by Emily Plews (’10) & Christina Gilyutin (’08)
Erbers found themselves deep in the woods dancing, cooking and eating amazing food, singing around a campfire and talking far too much about sustainable business to be cool. Sound like most of your favorite Erb Camping experiences? We thought so too. Although we’re talking about our experience at the Greenermind Summit in the Mendocino Woodlands in northern
California on June 17-19th. While the sense of déjà vu was undeniable, so was the sense that we were taking part in something refreshingly new.
Erb was well represented with alums and students across various classes including Christina (Gily) Gilyutin (‘08), Dave Fribush (‘10), Emily Plews (‘10), Takahiro Isshiki (‘11), Grant Hughes (‘13) and Raina Rahbar (‘12). These Erbers joined approximately 100 other change agents who fall somewhat haphazardly under the umbrella of sustainable business professionals.
Among the crowd were social entrepreneurs as well as individuals from both large and small companies including IDEO, Jump Associates, Frog Design, Blu Skye, Autodesk and Mercedes Benz.
Having graduated from Erb in 2008, Gily was specifically drawn to the conference in its inaugural year (2010) because it seemed to allow for the coveted trifecta of professional, intellectual and social engagement in a casual environment, which is often difficult to find ‘post-Erb!’ After being wowed by it last year, she got involved with the conference design team via co-sponsor, Net Impact San Francisco (NISF) Professional Chapter (the other co-sponsor
was IDSA San Francisco Chapter) this year. Gily and the other organizers tapped into systems thinking, design thinking and positive psychology to create and execute the setting, schedule and tone of the summit.
There were pre-planned sessions where attendees presented on various topics including visual recording, life cycle analysis for product design, facilitation, meditation and design for sustainability. However, much of the conference was structured to be unstructured (ohh the bittersweet spot between order and chaos). Saturday’s ‘unconference’ format was inspired by open source technology principles wherein attendees volunteered to generate content and
facilitate 20 decided-by-consensus discussions. Some discussions were meant to disseminate expertise, e.g. the neurology of movement and its implications for change, while others were meant to explore an open-ended topic, e.g. planning for a resource-constrained post-earthquake scenario.
In aggregate, the unconference format exposed what was top-of-mind for the collective. At this aggregated level we noticed some themes in the discussions this group of change agents wanted to have: how can we reframe sustainability to be more inspiring? What does individual change, physical movement, thinking, etc. have to do with sustainability? With extremely-
unique-to-University-of-Michigan exposure to sustainable enterprise and positive organizational scholarship, Erbers were prepared to make noticeable contributions to these cutting-edge conversations.
Meaty conversations were subtly yet strategically interspersed with activities to foster connections between attendees and recharge mental and emotional batteries. (SNRE Professors Kaplan and DeYoung would have been proud!) We watched fire dancing, silently hiked in the gorgeous redwood forest, danced to a Burning Man DJ, journaled about our superhero selves, and enjoyed the acoustical sounds of some amazing guitar playing (including those of our very own Dave Fribush!)
According to plan, we left filled with new ideas and questions, mentally restored from the technology/tree trade off, more capable with new skills, and energized about new and deepened connections with the other attendees. Yes, we were reminded of Erb Camping but also of something else more subtle and perhaps more important. Professor Hoffman’s teaching website prominently displays the following quote from Raymond Williams, “To be truly radical is to make hope possible, not despair convincing.” The spirit of this quote lies at the foundation of what it is to be an Erber, or sustainability change agent in business in general. Without hope, how else could we engage at the desperate intersection of business and the environment? Maybe the grandest “we” needs radical change in business. Maybe we are among change agents who might step up to Willams’ inferred challenge. If so, the 2011 Greenermind Summit was an invaluable reminder for an important group of people that in the face of despair, hope is indeed
possible… and powerful.
