Blog

Mar 05, 2012

Bringing the Collaboration Quadrants to Academia

"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!

Mar 16, 2012

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

Mar 21, 2012

A View From Headquarters

by Josh Baker

How time flies when you’re talking about adding clean energy to the grid and tackling energy efficiency. It's hard to believe that nearly a half of a year has passed since I started working with our cohort of 2011-12 Forums-to-Action (F2A) teams. As everyone in our Oregon headquarters and our Focus teams across the country begin to transition from talking about roadblocks and solutions to clean energy issues in local communities to actually implementing solution-oriented projects, it’s amazing to think how far some teams have already come.

At the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, students are on the verge of securing funding for countless energy efficiency and clean energy projects for years to come. Students at the University of Utah are busy bringing an additional 25kW solar array to campus and the Mississippi State Focus team is preparing to launch an energy audit program on campus. In the far Northeastern part of the country, community members, staff, and students at Northern Maine Community College are exploring and expanding the potential for biomass energy. Things are looking well across the Focus the Nation landscape.

The state of clean energy leadership is clearly seen in Madison, Wisconsin. Just six months ago I was having my first meeting with the Focus Coordinators (FCs) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now their team, Focus Wisconsin, is on the verge of proposing an innovative project that will push their community to become more energy efficient and serve as a model for future programs at other colleges and communities in their state and around the nation.

It hasn't just been the leadership among the Focus Wisconsin team that has propelled the project forward though. Focus Coordinators Joel Charles, a Master of Public Health student who has his feet planted in the Politico and Storyteller quadrant and Kristine Engel, an Innovator and Technician on the way to receiving a Mechanical Engineering degree, have prioritized collaboration between their campus and community at every stage of the F2A program.

Now other leaders on campus and off-campus have joined them to see how to best to address their primary roadblocks and solutions that were discussed at their clean energy forum, The Negawatt Summit: Catalyzing Energy Conservation In Our Community.

Along with leadership from the University of Wisconsin’s We Conserve program, local utility Madison Gas & Electric, and input from groups like the Madison Green Property Owners Apartment Association, Focus on Energy, and WISPIRG Energy Service Corps, clean energy collaboration and leadership in Madison are resulting in a program to incentivize energy efficiency programs in off-campus apartment complexes. The pieces are starting to be put together on how to bring together multi-family housing unit property owners who are willing to make certain green/energy efficient commitments with students who are looking for greener properties and willing to make certain commitments about behavior change.

Though there is a lot more planning, discussions, and program development to occur before a the project officially gets launched, so much has already happened since the F2A program was launched in Wisconsin last fall. As a Focus Coach watching all this happen from our Oregon headquarters, it’s rewarding and exciting to know that projects and collaborations like these are happening, not just in Wisconsin, but all across the country. It’s exciting to know that we’re only a half a year into this year’s F2A program cycle and our Focus teams will continue to develop and implement solution-oriented programs in the country. Even more exciting is the fact that in less than six months, we’ll have an entire new cohort of teams starting the program pushing clean energy solutions in their local communities. I know I’ll be watching carefully to see how Focus Wisconsin’s and other projects develops. I hope you will be too!

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