Our Funders and Partners
Meet the Visionaries Who Help Make Our Work PossibleThe Cloud Institute would like to thank the following idealists for contributing to our work. As a nonprofit, we could not do what we do without their support.
Our Funders
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
The Nathan Cummings Foundation
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
The Bay and Paul Foundations
Dr. Robert C and Tina Sohn Foundation
Greenopolis.com
Con Edison
Councilwoman Annabel Palma
Our Partners
We use a model to describe the framework for education for sustainability that depicts a set of nested systems. In the center is the learner, and then the habits of mind of a whole systems thinker, then the core content and congruent pedagogy, the organization that learns, the physical plant, procurement etc.and finally in the outer most circle, the community that learns.
At the Cloud Institute, we concentrate most on curriculum and instruction and organizational learning. To do that well requires the expertise of a great range of fields including education, economics, systems thinking/system dynamics, social science, geography, psychology, entrepreneurship, civics and participatory democracy, many science disciplines (biology, physics, ecology, etc.) and tens of others. This is one key place where our partnerships are vital.
The other critical place is in physical plant and procurement. In these areas our partners range from architects and regenerative design professionals to folks whose expertise is in sustainable food systems and procurement including “Farm to Cafeteria” specialists. We also work with the Ecological Footprint accountants and energy auditors, green cleaning and building product procurement specialists and investment consultants. We team up with a core group of partners on a regular basis and others work with us on a project by project basis.
We have carefully selected our partners because of their knowledge, expertise and experience in their particular part of the system, and their respect for and sensitivity to the other parts. Our list of partners will grow very slowly, as it is the quality, not the quantity, that is vital to our work.
Entry Points
To begin the process of educating for a sustainable future, each school/school system has to start somewhere. Some begin with their physical plant (s) and operations and move to curriculum and instruction and relationship to community. Others begin with curriculum and instruction and then move to the other parts of the “whole system” of EFS. Still others begin with the food that is grown and/or served in the school cafeteria and then move to the other aspects of EFS. Some of the new schools have had the opportunity to start up with the whole system in mind, and are elegantly designed so that all the parts of the system are mutually beneficial to one another. This is rare—but it is happening already. No matter where you begin it is clear to us that in light of the interdependence of all the parts of the system of EFS, if they are serious about educating for sustainability, schools, school systems and their communities will eventually need to engage all aspects of EFS over time.
Teaching and Learning
All our curriculum materials and our professional development protocols are informed by, and in many cases co-written by the master teachers, professional developers, curriculum and assessment professionals of Learner Centered Initiatives, Ltd. (LCI) and the Center for the Study of Expertise in Teaching and Learning (CSETL). These organizations are dedicated to the design of rich, student centered instruction K-12 that is assessment driven, standards based, differentiated for multiple intelligences and multi and inter-disciplinary. The purpose of their pedagogy is to develop in students higher order, critical and systemic thinking, applied learning, questioning, and transference.
Learner Centered Initiatives: A small, but dedicated and effective consulting team who balance experience with continuous learning to maintain a reputation for delivering high quality services and programs.
Communities for Learning: Promotes educational communities, worldwide, that aspire to lead deep, lasting change while honoring each and every person's learning process.
Curriki: An online wiki for curriculum, by joining curriki you are joining a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world.
Physical Plant, Site and Regional Context
We use “the place as curriculum” in classroom instruction regularly, and we work with the professionals who research the sites, develop the plans, design the buildings and the landscapes, and work with the operations personnel to maintain the places over time.
Building Solutions: provides professional services to facility operators of independent schools across North America. Services include facility assessments, energy and operations improvements, and sustainable campus development programs, including LEED certification assistance.
Global Footprint Network: an international think tank working to advance sustainability through use of the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use and who uses what.
Hone and Associates: creates architecture that synthesizes the physical, cultural, and spiritual identities of place; that actively promotes health in the communities of which it is a part; and that intentionally fosters transcendent experiences.
Integrative Design Collaborative: a consortium of advanced practitioners who serve as resources, coaches, and program managers to help project teams achieve increasingly higher levels of environmentally responsible design.
New Civic Works: Promotes the adoption of sustainable development principles in public works, and the institutional and community development sector.
Northwest Earth Institute: a national leader in the development of innovative programs that empower individuals and organizations to transform culture toward a sustainable and enriching future.
Regenesis: practices a regenerative approach to the way we develop land, and how we plan and develop our communities, bio-cultural regions and economies.
Schools that Learn, Organizational Change and Systems Thinking/System Dynamics
We know that in order to move toward a sustainable future, we will need to have “schools that learn in communities that learn” for sustainability. That means that schools and their communities must work and change together over time. That means that everyone is encouraged to keep thinking, innovating, collaborating, talking candidly, improving capabilities, self correcting and making personal commitments to a shared future. It also means that they will need to become “systems thinkers” and “systems actors”. This will require education, and in some cases, re-education of all concerned, from the kindergarteners to the elders. For this aspect of our work we have co-founded the Sol Education Partnership with Peter Senge and the Society for Organizational Learning including Linda Booth Sweeney, Bea Mah Holland, Rita Cleary and Lees Stuntz and the Creative Learning Exchange.
Society for Organizational Learning (SOL)
Sustainable Food Systems and Schools
We are what we eat. Many schools and school systems are serving healthy, regional seasonal and even organic foods in their cafeterias. We support agriculture-based nutrition education, such as school gardens, to teach students where their food comes from. We work with the best individual consultants and organizations we know that can teach schools/school systems and their communities how to make the shift toward growing, buying, making, and or serving sustainable food in their cafeterias, and in their homes.
Sustainable Food Systems, LLC: a unique consulting and technical assistance service, partners with healthcare facilities, public and private schools, universities, business dining facilities and community organizations to incorporate sustainability practices that are healthier for customers, local economies and the planet into their food programs.
Liquori & Associates: is a consulting practice that works with public institutions and policy circles to solve problems that affect our nation’s health,including transforming the food options available in urban school systems and guiding change in the way Americans relate to healthy food.
