For AXIS adding value to our clients' organizations is
our primary mission.
Here are some highlights of our work in the last year.
Sustainability Seminars and Tours--In partnership with Sustainable Northwest, we are providing study tours for people who come to the Northwest to learn about our sustainability practices. People from all over the world come here for that purpose, but up until now, there has been no central point of contact, someone who can make sure they get the most out of their educational visit.We are still ramping up this service but so far have provided a day-long seminar with site visits for several people from Europe through the German Marshall Fund, assisted the World Affairs Council with a group from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and developed an itinerary for an author/professor from England.
Sustainability Mini-Workshops--Many people are now well versed in sustainability but can't figure out what to do when they get back to work. So through the Oregon Natural Step Network, we facilitated three different how-to workshops: Sustainable Office Practices, Sustainable Transportation, and Sustainable Facilities. These half-day workshops helped people inventory the suite of projects they could take on, identify priorities, and get resources and advice related to those projects.
Implementing Sustainability Professional Certificate Program--This was our second year to offer the 8-course certificate program through Portland State University. We offered four new electives: Ecologically Sustainable Design, Energy Strategies, Sustainability and Marketing, and Sustainability in Government.
Sustainable Idaho--We are helping organize the Sustainability in the Inland Northwest conference which will be held in Boise March 2-3, 2005.
METRO Chemical Inventory--We completed a chemical inventory for all of Metro's sites (except the transfer stations), rating the various cleaning and landscape chemicals. This study will help Metro set priorities for reducing the most toxic chemicals.
Coast wide Laboratories--Helped the Sustainability Director launch Coast wide's internal sustainability efforts. We designed and presented the initial training that Coast wide provided to all employees and then helped determine their next steps for forming teams and initiating projects.
In addition to our work with clients, we make a point
of adding value in our communities,
often "adopting" a non-profit to which we provide no- or low-cost
services.
We had a chapter published in Volume 1 of Teaching Business Sustainability which was released this year. (Greenleaf Publishing.)
Darcy visited Curitiba, Brazil, a city famous for its sustainability innovations. She summarized her learnings in both a newsletter and a public presentation so that others could benefit from her trip.
Together, Marsha and Darcy provided over 300 hours of direct pro bono assistance to worthy organizations, including the Oregon Sustainability Board, Oregon Natural Step Network, Oregon Environmental Council and the Sustainability Salon.
Darcy continued to support the Oregon Sustainability Board.
Darcy and Marsha participated in the Oregon Natural Step Network's coaching service, supporting the transition of the following organizations to sustainable practices:
Marsha and Darcy did six public presentations on sustainability and related topics.
Marsha and Darcy continued to host the Sustainability Salon, a place for those actively working on sustainability to get help and advice. Discussion topics included creating a constitution for a sustainable society, what we can learn from other social changes to move sustainability beyond just the "early adopters," and how forest succession could be a metaphor for the changes humans must make to become a "climax ecosystem."
We continued our free services: the Axis Advisory, a quarterly newsletter (3 issues covering topics on multi-stakeholder work including lessons from the Unified Green Cleaning Alliance project and inspiring innovations from Curitiba, Brazil. In January we will release our issue on sustaianbility in the rural Pacific Northwest.). Past issues are available on our website. [To get these automatically, send an email to AXIS-Advisory-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.]
We also continued our newsflash service (18 issues), a summary of interesting articles and books. [To join, send an email to AXIS-newsflash-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.] We also continued moderating NW-Sustainability listserve to support people in the Pacific Northwest who want to know what's happening locally around the topic of sustainability in an organizational context. [To join, send an email to NW-Sustainability-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]
Though as a consulting service we have low environmental
impact,
we still feel a responsibility to being good earth stewards.
We converted our Sustainability Series of how-to booklets into an electronic format to reduce paper use and reduce the cost to customers. The cost to print the booklets continues to escalate so we were forced to raise the price which we hope will be a further disincentive to buying the paper versions.
Our biggest environmental impact is associated with transportation. We continued tracking the percentage of trips where we used alternative transportation (mass transit, biking or walking; we do not include car pooling.) We see to be stuck at using alternative transportation methods for 63% of our business trips.
Year
% trips by alternative transportation
2001
34%
2002
43%
2003
63%
2004
63%
Again this year, AXIS is climate neutral. We purchased carbon credits to offset all of our greenhouse gases this year through www.EADenvironmental.com. You can do the same if you go to their website. They offer a range of products. We paid about $7 per metric ton for two projects, a fossil-fuel reduction project in Argentina and a "homegrown hydro" project in New England. You can even pay by credit card. You can also buy carbon offsets through the Climate Trust, a local organization.
We just upgraded our computer equipment, choosing laptops which use less energy than desktop models.
As owner/operators we naturally set business goals for
our own development.
As previously mentioned, Darcy went on a study tour to Curitiba, Brazil.
We are in the process of forming a Sustainability Network of experienced consultants with complementary skills to provide full-service sustainability support. The Network is seeking projects that have the potential of transforming industries, taking advantage of the different multi-stakeholder and product stewardship projects we have participated in as individual consultants. Some prospects we are exploring include biofuels/ethanol production and packaging. We may also provide a coaching service for organizations implementing sustainability where the sustainability coordinator gets support via the wide range of skills on our Network.
In partnership with Sustainable Northwest, we will continue to develop this program of study tours for groups that want to learn about sustainability efforts in the Northwest. In addition to responding to the needs of people referred to us, we plan to develop long-term relationships with certain sustainable development foundations and related organizations that have a need to educate people about sustainability. We are currently finalists for a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant to develop educational tours along the lower Columbia Basin. If we win that grant, we will be researching best practices associated with habitat restoration and sustainable economic development from Bonneville Dam to Astoria.
We will continue to work with Sustainable Idaho to put on a conference, Sustainability in the Inland Northwest, on March 2-3, 2005 in Boise. The conference includes tracks for natural resources, business, community, the built environment, and energy. For more information, go to www.sustainableidaho.org.
We plan to offer one or more rounds of the certificate again at Portland State University. This year, we attracted a number of advanced practitioners -- from Trimet, the military, and the architectural community as well as others -- and we were thrilled to hear that even they got a lot out of the program. There is a possibility of doing an "intensive" in the summer for people outside a "drivable" distance. For more information, go to www.sustain.pdx.edu.