Submitted by Ian Riise, The Evergreen State College intern to ThurstonTalk
TED (technology, entertainment, and design) conferences are known worldwide for showcasing up and coming projects. The last two years TEDx has sponsored independently organized events at The Evergreen State College. This year’s conference was hosted by Evergreen Sustainability Director Scott Morgan and covered five topics.
Entitled “Local Innovations for a Changing World”, this year’s event was “more about solutions while last year‘s was more about issues we‘re facing,” according to Event Student Coordinator Jenny Dunn. They found topics and speakers for the conference by sending out a list of subjects that they were interested in covering, mostly relating to sustainability.
Each topic related to being more efficient or sustainable communities. In some cases, such as applying sustainability to prison programs, Thurston County is a worldwide leader.
Andrea Martin, Evergreen Graduate Research Assistant, and Dan Pacholke, from the Washington State Department of Corrections, discussed their unusual collaboration.
Several correction centers have benefited from the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP). SPP organizes compost centers, employs prisoners, and reduces prisons’ carbon emissions, all steps that have avoided more than $3.5 million in costs. Their next goal is applying this template to juvenile centers, rehabilitation facilities, and retirement homes.
Later Shallin Busch, a Research Ecologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) mentioned that the Puget Sound that is one of three areas of rapid ocean acidification in the world. Ocean acidification is a process where CO2 dissolves into the water and lowers the pH level. As a response, the NWFSC is researching the issue in an effort to control the damage to the marine food chain.
Plug-in North Central Washington is working on expanding Electric Vehicle Tourism across the state. Ron Johnston-Rodriguez, who’s leading this project, said that “this is one of 15 EV Tourism projects in the world,” which involves installing multiple electric charging stations along highways. Over the summer, Plug-in opened the world’s first dedicated electric vehicle tourism corridor between Seattle and Wenatchee, Washington.
Scott Bergford of Scott Homes, Inc. and Northwest Energy Team described himself as “a homebuilder with a passion for saving energy.” His home building business focuses on building the most energy efficient homes staying within a modest budget. Bergford also discussed energy efficiency retrofits on existing homes. “Everybody’s house can get more efficient,” he stated, adding that his energy efficiency improvements save an average of 35% on electricity.
Olympia’s own GRuB, dubbed “Food Justice High” by Executive Director Kim Gaffi, finished off the conference with a presentation about their Kitchen Garden Project. Through this operation, GRuB has been able to employ many Evergreen students, and provide over 2,600 food gardens for low-income families and the community since 1993.
GRuB is educating families about nutrition and providing access to affordable, healthy food. They’re also bringing these ideas to children and adolescents, so that they learn about nutrition early and can help themselves and others grow their own food.
Scott Morgan discussed the idea that local collaboration and support can lead to worldwide innovation to open and close the event. Solutions for the world’s biggest problems can come from local success and be used on larger scales. This conference exhibited multiple examples of this philosophy, and Thurston County residents should be proud that so much innovation is underway in the area.
