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Sustainability History Project

The SHP is an initiative to document sustainable business and cultural practices in the Pacific Northwest.

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About & Contact

Overview of the Sustainability History Project
Elements of the Course
Selection of Documented Business & Cultural Practices
Brief Biography of Project Coordinator
Contact

Overview of the Sustainability History Project

The Sustainability History Project (SHP) is an initiative to document a variety of sustainable business and cultural practices in the Pacific Northwest. This documentation is being done primarily through the medium of recorded oral history interviews, which will soon be made available through this website.

All work on the SHP thus far has been done as the focus of a a number of undergraduate Senior Capstone courses (see also this link)through the School of Business Administration at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. As of Spring 2010, these Capstone courses have been titled “Documenting Sustainability in the Pacific Northwest.” The content of the project focuses on the Portland metropolitan area, but will be expanding to include practices throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The primary community partner for this ongoing project is the Northwest History Network, a non-profit consortium of regional history, archives, library, and other professionals. As the specific focus of documentation changes each quarter, the SHP also establishes working relationships with businesses, organizations, and individuals to secure interviews and provide service opportunities for students.

Students in the course learn first about the history and contemporary meanings of “sustainability” and how sustainable practices can be measured. Next, students learn about and practice oral history interviewing techniques. Intertwined in all of this is ongoing expansion of knowledge about the business or cultural practice that students focus on during the academic quarter. During the final few weeks of the quarter, students apply the knowledge and skills they have gained by scheduling and conducting a recorded interview, completing community service hours, and writing essays, response papers, and reflections.

Elements of the Course

There are four primary components of the course, identified below. Students are highly encouraged—but not required—to correlate these components to optimize efficiency and enhance each individual component.

    Oral History

      This course is built around gathering an oral history interview. This process involves, first, learning about the fundamentals of oral history; second, researching the subject of the oral history; and third, conducting the oral history interview. (More about oral history methods & philosophy here.)

    Community Service

      Students will be required to complete at least five hours of volunteer service during the quarter, unless prior arrangements have been made with instructor. Ideally, this service will be with the organization that the student is concentrating on for the oral history interview, but final choice for the focus of the service component will be left up to the student, with the approval of the instructor. (More on community service here.)

    Group Work & Participation

      Students will work collaboratively within groups to help one another in their research. Students are encouraged to collaborate on writing their essays and formulating interview questions within and beyond their group, but grades for all assignments will be based on individual work. Participation in this course also includes contributions to online discussion at the Sustainability History Project Website: https://sustainabilityhistory.org/.

    Essay

      The essay component of this course is composed of two stages. The first stage will be a 4-6 page version. Students will then enhance and expand this version over the course of the quarter to produce a more refined 6-8 page essay. The essay is composed of three components:

        1) Choosing a topic to analyze—such as a practice, technique, project, or organization;
        2) Articulating a specific definition of “sustainability” OR a specific definition of one or more aspects of “sustainability”—this is the “lens”;
        3) Looking at the topic through the “lens”: Specify to readers the ways in which the practices, techniques, projects, organization, etc., chosen in Step #1 achieves, supports, falls short of, and/or is in contradiction to, the definition of sustainability from Step #2.

    Selection of Documented Business & Cultural Practices

    Below are some of the business and cultural practices that SHP contributors have been engaged in. For a complete list of contributors, see Contributors to the SHP.

      ** Ranching
      ** Death Care
      ** Agriculture / Urban Farming / Community Gardening / Regional Food Systems
      ** Recycling
      ** Forestry
      ** Health Care

    Brief Biography of Project Coordinator: James V. Hillegas

    I live in Portland, Oregon, and am an historian of the 20th century urban environment in North America. I am currently an instructor at Portland State University and Editorial Coordinator for the Oregon Encyclopedia.

    I earned his Master of Arts in History from Portland State University in 2009. My thesis is titled “Working for the ‘Working River’: Willamette River Pollution, 1926-1962,” and I’m in the process of turning this into a book. While in graduate school, I served two years as a Caroline P. Stoel Editorial Fellow on the staff of the Pacific Historical Review.

    I earned my Bachelor of Arts at Fairhaven College, Bellingham, Washington, in 2004. My interdisciplinary major at Fairhaven incorporated history, writing, and photography. My major projects at Fairhaven College were the Bellingham Centennial Oral History Project and an article published in the Centennial Edition (April 2004) of the Journal of the Whatcom County Historical Society, “‘Pushing Forward with the Determination of the Machine Age’: Interstate 5 is Built through Bellingham, Washington, 1945-1966” [p. 10 of this PDF].

    Contact

    To contact James V. Hillegas:

      jvhillegas AT gmail DOT com
      PO Box 454, Portland, OR 97207

    —
    James V. Hillegas, Aug. 5, 2010

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  • Pages

    • About & Contact
      • Etiquette for Posting Comments
    • Contributors to the SHP
      • Interviewees (alphabetical)
      • Interviewees (by course theme)
      • Interviewers
    • Defining Sustainability
    • For Contributors
    • For Students
      • Community Service
      • Course Calendar
      • Extra-credit Guidelines
      • Formulating Interview Questions
      • Oral History Methods & Techniques
      • What is History?
    • Sources
      • Blogs
      • Books
      • Film & Video
      • Journal & Periodical Articles
      • Websites
  • Categories

    • About the SHP (4)
    • Architecture & Engineering (1)
    • Community Service (1)
    • Critiques of Sustainability (8)
    • Economics (8)
    • Enigmas of Sustainability (2)
    • Environment (7)
    • Equity (12)
    • Events (12)
    • Food & Agriculture (4)
    • Greenwashing (3)
    • History of Sustainability (9)
    • Implementing Sustainability (13)
    • Media (10)
    • Oral History (4)
    • Organizations (11)
    • Quantifying Sustainability (14)
    • SHP Fall 2010 (9)
    • SHP Spring 2010 (8)
    • SHP Spring 2011 (11)
    • SHP Summer 2010 (9)
    • SHP Summer 2011 (7)
    • SHP Winter 2011 (5)
    • Student work (41)
    • Uncovering & Evaluating Sources (36)
    • Urban Infrastructure (9)
    • What is Sustainability? (49)
  • Archives

  • Links of Interest . . .

  • Agriculture & Food Systems

    • ** Adelante Mujeres (Forest Grove, OR)
    • ** City of Portland Parks & Recreation, Community Gardens
    • ** Civil Eats
    • ** Cooking Up A Story (Pac NW)
    • ** Ecological Farming Association
    • ** Food Not Lawns (Cascadia)
    • ** Friends of Family Farmers (OR/WA)
    • ** Growing Gardens (Portland, OR)
    • ** Planning Prosperity and Harvesting Health (report, 2008) (Portland, OR)
    • ** Portland Chefs Collaborative
    • ** Portland Multnomah Food Policy Council
    • ** Portland Permaculture Guild (OR)
  • Architecture & Engineering

    • ** Design Futures Council (GA)
    • ** Sustainability Now (UK)
    • ** Univ. of OR PhD in Architecture
  • Communications & Media Production

    • ** Community Cinema: Portland (OR)
    • ** EnviroIssues (Pac NW)
    • ** Enviromedia
    • ** Semiosis Communications (Porland, OR)
    • ** Web Collective (Seattle)
  • Construction Materials & the Built Environment

    • ** Cascadia Green Building Council
    • ** City Repair (Portland, OR)
    • ** Depave (Portland, OR)
    • ** Our United Villages (Portland, OR)
    • ** ReBuilding Center (Portland, OR)
  • Death & Dying

    • * The Centre for Natural Burial (UK)
    • ** Create Sacred Space
    • ** Death Reference Desk
    • ** Mark Harris' Grave Matters (NYC)
    • ** Natural Burial Company (Eugene, OR)
    • ** Oregon Mortuary & Cemetery Board
    • ** Portland Natural Caskets
    • ** Undertaken With Love (TX)
  • Documenting Sustainability

    • ** Green Around the Globe
    • ** Native Perspectives on Sustainability (Pac NW)
    • ** Sisters of the Road: Voices of Homelessness (Portland, OR)
    • ** Taylor Street Studio (Portland, OR)
  • Economics & Business

    • ** Greenbiz.com
    • ** Portland Bottom Line (OR)
    • ** Sustainable Industries (Pac NW)
    • ** The Natural Step
  • Educational Programs

    • ** Bainbridge Graduate Institute (WA)
    • ** Global Institute of Sustainability (Arizona State U.)
    • ** Illahee Lecture Series (Portland, OR)
    • ** Institute for Sustainable Solutions (Portland State Univ.)
    • ** Sustainability Studies @ Roosevelt U. (Chicago)
  • Energy

    • ** Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center (IA)
    • ** American Carbon Registry
    • ** Climate Solutions (Pac NW)
    • ** Energy News Digest (Pac NW)
    • ** Future of Energy PDX
    • ** New Energy Network
    • ** Renewable Northwest Project
  • Equity

    • ** Coalition for a Livable Future (Portland, OR)
    • ** Onward Oregon (Portland, OR)
    • ** Pangea Project (Portland, OR)
    • ** Regional Equity Atlas (Portland, OR)
  • Events

    • ** Solutions Seminars, PSU (OR)
    • ** Sustainable Development Conferences Worldwide
    • ** Sustainable Industries 2010-2011 Economic Forums
  • Film & Video

    • ** A Passion for Sustainability (Portland, OR)
    • ** Architecture to Zucchini (OR)
    • ** Multnomah County Sustainability Film Series
    • ** Sustainability Channel (YouTube)
    • ** Sustainability Media (CA)
    • ** Sustainable Cascadia Channel (YouTube)
    • ** TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
  • Health & Medicine

    • ** Center for Sustainable Medicine
  • History & Oral History

    • ** Boise Voices Oral History Project (Portland, OR)
    • ** Canadian Oral History Association
  • Household & Individual Sustainability

    • ** EnviroMom
    • ** Low Impact Living (CA)
  • Journals

    • ** Journal of Sustainability Education
  • News & Commentary

    • ** Environmental Health News
    • ** GreenEnvironment News
    • ** Grist
  • Pollution

    • ** Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center
  • Quantifying Sustainability

    • ** B-Sustainable
    • ** Cascadia Scorecard
    • ** Energy Star
    • ** Fair Trade Federation
    • ** Green Globe
    • ** Green Guard
    • ** Green Supply Chain.org
    • ** Greenwashing Index
    • ** Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
    • ** Natural Step
    • ** Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine®
    • ** Oregon Tilth
    • ** Seafood WATCH (Monterey, CA)
    • ** Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (STARS)
    • ** Sustainable Sites Initiative
    • ** SustainLane
    • ** UC Berkeley's "Bright Green" program (CA)
    • ** Union of Concerned Scientists
    • ** USDA National Organic Program
  • Regional News & Networking

    • ** 247 Townhall (Portland, OR)
    • ** Ecotrope
    • ** Onward Oregon
    • ** Oregon Environmental News (Oregonian)
    • ** PDX Green (Oregonian)
    • ** pdxstump
    • ** People & Place (Portland, OR)
    • ** Portland Green Drinks
    • ** Sightline Daily
  • Sustainability (general)

    • ** Institute for Environmental Education and Research (Seattle)
    • ** Sustainable Cascadia (Seattle)
    • ** Sustainable Seattle
  • Sustainability in Government & Academia

    • ** Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
    • ** EcoWiki (Portland State U.)
    • ** Institute for Sustainable Solutions (Portland State U.)
    • ** Local Governments for Sustainability
    • ** Multnomah County Office of Sustainability (OR)
    • ** OR Dept. of Environmental Quality: Sustainability
    • ** Portland State U.: Sustainability
    • ** PSU Social Sustainability Network and Colloquium (OR)
    • ** U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development
  • Technology

    • ** National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT)
  • Transportation

    • ** Assoc. of OR Rail & Transit Advocates (AORTA)
    • ** Portland Afoot (OR)
    • ** Portland Transport (OR)
  • Urban Infrastructure & Planning

    • ** City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services
    • ** City of Portland Bureau of Planning & Sustainability
    • ** Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies (OR)
    • ** New Urbanism
    • ** Portland Plan (OR)
    • ** Sustainable Cities Collective
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