I’ve always had a lot of hobbies, and loved learning new skills. Knitting, spinning, gardening, biking, journal-making you name it. But they were always just that: hobbies. The world I grew up in told me I could have as many hobbies as I want, but at some point you get a career. Most likely in an office. Most likely in front of a computer.

And because ever since seventh grade when I stood up for monarch butterflies in a science class discussion of GMOs I have been labeled as a do-gooder and environmentalist, I sort of imagined my fate in the office of a non-profit, getting paid meager wages to do tasks I cared about theoretically. Recently I have felt that because I have no idea what the world will be like in three years, I can’t really know what I’ll be doing. While I still believe this, Summer of Solutions is opening my eyes to the potential to make a job out of the things I love.

One of my favorite organizations of all time is Books for America in DC, where I volunteered for awhile and now always make a point to stop by when I’m in town. It was started by a guy who collected books in his apartment to donate to schools, shelters and prisons. His collection grew so large he started an organization out of it, which now has a warehouse of books that teachers and others can choose from. All the books that can’t be donated are sold in the store in Dupont Circle at bottom dollar. The proceeds are donated to the same institutions that get the books. So it’s a non-profit that consistently makes money. The recession year of 2009? Biggest profit margin ever. Why is this so revolutionary?
(http://www.booksforamerica.org/)

The non-profit sector has been at it for a while, but something’s not working. Not for our schools, our health, our natural world or our workers. Relying on grants and donations to fund “good work” only gets us so far. If we’re trying to change the system that created these problems why remove ourselves from competition with it? Innovation drives change. Books for America can compete as a bookstore while sustaining its charitable mission. That changes the rules of the game, instead of operating in the margins.

So what am I going to innovate?

I spend a lot of time thinking about waste and overconsumption in America. The amount of stuff that’s sitting out there in someone’s basement or attic or garage. Books, bicycles, lampshades, birdcages, futons. The fossil fuels poured into all this stuff. And then the number of people who wake up in the morning needing something desperately. How do we bridge that gap? How, like Books for America, do you turn that exchange into something more than charity, into something mutually beneficial?

Books for America. 22nd and P if you find yourself in DC.

Continue reading →

Over the next six weeks, the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition and young people across the state of Ohio, will be working to “make green a primary color.” We are working to define our decade by putting energy and climate concerns in the middle of the political discussion, and by building support for a clean energy economy that can solve our economic and environmental crises.

May 4th is primary day, and there is a lot at stake; the path forward on energy is being discussed in local and state races across the state, and has been at the centerpiece of the race for Ohio’s Senate seat where Republican Rob Portman will run against the victor of the Democratic Primary: a hotly contested race between Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.

Both Brunner and Fisher already know that in the Buckeye State, young people are looking for real and ambitious solutions and commitment to fighting our economic and environmental crises; they both spoke at last November’s Ohio Power Shift conference where 500 students from across the state assembled to plan how to take their vision of a state free of environmental injustice, and bustling with clean energy to a reality.

With all these students back on their campuses, the plan is to continue the discussion with an ever broadening group of people, and make sure people know about the opportunity to weigh in through the primary elections. Voter registration drives are underway on campuses across the state to get young people registered by the April 5th deadline, and on April 3rd we’ll start shifting our focus to turning people out to vote for clean energy candidates during the early voting period leading up to election day on May 4th.

No matter who wins these elections, we’ll be building the movement of support for a just and sustainable economy. This movement is what has the potential to define our decade, and here in Ohio, we are working to build and flex it in many different ways. From Oberlin to Ohio Wesleyan to Ohio U, we are working to move our campuses beyond coal, and this summer we’ll be turning our talk into action through home weatherization, energy efficiency and urban gardening initiatives in Cleveland. But first, it’s time for our politicians to wake up and for us to make green a primary color!