This weekend Summer of Solutions enmeshed i in the festivities of Corvallis’s da Vinci Days, self-proclaimed “Oregon’s premier art and science festival.”  Under the umbrella of the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition, we snagged two slots—on Friday and Sunday—to table about our project this summer.  The Coalition’s table was the intersection of many very involved people around town; it was cool to see everyone in their element out tabling.  Although foot traffic was slow during our sessions, everyone had good conversations with people about our project.  Aside from tabling, da Vinci days is just pretty cool.  It seems like most of Corvallis comes at some point to see the bizarre contraptions, listen to the various musicians, or to delight in the playful atmosphere of kids and adults reveling at the countless inventions humans have made, and are making.  What ideas at the table today will become the next light bulb?  With the rapid and exponential pace of new technologies, can there be a singular invention as revolutionary as something like a bulb of glass and a wire filament?  Photovoltaic solar panels, wave powered generators?  The problems we face today seem far more complex, the world incomprehensibly more interconnected; it seems no invention will be the revolutionary one, only a whole swath of them.  What’s more, projects like ours—engaging communities, asking what they need, and teaching them how to organize—seem much more promising than any new technology that can come out ever.  People are and will be the greatest invention ever, and the changes we ardently desire can only come from us.

In the past week or so, Cooperative Energy Futures (CEF, the energy efficiency co-op I’m heavily involved in) has started to get off the ground and had several meetings with ‘adults’ or older, wiser, experts in the field, to talk about what we are trying to do. Generally these meetings were incredibly helpful, people were willing to donate their time and expertise to listen to our plan, give us advice and help us move forward. These people were excited to hear about what we’re doing, thought we are smart and engaged, however almost all of these meetings included a discouraging section in which we were told we had a lot of obstacles to overcome and it was unlikely we would succeed.

Part of the reason that I enjoy working with CEF is that it is incredibly visionary; we are trying to implement a model that has never really been done before. We have done our homework, researched efforts going on around the country, know the materials, and have spent a lot of time developing effective training and teaching methods, but our process is very experimental, constantly changing and generally somewhat uncertain. We also have a lot of challenges to face, but I have never thought of these as things that cannot be overcome, merely something we have to figure out.

Yet these adults came up with question after question of how this was all going to work, a lot of which I didn’t have answers to. They pointed out flaws and potentially insurmountable difficulties, and I started to become discouraged. These people were all incredibly supportive of us, they liked our ideas, our enthusiasm, but also wanted to make sure that we understand what we are up against and ground us in the fact that what we are trying to do probably won’t work. It was somewhat of a stark awakening.

Part of me wants to believe the logic that these people presented; they have a lot more experience than we do and understand more thoroughly how difficult it is to start a new venture. But, I also realize that if we don’t try and make these fundamental changes to society no one will. A larger part of me believes in our vision, in our ability do something bigger than we thought was possible. If everyone listened to the strong voice of the status quo and refused to take risks or try something that has never been done before because it seems too difficult our society would still be stuck in the Stone Age. Already CEF has tested and stretched what I thought I was capable of. While we don’t have the answers yet, and we do understand that there is a lot for us to overcome, I still believe that it is worth wile to try. I am learning to enjoy being the naive college student that can listen to the discouraging words of older generations and then say I’m going to do this anyways. Summer of Solutions has given me the chance to enact a vision of the future I didn’t used to think was possible, and even if our work doesn’t come to fruition I have learned so much in this process there are no doubts in my mind that it won’t be worth it- and if we can make it happen we will have done something incredible.

Roughly 30 months ago, some friends and I were talking about a summer program we wanted to create. We had been spending a lot of time on a few really cool projects that focused on energy-efficiency and green manufacturing, and we thought it would be really powerful to tie our initiatives together. We figured we could raise some money to make our own summer jobs, and even invite anyone who may have wanted to join us.

We had a few discussions about the name. We wanted a simple name that conveyed the summer timeframe and, rather than focusing on any particular activity, captured the kind of holistic, multi-issue work we were doing. We figured “Summer” and “solutions” were key words, and although we vetted “Solutions Summer,” “Summer Solutions,” and even “Summer of Soul-utions,” we eventually settled on one: The Summer of Solutions.

Ever since, we’ve been getting a variety of responses to our name, ranging from “Genius! That’s so exciting and powerful!” to “Hmpgh, sounds like Summer of Idealism to me.” (And, of course, we shouldn’t forget, “What’s that thing you’re doing in Minnesota again?”). Even among people who have been a part of the program, perspectives on the name have varied widely.

So what’s in a name, anyway?

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authored by GELTer Zach Holden

This past Thursday, I learned to soder, or to speak very technically, sweat pipes. Later that day, we built a bench out of discarded wood combined with the trunk of a tree I had cut down earlier in the day. This doesn’t sound too meaningful, but in actually it pretty profoundly represents the genius of GELT, and why I decided to spend my summer in Highland Park.

You see, sodering and making a bench share the attribute of being work that engages with ‘the good’. Sorry for lapsing into jargon, but what I mean is that this type of labor engages with the human need for excellence. Further, in this type of labor, you know if you reached the ‘Good’- the bench either holds weight and stands straight, or it doesn’t. The pipes either hold water, or they don’t. To me at least, this presents a welcome relief from the abstract realm of academia.

My love for this type of work isn’t just born out frustration with intellectual debates, I also find that his kind of work offers a certain satisfaction in that it actually produces. At the end of the day, I have a pipe system and a bench to show for my labor, and the knowledge that I have produced something useful in this world.

This production is the driving force behind GELT. I find that the supreme virtue of GELT in comparison to my previous experiences in the sustainability movement is that GELT has a unique focus on producing a tangibly greener world. Instead of producing memos, GELT produces raised beds, hoop houses, and cob ovens. This is why I chose to spend my summer in Highland Park- it allows me to put my beliefs into practical action, and physically create the green world I want to live in.

Working for two congresspersons last summer gave me a great perspective on all the work involved in hearing constituent concerns in a congressional seat. Last Thursday I was on the other side.  With our friend Reed Aronow, some SoS-TC folks and I met with aides from Senator Klobuchar and Senator Franken’s Twin Cities offices.  Reed organized these two meetings through Show Me Democracy and invited us along. Politics has always been one of my passions, and it was energizing to be a constituent, to actually get the chance to argue for what I believed was just. Instead of listening to other peoples’ opinions, I had the chance to voice mine.

Sen Amy Kolbuchar

Sen Al Franken

First, we met with  Leslie Kandaras, Senator Klobuchar’s aide. Standing outside the office, waiting for the others to arrive, going over who was to say what, writing and illustrating our large poster-board letter, I couldn’t help but be excited and also nervous.  Thankfully, Leslie was very supportive of our organization and resonated with all our policy requests. The meeting was rather spontaneous, and many of the speaking roles were decided at the last minute.  That worked to our advantage, keeping the conversation genuine and organic.  We hit home and were able to go through every point we wanted with time to spare.

Running off of the energy from our successful meeting with Ms. Kandaras, much of the group went to meet with an aide from Senator Franken’s office, Charlie Poster.  Charlie seemed like a pretty shrewd guy and questioned most policy suggestions we threw out.  While not supportive per se, Charlie provided much needed discussion on these issues.  In the end, we did not falter, though his challenging questions threw us off of our intended order, forcing us to improvise.  It was fun being pushed a little, and in the end, we pushed back on Senator Franken, asking him to champion, not just support, several environmental measures.

Here are the main policies we asked Franken and Klobuchar to spearhead in the Senate in our “Wish List”:

• Reduce subsidies for industrial-grade corn and soy, and reallocate that money to subsidize local, organic small-scale agriculture.
• Tie subsidy payments to acres farmed instead of bushels yielded.
• Support the Feinstein bill, which would extend the 30% investment tax credit to renewable energy manufacturing.
• Support PACE and overrule Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s rejection of it.
• Champion a National Complete Streets bill like the one recently signed into Minnesota state law.

It was a great experience and I hope that Klobuchar and Franken step up as leaders in the ensuing energy, agriculture, and climate debates in the Senate.

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This post written by David Isenberg, a Summer of Solutions Twin Cities participant.