A wide selection of popular books and treasured volumes are for sale at Dog’s Ear, a pop-up in the Arcanum Building in Norfolk. Proceeds benefit the Norfolk Library Associates. Michael Selleck, right, helps Anne Collins, center, and Caroline Collins. It runs through May, open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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Laurie Lane-Zucker is founder and CEO of Impact Entrepreneur, PBC, a company dedicated to fostering the Impact Economy.
Provided
“I love being here. Some years ago, I realized that I spent most of my life along Route 7. I grew up in Fairfield County, not far from Route 7. I went to Salisbury School. I went to Middlebury College, also right on Route 7. It’s this region’s geography — the whole Taconic range — that just has a hold on me, and I love it.”
Early in his career, Lane-Zucker worked in Manhattan with Orion Magazine. When the magazine outgrew its office space, he advocated for its relocation to Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He then served as the founding director of The Orion Society, the nonprofit that now publishes the magazine. While there, he co-developed and coined the term “place-based education,” an approach that prioritizes local community and landscape as primary resources for learning.
He has never left the area, despite several professional opportunities.
“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave this place. I had too many roots here. My kids all went to Great Barrington public schools at different points. My older son Liam went to the Salisbury School and still lives in the area and my daughter Anna went to the Waldorf School. I just love this place so much.”
Determined to forge his career here, Lane-Zucker set out on his own entrepreneurial path. He started the Triad Institute, an international think tank focused on sustainability. One of his projects was a digital media initiative called Hotfrog, which became a founding Certified B Corporation, with verified standards for social and environmental accountability.
These professional experiences and his passion for the region all come together in his work. In 2011, he coined the term “impact entrepreneur,” giving a name to the hopes and actions of a growing community of social innovators and practitioners — a new archetype of changemaker, who understands the need to reinvent the way we engage with the world through business and finance.
“Impact Entrepreneur is more than a brand or description,” Lane-Zucker said. “It is an identity that people increasingly embrace. It is who they are. The term is now widely used in the media and in conversation at every conference I go to. It is one of the great successes of this project.”
Lane-Zucker’s book celebrates the movement toward a regenerative economy and makes the case for security that rests on investments in ecological stability, public health, equity and community cohesion. He shines a light on business models and practices that marry profit with purpose and are inspired by the region’s special sense of place — this “landscape of deep memory where the earth itself seems to speak in whispers.”
He also includes 36 beautiful original watercolor images in which colors flow and form one continuous gesture. They offer a visual interpretation of the book’s call for a unified economic system in which human intention guidescomplex systems rather than dominating them.
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Lane-Zucker also sees the book, in part, as his own memoir.
“One of the things that I am happiest about is that my grandchild, if I am lucky enough to have one, or anyone, will know what I did with my work.”
Lane-Zucker is doing something new and needed — giving voice and leadership to transformative change and providing a roadmap for others to join in and take action.
As he said, “There are a lot of models and tools that exist now. This is not a pipe dream or niche thing. This is the next step; the next stage of the economy; a rightful human evolution that’s happening.”
For more information and to order a copy of the book, visit impactentrepreneur.com
“London Sky,” a vintage settee reimagined by Pryor and Peacock with a dramatic view of the London skyline.
Provided by Pryor and Peacock
The women at Pryor and Peacock — two sisters and their mother — thought that was a shame. They decided to save these carefully crafted pieces and breathe new life into them using old designs and new technology. The results are one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture, each with its own feel, design and story.
It started with a crazy idea. Interior designer Luca Shapiro, one of the sisters, was trying to revitalize an old telephone chair — the kind with a little table built onto the side for a phone and notepad. She wanted to upholster the chair with pages from a phone book. The idea was so specific, she knew she’d never be able to find the fabric she was looking for, so she began researching ways to make it herself.
What she and her business partners — a.k.a. her mom and sister — discovered was digital textile printing. The method first came about in the late 1980s, and the process has become more precise through advances in dyes, inks and the inkjet printers now used by manufacturers. Pryor and Peacock use the process both as the only practical way to achieve their specific designs and as a means of reducing waste associated with traditional furniture making.
One aspect of that waste has been a hot-button issue of late: water. According to the World Bank Group, textile dyeing and treatment account for an estimated 20% of industrial water pollution. With the onslaught of data centers, conserving water seems to be more important than ever. While P&P is a relatively small operation, which couldn’t possibly consume the levels of water being used by big data, the company believes that every drop matters.
Fast-furniture is another detrimental trend the women wanted to address. Cheaper, lighter and more convenient pieces are now favored over carefully made and designed furniture.
“Squirrels in the Shire,” a one-of-a-kind furniture piece created by Pryor and Peacock.Provided by Pryor and Peacock
P&P finds unique statement pieces from the past and gives them new life through period-appropriate design and cutting-edge textile technology. It also sees this as a way to protect wildlife. While the company is committed to abstaining from leather and fur in its production, reducing the need for new wood means less deforestation, and the preservation of animal habitats.
Sustainable practices aside, the work is really about pairing artworks in unexpected ways. The designs are mostly sourced from old art books, featuring illustrations from centuries past. Sometimes P&P finds a piece of furniture, and looks for ways to enhance its beauty through design. Other times, the design comes first, and they scour antique shops, auctions and flea markets to find its perfect canvas.
The results are always completely unique, and frequently come with fun, inspiring stories of the art, the “frame” and sometimes both. It’s thanks to these unique pairings that you won’t find anyone with the same piece as you. Of course, that means if you see something you love, you better get it before somebody else does.
P&P presented its first pop-up shop in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, last month, and is looking for other in-person opportunities to show its work.
To learn more about the business and browse its current inventory, visitpryorandpeacock.com.
Charlotte Milner at the Holmenkollbakken Ski Jumps in Oslo.
Margaret Banker
The traveling group included Caleb Bodwell, Camden Hubbard, Oona Mascavage, Charlotte Milner, Imogen Milner, Aerin Sheil, Henry Sheil, Islay Sheil, Wyeth Taylor, and Gus Tripler.
Bodwell traveled to the Karl Eid Ski Jumping Complex in Anchorage, as well as Fox River Grove, Illinois.
“It was amazing getting to jump the K65 at midnight while it was still bright and sunny out,” Bodwell said of his experience in Alaska.
SWSA’s Caleb Bodwell ready to jump off the 65 meter jump at the Karl Eid Ski Jump Complex in Anchorage, Alaska at midnight.Keith Bodwell
His development has accelerated since SWSA added a 36-meter hill to its complex at Satre Hill, giving young jumpers another step between the association’s smaller training hill and its largest jump.
Ski jumps are commonly identified by their K-point, or construction point, which marks a designated location in the landing area and is used in scoring. Satre Hill has 20-, 36-, and 65-meter jumps. By comparison, the largest officially sanctioned ski jump in the United States is the 134-meter hill at Utah Olympic Park in Park City.
Mascavage and Milner were among the SWSA athletes who traveled to Norway to train at the Holmenkollen Ski Jump Camp. Like other summer ski-jumping facilities, the hills are equipped with artificial surfaces that allow athletes to train without snow.
SWSA coach Seth Gardner accompanied the group and guided the athletes through the week of training. The experience allowed the jumpers to test themselves on new hills while training in a country with a deep ski-jumping tradition.
Islay Sheil traveled even farther, training on summer ski-jumping hills in Slovenia and Austria as she works toward earning a place on the junior national team, which can provide a pathway to higher-level international competition.
Despite spending months away from home, Sheil said the experience has been enjoyable.
Summer training is especially important in a sport that requires athletes to adapt quickly. While snow covers the landing hills during the winter, summer facilities generally use artificial surfaces kept slick with water. Changes in hill size, speed, wind, and equipment can require jumpers to make immediate adjustments.
SWSA has supported ski jumping in northwestern Connecticut for more than a century. Its best-known event is Jumpfest, held each February at Satre Hill.
The association also maintains ties with the New York State Ski Education Foundation. Salisbury athletes frequently travel to Lake Placid to train with experienced coaches and former Olympic ski jumpers, including Jay Rand and Salisbury’s Larry Stone.
Traveling to training camps and competitions can be costly, particularly for families whose athletes must make repeated trips to reach suitable jumping facilities. SWSA raises money throughout the year to maintain its hills and help offset some of those expenses.
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Eileen Fielding (at right with backpack) speaks to a group of people interested in forest management techniques.
Patrick L. Sullivan
At the start of the hike, where a footbridge crossed a beaver pond, Fielding stopped and said, “Let me get my bird goggles on.”
She noted that by late August, the birds were no longer singing.
“They’re molting, eating bugs, fattening up for migrating,” she said.
“If it were May, you’d have yellow warblers, sparrows, lots of little migratory songbirds taking advantage of the abundant cover and insect life.”
Not all the birds in GMF are migratory, but a significant percentage are, Fielding said.
“We are standing in a nursery for tropical birds,” she told the group. “Lots of good habitat, lots of food, not too many predators.”
The group continued to a recently cleared four-acre area that had once been an apple orchard.
“There are still a few sad little apple trees around,” Regan-Loomis said.
The former orchard had become overrun with invasive plants, including multiflora rose, barberry, and bittersweet.
“It was pretty bad,” Regan-Loomis said.
Instead of using a brush hog, the area was cleared with a forestry mower. One participant described the machine as one that “chomps everything” without plowing the unwanted plants back into the soil.
Regan-Loomis said GMF will spot-treat the area with glyphosate rather than spray it broadly.
“We have a very light touch at our scale,” she said. “It’s unrealistic to think we’ll eliminate everything. We just want to manage it without backbreaking labor.”
When asked about the goal for the former orchard, Regan-Loomis replied, “I see open growing space for native plants.”
Along the trail, the group stopped several times to examine plants and discuss their roles in the forest.
Picone observed that Norway spruce, although not native, can provide habitat similar to that of native hemlocks, which have declined.
“It duplicates some of the habitat values,” he said.
At another stop, Picone said mountain laurel, a native shrub, provides winter food for deer but is toxic to many other animals.
Peter Picone, a wildlife biologist, gives detailed instructions on how to combat invasives.Patrick L. Sullivan
Picone also identified invasive plants along the trail, including bittersweet and barberry. He said DEEP sometimes uses triclopyr, an herbicide that targets a narrower range of plants than glyphosate.
He, too, favored targeted treatment rather than indiscriminate spraying over a wider area.
When the group reached the former orchard, Fielding said, “For those of you from land trusts, this is your worst PR nightmare.”
People unfamiliar with forest-management practices may see a recently cleared area, think it looks devastated, and draw a negative conclusion, she said.
“It’s up to you to explain.”
The group included representatives of the Salisbury and Winchester land trusts and the Housatonic Valley Association, as well as a private woodland owner, a landscaper studying forestry, a Vermont man with several acres of long-neglected forest, and a New Preston man whose woods were overrun with multiflora rose.
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