Quinault Indian Nation

Ed Johnstone is being honored as a Champion of Change for his efforts as a Community Resilience Leader.

I am a Fisheries Policy Representative for the Quinault Indian Nation, a land of cliff-lined beaches on the Pacific Ocean, evergreen forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains. We fish the same waters and hunt the same lands our ancestors did thousands of years before people from other parts of the world ever came here. We meld our traditions and legacies with technological innovations and provide new opportunities for our hard-working people; however, we always maintain environmental stewardship and sustainability at the forefront of our priorities and spiritual connection.

The Quinault Nation seeks every opportunity to merge our efforts with those of other governments as well as other people from all walks of life as long as they demonstrate respect for our history, our sovereignty and our land, our treaty-protected rights, and the rights of future generations to inherit a healthy world. Economic prosperity and gainful employment are congruent with these things, as long as care, cultural sensitivity, and wise, long term decision-making are the primary considerations in management planning and implementation. Because of this, I gladly accept the honor of being named a “Champion of Change” because – as you know- change is mandatory. 

It is important for other Americans to understand the perspective of Native Americans—to learn from it and hopefully adopt elements of it in their own lives. We have lived here a very long time. Survival and adaptation are concepts we Indians know very well. We breathe the same air and walk on the same land as other Americans. We drink the same water. We share a common future. In the long run, humanity will either prosper, or perish, together. Climate change is a major anthropogenic environmental concern, which affects Tribes directly. It has already had major impacts on our lands, causing massive fish kills and transmigrations through hypoxia and ocean-warming, intensified storms and flooding, glacial melting and expanded droughts, eroded beaches and invasive species. 

Quinault Nation and other indigenous nations have been responding to climate change for years, and the need to support us in our efforts as well as work with us in a team effort to deal with this issue, as effectively as possible, is absolute. I was proud to the co-chair First Stewards, a non-profit organization which presented a major climate change summit at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC this past summer, and which will continue to bring indigenous people for the U.S. and American territories together over climate issues in the years to come. I am currently treasurer of First Stewards. For more information on this program, please visit our website at www.firststewards.org. 

I have worked in the timber and fishing industries of the Quinault Indian Nation most of my life. I am a two-term Quinault Councilman, serving from 1996-2002, and serve as treasurer of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. I also chair the Intergovernmental Policy Council, a forum of tribal and state co-managers of the ocean area that includes the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. 

Edward Johnstone serves as the Quinault Indian Nation Policy Spokesperson on all issues regarding ocean policy and treaty fishing rights

The CLEO Project on Climate: Bridging the Divide Between Science and Society!

Caroline Lewis is being honored as a Champion of Change for her efforts as a Community Resilience Leader.

I embraced this goal with tremendous optimism when I created the CLEO Project on Climate. Now, some three years later, things have changed. Almost on a daily basis, I must guard my energy and confidence against being sapped, as I work in earnest along this recklessly slow road to my desired end.  The good news is that thousands of individuals and institutions have this same goal and have invested mightily in education and engagement efforts. The bad news is we still seem to be swimming upstream. It is time to turn this ship. This White House recognition is a tremendous honor, but it is the opportunity to spur meaningful change that truly excites me.

In 2010, we founded the CLEO Institute to promote real change on a big scale. This small but mighty non-profit, based in Pinecrest Gardens in South Florida, advances environmental literacy and civic engagement by developing initiatives that can be scaled and replicated.  We focus on Creative Learning and Engagement Opportunities (hence, CLEO) to promote and celebrate participation by broad audiences. This means providing multiple opportunities for engagement by intergenerational, interdisciplinary, and socially diverse audiences. The CLEO Project on Climate (CPOC) is designed to trigger community conversations within varied social, cultural, economic, academic, religious and political gatherings. It also provides opportunities for deeper learning through basic and advanced climate education and communication training.

Phases I and II of the CPOC encourage participants to find and share their voices on climate change issues. We have already logged well over a thousand written and videotaped Phase I responses to the Project Question: What is climate change all about, and what’s my role? For Phase II, CLEO partners with scientists, educators and communicators to train hundreds of individuals as part of the Empowering Capable Climate Communicators Series. Trainees then join CLEO’s online Phase II Speakers Network and develop their own outreach plans.  Additionally, the CPOC includes climate-related forums, film screenings, science cafes, panel discussions, showcases and contests. Through these related Phases and events, we mobilize schools, colleges, businesses, organizations, and government offices to participate in fact-driven dialogues describing what we know about climate change, the forces that likely affect it, and scalable solutions.

We are proud of the CLEO Project on Climate. It uses the powerful vehicles of both formal and informal education to mainstream climate science and build climate literacy. The CPOC is inclusive and celebratory, and the use of web and social media is a key contributor to motivating very large, diverse audiences.  And the public response has been extraordinary. We work with principals, teachers, college professors, students, elected officials, artists, bankers, doctors, lawyers, civic and community leaders, and concerned citizens.  We believe an educated citizenry is better able to make personal changes and to respond to robust efforts toward climate resilience. In our region, Miami-Dade County’s GreenPrint and the four-county Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact action plan are excellent examples that need support from a more engaged and informed public. Climate science is serious and complicated, and becoming climate-literate is a journey.

I expect climate change will be THE defining issue of this century, and many centuries henceforth, with respect to economic, environmental, and humanitarian vulnerability. Climate science desperately needs honest attention so we can invest in immediate, sweeping, sustained action towards mitigation and adaptation efforts. And we need this YESTERDAY! How do we make this happen? Each of us should embrace our unique power to influence others and to champion change.  I know I blaze through life armed with the surety that we influence and are influenced by others, sometimes when we least expect it. Dare I dream? I must. I believe we will turn this ship, and efforts like the CLEO Project on Climate help us become agents of change. I believe we will influence our leaders and each other.  I believe our leaders, on the right and on the left, together with everyone in between, will steer us in the right direction, not further into harm's way.  I believe this, and I want you to believe this, too.

I accept this honor with the full knowledge that we all stand on the shoulders of other champions.  I am fortunate that so many have shaped, supported and inspired me, and I celebrate them all.

Please visit our website at www.CLEOInstitute.org.

Caroline Lewis is the founder and executive director of the CLEO Institute at Pinecrest Gardens.

Ecolibrium

Jodi Slick is being honored as a Champion of Change for her efforts as a Community Resilience Leader.

Disasters are indiscriminate foes. For individuals, disasters don’t care if you have been diagnosed with cancer, are underwater on your mortgage, or plan to retire next week. For communities, disasters don’t wait until you’re ready, and they don’t come with an instruction manual.

I’ve witnessed the pain and frustration of disaster victims and recognize the years of difficult rebuilding ahead in our communities. If we are to build resilient communities, we need design thinking, integrated strategies, and strong partnerships to both mitigate the causes and adapt to the effects of climate change.

Climate change is real. The costs are high. The time to invest in resiliency is now.

My climate resiliency story began in 2008 when I attended an emergency meeting of community organizations to discuss the “heat or eat” dilemma many in our community faced during the winter. With an old housing stock, a very cold climate and an ever expanding energy affordability gap, it seemed that just triaging resources for the upcoming winter wasn’t enough.

I realized we needed to address the current emergency and also create integrated solutions that would make us more resilient to future energy price fluctuations and economic downturns. At that time, I was Executive Director of a social enterprise that led the implementation of green standards in low-income homes, and we were working on a national demonstration project that incorporated solar thermal systems into deep energy retrofits of foreclosed and blighted properties.

As much as I took pride in the work we were doing, I was bothered by the fact that our impact would be ten times greater if we were also increasing investments in weatherization and insulation for leaky homes. That fall, I assembled a cross-sector collaborative that created the Duluth Energy Efficiency Program (DEEP) and in 2011 founded Ecolibrium3 to administer DEEP and develop other community sustainability initiatives.

Ecolibrium3’s DEEP program helps residents of all-income levels by assessing their homes, prioritizing improvements, bundling available financial resources, contracting with trained and qualified companies, and conducting quality assurance through our one-stop shop. In our first two years, we helped more than 600 households complete efficiency upgrades, saving an average of $646 annually, and reducing GHG emissions by four tons per home.  Over 65 percent of our participants complete advanced energy efficiency measures. DEEP is nationally recognized as an innovative, community-scale model for residential energy efficiency.

Building the DEEP process, however, is only the first part in our two-part story of community climate resiliency. The second part began after a 500-year rain event flooded the City of Duluth and seven counties in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin last summer. Ecolibrium3 had no experience in disaster recovery, but it was clear to me that the processes, capacity and cross-sector partnerships we built to bring energy efficiency to scale were the type of resources a community would need to rebuild. Without a FEMA Individual Assistance Declaration, and the infrastructure and funding that would have come with it, a local solution to provide recovery infrastructure became even more important.

When the Ordean Foundation chose to invest in flood recovery for low-income households, we rapidly retooled DEEP to meet these needs. Ecolibrium3 began reconstruction management weeks ahead of federal and state programs with a two-step process designed to dovetail with other disaster assistance. First, we helped families meet immediate winter preparedness needs of electricity, hot water and energy efficient furnaces using a bridge loan while residents waited for SBA or state assistance.

Once traditional disaster assistance was received and the bridge loan paid back, we reinvested the funds as a grant to complete advanced energy efficiency and flood mitigation measures that could not be covered by the disaster loans. Ecolibrium3’s flood-recovery model established standards for rebuilding that emphasizes energy efficiency and is saving some households more than $2,000 a year on heating costs. In addition, applying our third-party contract management system and extensive list of vetted contractors resulted in quicker rebuilding while protecting residents from post-disaster fraud.

Through Ecolibrium3’s work, I’ve learned that disaster recovery is a long and messy process. We still have families in need and it is essential that we find additional resources to help our region recover. It is equally important that we continue to invest in resilience by building community capacity and stronger systems before disasters strike.

Our climate mitigation and adaptation work would not have been possible without the dedication of the Ecolibrium3 staff and board, collaboration with the City of Duluth, support from the Ordean Foundation, Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, Duluth Local Initiatives Support Corporation, US EPA Climate Showcase Communities, US DOE, MN Division of Energy Resources, MN Housing Finance Agency, and Freshwater Future, as well as the strong utility conservation programs available in our community through Minnesota Power and Comfort Systems.

Jodi Slick is Founder and CEO of Ecolibrium3.