Papers by Curt Gervich
Journal of Planning Education and Research
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Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 2012
Sustainable development assistance organizations (SDAOs) aim to help producers of natural resourc... more Sustainable development assistance organizations (SDAOs) aim to help producers of natural resource products move their goods and services to market. This article explores how the cognitive frames held by producers, staff and board members in an agricultural SDAO in rural Appalachia influence organizational decision-making. This study explores identity, characterization, value and membership frames. Data collected through semi-structured interviews with growers, staff and board members reveal that the frames these stakeholders hold lead to the institutionalization of decision-making processes that allow organizational managers to make quick, consistent and clear decisions while avoiding conflicts among members who hold competing frames. Simultaneously, these tacitly supported practices are exclusionary, limit creativity and information exchange, and reduce transparency. Consequently, the SDAO may face organizational challenges due to limited problem solving and adaptive management capabilities. Additionally, the prevailing nature of some members’ frames may prevent other participants from changing their views of the SDAO, limiting the firm’s flexibility to experiment with new management and organizational structures and resilience in the face of change.
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Journal of Experiential Education
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The compounding elements of toxic releases make teaching and learning about them difficult. For e... more The compounding elements of toxic releases make teaching and learning about them difficult. For example, toxic releases have multifarious source/sink dynamics, high-stakes risk profiles, complex timelines and passionate stakeholders with conflicting concerns and objectives. Furthermore, the environmental and health-related impacts of hazardous releases are difficult to pin down and challenging for scientists to communicate to stakeholders. As a result, the management of toxic releases and associated processes of risk reduction and policy development are difficult to explore in conventional classroom settings. Toxic Release is a high-touch educational game created by students and faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh. The simulation is designed to overcome barriers to teaching and learning about toxics and environmental governance. The project is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) University Challenge, an outreach program intended to spur creative research and education about the threats posed by hazardous pollutants. This brief pedagogical report outlines the history and details of the TRI, describes EPA’s TRI University Challenge program, and outlines the learning objectives of Toxic Release as well as preliminary observations about the project’s outcomes.
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The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) was established by the United States government in 1986 after ... more The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) was established by the United States government in 1986 after several national and international industrial accidents released toxic chemicals into the environment. The TRI empowers local stakeholders with information about hazardous pollution in their communities so that they can confront industrial polluters and engage government regulators to reduce local ecological and public health risks. The policy is overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency. The activity described in this chapter provides an introduction to the TRI and highlights some of the ways that community groups in the United States use the program. Students use social-ecological systems mapping to analyze case studies presented in a National Public Radio series, Poisoned Places, that powerfully documents case studies of local level conflicts related to hazardous pollution. After completing this activity, students should be able to 1) elaborate on the objectives, requirements and uses of the Toxics Release Inventory; 2) create and describe a social-ecological systems map that illustrates the ways that industry, community and government stakeholders interact to manage toxic pollutants; 3) identify the relationships among stakeholders that contribute to pollution-related conflicts at the community scale; and 4) use social-ecological systems mapping to highlight leverage points for deescalating conflicts and improving management of industrial pollutants.
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Preference power allocations are allowances of electricity produced at government-owned power gen... more Preference power allocations are allowances of electricity produced at government-owned power generating facilities that are designated for sale to specific users at below market rates. The Niagara Preference Power Program (NPPP) provides power to 51 municipally and/or cooperatively-owned rural electric providers in New York State. In this research we use the analytical framework of the Three E’s of Sustainability—Ecology, Economy and Social Equity—to explore the how the NPPP influences municipal efforts to conserve energy, integrate energy planning into community development, and advance social equity among community members. Our survey of municipal officials in NPPP communities and follow-up semi-structured interviews indicate that the NPPP offers significant benefits to participating communities. Benefits include low electric rates and high levels of energy literacy among municipal leaders. Simultaneously, preference power may complicate economic development and energy conservation initiatives. Several communities involved in this study have developed techniques for overcoming these obstacles, such as creative rate structures and approaches to the promotion and implementation of energy conservation efforts. Consequently, these municipalities challenge deeply held assumptions about the motivations that underlie energy conservation efforts and effective communication about the value of conservation behaviors in situations with weak, indirect and invisible financial incentives.
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Journal of Rural Social Studies, 2012
Sustainable development assistance organizations (SDAOs) aim to help producers of natural resourc... more Sustainable development assistance organizations (SDAOs) aim to help producers of natural resource products move their goods and services to market. This article explores how the cognitive frames held by producers, staff and board members in an agricultural SDAO in rural Appalachia influence organizational decision-making. This study explores identity, characterization, value and membership frames. Data collected through semi-structured interviews with growers, staff and board members reveal that the frames these stakeholders hold lead to the institutionalization of decision-making processes that allow organizational managers to make quick, consistent and clear decisions while avoiding conflicts among members who hold competing frames. Simultaneously, these tacitly supported practices are exclusionary, limit creativity and information exchange, and reduce transparency. Consequently, the SDAO may face organizational challenges due to limited problem solving and adaptive management capabilities. Additionally, the prevailing nature of some members’ frames may prevent other participants from changing their views of the SDAO, limiting the firm’s flexibility to experiment with new management and organizational structures and resilience in the face of change.
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On August 5th, 2011 the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) international credit bureau, one of three agenc... more On August 5th, 2011 the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) international credit bureau, one of three agencies that provide national credit assessments of a country’s ability to take on and pay down debt, downgraded the United States’ credit rating from its highest level, AAA+, to its second best rating, AA+. The downgrade marked the first time in history that the U.S. did not receive the highest rating from any of the three credit scoring firms.
The S&P report limited its critique of the U.S. economy to the current fiscal crisis. However, this paper speculates that the economic failings that led to the downgrade could perhaps have been foreseen by observing specific environmental indicators. In particular, national petroleum consumption, CO2 emissions per capita (both high, in the case of the U.S.), and the return on investment that a nation receives for its pollution (annual GDP/annual CO2 emissions; low, in the case of the U.S.) could be useful environmental indicators of a country's future fiscal performance. Moreover, these environmental indicators may be a sort of “early warning” system that can predict a nation’s financial collapse before it is predicted by standard financial indicators (such as debt levels). This article suggests a possible mechanism for such a link, and uses these indicators to speculate which other AAA+ countries may be the next to encounter fiscal challenges that lead to credit downgrades.
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Traumatology, Jan 1, 2008
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Conference Presentations by Curt Gervich
Presentation to guide discussion and reflection following the Toxic Release simulation.
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The instructional presentation for Toxic Release, the environmental management and leadership gam... more The instructional presentation for Toxic Release, the environmental management and leadership game produced by SUNY Plattsburgh in collaboration with EPA.
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This analysis examines two different lenses through which farmers, staff and board members in one... more This analysis examines two different lenses through which farmers, staff and board members in one organic vegetable cooperative frame the concept of sustainability. The cooperative’s staff members frame sustainability through a lens of attainability. This lens views sustainability as a measurable and achievable goal by emphasizing economic and procedural efficiency. This lens leads staff members to justify decision-making strategies that reinforce their perceived positions of authority and responsibility. Alternatively, the cooperative’s board members frame sustainability through an aspirational lens. This lens views sustainability as process in which progress toward broad economic, environmental and social objectives indicates success, but in which specific endpoints are not defined. The aspirational lens leads board members to justify decision-making strategies that allow for lengthy debate and broader conceptions of the organization’s mission. Farmers participating in the cooperative are divided on the uses of the attainable and aspirational lenses, depending on their personal, family-related and agricultural objectives. Conclusions suggest that the two lenses of sustainability observed in the cooperative create divisions among participants that lead to conflicts during decision-making processes. To cope with these divisions farmers, staff and board members have developed tacitly agreed upon conflict management mechanisms that they intend to overcome the challenges posed by their divergent views of sustainability. These mechanisms include strategies for excluding farmers in decision-making processes; legitimizing possible solutions during problem solving discussions; prioritizing some members’ objectives over others’ when making choices; and selectively interpreting indicators of progress toward the organization’s mission. While these conflict management mechanisms allow for efficient decision making in the short-term, they may create cognitive and structural barriers to the organization’s ability to develop resiliency and achieve its mission over the long-term.
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Residents and businesses in 47 communities in rural New York pay among the lowest electric rates ... more Residents and businesses in 47 communities in rural New York pay among the lowest electric rates in the United States. These low rates stem from the construction of the Niagara Power Project (NPP) in 1957. The NPP is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Niagara River and is co-owned by the United States and Canada. The enabling legislation of the NPP grants communities in New York that own municipal electric utilities with a specified amount of electricity, a preferential power allotment (PPA), at the cost of production. However, when peak power demand within a municipality exceeds the PPA the local utility must purchase supplemental power at higher wholesale rates, the costs of which are passed on to all customers in the community.
This system operates in 2013, though the contract that governs the relationship among the NPP and PPA communities expires in 2025.
An internet survey and follow-up semi-structured interviews with Mayors and electric utility supervisors from participating localities reveals that the PPA is deeply integrated into the planning processes, governance structures and culture of their communities. This arrangement provides advantages and challenges for participating municipalities. Advantages include: increased control of local electrical infrastructure, more rapid response times during outages and heightened flexibility with community members unable to pay electric bills. Challenges brought by the program include the desire of municipal utilities to keep electricity demand within the PPA, while low rates reduce incentives for customers to conserve or invest in efficiency improvements. Other challenges include preparing residents with low and fixed incomes for eventual rate increases and integrating energy planning into sustainable development initiatives.
Our study contributes to the literature on community resilience and sustainability in an environment that requires collective action at the community scale, absent clear financial motivations at the individual level.
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Papers by Curt Gervich
The S&P report limited its critique of the U.S. economy to the current fiscal crisis. However, this paper speculates that the economic failings that led to the downgrade could perhaps have been foreseen by observing specific environmental indicators. In particular, national petroleum consumption, CO2 emissions per capita (both high, in the case of the U.S.), and the return on investment that a nation receives for its pollution (annual GDP/annual CO2 emissions; low, in the case of the U.S.) could be useful environmental indicators of a country's future fiscal performance. Moreover, these environmental indicators may be a sort of “early warning” system that can predict a nation’s financial collapse before it is predicted by standard financial indicators (such as debt levels). This article suggests a possible mechanism for such a link, and uses these indicators to speculate which other AAA+ countries may be the next to encounter fiscal challenges that lead to credit downgrades.
Conference Presentations by Curt Gervich
This system operates in 2013, though the contract that governs the relationship among the NPP and PPA communities expires in 2025.
An internet survey and follow-up semi-structured interviews with Mayors and electric utility supervisors from participating localities reveals that the PPA is deeply integrated into the planning processes, governance structures and culture of their communities. This arrangement provides advantages and challenges for participating municipalities. Advantages include: increased control of local electrical infrastructure, more rapid response times during outages and heightened flexibility with community members unable to pay electric bills. Challenges brought by the program include the desire of municipal utilities to keep electricity demand within the PPA, while low rates reduce incentives for customers to conserve or invest in efficiency improvements. Other challenges include preparing residents with low and fixed incomes for eventual rate increases and integrating energy planning into sustainable development initiatives.
Our study contributes to the literature on community resilience and sustainability in an environment that requires collective action at the community scale, absent clear financial motivations at the individual level.
The S&P report limited its critique of the U.S. economy to the current fiscal crisis. However, this paper speculates that the economic failings that led to the downgrade could perhaps have been foreseen by observing specific environmental indicators. In particular, national petroleum consumption, CO2 emissions per capita (both high, in the case of the U.S.), and the return on investment that a nation receives for its pollution (annual GDP/annual CO2 emissions; low, in the case of the U.S.) could be useful environmental indicators of a country's future fiscal performance. Moreover, these environmental indicators may be a sort of “early warning” system that can predict a nation’s financial collapse before it is predicted by standard financial indicators (such as debt levels). This article suggests a possible mechanism for such a link, and uses these indicators to speculate which other AAA+ countries may be the next to encounter fiscal challenges that lead to credit downgrades.
This system operates in 2013, though the contract that governs the relationship among the NPP and PPA communities expires in 2025.
An internet survey and follow-up semi-structured interviews with Mayors and electric utility supervisors from participating localities reveals that the PPA is deeply integrated into the planning processes, governance structures and culture of their communities. This arrangement provides advantages and challenges for participating municipalities. Advantages include: increased control of local electrical infrastructure, more rapid response times during outages and heightened flexibility with community members unable to pay electric bills. Challenges brought by the program include the desire of municipal utilities to keep electricity demand within the PPA, while low rates reduce incentives for customers to conserve or invest in efficiency improvements. Other challenges include preparing residents with low and fixed incomes for eventual rate increases and integrating energy planning into sustainable development initiatives.
Our study contributes to the literature on community resilience and sustainability in an environment that requires collective action at the community scale, absent clear financial motivations at the individual level.