We are so happy with the excitement people have expressed over seeing Solutions back in print. Many thanks go out to the City of Denver for hosting a celebratory cocktail reception for contributors and friends of January’s special issue! If you haven’t signed up already, visit our website and join as a Platinum Member to receive print copies, as well as full access to our online archive, which contains all ten years of articles from our outstanding contributors.
We’re thrilled to bring you the second print issue in our Ten Year Anniversary volume. We want to thank our print layout designer Kelley Dodd and our publisher Allen Press for creating such a beautiful magazine for our readers and contributors.
It is also my pleasure to welcome two new Editorial Board members to the journal. Shar Olivier brings experience in socially responsible investing, social entrepreneurship, and climate resiliency to the magazine. You can follow Shar on Twitter @SharOlivier. We are also thrilled to welcome Paulette Blanchard, Geography MA, Citizen of Absentee Shawnee Tribe and descendant of Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. Paulette is a feminist scholar and activist with expertise in the challenges and opportunities that Indigenous Peoples face in relation to climate change and climate justice. You can learn more about Paulette on LinkedIn. Sincere thanks to these women for being a part of Solutions.
With so many challenges in the world, it is heartening to read the articles in this issue. Every piece is written by scholars, practitioners, and dreamers who are looking for tools to solve real-life barriers to sustainability, well-being, and regeneration.
Technological tools feature prominently in the issue and highlight areas of advancement in sustainability across sectors. In the fisheries field, authors Gary Wilson and his colleagues highlight a precision bulk harvesting technology used in New Zealand that reduces untargeted species loss and increases the regenerative capacity of targeted species by allowing juvenile fish to escape from newly designed nets. Steve Letendre and Josh VanHoesen offers a model for improved renewable energy forecasting that can increase grid efficiencies and empower both consumers and suppliers to make better energy management choices at multiple scales. Jenna Hartley and Jessica Daniel from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency share a wonderful new digital mapping tool, called the EnviroAtlas, designed to help young people understand environmental and climate change concepts by relating them to data from their local communities.
Another exciting trend you will find in these articles is a movement towards new ways to bring people together that lead to increased sustainability. For example, the issue includes pieces focused on worker cooperatives, maker spaces, and neighborhood solar cooperatives. Each of these collaborative efforts offers ways for communities to join together for the common good, while empowering people and protecting the planet. In addition, a variety of pieces provide practical tools and guidance for existing organizations – especially government agencies and businesses, to increase the effectiveness of their sustainability efforts through full accounting of the human, ecological, financial, and physical resources involved in their operations.
Many of the articles are motivated by a recognition that sustainability, well-being, and regeneration are interlinked in complex ways. Lauriane Mouysset and his co-authors, for example, highlight the relationship between farming techniques, biodiversity, and the critical stakeholders and interests that shape agri-environmental schemes. Wilson and his team describe the competitive markets that can inhibit innovations that regenerate fish stocks – a desperate need across global oceans. Throughout, you will find attention to the need to recognize and account for the fact that complex-adaptive systems require new tools to overcome today’s sustainability challenges.
As always, we at The Solutions Journal invite you to share your comments on these pieces with your colleagues and friends through our social media channels. Follow our hashtag #Solutions and join the movement for a sustainable and desirable future!
