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Apr 27, 2012

Innovator
Storyteller_1
For the Love of Sport
by Anne Bertucio

I love sport.  When I’m not working with our Focus the Nation partners or helping to guide F2A projects, I’m usually breaking a sweat or cheering on one of my beloved teams (Go Timbers!). So when Sasha told me that the University of Oregon F2A team wanted to concentrate on sports and energy, I was thrilled.

 

The University of Oregon (UO) athletic program has a long history of excellence and is located in a city that is affectionately nick-named “Track Town, USA.” UO is also a leader in sustainability and noted for its environmental initiatives.  So where do these overlap?  How can the UO apply its success in sustainability with its excellence in sport?  And why does it matter? 
 
Luckily, Focus Coordinators James Walton and Weston Cooper were not pondering these questions alone.  The Green Sports Alliance is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help sports teams, venues, and leagues enhance their environmental performance.  GSA was founded in 2010 and has already reached 13 leagues and over 90 venues and teams.  With the help of GSA and the UO Athletic Department, the UO F2A team made a clear case for incorporating sustainability and sports at the collegiate level at last night’s “Focus the Nation Sports and Sustainability Summit.” 
 
“Without a clean environment, athletic achievements are hindered,” Walton’s opening words that would resonate throughout the forum.  Sporting events are a major part of the University’s culture, but are also a major impact on their carbon footprint.  Stadium lights.  Water bottles.  Beverage containers.  Scoreboards.  Televisions.  Loudspeakers.  Refreshments.  Transportation.  These quickly add up in the course of a 4-hour game, or 3 day Olympic Track Trial.  But with 58% of people paying attention to sports, and only 18% to science, these events also represent a great opportunity to change citizen behaviors.  
 
The UO Athletic Department takes sustainability seriously and has conducted a full sustainability report of their current operations.  They know where they are improving, and they know where they need to make improvements.  Now they just need the creativity to generate solutions.  Which is where the innovative, dynamic students come in.  How can we change behavior and reduce the energy consumption of sports operations without impacting the sporting experience?  It’s a big challenge, but as GSA Executive Director Martin Tull remarked in his keynote last night, the energy and problem-solving creativity of the UO students is inspiring.  
 
The power of sport has overcome discrimination, broken stereotypes, and united countries.  Solving our energy crisis?  This may well become sport’s next accomplishment.
View Comments (0) Tags: innovator sustainability F2A University of Oregon sports

Mar 16, 2012

Innovator
Storyteller_1
Taking ReCharge! Home: Reflections from 2011 Delegate Julie Paul
by Julie Paul

Julie Paul represented the Innovator quadrant at the 2011 ReCharge! Retreat. She is in the graduate program at Tufts University, studying chemical engineering. Below Julie shares her reflections on the retreat, and how the lessons from ReCharge! resonate throughout her life six months later. 

As the name suggests, the ReCharge! Retreat was truly revitalizing for me. Experiencing the large scale magnitudes of a coal plant, a wind farm, and a low impact hydropower plant up close and personal covers only a fraction of what I have learned on Mt. Hood. I discovered the importance of rest and reflection. The exhilaration from being surrounded by people who come from different walks of life and can be brought together and united by a single cause. I was taught to tell my story in a way in which I would be able to truly connect with my audience. Above all I learned to get my hands dirty with work that needs to be done, to follow my passions without reservation, and that true commitment means giving for the sake of giving. I have been grateful enough to apply these lessons in my life since the retreat seven months ago. I followed my passion of singing by being in a Christmas concert choir, my interest in clean energy through my involvement with the Tufts Energy Conference 2012 and my MS thesis topic, and desire for rest by choosing to take my spring break off in the Grand Canyon. My life has been enriched by my experience with Focus the Nation and I look forward to what the future holds. 

 
Julie Paul, 2011 ReCharge! Retreat Delegate
View Comments (0) Tags: innovator recharge Collaboration Quadrants Engineering

Mar 05, 2012

Innovator
Politico_6
Bringing the Collaboration Quadrants to Academia
by Alicia White

 

"Bringing the Collaboration Quadrants to Academia" by Alicia White, 2011 ReCharge! Delegate
 
 
Before I went to FTN’s Recharge! Retreat, I struggled to combine my passions for chemistry and  politics. As chemistry major at Northwestern University, few of my peers were as interested in the politics of clean energy as I was. On the other hand, my interest in environmentalism kept drawing me back to the world of politics. I knew that I was good at both politics and science, but I thought they were separate fields. 
 
All of that changed when last May, I applied on a whim to FTN’s Recharge! Retreat. I thought that it could be a fun week in a beautiful place, and, hey, I wasn’t about to turn down the chance for some free shoes from KEEN. It turned out to be one of the best weeks of my life. Never before had I been surrounded by so many young, smart, and motivated leaders in clean energy. There were policy wonks, engineers, writers, and thinkers, and they all cared about bringing clean energy to the world. 
 
Our retreat facilitators used the model of Collaboration Quadrants to represent the four areas that the delegates came from: Politicos, Technicians, Innovators, and Storytellers. Throughout the week, we explored what strengths each Quadrant brought to the table. We looked at how each Quadrant was essential to the success of clean energy. Then, and most importantly, we discovered that an individual Quadrant could only succeed if they all worked together. In a valuable exercise, we got together in groups of four (one from each Quadrant) and created an ideal solution to the energy crisis. It was a chance for all of us to bond as friends and colleagues. 
 
When I came back from the retreat, I knew I had not only made lasting friends, but that my perspective had changed. I didn’t know how yet, but after a few months, I began to realize that experiencing the Quadrants at the retreat had shown me just how I could combine chemistry and politics. One of the biggest issues we focused on was how to encourage inter-disciplinary collaboration in the real world. Often politicians and scientists aren’t good at communicating, resulting in ineffective policies that don’t encourage the implementation of clean energy. I realized that I didn’t need to choose between chemistry and politics; I could combine them into a career as a science and energy policy adviser to promote clean energy solutions based on accurate science. 
 
The Recharge! program had such an impact on my perspective that I was even inspired to write an academic paper on it. In my paper, I discuss the educational implications of the Collaboration Quadrants and suggest that they should be an integral part of higher education. The Quadrants give students a better analytical framework to make progressive, positive change towards a clean energy solution. Academic structures, like capstone courses and honors courses, already exist, and would be an excellent place to incorporate the Quadrants. 
 
My paper was accepted by Ball State University’s Greening of the Campus Conference, which is a bi-annual conference focusing on sustainability in higher education. With the conference coming up in March, I’m looking forward to spreading Focus the Nation’s message of collaboration through my paper. I’m excited to talk to professionals and educators from all four Quadrants who also want to bring clean energy solutions to the world. 
 
And I can’t wait to see the awesome solutions that my fellow delegates are going to come up with for clean energy!
View Comments (0) Tags: innovator recharge politico Collaboration Quadrants Northwestern

Dec 16, 2011

Innovator
Storyteller_1
Ruminations on Leadership
by Anne Bertucio

Here at Focus the Nation, we think a lot about leadership. We also think a lot about how young people can make an impact in their communities. Here's one perspective on leadership...and no, that's not ED Garett Brennan as the shirtless dancing guy.

 

 

 

View Comments (0) Tags: innovator leadership community video dancing storyteller

Nov 09, 2011

Technician_1
Innovator
Politico_6
Storyteller_1
Quadrants Quadrants Oh My!
by Garett Brennan

While I was cruising around Facebook the other day I came across an awesome post by one of our rockstar INNOVATORS in Illinois who attending our ReCharge! Retreat this summer. As a Chemistry major, Alicia is super interested in the technical and political aspects of the Solar Industry and has been doing research on an emerging form of solar cells, organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs), for the past two quarters with the Tobin Marks Group at Northwestern University:

Here's a link to the Illinois Smart Grid Initiative that Alicia mentions: http://www.ilsmartgrid.org/

View Comments (0) Tags: solar innovator illinois quadrants

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