Great River Earth Institute

GREI is modeled on the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) in Portland, Oregon, a nonprofit founded in 1993 to encourage transformation of individuals' consciousness of their connection with the Earth and their impact on it. NWEI has developed four study courses designed for use by small groups in workplaces, neighborhoods, churches or other places. Courses developed so far include Deep Ecology and Related Topics, Voluntary Simplicity, A Sense of Place and Choices for Sustainable Living.

System-level change is necessary to develop a sustainable way of life on Earth; and this can only happen when individual people transform their values and assumptions and experience a sense of connection with all beings.

Encouraging this transformation and reconnection is the goal of the Great River Earth Institute. Our work is aimed at adults and older teens and its goal is to provide an opportunity for people to examine their values and habits, gain understanding of how their choices affect the Earth, and take responsibility for reducing their impact. We use the "study circle" model, a method of education that can be done almost anywhere by almost anyone. This approach to adult learning is the best way available to help people make deep, lasting changes in their attitudes and lives.

Great River Earth Institute

These courses are appropriate for use anywhere that people spend time together. Anyone in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area interested in forming or joining a study group, please e-mail us. We are available to meet with potential groups to explain more about the courses and provide the curriculum to those who are interested. The courses are much more than the readings, however--the benefit lies mainly in the group interaction. Since at least 8 are needed for each group, interested people are asked to call or write the Great River Earth Institute, 612-305-1232, to arrange for a volunteer to present an introduction to the courses to any size group of people in a faith community, neighborhood, workplace or other location. The person need only reserve a meeting room and make an announcement about the presentation.

The cost for being in one of these classes is $15, the cost of the reading materials.

How the courses work

Workplace classes that meet over lunch also work well because people do not have to travel or carve out more time in their week to meet, get babysitters, stay up late or give up part of their weekend. In neighborhoods and churches, the courses have a community-building effect, and groups often want to stay together after the course is finished to do other things such as Eco-Teams, other environmental actions, or further reading and study.

The groups are started off by a volunteer and from then on are self-led, with each person taking a turn at being facilitator. Discussion centers on the common reading each person has done during the week, all found in the course book, and can range widely according to where the members of the group want to take it. There is no "set" outcome; the goal is for people to examine their own values and habits, listen to others talk about theirs, and ultimately allow their thinking to be transformed, deepened and inspired.

At the end, the group has a celebration, such as a potluck meal and closing ritual allowing everyone to speak about their impressions and what they learned. The GREI volunteer returns at this session to distribute certificates and inform people of further opportunities for study or action.

This method of adult education--small groups meeting to learn from each other--is one method of "folk" and "popular" education, a growing and effective international movement of democratic, empowering education that is used for a wide variety of settings and topics, including adult environmental learning.

Courses

• How Much Is Enough? by Alan Durning
• Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn
• The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken
• Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold
• When Corporations Rule the World, by David C. Korten
• Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl
• In the Absence of the Sacred, by Jerry Mander

As of 2002, the NWEI materials are in use also in northern and southern California, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio, Delaware, Washington, DC, Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Texas, Alaska, Maine, Montana and Mississippi. Earth

Significant changes

Even environmental professionals, who often begin the deep ecology class believing that they are quite well aware of their environmental impact and are doing all they can, usually come out with new ideas and renewed inspiration to become even more Earth-friendly. Usually at least one person in each group of 8 to 12 becomes more involved, helping new groups get started, working on curriculum or getting new organizations involved in forming classes.

How to reach us

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