Happy Earth Day! The goal for BRIDGES O2E challenge this year is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Memphis by 11 million pounds by 2011, and... as of last week O2E participants have alreadyreduced GGE by 3,544,099 pounds. Give the earth a little gift and join the O2E challenge today!

http://bridgesusa.org/challenge

Celebrate Earth Day with BRIDGES at the O2E College Experience! 

 

 

Ordinary to Extraordinary: Learning and & Leading GREEN (O2E) uses the BRIDGES Center, the first green commercial building in Memphis, as a teaching tool to provide experiential, hands-on learning about environmental sustainability. During this experience you will learn about opportunities to get involved with the program, upcoming events, tips for sustainable dorm living, and much more! You will also tour the building and learn how ordinary actions can lead to extraordinary differences in greening our community. Memphis-area colleges and universities will be represented, so this is a great way to network with other schools and learn about environmental activities happening on other campuses.

 

When: Thursday April 22nd from 5:30-7:30pm

Where: BRIDGES Center (477 North Fifth St.)  

 

Please register by contacting Sydney Shearer at sshearer@bridgesusa.org or 901-260-3774.  

 

 

Mollie Campbell, Director of Future Builders & O2E

As director of O2E, Mollie is the brains and coordinating power behind the program! Mollie designs and develops O2E programs and events, maintains relationships with community partners, oversees the program’s annual budget, manages program staff, and much, much more! Of her job, Mollie says, “My favorite part about O2E is the excitement our community feels about being empowered in the ‘green movement’.  Whether we are training a 12 year old from Humes Middle School or a 55 year old from FedEx, the knowledge and skills to live sustainably on this planet are empowering and life-changing.  Equipping and empowering people with this education and training is incredible, and O2E does it all in the most exciting ways!”  

 

Stephanie Dennis, Assistant Program Coordinator for Future Builders & O2E

Stephanie serves as the organizing power for O2E as Assistant Program Coordinator! Her job involves coordinating and facilitating O2E experiences, organizing logistics for program events, managing all O2E data, and managing program event staffing recruitment and retention. One of Stephanie’s favorite quotes is by James Dean: “I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed.”  She says, “This quote pretty much sums up why I love my job. Through working with Future Builders and O2E I not only have become closer to nature but I’ve also been able to provide this opportunity to the students that come through our program as well. Nature encompasses every aspect of our program when we take the time to stop and look.”  

 

Sydney Shearer, O2E Program Intern

Sydney is a junior at Rhodes College and serves as one of two O2E program interns. As intern, Sydney serves as a facilitator at O2E events, assists with preparing program materials and supplies for program events, creates O2E newsletters, manages the O2E blog and Facebook group, develops collaborative partnerships with college groups, and assists with outreach for O2E-for marketing and recruitment. Sydney describes why she loves working with this program: “O2E is really building a ground-up green revolution in Memphis. From businesses to school groups who go through the program, participants say that seeing these green principles in action inspire them to take action themselves. I love being a part of movement.”  

 

Lee Bryant, O2E Program Intern

Lee is also a junior at Rhodes College and serves as an O2E program intern. Lee’s responsibilities include serving as a facilitator at O2E events, assisting with preparing program materials and supplies for program events, keeping up with O2E data and information, researching additions and/or expansions to O2E program, coordinating creative arts initiatives for O2E programs, and creating relationships/collaborative partnerships with college groups. Of her job, Lee says, “I enter data for the O2E Challenge and I love tracking the commitments and the seeing the reduction of emissions increase. We really are committing to making Memphis a greener and healthier city.”

 

 O2E Intern Lee Bryant (above) shares her experiences working with the O2E Community Experience

 

 The community experience brings the O2E program to all citizens in the Memphis area. Through my environmental experience I facilitated a tour for the American Society of Interior Design. They were fully engaged, asking questions and genuinely curious about how they could make their designs more sustainable. This is another aspect about BRIDGES that makes their efforts in O2E so successful. The design elements and sustainable actions discussed in the O2E program are not unattainable to the average person. During my tour, one woman asked about the efficiency of toilets at BRIDGES. An average toilet can use up to seven gallons of water per flush, but those installed at BRIDGES only use 1.6 gallons. The woman then asked if those toilets are available for non-commercial buildings and I answered yes. HomeDepot offers high-efficiency toilets for the everyday person that carry the EPA WaterSense certification. BRIDGES aims to see real change in the community and they achieve this by providing examples, information, and simple solutions that make sustainable living practical.

 

Mollie Campbell has worked at BRIDGES since December 2007. In her time here, she has revitalized the middle school youth development program Future Builders and ushered in a new program, Ordinary to Extraordinary: Learning and Leading Green! What are Mollie’s insights on the program, its impact, and going green in Memphis? Read on to find out!

 

What is your impression of the impact of this program? The O2E program is having a real impact on the youth AND adults who have come through over the past year.  The students are experiencing significant increases in their math and science learning, as well as their leadership skills and inspiration for community change.  And everyone who comes through O2E is inspired to ‘green’ their community and make Memphis a greener/better place! 

 

What is your favorite part about giving tours of the BRIDGES building? My favorite part about O2E is how the program has similar impacts on all of the diverse groups of people who come through the building.  From school fieldtrips to corporate groups, from faith groups to families…everyone is impacted in unique ways!

 

What are some things that you have altered in your daily life in order to reduce greenhouse gases? I buy local food consistently.  This summer, I even bought a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) package from the Memphis Farmers Market.  I got amazingly fresh and delicious produce every single week!

 

Do you have any specific stories from a tour or O2E experience that you would like to share? I will never forget when one bright young man from Memphis City Schools was engaging with the renewable energy/bike generator machine.  He looked very pensive as he was riding the bike (generating his own clean energy).  He stopped pedaling and asked his classmates, “As often as people work out in this country, why aren’t all of the treadmills, stair-masters and fitness bikes in America connected to these generators?  We could probably power the whole country with clean, renewable energy!”  This is exactly the kind of critical, ‘out of the box’ thinking that O2E inspires with every group that comes through the BRIDGES Center.  I am so proud to be able to witness these kinds of ‘green awakenings’ amongst the youth and adults in our communities!  

At the end of 2008, BRIDGES set a lofty goal: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Memphis by 10 million pounds by 2010 with its new program Ordinary to Extraordinary: Learning and Leading Green. After a year of engaging programs and over 1,500 participants, we reached the goal for the O2E Challenge. O2E participants have reduced gge in Memphis by 10,682,908 pounds. Join us in celebrating this great accomplishment! There is still more work to be done to ensure a greener and more sustainable Memphis, so let's all keep up the good work. Stay tuned for our O2E Challenge for 2010.

I really enjoyed my visit and learned a lot that I can take back to my classroom!

–6th grade teacher, MCS

 

The O2E fieldtrip was educational and FUN!!! I observed students listening, reading, working in teams, and buying into the whole ‘green’ experience!

 –7th grade teacher, MCS

 

I LOVE BRIDGES! This was one of the best and most meaningful learning experiences that our students have ever had…I look forward to learning more, volunteering, and continuing to educate my students/community through the O2E concepts!

–6th grade teacher, MCS

 

Thank you for your most interesting exposure representing Bridges, it was truly a informative tour to one and All , every one left with a postive out look for saving our resources .

–Participant from the American Society of Interior Design

GREEN your Feast with the 100-Mile Thanksgiving Challenge

 

 

Want to ‘green’ your Thanksgiving feast? Take place in Treehugger.com’s 100-Mile Thanksgiving Challenge! Although we celebrate with the first Thanksgiving in mind, where the feast was (and had to be) entirely local, much of our Thanksgiving meal comes to us from places far from our homes. So, here's our challenge for you: make your Thanksgiving meal local. We want you to make a meal using only ingredients found within 100 miles of your home. This doesn't have to be a "traditional" Thanksgiving meal (although it can be), but it should be a feast that many of your family and friends would enjoy. You can even submit your local menus to the website and have the chance to have it featured online! Remember, buying local is good for both your health and the environment. It requires less fuel to reach local store shelves which saves on fuel. It also contributes more to your local economy by supporting the local farmers and merchants!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/treehugger_100.php

 

                                       

 

This fall over 200 Humes Middle School students have gone through the O2E experience under the guidance of teacher Angie Cooley. Through the utilization of the O2E curriculum in math and science classes, the students have developed school-wide service learning initiatives in order to ‘green’ their school’s neighborhood. Students also applied to develop multiple O2E projects for MCS Student Exhibitions on Nov. 12, 2009. These projects included a model community garden, recycled paper, recycling stations for school and neighborhood, recycling practices training for peer students and teachers, and a going green rap song and video to inspire other students to join their efforts. GREAT WORK, HUMES!

WELCOME to the O2E blog!  This is the place to learn about all of the cool 'green' things going on with BRIDGES 'Ordinary to Extraordinary: Learning & Leading Green! (O2E).  You can also check out some of the O2E leaders engaging in the O2E Challenge, and keep up with the challenge as we get closer and closer to our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Memphis by 10 million pounds by 2010!  Stay tuned!!!