January 14, 2009

Dear President-Elect Obama,

Congratulations on your magnificent and historical victory and your pending inauguration. As one of the millions in your grass-roots army of volunteers, I am thrilled that you will be our next president. Given the massive challenges we face as a nation, your bold and visionary leadership is essential to the health and vitality of the nation. I am grateful to you and your family for choosing to step up and lead. I write this to you to propose “Apollo 2020 Vision and the Green Corps” as a comprehensive and compelling approach to addressing these issues.

I am co-author of the new publication, The Necessary Revolution: How individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World (Doubleday, 2008). The book takes a systems view on addressing our most pressing sustainability issues. A recent review reported, “If Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was the wake-up call, and Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce and McDonough/Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle were the call to action in such a revolution, then The Necessary Revolution is the field guide.” The cases and experiences in the book emerge from 15 years’ work creating, convening and leading the Society for Organizational Learning’s Sustainability Consortium (SSC), consisting of several Fortune 500s, including Nike, Ford and Shell, as well as sustainability NGOs, and government agencies.

Indeed this multi-stakeholder consortium was inspired in part by then EPA Secretary Carol Browner’s “Common Sense Initiative” and the experience of one of its participants, a Shell engineer named Walter Rousch, with whom we worked in 1996. He relayed, “You haven’t seen conflict till you’ve been in that room and seen the spears and daggers thrown both ways by ‘tree-huggers’ and ‘oil tycoons.’ You should convene an initiative using your tools on dialogue, vision and systems thinking to bring these people together. It would be a huge contribution to the field.” My colleagues and I from the SSC did this in 1998 and have learned much since then about how to create effective collaboration between former adversaries towards achieving the triple bottom line of people, profit and planet.

I am very excited that you plan to implement many of the core strategies that we reference in the book. The essential thing is to create an unprecedented inspirational shared vision that the country can get behind. If I had 10 minutes of your time I would propose the following:

Apollo 2020 Vision and the Green Corps Imperative

Apollo 2020 Vision:

To reach “the sun” by powering our economy with 100% renewable energy sources by the year 2020.

Principles:

1) Energy Independence: Eliminate dependence of foreign oil.

2) Climate Stability: Radically decrease carbon emissions to stabilize climate.

3) Increase Security: No longer dependent on their oil, we decrease need for

Military presence in Middle East.

4) Economic Vitality: Creating a robust Energy sector through manufacture and

sale of New technologies.

5) Job Creation: Employ millions of Americans to build the new energy

Infrastructure.

6) All-American Revolution: It will take all of us to make this happen.

7) Education: Provide Green Corp volunteers with College education and

essential skills for the new economy.

People:

The Green Corps. Tens of millions of Americans of all ages and ethnicities who will be employed to achieve the Apollo 2020 Vision.

Structure:

21^st century organization combining the best practices of the Peace Corps, the Conservation Corps and the Marine Corps.

Apollo 2020 Vision and the Green Corp Imperative

The Apollo 2020 Vision aims to achieve an economy fueled on 100% solar and solar derivatives in 11 years. This is the “Kennedy to the Moon” challenge that will propel us to meet the big three challenges of economy, security and climate. With such a compelling vision and inspired leadership, Americans have proven that we can do anything.

In my view, it is essential that you articulate an audacious vision for the country to rally behind. In our work with Fortune 500s such as Nike and BP we have learned that incremental goals lead to mediocre, partial, unsatisfactory solutions. Ask a company to cut emissions by 15% and they may do it using the same tired processes and products. But give them “game-changing” goals such as eliminating carbon altogether and you will see creative breakthroughs in products and processes that no one would have imagined. For example Nike footwear designers were given the quantum challenge of creating products with no waste and no toxins that were 100% recyclable and 100% re-manufacturable and they did it in record time. No one is inspired to be “less bad” as in partially reducing emissions. Most all are inspired to create something brand new that is awesomely good.

By creating a Green Corps to take on the mission of achieving the Apollo 2020 Vision, we can meet several essential goals simultaneously. The Green Corps, which will build on the best practices of the Conservation, Peace and Marine Corps, can engage tens of millions of Americans in meaningful, highly rewarding work. Younger people in the 18 to 22 year old demographic can choose to work in the Volunteer Green Corps division. In exchange for this they will be eligible for the GI (Green Initiative) bill that will pay for two years of college or graduate school. The evidence that this demographic is up for such a challenge is seen in youth-lead initiatives such as www.youthagainstclimatechange.org, www.itsgettinghotinhere.org, and www.GlobalWarmingChallenge.org. People older than 23 can take on high-paying manufacturing quality jobs with the Green Corps building, installing and maintaining massive solar, wind, hydro and fuel cell power installations as well as the infrastructure needed to support these.

In addition to the quantifiable workforce, energy, and security gains of the Green Corp there are qualitative benefits as well: Americans of all ages, ethnicities, economic backgrounds, races and genders working together, serving a purpose greater than themselves. This creates bonds of affection, respect and generosity of spirit. We call this the All-American Revolution because this time all are included. Ancient enmities will lose their power as a thriving “Purple America” emerges.

The legacy we will leave our children in clean environment, energy independence, economic vitality, and a truly United States of America will be the great blessing our generation gives to the future.

I would be thrilled to speak with you further about the ideas here and to contribute to the team that leads this vital work.

Respectfully,

Sara Schley

Wendell, MA

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