Deborah Bakker, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives pavilion, EXPO 2000

Deborah Bakker is currently working at the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) pavilion at EXPO 2000, the World's Fair in Hannover, Germany. Previously she worked for the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Originally hailing from Ottawa, she currently calls Winnipeg, Manitoba, home.

I get a late start this morning but manage to run for the tram and grab a little food for the road, for a day I've been helping to prepare for since I arrived. How long ago? It seems like weeks but it's only been a few days. Having a routine to settle into -- taking the same tram every morning from the apartments that ZERI has rented for staff, winding through narrow Hannover streets to the EXPO site -- has helped life here seem immediately "normal."

Amid a cool breeze and dissipating clouds in the stunning open-air setting on the second floor of ZERI's bamboo pavilion, Gunter Pauli starts the day with a lecture entitled "The five kingdoms of nature and the ZERI model of wealth generation." Others trickle in, so I don't feel so bad about my tardiness. The group settles down at the huge table, piling under coats and blankets, warming our socked feet (there's a strict no-shoe rule on the second floor).

The lecture covers a bit of the history of ZERI and its role. ZERI, founded in 1996, is officially an NGO based in Switzerland, and now a foundation based in Hannover, Germany. I've worked for organizations whose primary role is research and, to a lesser extent, advocacy, but the difference that I see in ZERI is (a) that its most important resource -- the incredible array of people in its network -- are so geographically disbursed and (b) that it has the ability to nurture innovative ideas. In the broader sense, I see ZERI as a facilitator and an idea node, helping to realize practical projects.

The theory from Gunter's book, Upsizing, including concepts of immunity management and generative science, provides a little bit of the background for the lecture. He suggests a new standard for assessing whether an industrial system is working at its optimal level -- seeing if it involves all five kingdoms of nature -- and he illustrates with an example.

One of the ZERI projects in Colombia is an integrated operation that produces shiitake mushrooms from the organic waste of a coffee-growing operation. Coffee waste is inoculated with shiitake mushroom spores. The mushrooms grow on the waste, breaking down the caffeine and the lignocellulose. The coffee imparts a dark pigment to the shiitake mushrooms, a very highly sought after quality, which increases the mushrooms' value. The mushroom waste, which is richer in protein and vitamins B and E than the original starting material, is fed to cattle. So -- coffee farmers get money for their coffee, they can tap into the lucrative mushroom market, and cattle get fed better feed. In ecosystems and economies, diversity provides stability, and I see this project as an interesting type of crop insurance. Mushroom growing provides a backup plan against the vagaries and variances of world coffee prices and maybe climate-induced crop failure. The project in Colombia is a little more complex than I've described here, but it does include all five kingdoms of nature, including the oft-forgotten fungi.

After the seminar we have breakfast and the cultural programs begin. I get handed a cell phone and wander over to the stunning Indian pavilion for a last-minute confirmation that their dance troupe will be performing on our stage at 2:00 p.m. When the Indian musicians from Rajasthan arrive, their assistant, an incredibly sweet woman named Poonam, helps me prepare the tea, which we serve outside before the performance. Their star, a seven-year-old boy who is already a captivating and talented dancer, asks for juice, and we communicate without words when he shyly but happily accepts a toy -- a bamboo model of the pavilion -- from me. The performers don't seem at all incongruous here, sitting on a bench beside the pavilion, wrapped in their shawls, but I'm a bit colorless in comparison, if perhaps a bit warmer. I can't stop admiring their beautiful clothes and calm demeanors.

The rest of the day is a blur, involving meeting performers as they arrive at the pavilion, coordinating sound checks, and making sure the performers have everything they need. For once, the ambient noise around here matches the feel of the pavilion, a peaceful structure made of bamboo. By 8:00 I'm exhausted but still manage to go on stage to read ZERI's children's book to the sparse audience gathered under the lights at the center of the pavilion. We read the book in seven languages -- English, French, Swedish, Fijian, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese. Then it's a last-minute email check and my friend and I walk toward the west entrance to head home on the train.