Possibility Day Reflections: Environment

New this year, we are experimenting with a shift in language from “Challenge” Days to “Possibility” Days. This reframing is in response to LT’23 cohort members' request to focus on solutions and LT’s continued evolution toward asset-based approaches to regional issues. Our Environment Possibility Day was designed to support these Flagship Program goals:

Community and Belonging: Build a diverse multi-sector learning community in which participants can find belonging, inspiration, and support for action during and after the program year.
Regional Challenges and Opportunities: Introduce a range of regional challenges and opportunities through the lenses of equity and antiracism; envision and explore examples of policies, institutions, and systems that promote equity.
Leadership: Build a toolkit of leadership skills for individual and collective action so that organizations, communities, and the region may thrive.

Cohort members explored the inequitable impacts of climate change; practiced strategy development for an environmental advocacy or awareness campaign on issues such as sustainable design, storm water runoff, and local food for health and job growth; and explored strategies to approach conflict.

To get a feel for the day, read the agenda HERE. For a list of resources related to this day, read the prework HERE. Read below reflections from two LT'23 cohort members.

It's time to recruit for our LT'24 cohort! If you know someone who would benefit from LT, please nominate them here. LT will follow up with them about our 10-month Flagship Program and how to apply.

Zelle's Reflections

Alexandra Zelle Rettman, LT'23, Pivotal Consulting

We explored so much leading up to and during our time together: snowpack, stormwater runoff, salmon spawn, king tides, recycling, bicycle helmets, life expectancy, superfunds, industrial kitchens, and more.

What does the environment have to do with racial equity? This is the question I’ve been answering recently when people ask what I’m learning at Leadership Tomorrow. This is what I tell them: during our Environment Possibility Day, we heard from Paulina López and Jamie Hearn of the Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC). Although they are not emergency responders, DRCC was the first to arrive to help South Park residents when the area flooded.

South Park is a vibrant and warm community. It is largely populated by immigrants and refugees, people who speak many beautiful languages and live on a budget that is a fraction of what many Seattle residents live on. It is this community that felt the greatest impact from the latest king tide that pushed the Duwamish into their living rooms; this community whose children experience higher rates of hospitalization for asthma due to localized air toxicity; and this community whose average life span is 10 years shorter than people living eight miles northeast of them in Laurelhurst. While the environment impacts all of us, it is evident that some feel it sooner and more intensely than others.

Jamie and Paulina reminded me that change happens from the bottom up. We must educate ourselves and engage with people and communities, ensuring we are aligned and being led by the people most impacted by our collective action.

As I move forward (and sideways and sometimes backwards) in my journey, I’m grateful to Leadership Tomorrow for giving me the space to grow in my ability to see the layers of complexity with these issues and ask more relevant questions in pursuit of creating a Puget Sound of belonging.

Natalie's Reflections

Natalie Gray, LT'23, Oracle Energy & Water

My highlights of the LT Environment Possibility Day were in our morning deep dives on water (ha!), both in conversation with the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC) and a table discussion I hosted on Pacific Northwest watershed management.

Our conversations were thorough. Not only did we discuss the water cycle and the impact of water infrastructure in our area, we delved into the many varied cultural relationships with water, the importance of fostering native plant growth, and how an environmental scientist begins to ask and answer how the world works.

I am grateful for my tablemates. Everyone was curious, brought something to our table, and followed up with a thoughtful action plan involving re-indigenizing our outdoor surfaces, injecting demand for native plant markets, slowing water run-off and improving water quality, and mitigating climate change – all by integrating urban rain gardens into their communities.

Our exercises in conflict literacy were vital because, as leaders, people look to us to lead by example. The way we handle conflict is an opportunity to demonstrate our values and model how we believe others should act: with dignity, respect, and a holistic view of people and situations.

Throughout the day, we focused on the benefit of living things and the systems that support them, which was very fitting for an Environment Possibility Day. Here’s to more great conversations and action plans with our LT crew!