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| Uncommon Sense Graduates - Montana Yellowstone Exp |
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UnCommon Sense Program Graduates 2009
MONTANA YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITIONS FOUNDATION
Private Foundation and Youth Wilderness Program, Emigrant and
Bozeman, Montana
REASONS FOR PARTICIPATION
Montana Yellowstone Expeditions (MYE) is a youth wilderness program for
socially and economically under-served youth from select areas of the
United States. According to Andy Leider, Executive Director, the
environmental curriculum taught prior to joining the UnCommon Sense
program was a more traditional science-based education: ecosystems,
plants, flora, and fauna. But the changing climate and times prompted
them “to include the larger sustainability
conversation. Our students were hearing about climate change and global
warming, but had no idea, no sense of how it was connected to them. We
decided to make sustainability a core element of the youth summer
courses.” To do that, they joined UnCommon Sense to focus
both on
developing a sustainability curriculum for the summer program and
making the MYE Foundation more sustainable as an organization. Leider
says, “We didn’t want to just teach it, but live
it.”
BENEFITS RECEIVED
The dual reasons for joining UnCommon Sense meant extra work for MYE,
but work that could potentially effect more cultural change than some
of the other organizations. Cari Hanson, a private consultant hired to
go through the program with Leider and help develop the curriculum,
says they had to approach each module from two perspectives: that of an
UnCommon Sense organizational participant and as a teacher, which often
meant melding the modules to better fit the organization:
“Every
time we entered a module, we would look at organizational operations
and make the changes that fit our program. Then we looked at the
educational opportunities for our students, staff, vendors and
suppliers. We’d have to ask ourselves, ‘Based on
our
program, how does this fit in the back country, on the river, or in the
mountains? How do we teach it?’”
Because MYE doesn’t have the structures of a traditional
organization—they lease their site and vehicles briefly and
seasonally and have no access to the background data that a typical
UnCommon Sense participant might have—they creatively
combined
modules to see results. For instance, they chose to look at
transportation issues through the lens of purchasing and decided to
focus on local and sustainable foods. Leider says, “We looked
at
what we could do – drive less – instead of what we
couldn’t. Students fly in to Montana, that’s not
going to
change. But we used to drive a lot to make purchases. So instead of
driving to Bozeman to Costco, we began purchasing from the six or seven
local farms in Paradise Valley.” They set a goal to purchase
no
less than 50% of their food locally. To achieve that, they went through
the menu and created a system for the kitchen coordinators to use each
year for their purchasing. Last season they bought 65% to 70% locally,
which they define as the state of Montana. The results: MYE saw a
decrease in the food budget by 18% in 2008 with similar food volumes to
2007. They also reduced their rental vehicles from seven down to five
by using trailers attached to the passenger vans, instead of renting
pick-up trucks to haul equipment. As a result they dropped their
mileage by 7,000 miles and reduced fuel consumption.
MYE also linked waste, consumption, personal purchasing and energy
conservation. With each youth group, they do a waste sort, which is
always a “big eye-opener for them,” Hanson says.
“As
a result we’ve revamped our whole recycling program and
changed
providers for all paper products to a local vendor. We now buy 100%
post-consumer paper, toilet paper, paper towels, and all office papers
from a Montana supplier.”
But according to Leider and Hanson, the biggest change has been the
cultural shift in behavior in staff and students. Because of the
MYEarth program they developed, an alumnus named Zach has reenergized
the recycling club for his high school and connected with the local
university to develop a sustainability curriculum that high school and
college students can teach to elementary students: a direct result of
both UnCommon Sense and the MYE curriculum that came out of it.
BOTTOM LINE RESULTS
- Diverted Educating a new generation of sustainability
leaders
- 65-75% of food purchases made locally
- 100% paper products purchased through local vendors
- Reduced food budget by 18%
- Eliminated two rental vehicles
- Reduced miles driven by 7,000 miles per season
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