Green Mountain College
PAE-15: Employee Sustainability Educators Program

For the first offering of this 7 week discussion course, employees volunteered to participate.

Employees met on a weekly basis with the discussion group and the Sustainability Coordinator to discuss required readings on a variety of sustainability focused topics, including: A Call to Sustainability, Ecological Principles, Buying, Food, Communities, Business & Economy, and Visions of Sustainability.

The Sustainability Office purchased the books utilized by the course. The Sustainability Coordinator devoted 2 hr/work during the course to preparation and participation in the discussions. Several departments allowed their employees to attend outside of break-time.

All full-time and adjunct faculty members were expected to attend a workshop in Systems Thinking before the beginning of the Fall '09 academic year.

Agenda for the Systems Thinking Skills and Concepts workshop Systems and systems thinking Engaging with systems Impediments to engaging with systems The Iceberg icon Exploring systems Behavior over Time Systemic Structure Stocks and Flows Feedback Delays and spatial displacements- Cause and effect separated in time and space Bio for Philip Rice, facilitator Phil develops materials and leads trainings for the Our Climate Ourselves program with a particular focus on developing tools and approaches that allow leaders to communicate the complex and sometimes counter-intuitive dynamics of climate change and the breadth of possibility for solutions. He offers briefings on emerging climate science, the range of solutions available to climate change, and the many opportunities for building a better world while addressing climate change. He has lead trainings for leaders on climate change for community groups, grassroots groups, educators, and faith communities. As part of the Climate Interactive project at SI, Phil is focused on interface creation, learning design and documentation of the C-ROADS and C-Learn simulation models. Phil also conducts trainings and workshops on applying the tools of systems thinking to the challenges of sustainability. He co-developed a train-the-trainer workshop on systems thinking for sustainable development practitioners, and often leads workshops on the subject for clients that range from colleges and universities, to NGOs, to businesses. Phil works with clients on applying systems thinking to strategic analysis for change. In the past he has worked on topics ranging from forest issues, to marine hypoxia, to healthcare outcomes. Phil has a Ph.D. in physiological chemistry from the University of Wisconsin– Madison

Lunch was provided to all faculty in attendance ($1333.75 ) at the August 26, 2009 workshop. $5,000 was spent to bring Phil Rice from the Sustainability Institute to speak(funded through Davis Grant).