by Buckminster Fuller and other luminaries of the time. The gist of the experiment was to prepare us to thrive in the 21st Century, to become agents of change and inventors of the future we want.  They provided us  with learner-centered, constructivist methodologies  that produced reflective, flexible and creative questioners, systems thinkers, lateral thinkers, media literate, self-regulated learners prepared to deal with rapid change, increasing complexity and interdependence, uncertainty, diversity, and global challenges, including the environment, peace and security, human rights and human development.

In middle school, I could not have predicted that I would be a founder of the field of Education for Sustainability.  The term sustainability and sustainable development, as we understand it today, would not be coined until 1987, nineteen years later, and the field of Education for Sustainability would not be born until 1992 in Chapter 36 of Agenda 21—some 24 years later.

I grew up to become a Global Educator because that’s what I knew.  In 1987, when the word sustainability appeared in a U.N. report, Our Common Future, I thought to myself, “That’s the name for the desired condition I want to educate for.” I had been tracking the state of the planet data since 1968—since I was 11.  Now I had a word to describe what I saw:  The situation was un-sustainable for humans and other species of plants and animals with which we share the planet.  Sustain-able seemed like a better idea.  Once I had the word, I had the concept. Once I had the concept, I knew I needed to educate for sustainability.

Shortly thereafter, I came across an Einstein quote that we use daily: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of thinking that we used to create them. “

The water was still in the 50s during my first body surfing day in early June and I stood alone off the coast in New Hampshire. Today the sun was hot and I shared the ocean with many others; the handful of twelve year old boys with boundless energy catching every wave they could, the paddle boarders who crouched as they rode the waves and looked to me as if they were performing an ancient ceremony, the screaming children learning to bodyboard in the surf, and the bearded rider in a fedora and sunglasses. I felt the energy of sea in the gentle pushes it gave me as I let smaller waves pass by. I closed my eyes and felt myself being cleansed by the sun and salt. I felt at peace and at home.

Nature entrances us because as a species we were born and raised within it. We are bound to the environment in literally every breath we take and it seems fitting that the calm and joy I experienced today was a result of being present with the natural world. For millennia, humans lived, worked, and celebrated surrounded by nature. Now our daily routines involve office buildings and cars, and often leave us with a gap that used to be filled with the spiritual essence of the natural cycles of life. Technology creates miracles and moves us forward ever faster yet strips us the still moments our souls require to maintain our connection with the Earth.

Each hour I spend outside is full of healing. The salvation I seek in the woods and the water is an antidote to the time I spend on my laptop. It brings me back into alignment with the cycles of life and reminds me that spending time in nature is an integral part of the human experience.

The Green Committee, which I founded and lead at my company, has been developing an initiative for Zero Waste. Today I met with our building’s facilities manager to discuss the partnership I have forged with EcoMovement Consulting & Hauling. They are a local company who will soon collect our recyclables and compost – a move that excites me to no end – making our company’s facility the first large office building in coastal NH to pursue Zero Waste by “reducing and reusing, then composting and recycling what’s left.”

Our facilities manager told me that she just launched a single stream program with Waste Management at one of the other buildings her company manages. She said if all goes well, in a few months Waste Management will be contracted to pick up my company’s recycling as well. She was happy to tell me that EcoMovement could still collect our compost and went on to explain that for her it would be much easier to have one vendor provide hauling services to the several dozen properties she oversees.

I suddenly saw the position she was in and wondered what I would do. I had specifically sought alternatives to Waste Management when creating our Zero Waste program. If I was managing multiple locations, would I continue to follow my strong inclination to support local vendors or would I instead employ the national company that I had been using for years?

The complexity of any project increases when more stakeholders are involved. Finding a vendor that provides enterprise-wide service reduces logistics, contracts, and cost. But with size comes limitations and, sometimes, with experience comes lack of innovation. In this case the local startup would have my business over the national Goliath. Here’s why.

The primary reason I would choose to work with EcoMovement over Waste Management is for the breadth of services they offer. EcoMovement is a zero waste enabling organization that actually began as a sustainability consulting firm. They morphed into a hauling company when they saw the need for better waste management in Portsmouth, NH, and kept their educational philosophy with them.

EcoMovement prides itself on working with its clients to develop an implementation plan that will ensure the customer’s employees adopt the Zero Waste program. They offers signage and guidelines to educate people on what to recycle in which bin and how composting works. After enabling their clients to build a strong framework for pursuing Zero Waste, EcoMovement steps back and encourages each company to strive for Zero Waste in their own way. Their website boasts photos of end users expressing their interest in working toward minimal trash generation and a video that highlights some of EcoMovement’s local partners.  The owners of this startup take their work so seriously that if on pick up day they notice one company’s trash tote contains recyclables, they make sure to speak with the managers to see how they can help develop additional methods to support employees’ efforts to achieve Zero Waste.

The second reason for my choosing the local vendor is that Waste Management does not use dedicated recycling centers, locations that specialize in recovering recyclable items. This means that some of the paper, plastics, and aluminum they collect goes into landfills. Even if this practice only happens occasionally, which is what my facilities manager told me, I believe that is too often. The problem is that Waste Management has not invested in enough recycling centers and putting the recyclables their clients have taken the time to rinse and sort in with the rest of the trash is not acceptable. If Waste Management tells clients they can collect recyclables, they need to ensure these items are indeed recycled. EcoMovement brings their non-compostable material to the dedicated recycling facility in southern Maine where it is properly recycled 100 percent of the time and the compost to their own compost facility in NH.

Finally, while Waste Management invested in national compost facilities expert Harvest Power in early 2010, they do not appear to collect compost at this point in time. My organization began recycling when the Green Committee was launched in mid-2007 and pursuing Zero Waste has been a discussion for at least the past eighteen months. To work with a vendor that allows us to compost enables us take the next step on our sustainability journey.

It would most likely take a full year to transition dozens of properties from Waste Management to EcoMovement or a similar, local based and highly dedicated recycling company. I am confident that after twelve months, the process of adopting Zero Waste or single stream would be much further along using a vendor that offers implementation planning and recycling education as part of its services. In the end, each employee will make the decision to recycle and compost or not but rolling out a program designed to engage workers gives the entire project a much better chance for success. As my team gears up for the launch of our Zero Waste initiative, we are making sure to keep engagement a top priority. I am very interested in seeing how our program is accepted and internalized when it is rolled out on April 22, 2011 and I’ll write another article letting you all know how it goes.

I recently spent eight days working in Amersfoort, Holland, a wonderful town full of historic sites and friendly people. During my visit I enjoyed discovering alleyways that lead to secluded courtyards, sleeping under a heavy duvet without a top bed sheet, and strolling down cobblestoned streets lined with historic buildings. I also became very aware of bicycles. They are ubiquitous in the Netherlands and I often wished I had one when walking to and from my hotel each day. But the walk gave me a chance to get outside and think about how cycling is an integral part of the Holland’s transportation system and how it offers the US a model for how bicycles can decrease our country’s carbon footprint and increase our level of exercise.

It makes sense that so many people in Holland use their own energy to move around town. The landscape is very flat, turning the occasional small hill into a change of pace rather than a true obstacle. Many towns and cities are connected by walking/bicycle paths so most trips can take place on two wheels. Also, streets include bicycle lanes and bicycle traffic lights to help the cars, cyclists, and pedestrians move freely and avoid colliding with each other. The country is simply designed for bicycles.

One cultural difference that surprised me was that I never saw an adult or youth wearing a helmet while cycling. I  occasionally witnessed children under three riding in a bike seat and sporting head protection but never anyone else. My initial shock was tempered as I noticed most people do not travel very fast and they do not “share the road” with motorized vehicles because they enjoy their own designated paths. I think the safety of this last point should be stressed. When I bike to work, part of my journey involves four miles on a two lane road with a 50 mph speed limit. Most of the time there is a four to five-foot wide shoulder and I feel relatively safe; however, the shoulder shrinks to two-feet and has a guard rail where the pavement ends for 50 yards on my trip home. I am not joking that I take a deep breath and envision myself moving through this “gauntlet” without incident each time I bicycle this route.

From my recent experience in the Netherlands and previous trips throughout Europe, cyclists in cities have their own lane and most bicycle paths between towns do not share the same road as cars, buses, and my most feared road vehicle, 18 wheelers. When I biked from Hildesheim to Bad Salzdetfurth in Germany a few summers ago to visit an elderly relative, my uncle, cousin, and I were either on a well maintained bike path or seldom-traveled back roads. In the US, I am adamant about wearing my helmet but I almost did not give it a second thought when we took off in the morning without head protection.

Providing a safe environment for cyclists provides the Dutch society with many benefits. Cycling allows people to spend more time outside. It decreases traffic congestion and reduces the use of fossil fuel. Bicycling reduces stress, gives people a daily workout, and makes it much easier to find parking. And cycling is the most energy efficient form of transportation in all of human history. I think Holland is onto something.

My wife and I bike several times a week in summer and I am familiar with biking culture in the US. By building cycling lanes equipped with bicycle traffic lights in cities and connecting towns with bicycle paths, many countries in Europe have taken this human powered transportation to another level. As the US prepares to invest millions in clean energy research and development, I suggest our nation take a serious look at bicycling, a proven method of carbon reduction with incredible physical and social benefits.

In the spring of 2009 it happened. The Green Committee I founded and currently chair decided to utilize Walmart in our ongoing educational campaign about the benefits of sustainability. 

At the time I was horrified by Walmart’s business tricks that ran competitors out of town; the unjust wages, benefits, and lack of promotions for women and minorities they defended; and their apparent lack of sustainability initiatives. So I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath when a committee member suggested Walmart make its way into our 2009 Earth Day Celebration. How can you be serious, I thought. While I was exhaling, my colleague told us that the store stocks a variety of “green” household cleaning products and thought we could show being sustainable does not have to cost more or be inconvenient.  In the end the plan worked like a charm. Thank you, Walmart.

Walmart took center stage in our company’s second Earth Day celebration. The year before our Earth Day educational program revolved around the benefits buying locally grown foods. To get our employees involved, we purchased a variety of organic seed packets from High Mowing Seeds and placed them in our two kitchens for employees to take home. Knowing that not everyone had gardening experience, we categorized the seeds into the following “green thumb” levels.

Novice Gardener – Try something that will start quickly and does not need a lot of care and attention. Some options are sunflowers, cucumbers, or basil.

Intermediate Gardener – Enjoy something you have not grown in the past, possibly nasturtium, arugula, or Echinacea.

Advanced Gardener – We’ll leave the choice up to you. Enjoy.

The seeds were snapped up like hotcakes and we received a lot of positive feedback for our focus on promoting gardening and supporting local farmers.

When Earth Day 2009 rolled around, we honestly scrambled for ideas that would be both engaging and educational. We scoured the web looking for local activities, but the few items we found were taking place over the weekend instead of on April 22^nd. We shared a list of local Earth Day events with our employees, but wanted to do more. And that is when it was suggested we pull Walmart into our plans.

To get things rolling on the morning of Earth Day, we put a polling station in our main kitchen and asked employees what they thought about the going green by posing the following question:

The current sustainability movement, defined by the increased focus on protecting the natural world while continuing to work, live, and play, is:

• A way of life.
• The way of the future.
• A worthwhile investment.

OR

• An inconvenience.
• Too expensive
• A passing trend.

Employees were told to write their name and on a piece of paper (in all surveys since we have utilized Survey Monkey and Google Docs), vote for their definition of sustainability, and deposit their ballot into a sealed box. People were allowed to cast their vote until 1pm and, by the time we tallied the results, over 80% of the company had participated.

The Green Committee selected two winners, one from each category, and gave both people identical Walmart grocery bags filled with green goodies.  We then sent out an email to the rest of the company announcing the winners, listing the prizes, and explaining that all the items were purchased less than 2 ½ miles away from our office. We went on to say that not only were these products, such as Green Works bathroom cleaner and Ecos laundry detergent, available at Walmart, they were similarly priced to traditional brands yet they were far better for the health of the natural world.

One month after receiving his bag full of green prizes, we asked the employee who viewed sustainability as a passing fad how his family liked the products he had won. He gave us a smile and said that they actually worked pretty well. This is all we could ask for from an Earth Day educational campaign. Thank you, Walmart.

I stood on my back porch for a few minutes. It was cold and refreshing. As I looked out across my yard, the mesh of the screens obstructed my view so I moved down onto the grass. And this is when peace came. Standing in my backyard, taking deep breathes, and feeling the power of nature surround me.

This morning I felt well enough to drag a piece of plywood into the back yard. I placed it at the edge of the garden, close to where a stone path begins. Then I grabbed some bird seed and put a little on each piece of slate, about eight in all. I went inside, had some breakfast, and rested. The aches and pains that haunted me for days are gone but my energy has also vanished. I closed my eyes.

When I awoke there was only one thing on my mind. I gently eased my two cats off the diminutive armchair I’ve picked for this project. Then I carried the piece of furniture outside onto the plywood. Back inside, I grabbed my mug of tea, down sleeping bag, and a comforter and made my way down to the chair.

I spent twenty minutes listening and watching the natural world around me from the comfort of the chair. An hour later I spent another twenty. And I’ve just come in after my third and final chair session of the day.

What have I learned? That the Earth has far more to offer us than we know to accept. Each moment I spend outside, I become aware of nature’s grace. And I am thankful.