In Honor of Earth Day: four little lessons from a real earth hero

I was going to write today’s blog about the Wilderness Within (which will come tomorrow), until last night, when I saw my husband reading to his daughter before sleep. He had just come home from another jam-packed day at work, helped coach his son's little league team's first game, and finally had his "play-night" with his daughter.
I mean, I saw him, I really saw him for first time in a long time and realized here is a person who completely exemplifies “helping other people and the earth” and I get to live with him! Truly, I am in awe of what this man accomplishes and gives in the space of a single day.

My husband is the Director of the Campus Sustainability Office for Penn State (all 24 campuses). He is also an amazing dad of two school age children, a fantastic husband, a (soccer, basketball, baseball) coach, a friend, a son, a noon-time basketball player, amongst many other roles.

Since blogs are supposed to be short and pithy, I am going to extract just four little lessons from his life that make him a true hero, as well as true earth hero! In his life and work, he has embodied theses teachings:

1) Make Going Green fun: “Whoever has the most fun wins!”that has been our personal and professional motto for 15 years. We decided that for environmentalism to be successful we had to making going green as much fun or moreso than consuming. As much as possible, Erik uses stories, games, laughter, and especially humor to engage his many disparate audiences.
For example, amidst all the presentations he does for adults, he took time out recently to talk to all the first and second grade classes at Park Forest Elementary, including his daughter's class. He talked to them about how they can be Earth Heroes and save energy, water, and resources. In the midst of his talk, he had set his phone to ring so he could receive a pretend phone call from Mother Earth asking for their help! Needless to say, all the 6 and 7 year olds absolutely loved hearing from Her! And to this day when they see him up at the school, they ask about Mother Earth.

2) Make Going Green profitable: the whole impetus behind Erik getting his MBA (after being an Environmental Studies-Sociology double major) was because he knew (long before it became popular) that organizations and institutions were more likely to change if he could demonstrate for them an improvement in their fiscal bottom line as a result of going green. He went to graduate school, got the tools he needed to make his case, and has been doing so ever since.

3) “Family first”. Schedule play time with your kids: Wednesday night is playtime with his daughter; Friday night with his son. Erik has been upholding these weekly playdates with his children for years, and they eagerly look forward to it. Date your wife: spend time with her (buying gifts works well too). Coach or assistant coach, if you can. Erik’s example illustrate that loving his family isn’t just a feeling, it is a choice of how he spends his time.

4) Come from gratitude: This is his personal adage. He is the first to recognize & honor all those who have supported him over the years, including all the Grace that streams into his life to aid him in his endeavors. Even though he gets up every day at 5:30Am to do the part of his work that requires writing in solitude, he then makes time to meditate and be thankful.

Thank you Erik for being a true Earth Hero, and one who really does help other people and the earth! You are an inspiration!
Who is YOUR Earth Hero? HONOR the earth hero you know today!!