systems thinking

An Interview with Brett Joseph

B© frank peters - Fotolia.comrett Joseph is an organizational systems consultant, researcher and educator.  He directs the non-profit Center for Ecological Culture and the Cleveland Educator’s for Sustainability, teaches permaculture at Lorain County Community College, Ohio, and is a member of the Great Lakes Biomimicry Collaborative.  His consulting practice builds on his 20 years of experience as an environmental attorney, organic farmer and community organizer.  A current Ph.D. student in Organizational Systems at Saybrook University, Brett has professional and master’s degrees in law and an MA in humanistic and transpersonal psychology.  He also has certificates in civil mediation, socially-engaged spirituality, permaculture design, green building and environmental education.  Brett’s published writings focus on innovation, culture and whole systems approaches to fostering human and ecological health.

A Modest Proposal - Expanding Our Ecological Footprint (Ann Adams)

© Fribourg - Fotolia.comThere has been a great deal of press about the need for humans to reduce our ecological footprint, implying that Nature would be better off without humans.  But, what if humans were actually a necessary part of addressing the key environmental issues of our time?

Holistic Management International (HMI), an international environmental education non-governmental organization headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, works with stewards of large landscapes (agricultural producers, pastoralists and government agencies) to help them partner with Nature to create a positive ecological footprint.  Through improved natural resource management practices, these managers improve soil health, which results in a host of benefits including improved water quality, carbon sequestration, drought mitigation, flood resilience, and food security.

The ‘Algae Connects’ Project

© INFINITY - Fotolia.comA common thread in the Turning Ideas into Reality and Making a Living with BID conference calls was the need for more opportunities to do bio-inspired design.  Janet Kübler suggested that the BID Community participate in the 2011 International Algae Competition which had the goal of developing “… an open source collaboratory that expands and shares a vision for algae in our future with design ideas for algae production landscapes, sustainable and affordable algae production systems”.   Although the competition had a flavor of bio-utilization, the Algae Landscape Design track provided an opportunity to design a system that could incorporate ecological concepts and be inspired by the Life’s Principles.

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