Aimee Christensen

Blaine’s future.

November 27, 2018

Dear Community,

As the Sun Valley Institute moves into its fourth year, we’re reflecting on what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve learned, and are looking forward to what we can do better and take to greater scale. With the support of our community, we’ve made an impactful start and now are poised to expand and accelerate our contribution to resilient prosperity in the Blaine County region and beyond. We’d like to share with you a review of what we’ve done, some thoughts on where we’re headed, and, if this excites you, ask for yourcontinued support.

As you know, SVI was founded to advance economic, ecological and social resilience in Blaine County with models and programs that are scalable and replicable nationally. As we read reports of staggering wildfire impacts throughout the west, water shortages and food supply issues around the world, as well as increasing social division, we are reminded that the urgency of creating real, lasting community resilience has never been greater.

Our focus now is to sharpen our impact, turn risk into opportunity, and help Blaine County and the global community prepare for these changes in a way that provides lasting, stable prosperity for everyone, regardless of economic standing, nationality, age, and gender. This is at once a monumental challenge, an exciting possibility, and an urgent need – here, across our state, and far beyond.

SVI will respond by strengthening our support of our programs in four powerful areas:

  • Shift to resilient, cleaner, locally-generated and renewable energy supplies coupled with increased energy efficiency and storage technologies to provide greater security, cost-savings, job creation, and environmental benefits;
  • Shift to increased reliance on locally and regionally produced food, supporting our rural neighbors and economy, and decreasing dependence upon the unstable and ecologically damaging industrial food system;
  • Develop plans, policies and projects based on systems thinking and scenario planning; and
  • Convene those invested in building solutions to accelerate impact, such as through the Blaine County Resilience Workshops (first one on December 3rd) and our 5th annual global Sun Valley Forum, July 23-26, 2019, with top thinkers, doers and leaders.

2018 highlights and 2019 plans:

Energy: SVI partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory, local cities and the county to develop a digital blueprint of Blaine County’s electricity system,  one of just three communities nationwide. We identified the power needs of our critical response infrastructure (fire, police, water, medical, communications, etc.), and potential projects  to ensure ongoing operations during service interruptions. Next up for 2019, we intend to build plans and secure the capital (grant, government and private investment) to meet our critical loads and create local jobs for positive economic and environmental impact.

Food: Local food is a powerful lever to benefit health, economic prosperity and our environment. SVI’s food program, the Local Food Alliance (LFA), in partnership with University of Idaho and Blaine County Food Council, has engaged a nationally renowned food system analyst and economist, Ken Meter, to create a Community Food System Strategic Plan. Ken’s decades of experience will help us to prioritize food system infrastructure work and projects, such as food storage and distribution. This is a pivotal time: in 2019, we are excited to act on the recommendations.

Land Use: Blaine County has significant open space and land resources that can provide much-needed affordable food and housing and ample recreation and wild spaces. To help optimize our land use for immediate and long-term benefits, the Institute consults to landowners and developers to deploy innovative land-use strategies and new business models and to access capital and investment partners.

Community Planning: Since its inception, the Institute frequently has been approached to consult with local leaders on opportunities and risks. Leveraging SVI’s knowledge and experience, we have connected these leaders with best practices for policies, strategy, investment and technology resources and innovative business models. In 2018 and 2019, in partnership with Blaine County and other organizations, the Institute is leading our community in a formal process to identify and address Blaine County’s top threats and to transform risks into opportunities. We are interviewing dozens of community members and convening workshops to identify our current gaps, consider future trends, and prioritize specific projects (e.g., greenhouses, cold food storage, optic fiber for telecommunications) via the lens of climate change. The Institute will ensure each project has implementation plans to bring them to fruition.

Sun Valley Forum: In Summer 2019 we will host our 5th annual Sun Valley Forum where we catalyze connections, conversations and capital for a more secure, prosperous and healthy world. We gather leaders and innovators to share expertise, accelerate efforts and unearth opportunities for new collaborations and solutions. Speakers come from diverse perspectives and experience, from U.S. Senator Cory A. Booker to visionary Paul Hawken, from Paul Allen’s Vulcan Productions to adventurer-athlete-advocates including Arctic explorer and philanthropist Sir Robert Swan. We include companies like Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and Domo, and investors like BNP Paribas/Bank of the West, Generation Investment Management and Turner Impact Capital. We’ve watched the magic of the Forum lead to new partnerships and accelerated, scaled impact, and look forward to hosting our Forum 2019 at the new Ketchum Argyros Performing Arts Center, July 23-26, 2019.
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Risk Report, three of the five top global risks in the next 10 years are environment-related: extreme weather events (#1), natural disasters (#2), and the failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation (#5). The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that significant changes to the earth’s life support systems in the next decade, and recent California fires remind us how much we have at stake. The just-released U.S. Government National Assessment on Climate Change backs up SVI’s multi-pronged strategy, urging an integrated approach to assessing and addressing the impacts of climate change, for example how the changes to food supplies, water and electricity generation interact with each other. “It is not possible to fully understand the implications of climate change on the United States without considering the interactions among sectors and their consequences,” the report says.

The world demands our action. We have the opportunity – indeed the imperative – to lead. This requires us to be trailblazers: We innovate solutions that build our community’s economy, security and environment, while supporting others in need.

Our work is not possible without you.

We are deeply grateful for your previous support. It is clear you care about our community and want our work to thrive; we feel it every day. Please help us make 2019 our most impactful year yet and make a significant  financial contribution, whatever that is for you. Your donation is an investment, with the return of a strong, localized economy, smart land use and protected natural resources. The Institute is shaping solutions now and for the future.

Please join us to think ahead, and act now.

With gratitude,
Aimée Christensen
Founder & Executive Director, Sun Valley Institute

http://www.sunvalleyinstitute.org

SVI: Where Convention and Opportunity Meet

August 3, 2018

Initial takeaways from the 2018 Sun Valley Forum:

Re-invent impact.

The media promotes crazy extremes; the changing climate is not a political ideology.

Time is imperative.

“Stop thinking in silos.” -Julie Wrigley

407

Climate Mayors — the national coalition of 407 U.S. Mayors dedicated to pursuing solutions to global warming — denounces this unprecedented attack on both the environment and states’ rights, and vows to continue moving forward on transportation policies that help reduce the impact of climate pollution.

“I promise to leave the world better than I found it.”

The authors of Natural Capitalism say that these choices are possible and such an economy would offer a stunning new set of opportunities for all of society, amounting to no less than the next industrial revolution. The book has many practical suggestions for companies interested in a sustainable future.

According to the authors, the “next industrial revolution” depends on the espousal of four central strategies: “the conservation of resources through more effective manufacturing processes, the reuse of materials as found in natural systems, a change in values from quantity to quality, and investing in natural capital, or restoring and sustaining natural resources.

We win or die by our culture; we are everyday change makers.

#ClimateOptimist

The Climate Optimist Manifesto:

“I believe we can solve climate change.

I will shine a light on solutions, share my optimism & take positive action.”

climateoptimist.org

“There isn’t enough hope–we have to keep hope alive”

“Martin Luther King didn’t say, ‘I have a nightmare.’ He said, ‘I have a dream.'”

BlessedTomorrow.org

Climate Change Mitigation and Advocacy in 2018 and Beyond

by Anita Fete Crews

6.14.18

On May 2, Blessed Tomorrow and Auburn Seminary co-hosted the 2018 National Climate and Faith Leadership Forum, a gathering of nearly 50 faith leaders exploring how to increase climate change mitigation and advocacy activities across the country. Participants represented a diverse group of faith institutions and faith-based organizations, shared best practices, and discussed how to catalyze new, bolder, and broader efforts such as committing to 100% clean energy. Faith organizations and leaders are increasingly adopting climate change as a top priority, and embracing care for God’s creation as part of their faith identity and moral responsibility.

http://blessedtomorrow.org/blog/climate-change-mitigation-and-advocacy-2018-and-beyond

In Sun Valley, the Local Food Alliance:
If each Blaine County resident spends just $5 each week on locally grown food, our farmers will earn $56 million annually — a huge economic boost.

“Vote with your fork.” -Ali Long

“Local Food Alliance…is on and pushing the leading edge of dynamic social and economic changes that are increasingly important in an ever-widening circle of acceptance.” – Larry Schoen, Blaine County Commissioner

Senator Cory Booker (D) spoke with Founding Executive Director Aimee Christensen at the first Sun Valley Forum four years ago. On Friday, August 2nd, at the Netroots National Annual Conference he shared:

“No matter how powerful corporate greed and corporations might be getting, the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”

And this gives us hope.

[More from the forum soon–check this space.]

Change or be changed.

October 9, 2015

Those who dispute climate change are, ‘wrong, uniformed, and are contradicting the data.’

-Russ Brown

Scientist Russ Brown, B.S. & M.S. in Chemical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology formerly of the Allied Chemical Corporation, Idaho National Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory, spoke at the Ketchum Community Library Thursday evening, Oct. 8th, an event sponsored by the Environmental Resource Center. The presentation, “Climate Change Dynamics,” was moderated by Sun Valley Institute for Resilience Executive Director Aimee Christensen. Mr. Brown formerly served as the President of the Idaho Alpine Club, Idaho Environmental Council, and Greater Sawtooth Preservation Council.

Mr. Brown’s focus was presenting perspective, and data, on the issue of climate change and how it’s effecting our planet’s future, focusing on carbon, and methane emissions. Climate, which is basically the aggregate study of weather, is changing 100X faster, he says, than the traditional natural occurring planetary climate changes, due to these emissions. Although he didn’t offer suggestions to change the course of this crisis, he did suggest that isolated, accelerated experiments need to be conducted to study long-term effects of carbon and methane emissions. To learn more, he suggests reading the book Ice, Mud and Blood/Lessons from Climate Past, by Chris Turney.

Unknown-5

Also, Ms. Christensen mentioned two books that can be resourced to understand the theories from those who doubt that climate change is a reality, Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes, & Erik M. Conway, and This Changes Everything, by Naomi Klein.

Unknown-6

Unknown-4

This Changes Everything is now a documentary film; Ms. Christensen is hopeful the film will be screened in the valley soon.

Check this space for a discussion with Ms. Christensen about a solar energy campaign coming to the Wood River Valley, as well as other ideas her organization is focusing on concerning local renewable energy projects.

 

 

Sun Valley Institute for Resilience

July 13, 2015

 

svi_logo200_psd

The Sun Valley Institute for Resilience is a center for public education, policy leadership and investment to ensure economic prosperity, environmental protection and human well-being in its home community of Idaho’s Wood River Valley and beyond.

11731837_10153416795269144_4697604910517825586_o

(US Senator Cory Booker, and Founder/Executive Director Aimee Christensen at the 1st Sun Valley Forum on Resilience)

Senator Booker: “Across America, communities are increasingly facing challenges that are global in nature, from climate change to competition with an ever more interconnected world economy. Expanding the capacity of communities to be resilient in the face of these challenges is an urgent priority. Solving these problems should be about finding and implementing what works, and the expansion and democratization of technology is increasingly enabling communities to make more decisions based on hard data, not hunches. I’m looking forward to discussing how to turn these challenges into economic opportunities that can strengthen our communities and our country.”

SVIR:  “In partnership with leading foundations, academic institutions, corporations and nonprofits, the Institute brings together local and global resources and expertise to strengthen the area’s ability to bounce back from harm to the local economy, whether from wildfires, poor snowfall or global economic conditions, and to serve as a global resource to increase resilience far beyond.”

Did you know:

95% of the Wood River Valley’s food comes form outside the valley?

We send $80 million per year out of the Wood River Valley to pay for energy?

local-dollars-300

From Dayle’s Community Cafe: Deep gratitude to the Sun Valley Institute for Resilience for opening their 1st forum to the public. US Senator Cory Booker & great minds manifesting resiliency with Executive Director Aimee Christensen, Sunday, July 12th, at the Walnut Avenue Mall. Adapt, Survive, and Thrive!  Aimee is deeply respected across many sectors of community/local philosophy and commerce. When I first read of this new organization, I intuitively felt the connection and need in our community. This speaks to the grass roots efforts that will bypass policy and government on the national level to allow communities to thrive and evolve on the local level; i.e. not react to issues that effect our lives where we live…e.g. wild fires (still recovering from Beaver Creek), Climate Change (less snow…shorter seasons, greatly effecting our tourism in the valley, our biggest source of income for businesses, therefore, employees), power outages…e.g. Christmas 2010), drought, water rights, but to respond and evolve within the changes. The opposite of resilience is defined as ‘failure’. Failure ‘to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change.” Truly inspired by this organization and the various leaders in our valley, and beyond, who are involved with this organization and developing projects.

http://www.sunvalleyinstitute.org

(In addition to Senator Booker, other speakers at the 1st Forum, Sunday, July 12th in Sun Valley: Nancy Kete of the Rockefeller Foundation, Raul Pomares, Founder of Sonen Capital, Steve McBee, CEO of NRG Home, Collin O’Mara, CEO, National Wildlife Federation, Marco Krapels of SolarCity, Jeffery Sayer, Director of the Idaho Department of Commerce, Brooks Preston of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Brent Stacey of the Idaho National Laboratory, Gary Dirks, Director of the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, Peter Horton of Pico Creek Productions, Jeff Goodell of Rolling Stone Magazine, Jennifer Leonard of The CAPROCK Group and Michael Shuman, author of Local Dollars, Local Sense.)

https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org

http://www.rmi.org

http://www.postcarbon.org/our-people/michael-shuman/

http://www.sonencapital.com

https://sustainability.asu.edu/people/julie-ann-wrigley.php

http://urbangreencouncil.org

http://www.goalzero.com

http://www.nrg.com

http://www.booker.senate.gov

Clean Web Design