Guest Blog - a student perspective on the sustainability/systems thinking conference

What follows is Cort Hammond sharing his thoughts about the conference and what he learned. Cort is the President of the high school's Environmental Club. The idea behind the design comes from Mr. Tucker.

Five Days of Learning

My passion is for the environment. Last school year, I started the Green Team at Tahoma Senior High; we worked to improve on the small recycling program at our school. 20 of my peers shared my goal. With that support, we managed to get recycling bins in every classroom by mid fall of 2008. By late winter of 2009 we were also collecting bottle caps which have to be recycled separately. My principal, Mr. Duty, called me to his office one day and asked me if I wanted to go to New York for the Society for Organizational Learning (SOL) conference. The realization of just how amazing this opportunity was only set in once I got home. The next day, I returned to Mr. Duty’s office and affirmed how eager and glad I was to participate.

On July 12th, we got up at 4:30, went to the airport and 5 hours later we landed at JFK airport; though tired, all of us were in good spirits. Mr. Duty joked about how he got things free in Duty Free shops and Mr. Tucker was quick to say Duty Free is what he calls his summers. We all chuckled and were happy that the teachers were so laid back. On arrival at the Garrison Institute, I was already awed by the beauty of the landscape and of the building. Even at this point, we were not sure exactly what we would be doing at the SOL Conference; we knew that the subject was sustainability and had prepared by reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded and The Necessary Revolution. While I did not enjoy the two books as much as a good novel, they were fascinating. The success stories that I learned about were an inspiration. Furthermore, I learned about systems thinking, an idea that was central to the conference. We walked in the door and went through the registration process. We walked down creaky hallways and opened our old fashioned door latch. The antiquated feel of the whole building was cool. We went to dinner and enjoyed the vegetarian meal of leak and potato soup. We didn’t meet anyone new as we were still getting to know each other. That evening we went on a walk through the forest surrounding the old monastery.

The next day, we got our first look at all of the students and teachers that had come together from across the U.S. We were introduced to Peter Senge, Jamie Cloud, and the numerous other individuals who made the conference possible. I thought it was pretty neat to be part of the first meeting of this kind (students and teachers). We got together and began the first timid and then interesting process of getting to know people from other sites and learning a little about them. That day we were introduced to systems thinking through a simplified simulation of supply and demand. In the simulation, there were four roles: the factory, the distributer, the wholesaler, and the retailer. Each stage of manufacture could not communicate with the others; it had to order whatever number of goods it thought appropriate according to demand. Even though demand stayed relatively constant, production shot up to climb out of a backlog (when orders exceeded inventory). Then suddenly there was no more demand as the massive surplus reached the consumer; everyone was left with a massive inventory. This demonstrated a system where none of the roles could work individually and still emerge successful. This was because the decision to order more to avoid a backlog caused the next stage in production to order even more. The result was sudden overproduction. I thought this game was quite fun to play and showed how the seemingly simple task of forwarding goods along the line to the consumer was more complex and how each stage of any system is influenced by the other. The analogy of an iceberg was particularly effective. The tip of the iceberg stands for the events (incurring a backlog). Then beneath the water, the complexities and connections of the system exist (the lack of communication and runaway production). This whole precept reminded me to try to look at every part of our school and beyond the school to have the greatest impact possible. After this, we had the opportunity of sharing our goals and visions. I was intrigued to hear about the environmental activities of other schools. One school had started a reusable bag program and another had installed a wind turbine. This whole part was exciting, because we were finally talking about specific actions. We concluded with a reflective exercise about our vision. That night for dinner I enjoyed a delicious tofu wrap.

The following day we formed learning circles. I had an excellent group that was full of experience, ideas and diverse backgrounds. Since my focus was on the environment, I was sure to ask all of my group members what their schools were doing that was environmentally oriented. One girl, Michelle, replied that they had nothing, and a teacher described their plastic bag reduction program. She told how their school had bought and sold reusable bags and encouraged students to stop using plastic bags. I was impressed with their program and it certainly reminded me of the first goal of environmentalism: to reduce. After that, we reconvened and talked about reinforcing loops. The most fascinating thing for me was Mr. Senge’s explanation of how the world is like a bath tub where the rate of

water flowing in is greater than the rate of water draining out. The rate at which Carbon Dioxide is put into the air is 8 billion tons per year, while the rate at which the earth absorbs CO2 is only 3 billion tons per year. Or bathtub is filling up and the longer the tap runs the hotter the water gets. This is the perfect explanation for why simply stopping to emit any more CO2 than at the present level is not sufficient. Global Weirding (a term for climate change) is happening and this is why. At lunch, we talked with Mr. Senge to see what ideas he had for the Environmental Club and the Global Academy class. He offered to connect us with Starbucks or Costco to work with them on sustainability projects and suggested that we work with Puget Sound Energy and local corporations. I was glad to hear his advice; next year, I hope we can write letters to local and state-wide businesses, asking for cooperation. An excellent place to start could be with our local Safeway, with the aim of reducing plastic bag consumption. Also, there are plans to build a Fred Meyers next to a Safeway; it would be nice if it was LEED certified. Inspired by our discussion with Mr. Senge, I added to my action plan for next year’s Green Team (for action plan, see below). That afternoon we went into the city. This experience was just as educational; never in my life have I seen such a spectacle of waste, consumerism, and excess as in Times Square. One billboard touted its “green” solar panels, but this one billboard was cancelled out by the hundreds of others around it that were constantly running. This sickening sight is the type of thing that drives me to do what I can to help the environment. I also wondered why there was so much traffic when subways, bus routes, and train tracks crisscrossed the city; we certainly had no problem with transport. We ended the evening with a look at the UN headquarters, a powerful symbol of potential international cooperation; even at night.

On Wednesday, we started off by talking about the progress in our learning circles. Then we departed by bus to Stone Barns Farm. This is an agricultural project that focuses on being as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible. One point of learning for me was how the farmers rotated the sheep and fowl to ensure that the pasture remained fertile and the soil was not depleted. Also, we were shown how clover was allowed to grow among the crops to provide nitrogen for the soil. In addition, they had an extensive composting system that was interesting to learn about since we hope to implement composting in our school. We went into the city again and returned to Times Square to observe more rampant consumerism in stores like the M&Ms Factory. Does society really need M&M erasers, pencils, and a thousand other collectables? We also got to see ground zero and, for the first time, I actually had a sense of the devastation and I felt my connection grow outside of simply being an American.

On Thursday, we discussed the previous day in our learning circles and had the opportunity to hear more about the other two fieldtrips. Those who went to the school of St. Augustine were introduced to the sustainability issues that the school is facing, including the need to preserve their aging building. They had bee hives on the property which provided honey for the school. The other destination was Fieldston School where they have a green roof that is composed of a garden and scientific tools. One of the teachers from St. Louis said that their roof was long overdue for a replacement and that they would like to build a green roof. It would be neat if we could have a green roof as well; however, it might be more practical to focus on renewable energy at our school. For dinner we were surprised to find meat on the menu and most people were overjoyed and acted like salvation had come at last.

On our last day, Friday the 17th, I ate several delicious blueberry scones for breakfast. Then we met in our learning circles one last time to reflect on the past week. I was most excited about the closing meeting among us Washingtonians. We took turns sharing our visions of how Tahoma needs to change. We talked about how the Environmental Club always needs to revisit why they’re passionate about their cause. For me, this is something important to be reminded of because I had gotten too wrapped up in my list of proposed actions. Still, I made sure to talk about the proposed action plan for this summer and emphasize the importance of Mr. Tucker’s (one of my teachers) idea that when school begins this fall, there should be visible change. These visible changes include recycle bins for the lunchroom and hallways, composting, a meter of the schools energy consumption and posters with the Blue and Gold make Green logo. Before we knew it, we were on our way to the airport and about 8 or 9 hours later we landed in Seattle. To save fuel, I carpooled with Mr. Duty and Mr. Tucker to share with my family the five days of learning and fun. My younger brother, Conor, typed out the last two paragraphs by dictation since I was sick.