New statewide network connects environmental organization, educators

Where can a business locate information on becoming more sustainable, a teacher find some owls for her classroom, or an individual discover how to get involved in the Slow Food movement? Answer: E3 Washington, a new online clearinghouse of environmental educators, providers, and more. The network Web site, at www.e3washington.org, was launched in 2010 by the Environmental Education Association of Washington . The free site now includes between 8,000 and 8,500 members statewide, says Abby Ruskey, EEAW executive director, who calls it a fusion of a social network and a searchable directory. “With this social network, people aren’t posting what they ate for breakfast but what project they’re working on or new strategies they’ve devised,” she says. Brook Beeler, Spokane-based watershed education director for the Washington Department of Ecology said the project benefits everyone. “It is a really good network of environmental educators across the state, like teachers or someone like me who’s a non-formal educator,” she said. “There’s also people who might have an interest in sustainability like school administrators and businesspeople.” The site is a great way for people to connect, says Beeler, a former EEAW board member and Spokane-area liaison for the E3 network. “Instead of me relying on my personal network, E3 has become a place where everything is searchable, where anyone can access that connection.” Spokane-area organizations that are part of the network include SNAP, the Inland Northwest Lands Council, and the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System. The West Valley Outdoor Learning Center, in Spokane Valley, which saw 10,000 children last year, is another member. Its education director, Jami Ostby Marsh, served on the EEAW’s board while it was developing E3 Washington. She sees the E3 site as a good networking tool. “I’ve been lucky to get some program sponsors” through the site, she says. The outdoor-learning center spends about 75 percent of its time working with students in the West Valley School District, supplementing its science curriculum but receives visitors and holds demonstrations outside the district. In addition to schools, E3’s members include individuals, organizations, and companies interested in the environmental industry. “It’s a place for them to go and come together as a community,” Ostby Marsh says. In 2006, in Tacoma, Billy Frank Jr., Gov. Chris Gregoire, Bill Ruckelshaus, and other state leaders launched the E3 Washington initiative. The E3 site said they were joined by 250 participants who were interested in environmental and sustainability education, and who represented diverse professions, cultures, and regions diverse leaders and stakeholders. “We needed to do more to address overlaps in areas where there were programs in areas doing the same thing,” Ruskey says. “We knew that we needed to do a better job getting out of the silos and linking better to K-12 education … and linking people to success and life.” E3 Washington’s goals include linking schools with environmental education providers; coordinating nontraditional education providers, such as outdoor-learning centers or zoos, to align programs with learning standards; turning school sites, businesses, and public places into learning laboratories and sustainability models; creating incentives for students and adults to make healthy lifestyle choices; garnering sustainability-related funds; using technology to help create sustainable communities; among others. It also promotes a better use of natural resources, such as conserving water, reducing pollution, increasing awareness of food sources, developing green technology, and more. Through its searchable directory, the E3 Web site provides information on programs, events, curriculum, and jobs; student projects; green-based businesses; and contacts. Members can create a profile and upload resources, like lessons or ideas, for others. For example, Ecology has a curriculum on water education and a speakers bureau. “We wanted it to be a very interactive space,” Ruskey says. “We already had a searchable directory that was pretty clunky. That has developed into the site you see today. We knew we wanted to have a social networking feature where people could connect. Now we have a student project space. We want to give people a way to identify themselves with and a way to communicate.” A field of people now joining the E3 network are in “systems thinking” or “system dynamics,” a field that can include using computer modeling to make better water irrigation systems, she says. “Future generations need to understand systems better. … Those people can then give those students new skills.” With the help of a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, E3 will develop more interactive pages on the site, such as blogs, Ruskey says. “We’ll be creating that in the year ahead. We’ll also be creating a place on the site to show accomplishments, a ‘We Achieve E3’ page with graphic depictions of the goals and strategies and steps being taken to achieve those.” In short, the organization will develop a way to measure and showcase progress. Until now, not much has been done to market the network to potential members in the Spokane region; however, an effort is just beginning. “We all believe in E3 and the mission. … We’re actually getting ready to reinvigorate to get all those programs in Spokane county to join,” says Ecology’s Beeler. She says the group plans to spread the word via e-mail, speaking engagements, and disseminating information at events. Beeler believes the network is important because it gives environmental educators more tools. “It also gives them the ability to network and work on relationships and connect with people that they’ve been missing. It also gives them a connection at the statewide level. … We’re not so far across the mountains that we don’t know what’s going on.” Ostby Marsh says she would like environmental education to have more support. The E3 network could be a place for programs to find and share funding sources, or even find an organization for whom to volunteer. “We wouldn’t want the E3 network to be competitive but supportive of each other.” Says Beeler, “I would really like to see these regional communities come together and put together good programs and see really strong environmental education throughout the state.”