Cittaslow Sonoma Valley 

Cittaslow (literally slow city in Italian) is an international organization that expands on the principles of the Slow Food movement. Cittaslow towns are comprised of fewer than 50,000 people and must meet specific requirements in the areas of environmental conservation, sustainable development and community wellbeing.

The Cittaslow Sonoma Valley chapter is the first in the U.S., and a prototype for other communities across the nation. Founded and directed by Virginia Hubbell, it is comprised of a diverse group of community members who seek to foster local identity and grassroots efforts for addressing climate change. Cittaslow Sonoma Valley is poised to inspire similar groups throughout the world.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine 

Environmental leaders have come together to discuss our connections with each other and the earth in the sanctuary of New York City’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, often referred to as the “Green Cathedral.” This grant provides the opportunity to continue this century-long tradition to address the immediacy of climate change. A diverse group of thinkers will meet to build broader collaborations to effect change, bringing the wisdom of many disciplines to bear. Far-reaching initiatives that make use of the prominence, commitment, space, and human capital of this great institution will be developed.

The Village Green(er) & SPM3

An ecologist (Nicole Heller), artist (Libby Modern) and poet (Marci Nelligan) come together to re-imagine the village green as a public commons where local concerns embrace global realities. Historically a place where American democracy, social engagement and community building take place, the village green becomes the Village Green(er)–a theater where community engagement and empowerment can affect climate change.

The voices, geography and climate of Lancaster, Pennsylvania become the muse for an evolving public art installation that marries scientific research with the daily lives, imaginations and memories of the community.

Windowfarms - Britta Riley

Windowfarms is a research and design-it-yourself venture combining social media, urban farming and open-source product development to grow food and reduce our collective carbon footprint.

Windowfarms themselves are vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible window gardens built using inexpensive, low-impact or recycled local materials. But the Windowfarms project empowers individuals beyond the use of a product. Based in New York City, Windowfarms promotes environmental, financial and social sustainability. It provides urban dwellers with a model for growing their own food and encourages people to design for their own microenvironments, share ideas, rediscover their own capacity to innovate and play an active role in the green revolution.

Special Project

In 2010, the founder of Invoking the Pause supported an organization that shares the spirit and scope of ITP grant partners. As a non-profit venture seeking to become for-profit, XSProject did not receive an ITP grant, but is mentioned here to illustrate the type of project that is in keeping with ITP’s intent.

XS Project

XSProject uses design and education to protect the environment and reduce poverty by creating fun, functional products from non-recyclable consumer waste. XS is responding to two problems: the tons and tons of non-recyclable waste that are thrown away every day and the extreme poverty of the people who make their livings collecting, sorting through and reselling garbage.

There are an estimated 350,000 to 450,000 trash pickers in Jakarta alone. XS buys non-recyclable, plastic consumer waste from Indonesia’s trash pickers before it reaches the landfill. It trains and employs low-skilled workers, who make all XS products by hand. Proceeds from sales are used to provide scholarships to trash picker children. In marketing its products, XS educates the international consumer about the ongoing problems of environmental degradation through our consumer discards.

2009 Partners

Catalogue of Extinct Experience

Chris Desser facilitated a gathering of 22 people from various disciplines to create an artistic vision for a multimedia collaborative installation. The aim of the installation is to inspire awareness and wonder for this remarkable world while awakening our senses to the environmental losses it has sustained. With a Phase Two Seeding Possibilities grant, a scale model for the installation was built, which incorporates the ideas, images and artifacts of the team as well as the multimedia works of others.

CityLab 7 

This group of architects, landscapers, planners, artists and communicators is developing a variety of personalized, interactive systems to inform and incentivize carbon-smart lifestyle choices and promote stronger urban communities. CityLab7 found that using the word “carbon” doesn’t effectively convey the impacts of personal choice on climate change, and instead learned how to use compelling examples to motivate change.

With the aid of a Phase Two grant, they developed the Lettuce Utility concept to put under-used urban space to work, create healthy jobs, increase food security and build strong communities.

“Taco Diplomacy” and Border Foodways Alliance

Gary Nabhan joined Sabores Sin Fronteras (Flavors Without Border) Border Foodways Alliance to inaugurate the launch of “Taco Diplomacy.” Together they work to create a smaller, more sustainable “foodprint” (carbon footprint of food production and delivery) for food production systems, including livestock, chile and wheat in the bi-national foodshed shared by the Southwestern U.S. and Mexican border states.

A Phase Two grant enabled Gary and his team to engage the citizenry in artistically imagining and implementing a local food culture that is just and sustainable.

Smartmeme

In anticipation of the U.N. Conference on Climate Change held December 2009 in Copenhagen, a diverse group of young activists joined to define a meme, or unit of cultural information, for framing the climate change discussions. That meme came out of smartMeme’s mission to build movements and amplify the impact of grassroots organizing through the power of narrative.

*Smartmeme is not a part of new 3rd phase of funding

2008 Partners

Council of Pronghorn

Wyoming, if it were a nation, would be the world’s third largest in coal production. In 2008, Felicia Resor, Ben Roth and Terry Tempest Williams set out on a road trip to view the effects of coal mining, coalbed methane extraction and oil and gas development on the Cowboy State.

What they saw and learned is articulated through Council of Pronghorn: an art installation to initiate provocative conversations about what they discovered. Present throughout the trio’s journey, pronghorn bear silent witness to the environmental stresses of human activity on the land. The Council gives them a voice. Twenty-three pronghorn skulls are placed in a circle representative of Wyoming’s 23 counties. Through prose poems, each pronghorn speaks to a perspective heard, a story told or a fact conveyed.

Houston “Low Carbon Diet”

A citywide grassroots educational program created by community activists, government officials and energy experts to educate residents about energy efficiency. Trained facilitators lead workshops in Houston’s neighborhoods that focus on improving home energy efficiency.

*Low Carbon Diet is not a part of new 3rd phase of funding

National Teach-in on Global Warming Solutions

In February 2009, Eban Goodstein and Chungin Chung mounted this national educational initiative that engaged college students in conversations exploring global warming solutions. Faculty, staff and student leaders on college campuses around the nation participated, with the aid of SightSpeed technology, in a groundbreaking direct video dialogue on this issue with members of Congress. More than 800 colleges, universities, civic organizations and businesses from all 50 states actively contributed

At the Water’s Edge

Lisa Micheli and Healy Hamilton, two leading mid-career female scientist-entrepreneurs from the California Academy of Sciences, took a pause to develop a model that shows the potential impacts of climate change on biodiversity and sea-level rise in Northern California.

Their project seeks to make climate change impacts tangible, educate local communities about the link between human behavior and climate change, empower individuals, and motivate action to decrease greenhouse gas emissions locally.

After At the Water’s Edge received a Phase Two grant, Micheli and Hamilton continue to expand their effective grassroots work.