The Northwest Earth Institute story begins with the vision of lifelong Oregonians Jeanne and Dick Roy. While Dick practiced corporate law from 1970 to 1993, Jeanne worked as an activist in Oregon on air quality and solid waste issues. In 1993, Dick resigned from Stoel Rives to join her as a full-time volunteer. They formed NWEI as a vehicle for their work.

With start-up grants of $45,000, and 13 volunteers from Dick’s law firm, the Roys had a limited goal for NWEI: to be a pioneer in taking earth-centered programs into mainstream workplaces. As an outreach tool to explore personal values and attitudes, the Roys had developed a discussion course on Exploring Deep Ecology. During the first year, 97 discussion groups were formed in the Portland area.

The Word Spreads

Demand for the discussion course quickly spread beyond Portland and the workplace. Fremont Methodist Church in Portland was the first faith community to request the course, CH2M HILL in Corvallis was the first site of a course outside the Portland area, and many homes were opened for evening groups.

As participants completed the course, many asked, "What’s next?" This prompted a team of talented volunteers to develop NWEI’s highly acclaimed course on Voluntary Simplicity as a second offering.

Seeing an opportunity to train course participants in reducing their impact on the earth, NWEI developed its Home Eco-Party Program. Class participants are offered an opportunity to host a gathering at home, where a trained volunteer leads a discussion on practical ways to reduce waste output, limit the use of harsh chemicals, and cut water and energy use.

Realizing that today’s youth are tomorrow’s decision-makers, NWEI started the Oregon High School Earth Club Program with the first annual Earth Club Conference at the World Forestry Center in September 1994. Working with a network of about 65 high schools, NWEI now provides a number of additional services for student clubs that seek to develop local projects to protect the earth.

The Northwest Takes Off

In 1995, word about NWEI programs spread rapidly throughout the Northwest. Activity in Seattle started with a bang – 100 employees at the Region 10 EPA office enrolled in an NWEI discussion course. Groups of volunteers offering NWEI programs emerged in many communities. Today NWEI volunteers are active in many Northwest communities, from Ashland to Bellingham, and from Astoria to Bend. Over the years, over 75 Northwest communities have been involved.

Many workplace discussion groups expressed a strong interest in continuing to meet and develop practices to better align their workplaces with the needs of the earth. To this end, NWEI developed a program to create and support "green teams," which promote solid waste and energy reduction and the use of earth-friendly products in workplaces.

After receiving many requests from around the country for its programs, NWEI started a pilot program for transporting the work in 1996. NWEI remained a Northwest organization, but allowed programs to be tested in several communities outside the Northwest.

Responding to demand from discussion course participants for more programs, NWEI developed a third discussion course, Discovering a Sense of Place. In the meantime, NWEI volunteers experimented with other ways for discussion groups to continue. For example, a number of course groups continued to work together on ways to reduce personal impact on the earth through support groups, while others held regular work parties at each other’s homes.

A Natural Step for NWEI

As NWEI increased its work with businesses in the Northwest, The Natural Step, a sustainability tool from Sweden, was brought to the United States by Paul Hawken, author of ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE. Developed by Sweden’s leading cancer researcher, Dr. Karl Henrik-Robert, The Natural Step can be used to train employees and serve as a compass for decision-making in the workplace. With the endorsement of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, NWEI introduced TNS to the Northwest through three one-day conferences. NWEI then formed the Oregon Natural Step Network, an affiliation of individuals and organizations interested in the potential of TNS. By 2002, this project had grown so large that NWEI spun it off into a separate nonprofit.

In early 1997, NWEI’s first "sister," the Great Plains Earth Institute, opened an office in Wichita, Kansas, to replicate NWEI’s programs in its region. Representatives of five regions met in Wichita in April 1997, which led to the formation of the National Earth Institute Network, an affiliation of autonomous organizations around the country that seek to offer programs developed by NWEI.  Today, the work of the Earth Institute Network has expanded to include over 20 "Sister Earth Institutes" offering NWEI programs in their respective regions.  The Network is now called the North American Network, expanding to include the Canadian Earth Institute in Victoria, B.C. 

Local Innovator and National Catalyst

In 1998, in advance of the WTO meetings in Seattle, NWEI formed a task force on economic globalization as a means to educate the public about implications of free trade. Out of that task force, a new discussion course was developed, Globalization and Its Critics.

In 1999, NWEI developed a program to organize groups of immediate neighbors to develop projects to protect local ecosystems, reduce their collective impact on the earth, and otherwise strengthen the fabric of the neighborhood. The Neighborhood Sense of Place Program was tested in 50 Portland neighborhoods with very positive results.

NWEI formed a team of investment advisors in 2001 to explore means by which one might invest with two goals in mind: (1) obtaining a reasonable return on an investment and (2) protecting or doing least harm to natural systems of the earth. Out of that initiative the Sustainable Investment Institute was formed to educate investment advisors and institutional investors.

To test the potential of its programs in a confined bioregion, in 2003 NWEI began development of the Puget Sound Regional Council in Washington. Building on chapters in Olympia and Port Townsend, and an active steering committee in Seattle, this bioregional network continues to share resources, conduct joint training, and support the formation of earth institute initiatives in Puget Sound communities.

NWEI: An Agent for Cultural Change

As communities throughout the United States discovered NWEI’s work and the significant effect of these programs, NWEI came to be seen as a leading agent for change in Western culture. A cover article of the Chronicle of Philanthropy identified several national non-profits working to decrease consumption and its resulting environmental impacts. NWEI was among the non-profit leaders featured by the Chronicle.  Today more than 80,000 known participants have benefited from the NWEI discussion courses.