Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education

Creating Scenarios of Sustainability
(Spring/Summer 2000)

How do you go about creating a future that will be good enough for your children? At a recent workshop in Golden, Colorado, 150 people developed two scenarios for the future — one based on current directions and practices and the other on their ideal.

Ulrich Goluke of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development led this "Summit to Envision Colorado’s Future. The workshop was modeled after those conducted by Goluke around the world for multi-national corporations, national governments and international non-governmental organizations to develop long-term, strategic plans.

A scenario is a story which creates a picture of the future and helps one visualize how to get there. A good scenario is new, plausible and challenging. Goluke believes that scenarios help us to look 5-10 years into the future then determine what changes need to be made now to shape that future. Our current tendency is to work harder in the same direction if outcomes aren’t what we want. Scenario building provides the freedom to look at new paths by understanding the structure and behavior of a community and causes of events, rather than studying the chronology of the past.

For example, one group of participants focused on the energy needs of a community. They quickly reached consensus on a future scenario of efficiency and use of renewable energy sources. Then the group worked backward to determine what investments, policies and practices needed to be altered to reach their goal. In this way, they were able to provoke new ideas for collaborations and provide stimuli for new ways of thinking.

Goluke believes that just as "economics" was the dominant world myth in the 20^th century, "sustainability" will be the organizing principle of the future. The majority of people will be less focused on material needs and will strive to find meaning in life and create better human dignity built on improved human relations.

As part of its Sustainable Community Development Project, the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education (CAEE) co-sponsored the Scenario Workshop. CAEE will be hosting regional workshops in 2000, in which community members will explore how to embed sustainable development concepts into the educational fabric of local communities. Individuals from different sectors of local communities will be invited to develop scenarios or visions for their future, identifying the "quality of life" or "healthy community" dimensions they desire. Participants will be guided through exercises --- to identify current trends which are leading the community toward or away from their goals.

Workshop participants will develop strategies for their community drawing from existing EE materials and local EE programs on health and human services, natural resource conservation, environmental engineering and technology, transportation, agriculture, local history and multicultural issues. The goal is to facilitate individual, institutional, and corporate commitment, responsibility, and stewardship regarding environmental and economic sustainability.

Watch for a workshop this autumn (2000) in the following regions: Durango, CO; Venal, UT; Steamboat, CO; Fort Collins, CO; Alamosa, CO; and Grand Junction, CO. Contact Janna Six for more information at (303) 273-9527.

News Items from CAEE:

The Canon Envirothon: Are Colorado's High School Students Missing an Opportunity?

Have you heard of the "Canon Envirothon"? It is an international program -- sponsored by Canon, the National Association of Conservation Districts, US Forest Service and other organizations -- designed to build high school teams that compete in tests of knowledge on environmental issues at state and international levels for prizes and scholarships. The Mission of the Canon Envirothon_® is to develop knowledgeable, skilled and dedicated citizens who are willing to work towards achieving and maintaining a natural balance between the quality of life and the quality of the environment. Knowledge is tested in five areas: aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife, and current events.

Envirothons are currently conducted in 42 states and 3 Canadian provinces. Colorado is not one. Champion teams from spring competitions at the local and state levels will go on to the international finals in July, this year (2000) in Nova Scotia.

There is some interest in creating a Colorado training committee to develop young Envirothon teams for future competition. If you think that Envirothon may be a good supplement to the environmental education activities you’re doing, or if your organization might want to lead the Colorado Envirothon effort, please contact Carl Zimmerman at (970) 243-5068 or czimm@csn.net. You can also visit the Canon Envirothon web site for more information.

CAEE Initiatives Focused on EE Capacity-Building
(Summer 1999)

Concentrated and coordinated statewide environmental education capacity-building efforts in Colorado began taking shape during 1994-95 with the development of the Colorado Environmental Education Master Plan (CEEMP) project. The Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education (CAEE) continues to support the CEEMP project through several strategic initiatives.

1. Information Clearinghouse. The most fundamental of all capacity-building activities is to assemble a comprehensive database of EE resources - in short, developing a sophisticated information clearinghouse to know and make available information about available EE programs. CAEE is currently actively pursuing long-term, stable funding to transform its substantial mailing list of more than 5,000 EE contacts with deeper and more detailed information, and thus creating a centralized directory of EE providers, thus one-stop shopping for those seeking EE resources.

2. Website and electronic communications. In order to make such a massive amount of information available, CAEE is developing a website which will host the database and information clearinghouse. By making this an electronically-based system, the inherent problems of keeping the data current and avoiding high costs of printing and mailing are addressed. In addition, the website will help weave the EE community together by enhancing communications with capabilities for teleconferencing, common planning and calendar of events, etc.

3. EE Correlations Project. This on-going project is still in the developmental stages to link all of Colorado's EE programs and activities to the statewide curriculum content standards. In addition to enhancing EE's acad emic integrity, the capacity-building implications of the project are to provide a wealth of EE resources for Colorado's classroom teachers, to improve the reach of EE into formal education, and to provide an EE contribution to education reform and standards-based education.

4. Annual Conference and Expo. This capacity-building activity focuses on professional development for the state's community of EE providers. For providers, it's an opportunity to keep up on state-of-the-art developments in EE issues and theory, and a chance to show off or showcase to our target audiences the rich diversity and high quality of our state's EE programs.

5. Annual EE Awards and Recognition program. CAEE annually recognizes the value of leveraged EE partnerships and the good work being accomplished for EE in the following categories: K-12, Higher Education, Citizen/ Community, Media, Business, Non-Profit, and Agriculture.

6. Sustainable Development Education. One of Colorado's most urgent environmental issue is growth and development. Keeping our state's environment healthy and in balance with a healthy economic future will depend largely on an environmentally literate citizenry who are equipped to make complex choices for the many environmental issues which are tied to growth. In 1999, CAEE is working on a pilot project to develop an educational element to sustainable development in our state, and thus create an EE pathway to environmental literacy.

7. Sustainable State Capacity-building Organization. A subtle, but critical component of EE capacity-building is developing the ability for Colorado's EE community to speak with a common voice. Therefore, CAEE has refocused its efforts on increasing membership, and has already strengthened the leadership role of Colorado's EE Advisory Council in it's policymaking and work planning.

SUMMIT MEETING TO ENVISION COLORADO'S FUTURE

CAEE is involved with a rare workshop this September. Entitled "A Summit -- Envisioning Colorado's Future". This workshop is for those who wish to explore the future and challenge their understanding of how the world might unfold. Its goal is to provide community and student leaders with a tool to create a vision for Colorado's future which meets residents' economic, social and ecological needs.

Ulrich Goluke, of the World Business Council on Sustainability, will introduce a unique process called "scenario building", in which participants agree on a long-range vision for a realm of society (e.g. energy sector, education), then work backward to determine what can be done to create that vision. This kind of reverse strategic thinking enables articipants to more easily agree on long-term goals, and allows them to challenge current myths and forecasts about how best to reach those ends. The process has been successfully used by multi-national corporations and international non-governmental organizations to develop long-term, strategic business plans.

Existing EE activities and materials are available provide the education and guidance in behavioral and attitude changes necessary to reach those long-term visions. The hallenging task is to glean appropriate EE programs and then collaborate with organizations and individuals which can help to implement the programs to enlighten and educate a broader audience.

CAEE's Sustainable Development Education Project was created to do just that. It will (a) identify and compile existing EE programs promoting sustainability, (b) distribute these materials to others interested in sustainability, (c) facilitate networking among EE providers and community leaders and (d) provide input to EE providers locally about their community's goals for sustainability.

Over the next year, local EE practitioners and program providers will team with leaders from the Colorado Sustainability Project and the Colorado Healthy Communities initiative to facilitate a process of community visioning. Participants at roundtable sessions will collectively define their community's sustainable future and while learning how their personal definition fits into that common understanding. Community leaders will learn how EE materials and tools can be used to implement the vision, and EE providers will be able to incorporate the beliefs and attitudes of the community into their programming.

The Summit Meeting to Envision Colorado's Future will begin the dialogue among community advocates. One of the most unusual aspects of the upcoming meeting is participation of an equal number of students and adults. High school and college student leaders will join local elected officials, business leaders and community representatives to learn the visioning process and to take it back to their communities.

From existing EE materials and programs, the community can learn how to change work practices, lifestyles, and recreational habits in line with their sustainability goals promoting ecological and human health. Abundant relevant EE lessons, activities, presentations, events, projects, materials, and interpretive services on topics related to sustainability will be repackaged and marketed them to business, community and educational leaders concerned about sustainability.