SSC: Projects

[THE MASH PROJECT IS NOT ACTIVE.]

The MASH Project fosters personal and social transformation by using unique interactive workshops, exhibits, and events. These activities inspire people to understand and apply a sustainability perspective to their business, community, and personal lives.

The heart of the MASH Project is a 3-hour experiential workshop introducing key sustainability concepts & tools and encouraging new ways to shift to more sustainable lifestyles. Using our whole person approach, the workshop addresses intellectual, emotional and instinctual responses to planetary crisis. The blend of elements and interactive exercises encourages creativity, hope and empowerment.

"I believe that anyone attending this seminar would open their eyes wide as to their individual impact upon this earth, upon their community. If they were already aware, then they walked away with a greater sense of what they could do to effect change. Keep up the great work!"
Doug Fetterly, Telecom company employee

"MASH is really life changing: it demands change. I realize there is no other option if we want life to continue, so I have changed my priorities toward action."
Mary DeDanan, freelance writer

Through these interactive workshops participants:

Think systemically--to consider the whole rather than focus on isolated parts or issues.
Look at current trends of positive solutions.
Calculate their own Ecological Footprint and compare it with other participants and countries.
Understand Earth's bio-physical limits and thescience of sustainability.
Identify and address psychological and sociological factors that influence behavior.
Clarify and share their visions of a better world.
Identify next steps for change at personal, community and global levels.

The MASH Project seeks to build a critical mass of opinion leaders moving in a sustainable direction by identifying strategies for overcoming the obstacles to change. Using these potent ways to foster personal and social transformation, we open up opportunities for flexible, creative responses. We use experiential learning tools such as calculating one's own impact on the Earth, visioning exercises, writing, and pair and group discussion.

The MASH Project continually searches for the most effective sustainability concepts and incorporates them into our work. Sustainable Sonoma County has found the Ecological Footprint to be one of the most potent tools for helping people understand sustainability and the relevance to their own lives. The MASH workshop was developed in parallel to a workshop by the co-creator of the Ecological Footprint, Mathis Wackernagel of Redefining Progress. The MASH Project works with other key concepts such as The Natural Step and Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects.

Since the beginning of the MASH Project in 2000, approximately 800 people have participated in over two dozen MASH workshops. Participants have come from many sectors of the community: students, high tech professionals, seniors, local business owners, activists, community leaders, and religious groups. The effectiveness of these workshops shows in the consistently positive feedback we receive.