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The Corvallis Earth Charter Campaign
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The Corvallis Earth Charter Campaign is an all-volunteer group of Corvallis citizens led by a task force organized to accomplish the following mission.
Mission Statement
• To educate our community about the Earth Charter, which provides guiding principles for our lives.
• To encourage individuals and organizations of all kinds to endorse the Earth Charter.
Included on this website:
About the Earth Charter
The Global Campaign
The Corvallis Campaign
Local Campaign News & Accomplishments
Upcoming Events
Join the Endorsement Campaign
Ways to Participate
Contact Us
Endorsement and Volunteer Form
About the Earth Charter
The Earth Charter is an international declaration that seeks to inspire in all peoples of the world a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well being of the human family and the larger living world.
Originally called for by the United Nations Commission on the Environment in 1987, the Earth Charter has the potential to become the most important document of our time, on a par with the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence. The Earth Charter, a declaration of interdependence for the world, can become a guiding light in the same way the Declaration of Independence inspired the peoples of the United States. The Charter delineates a widely shared set of ethical values spelled out in a declaration of sixteen fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st Century. These principles, grouped into four sections, are intended to promote:
• (Part I) Respect and Care for the Community of Life,
• (Part II) Ecological Integrity,
• (Part III) Social and Economic Justice, and
• (Part IV) Democracy, Nonviolence and Peace
The principles provide ethical guidelines to help civil society (that includes individuals, NGOs, corporations, governments and international bodies) to develop best practices and policies while traveling the road towards sustainability.
Find out more: Read the Earth Charter in its entirety (Easy to read and short enough to fit on a brochure).
Go to: www.earthcharter.org
The Global Campaign
Since completion in 2000, the Global Campaign has made much progress: Translated into over 60 languages; Endorsed by over 14,000 organizations, by over 400 local government authorities, including Seattle, WA and about 30 cities in the US; Worldwide: Papua New Guinea (870 Tribes used EC as a model for their own charter); Melbourne, Australia and Toronto, Canada have endorsed EC; EC activities and projects are happening in Chile, Costa Rica, Jordon, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Sweden, Russian Republic of Tartastan, Japan, Kenya, Bolivia, Brazil, Holland, France, Netherlands, and so on . . .
Find out more about the international “Earth Charter Initiative." Go to: www.earthcharter.org
The Corvallis Campaign
Overview
Officially launched in February 2005, we sprouted a small task force and group of volunteers. We distribute brochures and small postcard-size handouts. We solicit individual and group endorsements of the charter and contact local organizations to get the word out. We make presentations to a variety of groups and organizations in our community. For more in-depth learning and exploration, a six-session Earth Charter Discussion Course has been developed and is being offered through the Corvallis Northwest Earth Institute.
The Corvallis community has been very receptive to our Earth Charter efforts. Through articles, presentations, contacting representatives of the faith communities, tabling at a variety of events, website, and person-to-person contacts we have reached out to thousands of our citizens. We have collected endorsements from both individuals and organizations. Corvallis is a great place to introduce the Earth Charter because it is already active in ways that are in alignment with the principles of the Earth Charter. The City Council adopted a sustainability policy in 2004. The city’s 2020 Vision Statement is very much in accord with the Earth Charter principles. In 2006 Corvallis became the first city on the West Coast and the third in the nation to achieve the EPA “Green Power Community” designation for purchasing of renewable energy. Organizations such as the Northwest Earth Institute, the Oregon Natural Step Network, the Greenbelt Land Trust, Sierra Club, Audubon Society, NAACP, our farmers markets and CSA's (community supported agriculture), and First Alternative Food Co-op are all vibrant contributors to our community. Most recently, the Economic Vitality Project also has made a strong commitment to sustainability in its planning phase and for its upcoming implementation phase.
Endorsing the Earth Charter serves as a source of community pride that will help inspire and guide us in creating not only a better Corvallis but also a better world.
We remain committed to bringing a deeper understanding of and commitment to the Earth Charter to our local community.
Campaign Accomplishments
On April 13th, 2006 the Corvallis NAACP unanimously voted to endorse the Earth Charter.
* Corvallis City Council Endorses the Charter *
On April 17th, 2006 the Corvallis City Council voted to endorse the Charter fulfilling a major goal of our campaign! In doing so, Corvallis became the first municipality in Oregon to endorse the Earth Charter.
Local Campaign News
Our campaign participated in the formation of the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition that started up in January 2007. This umbrella organization, whose goal is to working together to accelerate the creation of a sustainable community, now has over 65 members.
See their website: www.sustainablecorvallis.org/
In July, we pass out Earth Charter information at DaVinci Days Festival
This fall, we passed out Earth Charter information at the Northwest Earth Institute’s (NWEI) Garden Tour. We helped staff a Calzone food booth at the Fall Festival, helping raise money for the Corvallis NWEI.
New “Good Steward of the Planet” business award established for the annual Chamber’s Celebrate Corvallis event.
Thanks to the participation of the Oregon Natural Step leadership with the Corvallis-Benton County Economic Vitality Partnership much progress is being made in working together with the business community. Their proposed economic development plan contains a strong sustainability component. For example, the current draft of the Economic Development Action Plan (Oct 2006) includes under the goal of “Integrating Sustainability and Economic Development,” the action item, "Publicly rewarding companies that have made a measurable commitment to sustainability." Brenda VanDervelder and I worked together with the Corvallis Chapters Oregon Natural Step Network and Northwest Earth Institute to propose two new Chamber awards: an individual and a business award. The result: A “Good Steward of the Planet” business award has been established for the annual Chamber’s Celebrate Corvallis event. The keynoter for this year’s event will be speaking about sustainability. Nominations for the first recipient of the award closed on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007. In the months ahead, we will consider when and how we might establish that individual award.
On October 26, 2007, thank’s to the sponsorship of OSU’s Spring Creek project, Mary Evelyn Tucker, who served as a member of the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000 and is currently a member of the newly appointed Earth Charter International Council, made a presentation/conversation on “The Emerging Alliance of Ecology and Religion.” In meeting with her afterwards, she requested that I send her the Corvallis Campaign Story so that it might be used by the international organization to inspire others. This was done.
In November, the Seattle NWEI group, requested and was sent a copy of our Earth Charter Discussion Course for their use.
The “great work” goes on.
Upcoming Activities
We will continue to give presentations, table at events, and to coordinate with and support other organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental, in realizing the vision of the Earth Charter. Contact us if you know of opportunities to make progress in accomplishing our mission. There’s always room for volunteers to fill a variety of roles. See below about joining us and getting involved.
Join the Campaign
When we act locally here in Corvallis, we are also participating in a global movement as well. Eventually, the hope is for the Charter to function like the Geneva Accords, guiding governments and peoples of our planet towards a more sustainable, earth-friendly, just, and peaceful world.
Consider these concluding words of the Earth Charter:
“As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is the promise of the Earth Charter principles. To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter. . . . Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play. . . . Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life."
Participate in our Endorsement Campaign:
You can endorse the charter in a minute or two by signing up on the Earth Charter website: go to www.earthcharter.org then notify us by email at: EarthCharterCamp@aol.comus so we can add you to our list of local endorsers.
Additional Ways You Can Participate
• Contact us for a brochure to read, then hand it on to a friend or colleague. Brochures can be picked up at the Corvallis Environmental Center, 214 SW Monroe Ave, Corvallis, OR 97333 or the Oregon State Sustainability Center at SE 15th Street.
• Contact leaders in your work setting, faith community, and other organizations to encourage them to find out about and endorse the Charter. Arrange to have a member of the campaign make a presentation or organize a NWEI Earth Charter Course for your group.
• Help distribute handouts, brochures
• Give out handouts at an information table at local events
• Contact us to participate in an Earth Charter Discussion Group
• Recruit individuals and organizations to endorse the Charter
• There are a variety of tasks common to many organizations where we can often use help: writing & publicity, graphic design, web page design and maintenance, developing powerpoint presentations, email list maintenance, coordinating volunteers, organizational planning by joining the task force, and so on . . . Volunteer with your expertise in mind.
As a group, we are committed to enjoying our volunteering and celebrating our progress.
Questions or Concerns?
Here’s how to reach us.
Contact Information:
John Swanson, Coordinator
Corvallis Earth Charter Campaign
260 SW Madison, Suite 107
Corvallis, OR 97333
Email: EarthCharterCamp@aol.com
(541) 753-0820
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(NOTE: Send us an email by copying the format below and including your responses)
Endorsement and Volunteer Email:
Endorsement Campaign:
______I have already emailed the international organization to become an individual endorser.
______Include me now as an endorser and forward my information to the international organization in Costa Rica.
______Include my name/organization on a public list of local endorsers of the Earth Charter
Please contact me about the following activities and ways of helping:
* Check the ways you would like to help:
______Contact me to participate in an Earth Charter Discussion Group
______Help put on educational events, tabling at events
______Recruit individuals and organizations to endorse the charter
______Other:_____________________________________________
Name:___________________________________________________
Endorsing Organization:_____________________________________
Address:__________________________________________________
Phone:____________________ Email:_______________________
______Include me on your email contact list to keep informed about the campaign
COMMENTS:
- Updated 11/26/2007
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