Hello...May I Have a Few Minutes of Your Time?

Ever wonder how to make a phone call to discuss environmental policies with a local official? Check out the new HGIMT Rating Evaluation Interview Training Video, which prepares our student participants for their HGIMT interviews with local government, school system and business leaders.

If you're a college student interested in making calls to local officials in your area using the HGIMT rating criteria or a professor interested in using the HGIMT project in a course, please contact hgimt@grassrootsinfo.org.

Lessons from an Avatar: Turning Blue into Green

It was "Avatar" all over again: I was in an unfamiliar world, trying to glean the trust of a people I'd never known, doing my best to allay suspicions that I was a human plugged into the 3D IMAX body of a — telemarketer.

It can feel like that, anyway — working as a student intern for the "How Green Is My Town?" Project. I've been calling mayors, school superintendents, and chamber of commerce presidents throughout Westchester County asking them to participate in a program that will highlight their commitments to the environment and human health. I ask them about the criteria on our survey, and from their responses we calculate their "green" score. From their perspective, I must look like some telemarketing environmental watchdog. They're probably worried that I'm about to wave their potentially sub-par score in front of the media.

But there's no such thing as a sub-par score here. "How Green Is My Town?" is a positive assessment, which means we give points for the great strides citizens and local leaders are taking already. When there are advancements that towns haven't looked into yet, they can check out our website and see how towns across the country are taking some really innovative next steps. (One of my favorites is right here in the business community of Pocantico Hills, where one restaurant designs its menu around and serves locally-grown food.)

Scheduling the interviews with busy officials always takes some work, but showing people we're doing something really new and different is a challenge unto its own. So here are some James Cameron directing tips to dispel some of the preconceptions and ease the transition into the new ideas of HGIMT:

1. Make sure you communicate the primary message from the get-go: we're here to recognize the environmental strides towns have already made.
2. Our science-driven criteria were developed by Grassroots Environmental Education in accord with the EPA, the Dept. of Energy and others, but HGIMT is NOT a science experiment. We have no hypothesis; we just want to see towns succeed.
3. We're not pointing fingers. We want towns to score as high as possible, and we want people to see how much their towns are doing. HGIMT is a positive assessment.
4. We also want people to get excited about the points their towns haven't gotten to yet. Seeing where there's room for progress will help citizens set their sights on new and higher goals.
5. Yes, the results of our surveys will be made public. No, it's not so the media can play the blame game. It's so residents will have a way to take a stake in their towns' environmental progress.
6. In the end, the survey is just the first step of the HGIMT program. It is one part of a larger educational process. It is a stepping stone to show individuals where they can go next, as well as bring whole towns into conversation with neighboring areas to share ideas and help each other grow.

In short, we're doing four things: recognizing success, fostering education, building pride, and getting people fired up about environmental change. On the surface, what we're doing can seem like the blame game to people who are used to being subject to that. But we're all friends on this planet, and we're out to honor not just the greenest towns, but every town.

It is only the beginning of an ecological success story with a promise more real than 3D IMAX could ever deliver.

Rob Bellon
HGIMT Intern, Grassroots Environmental Education
Student, SUNY Binghamton


Read our Wall

Sí se puede!

Last night, I avoided the cold weather here in the Northeast by ducking into a film at Galapagos Arts Space, an innovative LEED-certified cultural venue in Brooklyn. The movie was "The Garden", a 2009 Oscar-nominated documentary by Scott Hamilton Kennedy. The film is a testament to the power of public policy and community action when it comes to the issue of environmental justice.

In this case, the story revolves around a 14-acre urban community garden that was started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992. Since that time, the South Central Farmers have worked together to cultivate food in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. As one commentator in the film noted "People. Land. Food. Happiness." It's a simple equation...until the farmers (372 families in total) receive an eviction notice.

"The Garden" is an unflinching look at the struggle between these urban farmers, the City of Los Angeles and a powerful developer who wants to evict the farmers and build warehouses where food has grown for over ten years. Local politicians and celebrities visited the garden, adding their voices to the farmers' fight. (The film includes some great footage of visits from Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and actress Daryl Hannah.) By engaging local musicians, the farmers held a fundraiser to attempt to buy back their land from the developer. The film provides some great replicable examples of community members rallying together to spread the word about environmental and social inequity.

"The Garden" left me thinking about what rights we have for the land we cultivate. If land is gifted to a community, at what point can it be taken back? What value is placed on the produce grown on the land? Is there no value to the human connections and well-being gained by the presence of a communal activity that puts food on the table? Community gardens are an integral part of our towns and cities - future generations must learn to respect and tend the land upon which we're able to grow healthy, organic food.

I hope you'll take a look at "The Garden" and start noticing the people who tend the land at your local community garden. If you've never stopped in to say hello, give it a try. Gardens are a great place to (re)connect to nature and make new connections with fellow environmentally-minded neighbors and friends. Perhaps it's time to develop your own community garden..."Sí se puede!"

Michael Crowley
Program Director, "How Green is My Town?"

Connecting the Dots

2009 was quite a year for the staff at Grassroots Environmental Education. After launching our greenweb "How Green is my Town?" in May, we have been able to educate government, school and business leaders about easily implementable policies and programs that can help increase their town's green infrastructure. We have literally been connecting the dots - pointing decision makers to proven solutions from across the country. A permeable paving policy that worked in Portland can be adopted in Paducah. A successful recycling program in Seattle may be a perfect solution for the residents of Syracuse. And an effective integrated pest management initiative in Montana may work in Maine. Get the picture? We have been "cutting through the green tape" so that local decision makers can adopt local measures that have proved successful elsewhere in the country.

Grassroots has partnered with colleges and universities to complete our town by town environmental assessments. Students at Adelphi University, Pace University and SUNY Stony Brook have interviewed local leaders throughout Nassau, Westchester and Suffolk Counties in New York. We will be resuming our work with various collegiate partners this semester to complete our countywide environmental assessments. Stay tuned to this blog for details about our "Greenest Towns" press announcement.

In order to "connect the dots" between the college students who participated in HGIMT in their fall classes to the students who will be working on HGIMT as part of their spring coursework, a group of dedicated interns are working feverishly at Grassroots' main office in Port Washington, NY. We'll be posting our findings throughout 2010!

Top left: HGIMT Student Coordinator Lauren Wasserman visiting the website for a Chamber of Commerce in order to verify their town's score. Above: HGIMT intern Tiffany Tona braves the cold to interview a Mayor in regards to their HGIMT rating.