Connect

We'd like to stay in touch all year long.  The following are ongoing or upcoming ways for those interested in evaluation of environmental programs, projects, initiatives, and campaigns to stay involved.

Carbon Offsets
While buying carbon offsets from certified providers does not stop greenhouse gas emissions it supports projects that are taking CO2 out of the atmosphere, providing clean energy and clean water.  According to a study commissioned by the AEA Board and President Beverly Parsons, most of the American Evaluation Association carbon footprint comes from member travel to and from our annual conferences.  The EPE TIG encourages anyone traveling to any conference, including Evaluation 2019 and the AEA Summer Institute, to provide a voluntary offset of the carbon impact of their travel. By purchasing carbon offsets, you can counteract your personal carbon footprint. The EPE TIG recommends certified carbon offset provider Native Energy.  Go to https://nativeenergy.com/for-individuals/calculators/#Travel to offset your travel. Follow the instructions for using the Native Energy travel calculator to determine how much carbon your travel to and from the conference generates.  Then make a contribution.  Be sure to put "AEA 2019" in the trip title or in the "additional information" box at the checkout so that NativeEnergy and the EPE TIG can track how many people participate in this year's AEA EPE TIG carbon offset initiative.

Evaluation 2019 EPE TIG Field Trip
Wedge Community Co-op, Minneapolis.  RSVP required: See "Announcements" on the Environmental Program Evaluation home page for details. 

The Wedge Community Co-op was founded in 1974 and has long been a leader in the vibrant Twin Cities co-operative movement.  It has multiple activities in several locations around the area.  It is an organic foods community grocery cooperative and belongs to both the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA)
and the National Co+op Grocers (NCG), a business services cooperative for retail cooperative grocery stores located throughout the United States.  It has a wholesale distributor, the Co-op Partners Warehouse, which services retail co-ops, natural food stores and restaurants in the Upper Midwest.  In 2015 it became the first cooperative whose employees unionized.  In January 2008, the co-op leased Gardens of Eden, one of the oldest local certified organic produce farms in the Twin Cities area and started running it, but in April 2015 put it up for sale, deciding to concentrate on its retail operations.  In 2008, the Wedge Co-op formed the Organic Field School (OFS) at Gardens of Eden. OFS is an on-farm facility with a focus on education and research for farmers, educators, policy makers and the public.  Sign up with Heather Dantzker <heather@dantzker.com> and come along on the field trip to learn more about this fascinating 55 year old cooperative.  Learn its history, the principles under which it operates and innovates.  Find out more about sustainable food systems, and what is possible in the cooperative movement from organic production to wholesale and retail distribution, sharing with and giving back to the community where one lives.

 PAST EVENTS:

November 1, 2018: AEA 2018 Conference: Cleveland, Ohio.  After a morning of AEA sessions, ?? AEA members toured “Farmville” and other sustainability projects at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland and Global Center for Health Innovation to learn how their operations incorporate a focus on sustainability.  This tour will begin in the Global Center Atrium with a brief introduction and take between 90 minutes and 2 hours. The tour includes the Exhibit Halls, Truck Loading Dock, Grind2Energy Food Recycling Center, Art Gallery, Hilton Cleveland Hotel and connected Huntington Garage, Kitchen, Back of house areas, and FarmVille. The attendees got a unique "behind the scenes" look at how the Convention Center provided sustainable energy, food, and services to all AEA conference attendees and any group using the center.  This is a model facility and AEA could help with global sustainability by sharing information about it with the operators of convention centers and hotels that host its conferences in the future.

October 27, 2016: AEA 2016 Conference: Atlanta, Georgia  After a morning of AEA sessions, 26 AEA members traveled across town to the Trees Atlanta Education Center "Tree House" to participate in the annual EPE TIG Field Trip.  This year EPE TIG members were joined by members of the Youth Focused Evaluation TIG that co-sponsored the trip with us. At the Tree House, participants learned about the history and mission of the organization. After the initial orientation, we headed outdoors to a Walking Tour of the Atlanta Beltline- a revitalization effort, spanning 22 miles where we learned about two of Tree's Atlanta's youth engagement programs: Urban Tree Trackers and Junior Tree Keepers. After the walking tour, we grabbed lunched and headed back to the Tree House where we participated in a Q & A session with staff to discuss opportunities to assess youth engagement, measure the long-term impact of the program, and options for engaging you in evaluation efforts.

Pictures from the outing:

 


November 12, 2015: AEA 2015 Conference: Chicago, Illinois   

The EPE TIG sponsored a field trip to Field Museum of Chicago to meet with Keller Action Science staff to learn about some of the Center's programs and evaluation efforts, both internationally and in the Chicago area. Field trip participants had a great open discussion with Field Museum staff to generate ideas and approaches to tackle tough evaluation challenges in conservation action science and cross-cultural understanding.

November 2 - 5, 2011: AEA 2011 Conference: Anaheim, California

For more information, visit the conference website at http://www.eval.org/eval2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011, 2:00 - 2:20 PM EST: Product Demonstration: Miradi Software: Tools, Guidance, and a Common Language for Evaluating Conservation Actions
Presenter: Nick Salafsky
Miradi - a Swahili word meaning "project" or "goal" - is a user-friendly program that allows nature conservation practitioners to design, manage, monitor, and learn from their projects to more effectively meet their conservation goals. The program guides users through a series of step-by-step interview wizards, based on the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation. The software helps teams to prioritize threats, develop objectives and actions, and select monitoring indicators to assess the effectiveness of their strategies. Nick Salafsky, a member of the product development team, will introduce the software and its uses for evaluation. Note that this is a product demonstration, similar to what you would see via an exhibit at our annual conference. You can access a recording of the presentation: http://comm.eval.org/coffee_break_webinars/resources/viewdocument/?DocumentKey=1d5dcdeb-5b69-4513-9820-38c2adbe1e78 (log-in required)
June 23 - 24, 2011: Environmental Evaluator's Network (EEN) Forum in Washington, DC

 

This year's forum marks the sixth year of the EEN Forum. The call for proposals and more information about the convening will be available soon. In the meantime, for more information visit the Network's website athttp://www.environmentalevaluators.net/.

March 12, 2011: Psychological Contributions to Sustainability and Environmental Action
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the first Claremont Symposium on Applied Social Psychology will bring an international cast of prominent researchers on Environmental Psychology. Speakers: Tom Crompton, World Wildlife Foundation; Janet Swim, Penn State University; Edward W. Maibach, George Mason University; Susan Clayton, Wooster College; Linda Steg, University of Groningen, the Netherlands; Florian Kaiser, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany; Robert Gifford, University of Victoria, Canada; and Amara Brook, Santa Clara University. The symposium will take place at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA. For more information, please visit the symposium website at http://www.cgu.edu/environmentalpsych.

November 11, 2010: Field Trip during AEA Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX

The Environmental Program Evaluation TIG sponsored a field trip to tour the San Antonio River Improvements Project (SARIP), an impressive multi-agency river restoration project underway on the San Antonio River just south of downtown San Antonio.

The session included a site visit and walking tour of the Eagleland and Mission Reach portions of the river that were previously channelized for flood control.  The current project is restoring a more natural channel morphology and native plants.  The tour will be lead by a specialist from the San Antonio River Authority, and discussions will include the pre-project assessment, project goals, evaluation and monitoring plans.   Additional topics will be the challenges of ecosystem restoration and conservation in the urban interface, and addressing recreation uses.

Pictures from the outing:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We'd like to stay in touch all year long.  The following are ongoing or upcoming ways for those interested in evaluation of environmental programs, projects, initiatives, and campaigns to stay involved.