Bridging the Gap ®
435 Westport Rd., #23
Kansas City, MO 64111
Local: (816) 561-1087
Toll free: 1-888-895-3605 info@bridgingthegap.org
Sustainability, Systems Thinking and Action
Shadowcliff's Workshops are unique. The beautiful natural setting provides the perfect environment for seeing and better understanding the impact of our individual and collective choices. Workshop participants come for the education, the collaboration, the planning...but they leave inspired for the journey, ready to act and prepared to make a difference.
These workshops are about the next steps. They are often startegic planning experiences as we learn together to make better decisions as individuals and organizations. Sustainabiity is NOT about the environment, it is about making decisions that are good for people, the economy and the environment. Shadowcliff workshops are about change. We incorporate a fresh approach to systems thinking as well as the research reflected in such writings as Switch, Nudge, and Fostering Sustainable Behavior.
1016 U.S. Mayors have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Plan and the number grows daily. These mayors are from every state and from our largest and smallest cities both rural and urban. They have pledged to create and implement climate protection plans in their own communities. Several cities are actively campaigning as “the greenest cities in America.”
In addition, over 40 of our largest corporations have formed the U.S. Climate Partners calling for Congressional action on climate including establishing carbon limits and a goal of 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Included are electric and gas utilities, auto makers and other giants such as DuPont and General Electric.
A comprehensive Energy and Climate Bill is pending before the U.S. Senate and hopefully will be passed in the next few months. In December President Obama traveled to Copenagen to participate in a new international climate treaty. While the Copenhagen results were less than hoped for, it represented the presence of meaningful U.S. leadership for the first time. The Environmental Protection Agency issued the Final Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule, which became effective December 29, 2009, and under a Presidential Order of October 5, 2009 all federal agencies are required to create greenhouse gas reduction goals by the spring of 2010 and long range sustainability plans for their agencies.
Clearly the times are changing! However, back in the trenches of municipal and state government, businesses large and small, educational institutions and churches, there are many questions about what to do and how to do it.
How do we reduce the carbon footprint of our church, our school, our not-for-profit organization, our restaurant, our brewery, manufacturing plant or distribution center? Of course, we can start or expand our recycling programs and reduce our paper use, or use more recycled or remanufactured products, but how do we get to the core of our carbon generation? How do we really make an impact? How do we reduce or change our energy and water use, transportation impacts, purchasing decisions and supply chains? How do we educate our communities our employees and constituents?
These questions do not lend themselves to boilerplate responses. They cry for collaboration and often for outside leadership. They require the personal involvement of our people, the staff of municipalities, the employees of our companies, the membership of our faith communities and the teachers, students and administrators of our schools, as well as the experience of others who may be a few years ahead of us on the journey toward sustainability.
This is the gift of Shadowcliff’s Sustainability Workshops. For the last eight years, Shadowcliff’s diverse faculty have led sustainability action-planning workshops focusing on sustainable building design, sanctuaries, not-for-profit organizations, specific businesses, by-product synergy, climate action plans for municipalities and counties, energy efficiency and even provided leadership training for the Environmental Protection Agency!
We have several sustainability workshops in process for the 2010 Sustainability Series, but are still working with various groups to identify the time and content that best meets their needs. If your organization is interested in exploring a workshop for June through September, 2010, please contact Robert J. "Bob" Mann at 970-627-9220 or rjm@shadowcliff.org as soon as possible.Some of our workshops are open to individuals, although the focus may be on a specific business, organization or community. Call or e-mail us to learn which workshops are open to individuals.
August 30-September 3, 2010
Moving Sustainability to Implementation
Co-sponsored by EPA Region 7 & Region 8
September 10-September 15, 2010 Making The Shift; Education & Engagement to Leadership Open with Eban Goodstein, PhD and Jeff hohensee as Faculty
September 19-23 Strategic Visioning Forum: Creating a Sustainable Future
Contact Bob Simmons, Principal at Bob@Continuedsuccess.com
Sustainability Workshop Course Descriptions
Sustainable Leadership and Beyond; Mission, Kansas and Friends
June 5 - 9, 2010
As one of the first Sustainability Commissions in the country, the City of Mission and neighboring communities will explore opportunites and challenges of sustainable leadership with support from The Kansas Leadership Center and the Public Square Project.
The Better World Retreat
July 25 -29, 2010
You already recycle, give to causes you believe in, and try your best to help those around you, but do you feel like you aren't living up to your potential for creating a more just, peaceful and sustainable world? Are you ready to take the next step? Then join the acclaimed authors of The Better World Handbook, Ellis Jones,PhD, Ross Haenfler, PhD and Brett Johnson,PhD July 25-29 as part of the Shadowcliff Sustainability Series .
If you care deeply about the state of the world but feel that you don’t have enough time, energy, or the right skills to make a difference, then this is an opportunity to explore the possibilities and to make a real difference. Envisioning a world based upon economic fairness, comprehensive peace, ecological sustainability, deep democracy, social justice, simple living, and revitalized community, this retreat will help you to fight cynicism, reconnect with the world, and reclaim your power to impact it. It will inform and inspire you to transform your values into effective action in all areas of your life...money, shopping, food, family, work, community, home, media, politics…and give you tools to help others do the same.
Moving Sustainability to Implementation
Co-sponsored by EPA Regions 7 & Region 8
August 30 - September 3, 2010
Moving Sustainability to Implementation: Federal agencies and local governments are voicing their commitment to the principles of sustainability, but struggling to put those principles into practice in everyday operations. How do we solve complicated environmental, social and economic issues without shifting the problem from one program, media or agency to another? This workshop goes beyond the basic principles of sustainability to work with EPA and other government staff who are, or will be, the “champions” and implementers within their respective organizations.
Many Agencies have trained staff on sustainability principles and worked on specific “sustainability projects”. There is often an understanding that a more holistic systems approach increases efficiencies and reduces “unintended consequences” by bringing programs together to address a common strategy. However, it remains a challenge to integrate these principles into everyday decisions and program work. Federal agencies are now directed to jointly integrate planning, policy and resources towards more sustainable outcomes, as evidenced by the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities, and Executive Order 13514 : (Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy), which sets sustainability goals for Federal agencies and focuses on making improvements in their environmental, energy and economic performance.
Within EPA, the Administrator is calling upon the agency to meet challenges in a more integrated approach through her One EPA Initiative. One EPA includes recognition that genuine collaboration across the Agency is often essential to effective and durable answers and that “ It entails our persistent questioning whether a more integrated way of reaching a solution would better protect the environment.” Further noting that we should not be “…operating in stovepipe fashion, according to distinct organizational or statutory mandates at the expense of seeing the bigger picture”.
FOCUS: This workshop will focus on the day-to-day work we’re doing within and across our agencies and in the communities we serve. The workshop provides hand's on tools for EPA and other federal management staff to address and solve multiple cross-program problems, and develop integrated strategies. This model offers the additional benefit of regions and agencies learning from one another while creating opportunities for ongoing post workshop collaboration.
The workshop will combine simplified strategies of systems thinking with an understanding that even change follows patterns. Incorporating the practical use of these patterns of change identified in such books as Nudge, Switch, Made to Stick, and Fostering Sustainable Behavior, provides new tools and leverages resources to achieve measureable targets and outcomes. Participants leave with a better understanding of the application of sustainability principles in their own workplaces, tools for solving multiple problems at the same time, and resources for teaching these principles to others in their own agency.
FACULTY: Faculty have facilitated over 30 multi-day sustainability workshops teaching systems based approaches and are currently working directly with EPA Region 8 to implement these approaches in their internal and community programs.
TARGET PARTICIPANTS: The workshop is specifically targeted to EPA and other federal management and staff who want to implement more sustainable approaches within their agency program work and those working in cross agency collaborations such as the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership.
LOCATION: Shadowcliff is an eco-friendly mountain lodge and conference center adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park in the town of Grand Lake Colorado. The beautiful natural setting provides the perfect environment for seeing and better understanding the impact of our individual and collective choices. Removed from our normal workplaces in busy office settings we are often better able to see and value our own work and open ourselves to the possibility of new strategies that help move us to a more sustainable future. Workshop participants come for the education, the collaboration, the planning...but they leave inspired for the journey, ready to act and prepared to make a difference
COST: Registration fee is $900 per individual registrant. This includes 4 nights lodging, double occupancy, all meals and workshop registration fees.
DATES: August 30 evening, to morning of September 3
For questions or information please contact: Cindy Cody (EPA Region 8) at 303-312-6228, or Bob Mann (Shadowcliff Faculty) at 816-591-1583.
Making The Shift; Education & Engagment to Leadership
September 10- 15, 2010
With an emphasis on young people in college, business and government settings, this workshop will move from the introduction of a systems-based approach to sustainability to techniques and strategies for positive engagement in your organization, community and nation. The faculty includes leadership from Eban Goodstein, PhD, author, Director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy and frequent lecturer on economics and the environment as well as elected officials and community leaders. We will explore core concepts of civic engagement, leadership, change and the potential difference that each individual can make. Workshop participants will come for the education, the collaboration, the training...but they will leave inspired, ready to act and prepared to make a difference.
Workshop cost is $750 per person including five nights lodging based on double occupancy, all meals and workshop registration fees and materials. For more information or to register e-mail Robert J Mann at rjm@shadowcliff.org or by phone at 970-627-9220.
Strategic Visoning Forum;
Creating A Sustainable Future
September 19-23, 2010
Leadership by Bob Simmons, CEO of Continued Success Foundation
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