A lot of time has passed since we've been back, and a lot of things have happened. Rachel has continued working on her new house, Kara is hosting some of our new Swedish friends from Alingsås here in Minnesota in October, Steph chaperoned her son's band on a school field trip to New York City, and Jennifer has been learning Tae Kwon Do with her grandsons! We were all so lucky to meet the Swedish inbound team when they visited Minnesota in April, and we are all still in contact with many of our host families and friends we met overseas.
As for me, besides recently celebrating my 30th birthday (yay!) I've been spreading the great word of sustainability based on the lessons learned there in Sweden. The high point so far has been completing a report that outlines opportunities in Minnesota for sustainable communities and green building based on what we learned in Sweden. The report, "A Tale of Green Cities: Exploring Opportunities for Minnesota through the Natural Step Process and Sustainable Communities in Sweden", was sponsored by the Blandin Foundation and was released today by Dovetail Partners in their e-newsletter. Click here to download the report.
I'm really excited by the opportunities for Minnesota presented in the report and hope that it will lead to some examples similar to the great places we visited in Sweden! Please pass the report around as you like.
A special thanks to the Rotary District 5960 and our clubs who sponsored this great trip, my fellow teammates, our host-families, Rotary District 2360 and hosting clubs, and to all that provided information on the report. Without you, none of this would have been possible.
I hope this finds you all well! Ha det bra!
-Alison
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