May 05, 2010 –
His experiences led Baker to create Ecofficiency.org.
UC Irvine graduate student Jesse Baker had just returned from a grueling nine-month journey to Venezuela. It was his fourth trip in five years to Latin America to research the area’s environmental policies for his doctoral dissertation in the Department of Planning, Policy, and Design. This often harrowing sojourn had included several violent rallies, a concert disrupted by shotgun-toting gangsters, and his abduction by a group of machete-wielding rebels who stole everything but his shorts and shoes.
“I was just exhausted,” he recalls of that May in 2008.
So he was less than enthusiastic about attending a lecture at CALIT2 sponsored by CUSA, the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs, at which explorer Robert Swan would discuss a fact-finding trip to Antarctica to raise awareness about climate change and renewable energy. But since CUSA director Richard Matthew was Baker’s graduate advisor, and since the center had provided him with funding over the years, he convinced himself to make an appearance.
It was a propitious decision.
“As I was driving there, I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to be doing this. Antarctica has nothing to do with what I’m studying,” he says. “But within five minutes after Swan began talking, I thought, ‘I want to go on that trip; I’ve got to go on that trip.”
Baker did go to Antarctica in March 2009, along with Swan and 68 other intrepid travelers from 28 countries, including China, Japan, Pakistan, South Africa, Canada and Argentina. The journey was replete with spectacular scenery, awe-inspiring sunsets and ocean colors he “didn’t even know existed.” Whales splashed, penguins nibbled at his boots, leopard seals lazed on the rocks and an albatross flew past his window.
The magnificent backdrop, however, was superseded by the relationships he formed with his fellow travelers during the 12-day trip, Baker says. Business executives, students, activists and teachers from all over the world worked, ate, debated and relaxed together. “What was really fantastic was that there was no divide between people. We really communicated on a level where we could understand each other and see all the different perspectives concerning sustainability.”
He prefers the term “ecofficiency,” calling it less ambiguous, and describing it as the confluence of “economy, equity and ecology, and the ways in which we consume products.”
The trip provided stunning scenery.
close-up views of penguins, seals, whales and even an albatross
Baker, a logger’s son who grew up in Oregon, remembers noting at a young age the connection between resources and the economy. “I read the paper every day and those issues were there: companies shutting down mills and shipping whole logs to Japan, while my dad couldn’t get a job.”
An activist of sorts – he spent several years working for public interest research groups and fundraised for Save the Children and Greenpeace, and against slavery in Sudan – his Antarctic experience prompted Baker to start a nonprofit organization. Ecofficiency.org addresses social and environmental issues on a grass-roots level.
The organization encourages consumers to make small changes in the ways they purchase and use products, hoping they will relay the message to larger institutions. “If you want business or government to change, people have to change,” he states.
He started with his own family, which now donates to nonprofit organizations in lieu of buying expensive Christmas gifts.
Awe-inspiring sunsets added to the mystique.
The Ecofficiency.org staff makes presentations to schools and business groups, teaching them simple ways to preserve the environment. They also consult individually with local companies, helping them find cost-efficient ways to provide products and services that are “responsibly derived.”
Education lies at the heart of his endeavors. “There’s this idea out there that you can change the world with your pocketbook but boycotts are not very productive,” he says. “Wouldn’t it be better to say, ‘hey, we love your company; wouldn’t it be great if you recycled more or minimized your water usage?’”
The nonprofit also produces concerts and events that combine education with entertainment, including a ‘Hope for Haiti’ concert and art auction. Baker continually strives to connect the dots ? to help individuals understand their connection to the larger world.
CUSA director and CALIT2 division council member Matthew has high praise for his student. “Jesse exemplifies the type of researcher CUSA supports: a pragmatic and resourceful individual, willing to work under tough and uncertain conditions in the most remote parts of the planet, deeply dedicated to investigating the ways in which environmental change affects the most vulnerable people on the planet, and committed to finding practical ways to improve sustainability and resilience.”
His evolution from exhausted graduate student to Antarctic explorer to environmental advocate led Baker to see that his experiences in Antarctica actually do connect to his own research in Latin America. “I look at both as mitigating the impacts of our consumer behavior. In Venezuela I was looking at social impacts of consumer behavior; in Antarctica, it was environmental impacts of consumer behavior. And both overlap, from the local to the global.”
Future plans for Baker, who defended his doctoral dissertation in March, include further nurturing Ecofficiency.org, writing a book, conducting speaking tours and perhaps leading international expeditions like the one he traveled on with Swan.
“I want to bring people outside of their comfort zone, to different places where we get our resources so they can see what the impacts are,” he states. “Then those people can come back and share their experiences with their communities and communicate how we’re all connected to the environment.”
— Anna Lynn Spitzer
