Location: San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico

When I was 17 years old I took a personality test that summed me up (quite accurately) in one word…“idealistic.” Proud of my title, I proceeded to live my life with an unwavering passion that afforded me a range of amazing experiences such as organic farming, earthship building, homesteading, baby-wearing, home-schooling and a little Waldorf teaching. By the time baby number four came along, however, I had begun to discover a thing or two about the eventual effect of reality on even the most well-intentioned ideals. In other words, extreme idealism plus four kids totally kicked my butt. Something had to give — I was making myself crazy.

I started letting go of things. It had to be okay to use disposable diapers on occasion. It had to be okay to try public schools and at least temporarily let go of the idea of growing my family’s food. Slowly, I began to discover that life existed outside my rigid set of values and for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t overwhelmed with frustration and disappointment.

That was five years ago. I still very much dislike factory farming, big box and big oil. I still do what I can to live conscientiously, to leave a small footprint and to help alleviate social injustice. But I now know that no amount of work can truly change the world without the self work required for inner peace.

My family and I currently live in southern Mexico where we have been charmed by the slower pace, the simplicity inherent to local living and the richness of Mexican culture. One day, I still plan to have an off-grid home and grow food for my family. Today, however, I am living a different dream. I’m just so glad I’ve learned to enjoy it. You can follow my musings and adventures in imperfection at www.revolutionfromhome.com.

Location: New York, New York, USA

I am currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Sustainability Management at Columbia University and work at a small wind energy company called Urban Green Energy. Prior to graduate school, I worked in international development, education and environmental protection as a program development associate for World Learning, an international development NGO, where I designed proposals for USAID and Department of State programs. Before World Learning, I implemented professional exchanges for emerging leaders from Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Location: State College, Pennsylvania, USA

I’m a Penn State student majoring in geography with particular interests in sustainable agriculture and food systems. As a freshman, I was ambushed with an endless buffet of choices in the dining commons, and for the first time wondered, “What should I eat?” My quest to answer that question brought me to the concept of sustainability, fitting perfect with my interests in entrepreneurship, social justice, and ecological consciousness.

I actively seek opportunities to participate in both on and off-campus activities relating to sustainability, while continually redefining what it means to me. Last summer I had the pleasure of interning at Pennypack Farm and Education Center, an organic Community Supported Agriculture farm a mere bike ride away from my home in suburban Philadelphia. My three-part internship included hands-on farm work, educating teens about the environment and learning the administrative side of a non-profit. I am privileged to serve as an officer for the Penn State Sustainable Agriculture Club. Through the Spring Creek Homesteading Fund, I collaborated with faculty and community members to create a map of local food producers and vendors within and around Centre County.

Aside from food, I’ve always been obsessed with what others deem “trash”, or municipal solid waste if you want to be fancy. Be it rummaging through a dumpster, exploring a junkyard, or perusing my favorite thrift store, I love contemplating methods to transform streams of waste into streams of value. I believe sustainability is about continually asking ourselves how we can be better. Join me as I seek to answer these questions. How can we grow more sustainable food for all? How can we eliminate the idea of waste?

Location: State College, Pennsylvania, USA

Since I was a girl my great motivation for pursuing a career was to help people. I love to do community work and learn from other people and cultures. I also love the outdoors and nearly every form of art (I am especially fond of dance).

I dream with most people being able and motivated to acquire the necessary skills for generating effective and long term solutions to their most critical problems. This is why I support the efforts to improve literacy and advocate for the design of sustainable systems.

I believe that we Industrial Engineers (I am pursuing a PhD in this area at Penn State) will play an important role creating a new world order.  How? Well, for instance, I am focused on facilitating the transition to sustainable supply chains and health care systems through better decision making. My other areas of interest include data mining and data visualization which are essential to improve transparency.

I am thrilled to become a New Leaf ally and to partner with a network of visionary people grounded on ethical values!

Location: Jacksonville, FL, USA

Son of a naval officer, I moved around a lot as a child. In high school, my best friends consisted of a
Bosnian, Ethiopian, a Filipino, and a fellow Puerto Rican, naturally, seeking diversity and knowledge of
other cultures are two things that have followed me from grade school to college. I am a recent Penn
State graduate with a B.A. in International Politics, focusing in International Political Economy, and an
International Studies minor. Some, but not all, of my passions include traveling the world, playing the
drums, and learning other languages. I have worked diligently to surpass the language barriers of a
Latino living in America by not just limiting myself to Spanish and English, but French and Arabic as well.

As an undergrad, I was granted the opportunity to not only study abroad in the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan, but intern with EDAMA Assoc., a non-profit organization based out of the countries business
center, Al-Abdali, Amman, Jordan.

I have experienced trials that I would not wish upon my worst enemy, not to victimize myself, but to
demonstrate how perseverance and a strong mind can take you places you did not think were possible.

Life is too short to oppress yourself with excess misery, instead make your own path that will lead you
to bliss. I live to inspire others to drive past any adversity they may face, and continue living with a
tenacious attitude.

Location: State College, PA, USA

I started my career in the environmental compliance/permitting arena. My vision was always to be more sustainable and to leave the earth as I found it. In many cases these two things clashed and I saw myself fixing an environmental problem instead of keeping the issue from being a problem in the first place. Although this was sometimes frustrating, I believe it now gives me a unique perspective to address current sustainability topics. I would say on the technical side I am a jack of all trades – master of many – Professional soil scientist, LEED AP, wetland expert, data analyst, etc. With all of this said, I believe my unique compliance and sustainability understanding along with my broad base of education and experience allow me to have a high level “big picture” view when putting together a sustainability strategy.

When my time comes to be “composted” I hope for a similar statement as what Joe Paterno stated in regard to what people would write about him when he was gone. Paterno’s – “They ask me what I’d like written about me when I’m gone. I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach.” My hope is that when I am gone people will say I made the people around me more sustainable, not that I was a good sustainability professional.

Location: State College, PA

Originally from Toronto, Canada, I have had the opportunity of living in five countries on three continents and worked in education for over eight years.  It has been a privilege of working in some very diverse roles ranging from working with schools in Cairo, Egypt for displaced people from South Sudan, to teaching junior high English in Honduras, to working with a livelihood project in the Philippines, to directing a study abroad program in Costa Rica, and working with alcohol education at Pennsylvania State University.

Regardless the role or title, I’ve loved the chance to journey with people as they come to understand more about the world and life – especially life in different parts of the world.  I also love being outside, breathing fresh air, meeting new people, exploring new places, and soaking up the goodness of familiar ones.

I am extremely fortunate to be surrounded by a community of individuals who are doing incredible work around the world. I can honestly say that my friends are changing the world, which both humbles me and makes me very proud.

I have friends who are working to transform the energy sector for emerging markets.
I have friends who coordinate global protests for uniting citizens around proactive action towards climate change.
I have friends who teach English as a second language to refugees.
I have friends who represent coalitions of retailers, coalitions of environmental organizations and coalitions of youth groups – all striving towards creating a more just and sustainable world.
I have friends who are working to transform higher education and find creative ways to engage youth in their passion areas.
I have friends who help ex-convicts find jobs after their time in prison.
I have friends who lead international initiatives in the UN.
I have friends who talk with and influence presidents of countries.

I have friends who are, by any traditional measure, making a significant difference. By the worlds standard, they have checked off the box of what is needed to make an impact.

But what I’m beginning to realize is that our work of ‘changing the world’ is not what ultimately matters. At the end of the day, influencing a president is not what it’s about.

Here’s something that I think is important for many of us to realize – the work that we do is only a fraction of our identity – it is only a fraction of what defines the significant meaning in our lives. Our work is not what brings us happiness. It does not let us fall asleep content at the end of the night. And it does not ultimately bring us satisfaction.

Significant meaning and lasting impact is built upon one simple thing – our friends.

Sometimes we over-complicate things.

Sure, climate change is a significant threat to society.
Yes, our education system is in need of a complete overhaul.
And I agree, materialism and our desire for stuff is beyond unhealthy.

But bringing about the necessary change for working through those issues requires one fundamental piece of the puzzle – a community of people who simply love each other.

Now I know that “L” word carries a lot of weight with it. It demands something. It requires that we put all differences and selfishness aside and reach out to those around us. It requires that we see the good in one another and help illuminate their full potential. It requires that we sacrifice our desires, our needs, and ourselves for the sake of another. It requires living in community and walking through the highs and lows with others.

Friends, love and community require something from us. Our work doesn’t.

I am blessed because part of my job description is to simply keep in touch with my friends. I get to skype, email and write to people around the world who are striving to change the world. And if you talk to these people as I get to do, they’ll tell you that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many gallons of water they saved or how many solar panels they helped produce, what matters is the people they get to touch with their lives.

It’s the people – the friends – that matter.

At the end of the day, we are simply called to be shining lights that awake the spark inside others. Our lives should bring out the best in others. We should be doing life so that people walk away with a smile on their face and joy in their heart. We should make it so that changing the world doesn’t seem like a box to check off, but rather as a way to show love to the world.

So that’s what we are hoping to create with New Leaf. That’s part of the reason we started all of this.

I find it funny; two years ago we created New Leaf and really didn’t have any core program or service that we offered. There was no ‘thing’ that we did or planned to do. Yet for some reason, people flocked to us. Every day people walked through our door. We got emails from all around the world. We would talk with folks, and they would get extremely excited about the prospect of teaming up with New Leaf. But what did that mean? I don’t think we even knew.

And that was the point.

We didn’t want people to join with us because of something we were doing. We wanted people to join with us because of why we wanted to do something.

We were never concerned with building an organization. We were never concerned with being the most successful consulting group. We were never concerned with making a name for ourselves.

We simply want to connect people and make friends.

And over the last two years, those people have come together and collectively, have spent countless hours brainstorming what it was they wanted to create.

It sounds simple, perhaps silly, and a bit of a unique basis to build a company from, but that’s the change that we wanted to initiate. That’s the difference between traditional companies of the past and network-driven organizations of the future. As a good friend of mine once said, this is what it looks like to “bring love into the boardroom.”

The results of that two year collective brainstorm are beginning to come together and over the next few weeks, you will begin to see what we are building. We hope you will be as excited as we are, because we truly think it has the potential to make a significant difference in the lives of thousands of people around the world. We hope you will join us on the adventure, for if there is one thing we have realized, this is going to take a team effort – and you can never have too many friends on your team!

(this blog post reprinted with permission, original posting at www.iamspud.com)