Leading with connection and collaboration

Last week, I was walking with a friend who told me that they had cried every day since the presidential election. On that walk, we were with a family member of mine who was celebrating the election’s outcome. The rest of our group had feelings somewhere in between.

That group of walkers was a microcosm of America, although rather than circling up in our separate camps, we were spending time and talking with each other. That’s a crucial distinction.

Each day, there are a number of new analyses about what happened or didn’t happen on November 5. The storyline continues to change in all ways but one: There are just about as many people in this country who grieved the outcome as there were who celebrated it. We were a closely divided country before the election, and no outcome of that day would change that.

I have woken up every day since that walk thinking about how I want to show up. It’s a question for me personally, in my relationships with family, friends, neighbors, and community members. That walk has been my touchstone. It reminds me that despite what feels like differences that yawn like canyons, we are still here together. If we care about the well-being of our world, the people in it, and the living things who share it with us, we need each other. We need to stay in relationship.

These post-election reflections have made me grateful to work at Environmental Initiative. The core purpose of this organization is to build deep enough relationships that we can work together for our common good, bridging across our many differences despite the tensions, worries, and divisions that set us up against each other. We need this work more now than ever.

This is not new territory for Environmental Initiative. For more than three decades, our organization and partners have enabled collaborations that defy expectations and conventional wisdom about who is for and who is against. We have had a positive impact for clean air, clean water, healthy soil, and vibrant communities.

The results of our work are powerful. Here are some examples:

• For 22 years, we have led the Clean Air Minnesota partnership, co-chaired by the uncommon partners of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the American Lung Association. This partnership has resulted in quantifiable pollution reductions from thousands of diesel engines, hundreds of woodstoves, and dozens of small businesses.
• This month, 77% of Minnesota voters chose to continue the dedication of dollars from the Minnesota State Lottery into environmental projects. These voters also enabled the creation of a new Community Grants Program, which will provide more than $20 million a year to community-based organizations working among those most impacted by pollution and environmental harm. Our organization helped lead the effort to create this new program by partnering with Rainbow Research to co-convene the working group of mainstream environmental organizations, BIPOC leaders, and rural leaders that designed, advocated for, and promoted the program.
• Since 2019, our organization has been the home of the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative that enables regenerative agriculture collaboration between major companies in the agricultural and food systems, and with national and international NGOs that advance healthy lands, clean water, and sustainable landscapes.
• Within our Sustainable Growth Coalition, companies are collaborating with leaders from communities facing disproportionate environmental burden. Together, the group is developing interactive resources to help businesses in the Midwest elevate and accelerate their community engagement and environmental justice programs.

We accomplish these things without papering over or eliminating the differences among business, government, nonprofits, and most impacted communities. We have done our best work by understanding and accepting the differences that shape us, and by building relationships strong enough to enable collaboration despite those differences. Time and time again, we’ve harnessed the rich insights and diverse perspectives from the groups we convene to find common ground and agree on solutions that everyone can support or at least live with.

So, here’s how I want to show up. I want to do everything I can to activate the superpowers of Environmental Initiative, to build relationships across differences, to foster enough shared understanding to see our common interests, and to enable powerful collaboration that can move us forward to the more sustainable and equitable future that so many of us know is necessary, and believe is possible.

If this resonates with you, here is how you can help. Your financial support is essential for us to play the role of bridging difference and fostering collaboration. Donations from individuals and from businesses are especially powerful for the flexibility they give us to forge new relationships and to seed new work. We have a goal to raise $100,000 by year-end, and whatever you can contribute will help us get there. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution here.

You can also join me, the staff, and the board in putting your energy into an organization that has been designed exactly for this moment. Help make our work possible by engaging directly in it or by bringing us your ideas for environmental partnerships, and collaborative projects.

I am clear-eyed about all that stands in the way of doing these things, and I know it means the work ahead will be hard. Building trust in a time when so much is uncertain, and people feel divided is no small task. But I also know the hard work will be worth it. Because when we live like we are interdependent, creative ideas can rise to the top, and a better world becomes possible. I hope you will join us.