People, Planet, Profit set the stage for Earth Day Spokane 2012

Instead of taking on the gloom of the realist seeing the dysfunction in the global conversation around highly degraded ecosystems, the uphill battle to greatly reduce our carbon emissions, and the staggering foreseen and unforeseen problems tied to human population at 7 billion, this year’s Spokane Earth Day organizers are looking at earth’s healing partly from an MBA’s perspective. “There are all sorts of opportunities in this community to work with non-profits around sustainability to help them with business planning,” says Jessica Anundson, lead organizer of the April 21 event with the goal of bringing adults and youth to Main at Division and Browne, outside the Community Building. Anundson and her team are using the framework of the triple bottom line derived by Bainbridge Graduate Institute to rudder this year’s themes: people, planet, profit. Anundson sees that paradigm as a solid way to work the crowd, which could be 3,000 or more. Since 2010, Spokane’s Earth Day has used a street fair format and live music as a way to draw Spokane residents – especially families – to learn from some of the organizations and businesses ascribing to some dimension of sustainability. One of the longtime supporters and sponsors is The Lands Council. The Bainbridge school is one of the sponsors of this year’s event. Anundson, fellow Master of Business Administration student Beth Robinette of Lazy R Ranch and others have set down four tracks to this year’s event: Helping people through farms. Growing social justice through social equity. Observing earth as a spiritual core. Discussing the future of green business. When speaking with the 28-year-old Anundson, one finds her enthusiasm for sustainable business parallels her desire to make the annual event sustainable – with team building and permanent funding. So far, over 100 tomato starts are ready for children and others to prepare for home growing. Panels are set for the Magic Lantern Theater, including “Shake the Hand that Feeds You: Farmer Chef Connection” at 1 p.m., “The Fourth Bottom Line: Spirituality and the Environment” at 2 p.m., “Going Green: the Future of Business” at 3 p.m. and “Power to the people: Economic and Social Equality” at 4 p.m. Music goes from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. So far, Angela-Marie Project and the B Radicals are lined up. If all turns out, there will be dozens of non-profits and businesses, and Anundson hopes politicians will make their rounds. Here’s more information about Anundson, who is one year into Bainbridge’s two-year MBA program. What is one take away you’d like youth to get from this year’s Earth Day? That every day is Earth day. How do you speak to politicians about the need for a healthy, connected, working environment? Connect the environment with the economy. It’s economically smart to take care of our environment and community. If you weren’t doing this Earth Day, what would you be doing? Homework and hiking. Many people think the time for celebrating is over, that it’s about Occupying classrooms, Occupying boardrooms, banks, state Capitols, You Name It. Why is this a valid response? “Occupying” is creating community and opportunities to give voice to people that haven’t been heard in a while… . Earth Day is another way to bring our community together. Complete these statements. The Spokane River is … the heart of our city. I love the Inland Northwest because … I can go out to a ranch in the morning, hike Mt. Spokane in the afternoon and go downtown and enjoy a musical in the evening. Plant a tree today … and talk to someone you’ve never met. If I was in charge of the EPA … I’d magically find the funding needed to patrol the regulations. My planet in 50 years … will hopefully still be as beautiful as it is today.