7gen Bloc

Spent the last day in a half, working with a group of Vermont NGO's and companies to think about how Vermont companies can play an active role with the NGO and government community to help educate people to change their behavior and reduce their CO2 footprint. David Gershon who wrote Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds and Joe Laur who we work with in the SoL community, led the design session. It was an interesting day with a number of questions on how to engage Vermont in a way that builds synergy with all groups focused on the Global Warming question. We walked away with idea of roadtesting the idea of putting 7th Generation on a Low Carbon Diet. The process would look like this:

The first step is making a commitment to reduce your company’s carbon footprint, and enrolling your employees in a program to reduce theirs. The steps for this first, internal, phase of the program are as follows:

1. Identify your organization’s carbon footprint
2. Commit to a 20% organizational footprint reduction by 2010
3. Host a “Global Warming Café” workshop in-house to introduce the Low Carbon Diet and Cool Community Campaign to employees
4. At the end of each workshop, employees are invited to make a personal carbon-reduction pledge and to form “EcoTeams”— groups of approximately eight people/households who will serve as a peer support framework for completing the carbon-reduction program. (Like a Weight Watchers support group for one’s carbon diet, EcoTeams follow a series of four structured meetings guiding participants through the diet’s carefully crafted 22-step recipe for successful carbon reduction).
5. Utilize employee carbon reduction learning to assist with organization’s carbon reduction strategy.

We are thinking about roadtesting this process in the fall. More to come... WR