Energy Efficiency/Energy Stewards

The aim:Help religious congregations and non-profits in Wisconsin improve their energy efficiency to cut costs and decrease impact on the environment.

Our work: Organize year-long Stewardship Collaboratives in Southeast Wisconsin today involving nearly 400 diverse congregations and non-profits. Includes defined best practices, workbook, facilitated sessions, and support throughout. Develop custom websites for each that allows participants to see their natural gas and electric use over the past two years, update Action Table and learn from each other.

Our partners: Wisconsin Interfaith Climate & Energy Coalition, We Energies, Franklin Energy Inc. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Target Action/Landowner Communication

The aim: Apply social marketing research to better reach and communicate with private woodland owners regarding the means and benefits of sustainable forestry practices.

Our work: Design the conference for the Johnson Foundation's Wingspread Conference Facility, coordinate advance work, facilitate meeting with 40 participants from across the country, and follow-up action development.

Our partners: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, American Forest Foundation, Johnson Foundation. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Intelligent Energy Use /Information Design

The aim: Make energy information easily available to building users, empowering them to test ideas for improvement and reduce costs and environmental impact.

Our work: Design and develop low-cost, easy-to-use software and hardware to achieve the aim. More than 50 systems installed, primarily in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, including schools, manufacturers, office buildings, wind generators and solar collectors. A recent project involves 10 schools in a pilot project with the Chicago Public Schools.

Our partners: Informing Ecological Design, LLC., Educational Dividends. Lead -- Kevin Little

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Forestry/Sustainable Woods Network

The aim: Make it easy for consumers to find wood products that come from responsibly managed woodlands while making it easer for private woodland owner groups manage their wood inventory that emerges from such practices.

Our work: Design and build a web-based inventory tracking database for use by the producers and an integrated front-end web site for access by consumers and landowners.

Our partners: Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, Community Forestry Business Alliance, Cox & Co. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Target Action/Family-Owned Woodlands

The aim: Advance a national dialogue to support actions to speed implementation of priority policies & practices that increase the number of acres of family-owned woodlands in the United States under active, sustainable management.

Our work: Design the conference for the Johnson Foundation's Wingspread Conference Facility, coordinate funding and participants, facilitate meeting and follow-up action development.

Our partners: Cooperative Development Services, Community Forestry Resource Center, Johnson Foundation, Ford Foundation & other funders. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Strategic Action /Racine Journal Times

The aim: Involve 20 leaders in the organization in updating the firm's strategic plan, including taking quick actions that align with its strategy.

Our work: Conduct advance two-part survey of company leaders, facilitate planning session, coordinate finalization of plan and implementation of test projects.

Our partners: Racine Journal Times. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Collaborative/Forestry Cooperatives

The aim: Enable the success of young private landowner forestry groups dedicated to sustainable forestry practices among private landowners.

Our work: Launched in 2001 and now finishing the fourth collaborative. Have involved forestry groups chiefly from the Upper Midwest, but has attracted attendance from across the country. Network has been developed and is supporting expansion of effective business practices.

Our partners: Community Forestry Resource Center, Cooperative Development Services, Home Depot Foundation. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

Health Disparities Collaborative/Institute for Healthcare Improvement

The aim:Support the redesign of primary care, focusing initially on improving care for patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes, asthma, and depression., Participants in the collaborative are federally qualified community health centers

Our work: Serve as Improvement Advisor to both the Breakthrough Series (a 13-month demonstration of system redesign at the local health center level) and to the national infrastructure that supports the spread of the redesign to sixteen million patients served by the network of community health centers.

Our partners:Informing Ecological Design, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Lead -- Kevin Little

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Energy Education/Edgewood Schools

The aim: The aim: Incorporate energy education into middle school and high school curriculum

Our work: Use SenseDat Meter™ to teach 7th grade science students basic ideas in science and math, engaging them in whole building experiments as well as investigations of energy use in their classroom. Work with high school AP Environmental Science students to justify energy saving capital upgrade to the facility.

Our partners: Edgewood School. Lead -- Kevin Little

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Strategic Planning/Madison Patient Safety Collaborative

The aim: Update the Collaborative's strategic plan to guide its path ahead serving member hospitals and health consumers.

Our work: Conduct a two-part survey of Collaborative members and partners, facilitate planning session, coordinate finalization of plan and implementation of test project.

Our partners: MPSC board and staff. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Organizational Alignment/US-China Environmental Fund

The aim: An evolving 12-year-old non-profit focuses on implementing environmental education through several unique programs in China. In its growth and need to align its strategy in this process

Our work:Upgrade its accounting and reporting practices, coordinate development of a web site that captures its scope, assist in the strategic conversations about alignment, selection & focus.

Our partners: US-China Environmental Fund. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Commissioning /Affiliated Engineers, Inc.

The aim: Speed the tune-up and synchronization the heating and ventilating systems in a new building.

Our work: Install SenseDat Meter™ in two buildings, approximately the same size and less than a mile apart. Teach staff to study the energy flow patterns, recognize unusual or unexpected patterns, take action to adjust. (The SenseDat Meter™ system installed at AEI contributed to the LEED certification of the AEI building, July 2004.)

Our partners: Informing Ecological Design, LLC, Affiliated Engineers, Inc., Flad & Associates. Lead -- Kevin Little

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Strategic Planning/Wisconsin Council on Children & Families

The aim: Confirm a strategic plan that will guide staff and board over the next two years amid shifting funding resources.

Our work: Coordinate board and staff survey that feeds a board retreat where plans are detailed with follow-up editing with implementation support and follow-through.

Our partners: Wisconsin Council on Children & Families. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Strategic Planning/Dane County Department of Human Services

The aim: Confirm a vision, mission, values and strategic action plan for $200 million, 2,000-employee department.

Our work: Craft 3-year plan with leadership team in 2001 and update it for another 3-year period in 2004.

Our partners: Dane County Department of Human Services. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Breakthrough Improvement/Econoprint

The aim: Implement a waste reduction program that integrates all departments in a growing commercial printing firm.

Our work: Confirm management and work lead teams, develop a workbook and facilitate meetings that achieves major gains in a 3-month workout program.

Our partners: Econoprint, Inc. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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Breakthrough Improvement Collaborative/Lee Enterprises

The aim: Rollout a Breakthrough Improvement™ waste production program among the company's some 20 daily newspapers located in the Midwest and West.

Our work: Coordinate customization of the Breakthrough Improvement and lead its rollout to the daily newspapers in a 6-month period, promoting learning across the paper lines and sharing of results.

Our partners: Lee Enterprises. Lead -- Warren Gaskill

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