Dave Kramer
aka Big Green Dave
Director of Green Programs
Boston Green Academy
BIO
Dave Kramer serves as the Director of Green Programs at Boston Green Academy, Boston Public Schools’ only school with a mission-level focus on sustainability and environmental justice and environmental science CTE (career and technical education) program. Known as "Big Green Dave," he serves as a coach, advisor, and support for staff, faculty, and students on
all things green - from the school’s classroom curriculum and experiential programming, to green workforce development and pathways, to the physical plant and systems, to marquis programs, special events, and network building.
Dave began his career as a teacher in Colombia in the late 1990’s, teaching grades 6 to 10 (English and History, and serving as “Green Act” club faculty co-sponsor and organizer of April Environmental Month to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Earth Day). Colombia’s stunning biocultural diversity and severe public security challenges inspired him to pursue graduate studies in environmental policy and international conservation and development. During the past 20+ years, he has lived in Boston, Western Mass, Guatemala, and Texas. Dave previously served as program director for Planet Texas 2050 at the University of Texas at Austin (a climate resilience-focused interdepartmental “grand challenge”). Prior to UT, Dave worked for the voluntary carbon market leader Verra on an effort with the Rainforest Alliance to create a standard assessment framework for sustainable tropical landscapes called LandScale; he worked for over a decade in various roles with EcoLogic Development Fund focused on supporting grassroots community-led strategies for conservation and locally-defined priorities in Mexico and Central America; and he has tried his hand at consulting, tourism, and communications work. Dave holds a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, a BA in English from Dartmouth College, and a certificate in Outdoor Leadership from Greenfield Community College in Massachusetts. He is a Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation Environmental Fellow. He lives in Jamaica Plain with his family, where he enjoys the plethora of green space to walk, run, bike, and get lost in thought and the chance to
engage deeply with a diverse but changing community.
PROJECT TITLE: An Exploration of Green Schools
& Sustainability Initiatives Across Colombia
PROJECT REPORT 2024
An awe-inspiring, awesome, and "awe-full" time in Colombia in 2024, Dave Kramer, via https://lnkd.in/eTRewNCi
"Awe." When I 🛫 to #Colombia 🇨🇴, generously supported by the Pat Cooke Fund (donor-advised fund administered by The Boston Foundation), I expected nothing less, and I was in the midst of devouring the book "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder" by Dacher Keltner.
The funds allowed me to explore programs at a range of educational institutions, seeing impressive examples of urban planning & renewal, meeting young people and adults whose resilience and thoughtful dedication to building a better world has left me in a humble state of #awe.
Across Colombia, I witnessed the new national plastic waste reduction law (Law 2232 of 2022 bans 21 kinds of single use plastics by 2030, starting with eight on July 7). I was immersed in fútbol fanaticism, soaked up breathtaking biodiversity, and stood before hundreds of masterful murals and street art.
An "iceberg tip" list of what I explored!
In Cali:
- 7th Sustainability Summit. Met folks from ProPacífico and OMAR JALVIN at the Centro de Innovacion Rural and got a preview of the upcoming #COP16
- Regenerative Tourism Forum https://lnkd.in/es_RcJdS
- Felidia w/ the High Mountain Base, a rural school, and hundreds of Yarumo trees
- Ecoparque de las Garzas, one of 61 urban wetlands https://lnkd.in/eSybre-8
- Colegio Bolivar - a firsthand tour of agroforestry efforts spearheaded by Wojciech Waliszewski
- Colegio de las Aguas, a school built of bamboo
- Pance River trails & greenery
In Bogotá:
- Biohotel Colombia , I stayed and marveled at sustainability at every turn!
#Ciclovia, walked for miles on closed streets in one of the world's biggest car-free weekly events
- Copa America Final âš½
- Chingaza National Park + its amazing #páramo, Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia w/ Eduardo Campos Umbarila
- Miguel Andres Tovar Sosa + Fundación Ana Valentina in Ciudad Bolívar
- Colegio Rochester, the first & only school 🌎 w/ gold certification from U.S. Green Building Council TRUE Zero Waste program
- Stewards of the Fucha River like Colegio Técnico José Félix Restrepo
- The sport of "plogging" (jogging and filling trash bags)
- The Forest School of Colegio La Colina
- The Escuela Pedagógica Experimental
On San Andrés Island:
- Seaflower Biosphere Reserve
- Ecofiwi kayak tours w/ mangrove reforestation in Old Point Mangrove Park
- Kreole language and history - it's located closer to Nicaragua than Colombia
In Medellín:
- Corporación Parque Arví, a huge forested area just outside of the city, reachable by the metro's cable cars
- Comuna 13
- Fundación Jardín Botánico de Medellín (it's free!)
- Parque Explora - wow!
- #MOVA, the innovation center for the city's teachers
- Largest living wall in Colombia
- The #greencorridors project targeting heat islands across the city
- Amazing Metro system of trains, cable cars, escalators, and bikes
- Alejandra Cano a fellow Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation fellow
And here's a great little podcast episode on the power of #awe that led me to Dacher Keltner's book in the first place and primed the pump for my time in Colombia.
Reflecting on awe over the summer has felt transformative, helping me better understand my own youthful sense of curiosity (and propensity for making the awe faces and sounds that Keltner describes in a way that inspires frequent ridicule from my own teenage offspring!). And the reading and reflection is informing my preparation for the fast-approaching 2024-25 school year in ways I'm not even fully aware of yet but in ways that will be sure to bring education out of classrooms and into the culture and ether of my school and community. I wish I'd selected Keltner's book as a summer reading option for my colleagues 📖
Awe can be found in so many spaces if we're open to it and helps put things into a really sublime and grand and long-term perspective, helping us see ourselves as part of a multi-generational storyline. It can come from immersion in nature near and far - even in micro doses in everyday places; to being part of the collective effervescence of events such as fútbol matches or group páramo (what I consider the most awesome ecosystem on 🌎 ) hikes in Colombia; to experiencing and healing from trauma and loss in a way that connects us to others and the great beyond, and more (what Keltner calls “the eight wonders of life,”
https://lnkd.in/e2vfB6aA spotlights the article and field research by Outside contributing editor Florence Williams
And here is a pair of related Instagram posts/reels from my "biggreenkramer" account which might interest you (the length of my Instagram note also led to ridicule from my offspring 🤣 - so maybe their eye rolling ridicule is an indicator that I've struck some kind of awe nerve gold 🌈 🥇 ...)
