Ear to the Ground
Voices behind the member groups of the Orion Grassroots Network
MATT RUDOLF is the executive director of
Piedmont Biofuels Coop ( www.biofuels.coop)
in North Carolina’s Haw River watershed.
With three staff, two interns, and a $250,000
budget, the co-op aims “to lead the grassroots sustainability movement in North
Carolina by promoting the use of clean, sustainable biofuels.”
The worst thing I have to do: Say no
to interesting projects and ideas. So many
ideas get passed around the table, but
because of limited resources we have to
focus on those that are self-supporting.
The best thing I get to do: When I
put on a workshop on biodiesel production in another state, I often feel like an
ambassador of sustainable energy coming
to a colleague in another land.
My organization’s biggest success:
Creating a model for how communities
might provide for their own energy needs,
both food and fuel.
How our staff blows off steam:
Events nearly every night of the week:
Sunday night is community potluck,
Tuesday night we have community fuel
making, Wednesday is Ultimate Frisbee,
Thursday is music night, Friday is local
lunch, and Saturday is disc golf.
The best thinker in my field: Lester R.
Brown.
How our organization walks its talk:
Using B100 in all of our trucks and tractors,
making community lunches from local
produce every week, demonstrating other
examples of renewable energy and green
building—the project radiates environmental sustainability from its pores.
Where I find hope: On long walks in
the forest.
The best thing anyone ever taught
me: Always put my own needs second to
the needs of the greater good.
The view out my window: A biodiesel
plant.
The sexiest person working in my
field: Daryl Hannah.
One political shift that would make
a big difference: A paradigmatic shift in
American collective thinking about transportation, [and] reinvesting our motor
fuels taxes into building an e;cient and
rapid public transportation system so that
Americans do not need to own cars.
thirteen-year-old group with three other staff
in Vermont’s Winooski Rivershed ( www.grass
rootsfund.org). Their mission? “Energize and
nurture long-term civic engagement in local
initiatives that create and maintain healthy,
just, safe, and environmentally sustainable
communities.”
My organization’s biggest success:
Being able to help nine hundred community groups in over five hundred New
England cities and towns stick to their
resolves to make their hometowns healthier and more sustainable.
Its biggest failure: NEGEF is one of
the best-kept secrets in the region.
The principle I wish I could live by:
Not could, but do: Love thy neighbor as
thyself.
How our staff blows off steam: We
are still looking for the valve as we pout.
One tool that makes my job easier:
Google Calendar.
The principle I wish I could live by: To
have infinite patience.
About half of New England Grassroots
Environmental Fund’s $914,000 budget goes
out as seed grants, thanks to executive director
CHERYL KING FISCHER, who runs the
How our organization walks its talk:
We walk, bike, and take public transit to
work, we turn o= the power strips at night
and on weekends, we select venues for
our events that feature local food and
demonstrate that green behaviors are part
of their cultures.
Where I find hope: In the worldviews,
talent, actions, and values of so many
individuals under thirty, and the relocali-zation movement.
PHOTOGRAPHS l MATT RUDOLF PHOTO BY JESSICA BENTON; CHERYL KING FISCHER PHOTO BY JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR; RYAN HOUSTON PHOTO BY JASON HOUSTON
