We CAN (and Must) Build Community

How do I go about collecting millions of cans?

As someone who is more often than not concerned about the logistics in any given situation, this was one of the first questions to cross my mind when joining the Cans for Kili team. Since joining the team, I’ve come to realize that I was asking the wrong question to begin with because the ask is not that I personally collect enough cans, nor would that be very efficient or impactful. If I set out to collect enough cans on my own, it would take decades, if not a lifetime, of drinking LaCroix and craft beer to hit our goal. There is simply no way for each of us on the team to individually collect the cans necessary to eco-fund a trip to Kilimanjaro, but to think of this goal as the soul or even primary purpose of our efforts would be to miss the point entirely. The question to really ask ourselves is this: how can we go about collecting millions of cans? I’ve come to firmly believe that in order to reach our goal, and more importantly, to create meaningful and lasting impact, the “we” in this question must not only encompass the individuals on this team, but the community most of us now call home, Indianapolis. Rephrasing just one word in the question allows us to think not in terms of individual impact, but in terms of leveraging the community to create sustained change.

One of the most special things to me about Indy is the sense that we’re all in it together and each community member is invested in making this city a home of which we can be proud. People here are willing to help and hear each other out whenever possible, and as a native New Yorker, I can’t help but marvel at these moments of human interaction. I’ve had the privilege of experiencing firsthand this willingness to extend support as our team forms partnerships with people, organizations, and businesses in Indianapolis to share our mission and put processes in place to reach our can collection goal. These encounters range from break room conversations I’ve had with colleagues about the impact of recycling the aluminum from the staggering amount of LaCroix we consume as an office to spontaneous chats with a partner at a local climbing gym about setting up can collection bins to walking into my favorite Indy breweries and pitching the idea of behind-the-bar can collection.

Can rescuing at Munising Falls, MI and sharing our story with fellow hikers!

In each and every one of these encounters, the focus has not only been on collecting the cans, but on sharing our story, and perhaps most importantly, reaching the people. We’re asking individuals, businesses, and the community at large to consider how we each can make intentional choices which can positively impact our home, and the response has been so incredibly affirming. I firmly believe that we cannot collect the millions of cans we intend to collect without launching a movement and culture of sustainability and conscious consumption that will have a lasting impact on this city. For this reason, we’re not only interested in measuring our impact in terms of quantity of cans collected, but also in number of businesses reached, conversations had, and people participating in the movement.

Jacqueline Novogratz writes in her book The Blue Sweater, “Most big dreams originate in someone’s living room with a small group of people.” In our case, the big, hairy audacious goal is to not only collect millions of cans, but to create a movement within our home city of Indianapolis, and the living room is a bedroom attic filled with the best people with whom I could imagine taking on this challenge. I’d only add to Novogratz’s sentiment that while big dreams may originate in small groups and within four walls, they become reality when they extend outside of the living room and into the greater community. Early on in our efforts to make this dream a reality, I think I speak for the entire team when I say that we are fortunate to live in a place where dreams are born and the community rallies around to make them a reality.

Join the movement,

The Advocate