I'd like to thank all of you and especially Senator Pappas and your aide Catherine Ryan for this opportunity to be here today. I have been following some of the very important work you are doing and want to express my appreciation. I hope that what I present today can help further our shared vision of providing the world's highest quality education to people of all ages in Minnesota.

In the short time we have, I'd like to share about an innovative, proven and scientifically-based approach to education about sustainability called the Natural Step that was developed just 12 years ago in Sweden by a leading medical doctor and cancer researcher. Today it is being used by a wide variety of schools, businesses, government agencies, farmers, and communities to educate people of all ages about sustainability while saving money, improving performance, reducing waste and supporting environmental responsibility.

I feel its use in Minnesota education could help generate a new understanding about our environment through a state-of-the-art curriculum, prepare our students for opportunities in the new economy, improve our state's global competitive position, reduce costs and tax burdens, and create safer, more attractive and healthier schools.

I'd like to begin by asking about your level of awareness about the Natural Step and briefly telling you about my background and experience with the Natural Step. I'd like to share a brief video that describes what the Natural Step is and how it is being utilized by a public school, the University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center. Following that, we'll discuss the purpose of the Natural Step, how it came about, and how it's being used today. I'd then like to show you a few slides about how the Natural Step is being used in early childhood education, primary and secondary schools, service learning and adult education in Sweden. I'd like to conclude by sharing a few recommendations and opening up for questions and discussion. How is that?

Unfortunately, with this amount of time, I won't be able to provide you with an experience of how profound the TNS teaching process actually is. And, rather than going into detail on the Natural Step's four principles of sustainability, I'll have to rely on the video and the handout.

Senators' Involvement with TNS

I'd like to begin by asking if you've had a previous experience with the Natural Step. I know that in conjunction with a presentation at the Science Museum of Minnesota and an MPCA Conference, former Sen. Steve Morse sponsored a visit two years ago by Ray Anderson, President of Interface, the world's largest commercial floor covering manufacturer. Interface has used TNS to save more than $88 million. Anderson also has spoken at the Governor's Pollution Prevention Awards Ceremony. Were any of you at any of those events or have learned about TNS through other experiences?

My Background

So that you can understand the perspectives I'll be sharing with you today, I was trained as an Agricultural Economist at UC Davis and received a Masters in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management. I have worked on education and sustainability issues over the past 25 years in the private sector (Assistant to the chief economist and Grain Merchant at Cargill, Director of Sustainability and Ecological Affairs at the Aveda Corporation, and President of Sustainability Associates, an environmental consulting firm), public sector (Cooperative Extension Agent and Co-founder of the Sacramento Community Garden Program, Legislative Assistant and Congressional Aide to two U.S. Representatives), and non-profit sector (President of the Alliance for Sustainability, where I wrote several books and did sustainability and Natural Step education at the primary, secondary, college and public levels). I consider myself a sustainability educator.

Involvement with the Natural Step (TNS)

I first heard about TNS in the early 1990s during research in Europe. I visited the head of the Ecological Farmers Association in Sweden, who also happened to be a teacher. She described how TNS is used in early childhood education and in schools, and, as a farmer, she described how TNS helped bring both conventional and organic farmers together to agree on a shared vision that fundamentally changed the direction of Swedish agriculture toward sustainability.

I later met the founder of TNS, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert, at an Earth Day Conference in NYC. Then Paul Hawken asked me to become part of the first TNS instructors course in 1996. Since then, I've spent time in Sweden learning about TNS and lead a Science Museum Tour there. I've headed a MN visit by Swedish TNS leaders sponsored by the MN OEA and helped build a Natural Step Network here in MN of more than 500 organizations and individuals. I lead TNS seminars throughout MN and around the country. I must say that in my quarter century of work on sustainability issues, this is the most powerful, comprehensive, scientifically-sound, and easy-to-understand approach to sustainability I've ever seen.

Video on TNS at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center

This video provides an overview of what is sustainability and describes the four basic principles of TNS and how they are applied to a school building. I hope it will both give you a sense of how we can use TNS in our curriculums and to create safer, healthier and more attractive school buildings that will save money and reduce tax burdens.

Purpose of TNS

The purpose of TNS is to bring about sustainability. OVERHEAD
The basic ideas of TNS are laid out in the handout you have on "The Natural Step's Four Principles or Conditions for Sustainability." Again, because of time, I won't go into them right now.

The Background of TNS

The process of how TNS was created is actually quite significant. It was launched in 1989 as a nonprofit educational organization created by Swedish medical doctor and cancer researcher Karl-Henrik Robert. Concerned about rising cancer rates among children, Robert's research convinced him the causes were connected to environmental factors, not lifestyle. He began a consensus process among his fellow researchers on the conditions for planetary sustainability. After 21 drafts of a paper, Robert achieved consensus from 50 leading Swedish scientists.

But he knew that to bring real about real change, he needed to creatively engage people and reach out to the broader public. Robert persuaded major corporations that they should support an effort to send an audiocassette and educational pamphlet on the findings to every home and school in Sweden, 4.3 million altogether. This not only brought awareness to young people and their families, but inspired artists, musicians, and actors to create a range of musicals, comedies, artworks, games, CDs and even a national television special to launch the Natural Step with the backing of the King of Sweden.

Impact of TNS in Sweden

In only 12 years, there have been an impressive series of shifts in Sweden that are highlighted in the article I wrote on "The Natural Step to Sustainability" which was passed out: OVERHEAD

• Schools have incorporated TNS into their curriculums and service learning programs, encouraging hundreds of thousands of young people to become concerned about the Earth and create environmental projects in their schools and communities, develop computer networks and television programs and establish a Youth Parliament;
• Sixty large and small businesses made a commitment to sustainability and began offering ecologically sound products and services that increased profitability, improved performance, and provided competitive advantage. The largest oil company developed clean-burning, farmer-grown bio-fuels and lobbied the government to raise air-quality standards while McDonald's eliminated toxics, used green, renewable energy and even solar panels and wind turbines, made a commitment to go organic by selling only organic milk, and serving veggie burgers and hamburgers with organic beef.
• More than 70 major cities and rural towns became eco-municipalities, combining economic and ecological development, thereby decreasing costs and waste while creating more jobs. These efforts are acknowledged by the King through a biannual sustainability award; and
• Conventional farmers made a commitment to become sustainable, saving money and the environment by reducing pesticide use by 75 percent in less than a decade, while creating the world's most environmental conference center by becoming fossil fuel-free with renewable energy, utilizing sustainable forestry, converting their model farm to organic, and serving organic food.

TNS in the US

The Natural Step was brought to the US by author Ecology of Commerce author Paul Hawken and MIT Professor and organizational learning leader Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, in the mid-1990s.

The first company to use it was $1.4 billion Atlanta-based Interface, the world's largest commercial floor covering manufacturer. CEO Ray Anderson had to give a talk to his global environmental management team and read Paul Hawken's Ecology of Commerce. As he said, "It was an epiphany. It was like a spear to my heart. We weren't breaking any laws, but I realized my company was destroying the planet. There was no future for my grandchildren or my company. We had to stop."

He vowed to turn his company into the world's first sustainable company and to speak to every CEO he could to have other companies shift their practices. This was furthered by his being named as the Co-Chair of the President's Council on Sustainable Development. He had Interface conduct a sustainability report that fully documented their petroleum-based, highly polluting, take-make-waste linear production system. In their eyes, to turn it around was as daunting as climbing Mt. Everest.

But utilizing TNS, they developed the first recyclable floor coverings resulting in a 30-40% reduction in resource use, built a solar-powered carpet manufacturing plant in LA and saved approximately $88 million in just four years. This is documented in Ray Anderson's book Mid-Course Correction.

Collins Pine, a manufacturer of certified, sustainably-harvested forestry products, is using TNS to save more than $1 million a year.

It now has been adopted by many other corporations, including: Home Depot, Nike, Mitsubishi Electric USA, and Norm Thompson Outfitters. This book, The Natural Step for Business by Brian Natrass and Mary Altomare, provides detailed case studies.

There have been some exciting developments with TNS in the public sector. I have conducted a day-long Natural Step seminar for the MN PCA, and there has been on-going interest there and in the OEA with support for a variety of follow-up programs. I have done similar presentations with the Washington State Department of Ecology and a host of agencies and communities throughout MN and other states.

Following a TNS presentation I did in New England, Republican State legislator Bob Maddox developed and won passage of the nation's first legislation creating positive incentives for businesses utilizing TNS. It states that any business utilizing ISO14001 voluntary environmental management systems along with TNS, can avoid a 12-18 month waiting period for permits while forgoing various fees and regulatory reports.

In Oregon, Governor Kitzhaber has declared the state's commitment to become sustainable utilizing TNS. He has begun an initiative in every state agency to conduct Natural Step education and implement changes based on its principles.

TNS and Education in the US

In terms of education, the first major school to utilize TNS was the University of Texas at Houston Health Sciences Center. You saw how they are utilizing TNS in their new building, but in addition, they conducted a major TNS educational program, saved millions of dollars in energy costs, reduced water use more than 20%, and more than tripled recycling poundage since 1993.

TNS curriculum development efforts have been undertaken by the San Diego Museum of Natural History and Susan Straight and other teachers in New Mexico have developed and implemented a curriculum based on TNS for grades 5-8. They have incorporated TNS into their service learning projects at the elementary and middle school levels particularly with projects connected to such things as restoring habitat, advocacy for community decisions which forward sustainability, providing those basic needs to community members which are mentioned in the fourth sustainability principle, reuse of materials, support of alternative housing materials, advocacy against sprawl, etc.

New Mexico teacher Bruce David is completing a high school curriculum for Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Government which would involve the study of such issues as alternative energies, the use of chemicals in our society, local, state and national laws which keep present practices in place and do not encourage alternatives such as gray water use, straw bale housing, alternative energy tax incentives, the retrofitting of housing without electricity and water with water catchment systems and solar panels, research on the state of rivers, pollution, petrochemical usage in the community, etc. Students study these issues in the context of the Natural Step and then develop service projects to move towards a more sustainable community.

Clearly, this could be easily utilized here in Minnesota given our long-term leadership in service learning.

TNS is also being widely utilized at the post-secondary level. The non-profit I serve as the voluntary head of, the Alliance for Sustainability, is based in the Hillel Center at the University of Minnesota. Consequently, we have done a variety of presentations at the U and other universities throughout Minnesota and the rest of the US.

Boston-based Second Nature, has developed post-secondary curriculum and helped facilitate TNS seminars addressing both curriculum and operations for hundreds of colleges and universities across the country. Information about their efforts, such as Educating by Example: Using The Natural Step, is available.

Slide Show on TNS and Education in Sweden

In the few slides I'll share, I'd like to give a quick sense of how TNS is being used in early childhood education, primary and secondary schools, service learning and adult education in Sweden.

Recommendations

Based on all of this, there are several recommendations I'd like to make:

1. Incorporate into existing curriculum at early childhood, K-12 and higher education - TNS can be utilized to provide a basic, shared sustainability literacy and understanding among people of all ages and backgrounds in MN.
2. Develop service learning projects in conjunction with business, government, religious institutions and nonprofits - These could play an important role in expanding student education through experiences that can lead to paid internships and career development opportunities.
3. Trainings for school administrators, teachers and staff - Provide in-service TNS trainings so that there is a shared vision among all staff and students.
4. Sustainability action plans in every school - TNS also can be utilized to create a sustainability action plan within each school, thus saving money and resources while creating safe, healthier and more attractive environments.
5. Train-the-trainer - Offer trainings so that there can be one or more staff in each school that can lead TNS seminars in their school and community.
6. Facilities development - When schools are built or renovated, utilize TNS as a shared framework for architects, administrators and school board officials in the planning, design, material selection and construction. Consider incorporating "full circle" greenhouses, composting toilets, hen houses and gardens.
7. Green operations and purchasing - Utilize the TNS principles in building operations and procurement decisions.
8. Environmental audits of schools - Have students, teachers, administrators and staff conduct an environmental audit of their school as a learning and career development experience, as well as a way to build greater environmental awareness and commitment and finding ways to save money and resources.
9. Adult Education - Consider providing TNS educational materials for adult learning efforts and encouraging adult study circles and learning initiatives such as the Global Action Plan and the Northwest Earth Institute.
10. Network among educators - Support the creation of an active TNS education network among educators, perhaps through the MN Environmental Education Association.
11. Sister school program - Establish a school-to-school partnership between Minnesota and Swedish schools.

Contact Information:

Terry Gips, 2584 Upton Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55405; 612-374-4765, tgips@mtn.org

Alliance for Sustainability, In the Hillel Center at the U of M, 1521 University Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414; 612-331-1099; iasa@mtn.org; www.mtn.org/iasa