Dear Earth Deeds Supporters,

We hope you are all well and enjoying the budding leaves of spring. My daughter, Pema, planted two sunflower seeds during Earth Day a few weeks ago and, like Earth Deeds, they are starting to sprout. I am confident they will all grow beautiful and strong.  Okay, here’s what’s new…

First Pilot Completed. The Sustainable Living class I co-taught this semester measured its carbon footprint (39.8 mT), set an “Onsetting” goal of $836 (at a rate of $21/mT), and raised $876 for the UMass Eco-Rep program, which will use these funds to create eco-literacy projects on campus. It worked!! Read all about it here.

Reduction Tools. Also for that project, Shanti and I developed a Carbon Reduction Calculator and students collectively committed to reducing 55.9 mT through simple actions such as washing clothes in cold water and tuning up their cars. This tool helps build users’ “vocabulary” to better understand the carbon footprints of everyday activities and make more informed choices.

Competitions. We were sad to learn we did not make it to the semi-finalist round of MassChallenge, but look forward to receiving judge’s feedback in the next few weeks. We also recently applied to two more competitions: the Clean Tech Open and the Grand Challenges in Global Health. Wish us luck!

Attracting Interest. Our Facebook page now has over 200 followers, and well over 100 people have visited our new Landing Page and Follow-up Survey. Please help promote these to others you feel might be interested. Thanks!

Holacracy. Shanti returned from the intro workshop inspired and we are now intending to incorporate this “social technology for purposeful organizations” into our operating agreements. We’re excited to deepen our understanding and practice over time.

New Design. We’re working with a designer to make the beta-site more attractive and user-friendly and also to create our “Carbon Conscious” ecolabel, team and project widgets and other details. Funding. We’ve narrowed down a list of >350 Angel Investors/Groups to around 20 that we intend to start approaching over the coming weeks. Please let us know if you have leads to other potential investors. Thanks!

Thanks again everyone for all your support and insights. Feel free to contact us if you have thoughts or questions.

In community,
– Daniel