Switzer Fellows Forum

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Switzer Foundation and one of the great outcomes of this 25 year history is the Network of over 470 Fellows whose work supports a broad range of environmental issues in public and private sectors. One of the themes we aim to explore this year, is how to better mobilize the Network, through the (hubs of) fellows in particular regions or issues, and create the connections (spokes) between them. In Network theory lexicon as applied to organizations and social change, we want to be an effective “Network weaver” for this talented group and help link our collective resources for positive change. To move our collective thinking in this direction, I highly recommend the new article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled “Working Wikily” by Heather Grant, Diana Scearce and Gabriel Kasper. The article is attached here and available at http://www.ssireview.org/images/ads/2010SU_Features_Scearce_Kasper_Grant.pdf.  I am interested in your feedback on how new social media tools and network theory and can foster these new collaborations and a “networked” way of thinking.  Perhaps this is not so new anymore, but powerful nonetheless. I am interested in having you share your thoughts, so please take a look at this article and share any reflections you have.  Many thanks - looking forward to the discussion!

Lissa

 Working Wikily, SSIR Review Summer 2010

March 23, 2010:  Switzer Fellow Dr. Lara Hansen and her colleague, Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, both of EcoAdapt, presented their work on climate change adaptation and the challenges faced by practitioners and resource managers.  Drs. Hansen and Hoffman also presented a new tool they are developing to help the adaptation planning community, called the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE - Your online adaptation destination).  Both the powerpoint and the audio file are available on this website.  Click here.

The audio file and the powerpoint used in the February 16th webinar, Innovative Solutions to Climate Change: Green Jobs and Energy Efficiency, led by 2001 Switzer Fellow Jeremy Hays, Field Director for Green for All, are available here.  Thanks to all participants and, of course, to Jeremy, for an informative and interactive session!

Powerpoint - Green Jobs and Energy Efficiency

Hello Switzer Fellows and colleagues,

In this post we wish to share the powerpoint presentations and links that were shared by presenters and trainers at our well-attended first-ever Federal policy training held in DC January 21-22, 2010. This should allow for easy download of the power point presentations. Please post additional useful links as you find them. 

Here are the presentations!

Congressional Budget PPT

Policy Landscape in DC

Connecting With Policy Makers

Congress 101

Congress 102

Additional links from Patrick Clemins:

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/ - My program’s homepage and portal to all kinds of R&D Budget information

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/presentations/ - My slides

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/presentations/aaasrd20100122.xls - The budget worksheet from the workshop

http://rules.house.gov/bills_details.aspx?NewsID=4520 - The ‘answers’ from the workshop - Division B - Tables on Page 331

http://ncseonline.org/affiliates/handbook/ - NCSE Environmental R&D Funding Tables by Agency and Program

Additional info from Nadine Lymn:

It was a fun afternoon and your group was very energizing, which always makes a tremendous difference!   Please do feel free to use my powerpoint presentations; they are not already posted elsewhere.  I know there was a lot of interest in gaining access to the expensive publications that Adrienne mentioned in her talk; the link to ESA’s free Policy News (the content of which is largely drawn from those subscriptions) should be in the handouts, but just in case, the link is:  http://www.esa.org/pao/policy_news.php

Folks can receive Policy News automatically by email, by sending an e-mail to listserv@listserv.umd.edu with the following in the body of the message: sub ESANEWS {your first and last name} It was a pleasure meeting you and the Fellows, thanks again for the opportunity.

Several Switzer Fellows attended the COP 15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December through their various organizations.  Some have contributed their experiences and thoughts on the proceedings.

JASON DELBORNE, Assistant Professor at the Colorado School of Mines, attended the conference under an NSF grant studying process and outcomes.  His blog entries are:

• The Wrong Way to Close ClimateGate; and
• World Wide Views on Global Warming.

DANIEL MORRIS, Research Associate in the Climate Policy Program at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC, wrote an article about his experience attending COP-15 with RFF.  See ‘Post-Holiday Post-Mortem: Surveying the Wreckage of COP-15′ attached.

Post-Holiday Post-Mortem: Surveying the Wreckage of COP-15

Here is the link for the conference call agenda that presented the work of three Switzer Fellows engaged in sustainable forestry domestically and internationally. Full bios of presnting Fellows Andrea Johnson, of Environmental Investigation Agendcy, Linda Kramme of Worrld Wildlife Fund (and formerly of Rainforest Action Network’s Smartwood PRogram) and Carina Bracer, of Forest Trends’ Katoomba Group.

Sustainable Forestry Conference call agenda

And here are links to online resources sent by Fellows who participated in the June 26th conference call.

From Karen Shapiro: an up-to-date evaluation of SFI vs. FSC certification: http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/documents/eemfullreport.pdf

From Linda Kramme:

Link to WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network: www.gftn.panda.orgLink to the North America Forest & Trade Network: www.worldwildlife.org/naftnWWF Position Paper on Forest Certification: http://assets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_forest_certification_pp_oct07.pdf

WWF Forest Certification Assessment Guide: http://assets.panda.org/downloads/fcagfinal.pdfForest Stewardship Council – US: www.fscus.org(NOTE: check out “Document List” tab for FSC standards and good background information)Fact Sheets about FSC and comparisons with other certification systems:http://www.fscus.org/images/documents/FSC%20fact%20sheet%20why%20best.pdfhttp://www.fscus.org/images/documents/Fact%20Sheet%20FSC%20Benchmark%202007.pdf

http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/documents/CertificationComparison.pdf

Link to the Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood certification program: www.smartwood.org

Link to Environmental Investigation Agency: www.eia.org

Thanks to all who participated in the June 26th conference call discussion! Special thanks go to Andrea Johnson, Linda Kramme and Carina Bracer, our presenters, as well as to Lissa Widoff, our moderator. There was a lot of great discussion and we want to keep the airwaves open for follow-up. Several folks offered to share references with the group. Web links and documents will be posted here for general accessibility.

We welcome participants (and other folks who are interested) to continue the discussion here on the blog, or via e-mail.

For those of you who could not dial in, the call was recorded and an MP3 file is available for download below. Be advised it takes a minute to download.

http://www.switzernetwork.org/docs/Conference call 6-26-08.mp3

And here is the link for the conference call agenda that presented the work of three Switzer Fellows engaged in sustainable forestry domestically and internationally. Full bios of presnting Fellows Andrea Johnson, of Environmental Investigation Agendcy, Linda Kramme of Worrld Wildlife Fund (and formerly of Rainforest Action Network’s Smartwood Program) and Carina Bracer, of Forest Trends’ Katoomba Group.

Sustainable Forestry - Tools for Sustainable Forestry Agenda

The Boston spring retreat was held Friday-Saturday March 21-22nd.  The retreat was fantastic, with speakers and presenters from a variety of organizations working in Boston, Roxbury and Chelsea each discussing their unique work on urban environmental issues and environmental justice.  We had a great turnout, with over 25 people, including four ELP Fellows who we were very glad to welcome into our activities.  Thanks to everyone who came out for this first-ever Boston spring retreat!  We look forward to many more.  If anyone is still interested in seeing the Agenda and the Speaker and Presenter bios, we’ll leave those documents up here for the time being.
Boston Spring Retreat Agenda

Boston Spring Retreat Speakers and Presenters

This post and attachments include the up-to-date agenda, speaker biographies and details for the March 28-30, 2008 Switzer Fellows retreat in Los Angeles. As you know, this is our first-ever spring retreat, and our first major convening of Fellows in southern California. We hope that Fellows throughout CA and the west will take this opportunity to connect with colleagues for an invigorating orientation to the environmental challenges and opportunities in this region.

Please check back for regular updates on agenda and plans. Thanks for your interest, we hope to see you there!

L.A. Retreat Agenda

L.A. Retreat Speakers and Presenters

Draft Map of Retreat Tour site visits

Walker Wells Presentation from Spring Retreat

Map of Solstice Canyon trails

Welcome to this general topic blog for posting Switzer Fellow and Foundation news, events and other information.  We welcome your input and ideas for threads for discussion and comment. This blog can be used for any topic of discussion among Fellows.