Resources

The Sustainable Prisons Projects is a community of ideas as well as people. Our mission includes serving as a model for other prisons, educational and conservation organizations and residential institutions such as military bases, assisted living centers and summer camps. We also serve as a clearinghouse for anyone – including current inmates and ex-offenders – interested in science, sustainability, green-collar jobs and training opportunities.

Please help us develop this page of resources by sending professional research, reports, articles, programs and other items to Project Manager Jeff Muse at musej@evergreen.edu.

Sustainable Prisons Project

Project Overview
Annual Report: Fiscal Year 2009
Share your expertise in science or sustainability with the Sustainable Prisons Project: Call for Presenters and Researchers.

The Evergreen State College

The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts and sciences college in Olympia, Washington. With more than 4600 students and 700 faculty and staff, the college includes the Master of Environmental Studies and Master of Public Administration programs, key contributors to the Sustainable Prisons Project.
Nalini Nadkarni, Ph.D., Member of the Faculty and Project Co-Director
Sustainability at Evergreen

Washington State Department of Corrections

The Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) houses, feeds, clothes and provides programs for more than 16,000 incarcerated men and women in 15 prisons. Learn about sustainability at DOC.
American Correctional Association
Working with the non-profit PAWfect Connections and local animal shelters, DOC helps inmates save dogs from euthanasia by rehabilitating the troubled pets for adoption by families.

Community Partners

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) protects the state’s fish and wildlife resources. We partner with WDFW Senior Research Scientist Dr. Marc Hayes to save the endangered Oregon spotted frog.
Dedicated to wildlife conservation and education, Northwest Trek helped establish our Oregon spotted frog project at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center by sharing its own frog-rearing program as a model.
The Nature Conservancy works around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. We help the non-profit organization restore the prairies of South Puget Sound at Fort Lewis, the nation’s third largest Army base.
David Heil and Associates, Inc. (DHA) is a national leader in the evaluation of science-based educational programs. We work closely with DHA to assess the impact of our activities on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of our project participants, including visiting scientists and sustainability experts.

Green-collar Jobs and Training

Clean Edge Jobs posts employment opportunities with clean-tech companies and other organizations leading the transition to a clean-energy economy.
Greenbiz.com lists jobs in renewable energy, green building, sustainable businesses and more.
Greencorps Chicago, a program of the city government, provides paid nine-month training programs in diverse environmental trades for economically disadvantaged people, including ex-offenders.
Green For All is a national non-profit organization working to build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Green For All is an excellent resource for information about green jobs, training opportunities, research, policy and much more.
Green Jobs Guidebook: Download this 59-page book to learn about the duties, qualifications and salaries for hundreds of positions.
Green Jobs Network announces employment opportunities.
Rising Sun Energy Center in California promotes renewable energy and resource conservation through educational programs such as solar installation workshops and internships.
Sustainable South Bronx is a community organization dedicated to youth development, vocational training, “Greening the Ghetto” and other innovative work in one of New York City’s oldest industrial neighborhoods.
Sustain Lane is a green-collar jobs board.
Veterans Green Jobs provides education and career development opportunities for military veterans, empowering and supporting them to lead America’s transition to energy independence, ecological restoration, community renewal and economic prosperity.

Science

The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that funds approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities, including much of Dr. Nalini Nadkarni’s work at The Evergreen State College.

Sustainability

Rocky Mountain Institute is an independent, entrepreneurial, non-profit think-and-do tank™ whose mission is to drive the efficient and restorative use of resources.
Sustainability at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation.

Partner Profile

Nalini Nadkarni, Ph.D.
Project Co-Director and Member of the Faculty, The Evergreen State College
President, International Canopy Network

A professor and forest ecologist at The Evergreen State College, Dr. Nadkarni is the co-director of the Sustainable Prisons Project. Since 1985, she has conducted forest canopy research on four continents, mainly in Costa Rica and in Washington State, supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship. In 1994, Nalini founded the International Canopy Network to foster communication among canopy researchers, educators and conservationists. While teaching and publishing 85 scientific articles and three books, she identified the need for scientists to reach – and in turn learn from – non-traditional audiences beyond academia. Toward that end, she established the Research Ambassador Program to help scientists convey their ideas and research results to such groups as faith-based communities, urban youth and incarcerated men and women. Nalini’s work has been highlighted in numerous scientific journals, popular magazines, television documentaries and conferences such as TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). She lives with her biologist husband and two children in the woods west of Olympia, Washington.

Above: A long-time faculty member at The Evergreen State College, Dr. Nalini Nadkarni teaches, writes and conducts ecological research while co-directing the Sustainable Prisons Project with Department of Corrections Deputy Director Dan Pacholke.