Our Partners and Funders
Meet the Visionaries Who Help Make Our Work PossibleThe Cloud Institute would like to thank the following idealists for contributing to our work. As a nonprofit, we could not do what we do without their support.
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
The Nathan Cummings Foundation
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
The Bay and Paul Foundations
Dr. Robert C and Tina Sohn Foundation
Greenopolis.com
Con Edison
Councilwoman Annabel Palma
Partners: We use a model to describe the framework for education for sustainability that depicts a set of nested systems. In the center is the learner (1), and then the habits of mind of a whole systems thinker (2), then the core content and congruent pedagogy (3), the organization that learns (4), the physical plant, procurement etc.(5) and finally in the outer most circle, the community that learns (6).
At the Cloud Institute, we concentrate most on curriculum and instruction and organizational learning, areas 1-4 on the model. To do that well requires the expertise of a great range of fields including education, economics, systems thinking/system dynamics, social science, geography, psychology, entrepreneurship, civics and participatory democracy, many science disciplines (biology, physics, ecology, etc.) and tens of others. This is one key place where our partnerships are vital.
The other critical place is in areas 5-6. In these areas our partners range from architects and regenerative design professionals to folks whose expertise is in sustainable food systems and procurement including “Farm to Cafeteria” specialists. We also work with the Ecological Footprint accountants and energy auditors, green cleaning and building product procurement specialists and investment consultants. We team up with a core group of partners on a regular basis and others work with us on a project by project basis.
We have carefully selected our partners because of their knowledge, expertise and experience in their particular part of the system, and their respect for and sensitivity to the other parts. Our list of partners will grow very slowly, as it is the quality, not the quantity, that is vital to our work.
Entry Points
To begin the process of educating for a sustainable future, each school/school system has to start somewhere. Some begin with their physical plant (s) and operations and move to curriculum and instruction and relationship to community. Others begin with curriculum and instruction and then move to the other parts of the “whole system” of EFS. Still others begin with the food that is grown and/or served in the school cafeteria and then move to the other aspects of EFS. Some of the new schools have had the opportunity to start up with the whole system in mind, and are elegantly designed so that all the parts of the system are mutually beneficial to one another. This is rare—but it is happening already. No matter where you begin it is clear to us that in light of the interdependence of all the parts of the system of EFS, if they are serious about educating for sustainability, schools, school systems and their communities will eventually need to engage all aspects of EFS over time.
Teaching and Learning
All our curriculum materials and our professional development protocols are informed by, and in many cases co-written by the master teachers, professional developers, curriculum and assessment professionals of Learner Centered Initiatives, Ltd. (LCI) and the Center for the Study of Expertise in Teaching and Learning (CSETL). These organizations are dedicated to the design of rich, student centered instruction K-12 that is assessment driven, standards based, differentiated for multiple intelligences and multi and inter-disciplinary. The purpose of their pedagogy is to develop in students higher order, critical and systemic thinking, applied learning, questioning, and transference.
Learner Centered Initiatives
Communities for Learning
Giselle Martin-Kniep
New York City/Long Island
Curriculum Design
Curriki: Curriki is more than your average website; it's a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world.
Physical Plant, Site and Regional Context
We use “the place as curriculum” in classroom instruction regularly, and we work with the professionals who research the sites, develop the plans, design the buildings and the landscapes, construct the wetlands, and work with the operations personnel to maintain the places over time.
Regenesis
Principals, Pamela Mang, Tim Murphy and Ben Haggard
Santa Fe, NM
Integrative Design Collaborative
Principal, Bill Reed
Boston, MA
Hone and Associates
Principal, Keith Hone
Pennington, NJ
New Civic Works
Principal, Hilary Brown
New York
(212-217-1558)
Global Footprint Network
Principals, Mathis Wackernagel and Susan Burns
Green Collaborative
Leslie Benson, Education Programs Manager / Research Consultant
New York
Schools that Learn, Organizational Change and Systems Thinking/System Dynamics
We know that in order to move toward a sustainable future, we will need to have “schools that learn in communities that learn” for sustainability. That means that schools and their communities must work and change together over time. That means that everyone is encouraged to keep thinking, innovating, collaborating, talking candidly, improving capabilities, self correcting and making personal commitments to a shared future. It also means that they will need to become “systems thinkers” and “systems actors”. This will require education, and in some cases, re-education of all concerned, from the kindergarteners to the elders. For this aspect of our work we have co-founded the Sol Education Partnership with Peter Senge and the Society for Organizational Learning including Linda Booth Sweeney, Bea Mah Holland, Rita Cleary and Lees Stuntz and the Creative Learning Exchange.
Society for Organizational Learning (SOL)
Boston, MA
Creative Learning Exchange
Acton, MA
Sustainable Food Systems and Schools
We are what we eat. Many schools and school systems are serving healthy, regional seasonal and even organic foods in their cafeterias. We support agriculture-based nutrition education, such as school gardens, to teach students where their food comes from. We work with the best individual consultants and organizations we know that can teach schools/school systems and their communities how to make the shift toward growing, buying, making, and or serving sustainable food in their cafeterias, and in their homes.
John D. Turenne, President
Sustainable Food Systems, LLC
jturenne@sustainablefoodsystems.com
Toni Liquori (Nutritionist)
tliquori@nyc.rr.com
