Petaluman explores innovations in the developing world

Environmental scientist Rocky Rohwedder is tired of talking about what should be done to save the world.

Instead, the 62-year old Petaluman wants to talk about measures that are already in action, and he wants to share the stories of the people who are helping to usher in change. About a decade ago, he began to explore a question: are there ways for communities to boost themselves out of poverty while also diminishing their ecological footprint?

He explored dozens of countries and worked with a team of experts to identify and document the groups and individuals who are innovating and creating unique solutions for struggles with lighting, cooking and access to clean and safe water that are tailored to the specific needs of their communities.

Rohwedder, who recently retired from a three-decade stint as a professor at Sonoma State University, complied his findings into “Ecological Handprints,” an interactive e-book released this April. Rather than present information that falls flat on a textbook page, Rohwedder said he sought to make an engaging web-based resource with videos, infographics and photos that help illustrate the stories of those who are featured.

Dodging the norm of academic publishing, Rohwedder created the e-book himself after his findings were vetted by a team of experts.

“This book is all about people themselves in their communities figuring out how to increase their wellbeing in ways that aren’t going to trash their immediate environment or our collective environment,” he said.

While teaching as part of Semester at Sea, a global study abroad program, he said he met prominent social activist Desmond Tutu, who penned the foreword to “Ecological Handprints,” and has supported the book, which also provides resources for readers to support the projects and get involved.

The book highlights innovators ranging from “Solar Sister,” a group that seeks to do away with energy poverty in rural Africa by supporting a women-centric direct sales model that distributes solar lamps to families who would otherwise use kerosene, which can be a health and public safety hazard, to “Proyecto Mirador,” a project that’s taken root in rural Honduras that allows families to build affordable and eco-friendly cooking stoves that offset carbon emissions.

Others include “Smart Water for Green Schools,” a Ghanaian water project that provides rainwater harvesting systems as part of an overarching program that also engages locals.

“There are smart people that care about their families and communities and they’re doing really interesting and innovative work under difficult conditions, and we should be inspired by what they do and learn from what they’re doing,” said Rohwedder, who has also worked as an educational consultant to agencies including the World Resources Institute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Peace Corps.

Rohwedder said he sought out efforts that were creatively financed, affordable, women-empowered, digitally enhanced and local.

“When projects that are initiated outside the locale, (residents) are suspect, in many cases for good reasons, but affordable local devices that rely on a local natural capital and a local national capital are keys to success,” he said.

In a world with more than seven billion people that’s expanding by the minute, finding a balance between meeting the needs of a growing population and protecting the planet is of growing concern.

Rohwedder said he chose to focus on overarching issues that impact a variety of people and demographics: nearly 17 percent of the global population lives without electricity, while one in 10 people face difficulty finding affordable and clean drinking water, and about three billion people cook their meals over an open fire made from biofuels.

Through his explorations, he said he’s found even more innovations surrounding shelter, education and food, and other topics that could later provide fodder for him to expand his “living” book.

“I think I’ve always been looking for what we can do to make a difference,” he said. “It validates my own personal quest in my own community and my own life. I’m a story teller - I think it’s a powerful way to teach and on a personal level, it’s satisfying to tell stories about success. That keeps me going and keeps me engaged and always learning.”

Rohwedder, who is also the co-founder of the Environmental Technology Center at Sonoma State University, brings his desire for conservation back home by serving on the advisory boards for Petaluma Bounty Farm and for Petaluma-based Lexicon of Sustainability, which promotes sustainability though art and other multi-platform efforts.

Rohwedder, who has lived in Petaluma for about 12 years, said his research presents an important point.

“We have to, in the industrialized world, go through a dramatic shift in our economy and eco-efficency to be super smart and fast in every way we can … there’s a whole other wave here of humanity and impacts that are happening now and really beginning to transform. We need to be active in that process of addressing that as well,” he said.

(Contact Hannah Beausang at hannah.beausang@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @hannahbeausang.)