Journey from Copenhagen

Mom and I — and canine friends — showing off our Prius pride in the Mojave Desert, where I was raised.

Welcome to Journey from Copenhagen.

I’m Steven Shultz, M.S., a San Diego-based blogger, government communicator, social media innovator, and sustainability champion. I hold a Master of Science Degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York City.

This site has been around in one form or another since 2009. Here’s a look at its evolution through the years:

2009

The site was originally launched as Journey to Copenhagen — as a way to let family, friends and professional contacts “come with me” to the historic COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, which took place December 7-18, 2009.

Based on my work in sustainability for my employer (San Diego International Airport) , as Communications Chair of the San Diego Regional Sustainability Partnership, and in pursuing a Ph.D in Public Policy and Sustainability at Walden University — I was nominated as a nongovernmental delegate to attend the conference by Dr. Lisa Shaffer, then-Executive Director of the University of California at San Diego’s Sustainability Solutions Institute.

In order to attend the conference outside the national delegations being sent by world leaders, one had to belong to, or be nominated as an affiliate of, an ‘admitted organization.’ UC San Diego was one of only three organizations in California admitted to the conference, and the only from San Diego.

Although I represented the above organizations in Copenhagen, the opinions expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone, and the organizations above are not responsible for the content.

This was be the most important international conference on climate change and sustainability issues since the U.N. Kyoto Protocol 12 years prior, with the goal of arriving at an internationally binding agreement on greenhouse gas reductions in order to create a more sustainable future for all — a goal that was, alas, only partially met.

I attended the conference with observer status, meaning I was be able to observe the proceedings of the national delegations, as well as participate in subsidiary meetings and working sessions with other nongovernmental delegates.

At the conference, I represented and shared information about the Airport Authority and its various sustainability initiatives, as well as the Sustainability Partnership and Walden University.  I also learned lessons, perspectives, and best practices in sustainability from an international array of conference attendees.

Making things easier for me was the fact that I lived in Denmark for a year as an exchange student in 1985-85, still speak Danish, and have host relatives in Copenhagen.

I felt very privileged to have made the trip to a country I love — to represent organizations I care so much about at one of the most important international conferences of our time.

2010

In February 2010, the site was reborn as Journey from Copenhagen, with the mission of inviting people to follow my return home from Copenhagen as I journeyed down the path to earning that Ph.D.

2013

While my path to  Ph.D. has ended for now, my involvement in sustainability and other exciting issues of our time has only increased — and you’ll find a variety of posts reflecting that in the later entries on this blog.

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If you like this blog, you may also be interested in some other blogs I have produced over the years:

• Cuba Calling – a U.S. citizen uses his federal tax returns to take a ten-day research trip to a land declared ‘off-limits’ by his government – 2007.
• Ameripean Sojourn – What does Europe hold for an ‘Ameripean’ visiting in the age of George W. Bush?  Find out on this 3-week sojourn through the heart of Europe to England, France, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary and Holland – 2005.
• Hellicane – launched in the first week of the Hurricane Katrina disaster,  the Web’s most-visited site for original poetry by, for and about those affected by the tragic Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005.
• Under New Skies – an amateur San Diego tennis player and poet heads Down Under to compete in the Gay Games VI in Sydney, Australia – 2002.

~ Steven Shultz – San Diego, CA