April 22-26 2008: EcoCity World Summit 2008 in San Francisco

I found out the about EcoCity World Summit 2008 through Scott Fossel. Scott as executive director of Green Century Institute is working with Berkeley based EcoCity Builders to organize the conference. In particular GCI’s Califia Sketchbook contest will be a contest that will feature several exhibit proposals for ecocities that will be featured at the Conference.

Mark Lakeman’s City Repair Tour Hits Northern CA

Chris Marco posting on the Permaculture-SF listserv reports on how City Repair’s community work in Portland changed his life.

Many folks I met while filming in Portland told me it had changed their lives as well. It sure would be great to have our own two-week Village Building Convergence here in the Bay Area someday. Go see him and be inspired!

Event Speaking Dates

• Saturday, Sept 29, 7:30pm- New College of California,  Santa Rosa, North Bay campus
• Sunday, Sept 30, Workshop with New College Students, Contact New College for more information.
• Monday, October 1st, 6-9pm, for Willits Economic Localization Initiative, Willits Community  Center, Willits, CA.
• Tuesday, October 2nd, Regenerative Design & Nature Awareness School with Jon Young & Penny Livingston, near San Gregorio, Evening Presentation,  at 415-868-9681
• Wednesday, October 3rd, Esalen Institute at Big Sur, Daytime workshop and evening community-wide presentation.
• Thursday, October 4th, in Santa Barbara: – Noon-1pm, “Nuts and Bolts of City Repair”, Public Library, Faulkner Gallery. and 7:45pm, “The Village Lives” Presentation, Public Library, Faulkner Gallery.
• Saturday, October 6th, UCLA Planning School, Graduate Student Conference, Presentation and Workshop in the Field. Call Ava at 818.939.9205
• Tuesday, October 9th, 7-9pm, Soulutioneers 2007 Speaker Series, 1950 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley.
• Wednesday, October 10th, 6:30-8pm, An Architects,  Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility Event, Pacific Energy Center 851 Howard Street.
• Thursday, October 11th, Evening Event, in Point  Reyes, Time and Location TBD.
• Alternate Date: Friday, October 12th, 6-9pm, for Willits  Economic Localization Initiative, Willits Community  Center, Willits, CA.
• Monday, October 15th, 7-9pm, Lost Valley Educational Center, near Eugene, Oregon.

Clean Technology Update

I got an mass email from Marc Gottschalk who is a member of the Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Practice of the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professional Corporation.

 

If anyone is interested the California Clean Tech Open final awards event will be held at The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco the afternoon/evening of Monday, October 29, 2007. At the current time some free organizational capacity building courses are being provided to the finalists to help them develop their business plans.

I would have liked to have participated, seeing it as an opportunity to feature the Integrated Farming & Waste Management System developed by ZERI volunteer George Chan, but I found the entrance fee of $250 too high for my budget.

The really useful news is on the solar front, a new $50M fund is being made available through California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to fund solar R&D and deployment.

For more information, please contact Peter Mostow at (415) 947-2051, Kevin Fox at (415) 947-2042, or Jason Keyes at (206) 883-2577.

More details here.

Tuesday, August 14th – San Francisco, CA: Living Green in Today’s Consumer World

Here is an interesting group in the Bay Area. Like oneVillage Foundation the Pachamama Alliance appears to have a two pronged mission, promoting sustainable development in USA, while also helping helping the indigenous people in Equador.

Their upcoming meeting on the 14th features Lawrence Axil Comras (turns out he participated at planetwork 2004 see his bio there). He’ll be discussing what it means to be green in our consuming patterns. He will address how we can deepen the level of what we each are already doing to make changes in our everyday lives.

His background of expertise comes from his experiences as CEO of an online green products store – Green Home Environmental Store. An effort that grew out of the recognition that consumerism is one of the primary forces harming the world. However he like many of us began to realization that it was not enough to be against consumerism or the capitalist system but to cleverly redesign the systems that promotes waste and overconsumption, thus reversing those negative trends of overconsumption that are pushing the earth’s systems to the brink of failure through business evolution and innovation rather than social unrest (which is not to say that none of that will be necessary). When we recognize this paradox and respond as socially conscious consumers by buying well-designed, environmentally superior products, we can all make a difference in our own lives and in small way make the movement forward towards a better and more conscious global economy. To RSVP, click here…

This is another reminder of the good news is that the green movement has reached a tipping point and there’s a green alternative for just about every kind of product on the market.

What remains to be seen is:

• how these kinds of changes will manifest into wide scale social and economic and political changes
• what the potential implications will be on the status quo
• how those who have a vested interest to defend the status quo will react to this.

Currently critics seeing the current “green revolution” such as James Howard Kunstler can persuasively argue that the mainstream establishment has embraced green technologies because they are packaged in a relatively benign form that is not threatening to conspicuous consumption. Such a superficial, feel good green approach (often labeled as “corporate greenwashing” by progressives) as is now being packaged via the mainstream media will probably have a very limited impact in actually addressing the world urgent issue like global warming, decreasing water and oil supplies and increasing pollution.

Yet the key is in designing built environments and production system that offer a seamless approach to sustainable development that promotes relocalization in a way that is fun and exciting to the local people giving them the power to determine their destiny and to be innovators in their own lives. At the same we need to figure out how to do this in a way that provides a much higher quality of life than is the case with the mainstream lifestyle which increasingly seems to be reaching the law of diminishing returns.

The key for this to happen is for more people to make the connection between their personal health, their personal environment and the impact of those decisions on the larger world in which us 6.5 billion humans share with the rest of the world’s creatures.

Singularity, BioCybernetics and the Sustainability Movement

I have been keeping track of this idea of “Singuality” a term and concept popularized by Ray Kurzweil. Building on this concept the Singularity Institute of Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) is planning a major two-day event “bringing together 16 prominent thinkers to examine a historical moment in humanity’s history – a window of opportunity to shape how we develop advanced artificial intelligence.”

Tom Abate of the SF Chronicle in a report from the Singularity Summit describes Singularity well:

Borrowing a term from physics, singularity suggests a horizon beyond which we can’t see. It describes the point at which some form of intelligence spawned by technology gains the ability to rapidly improve its own programming — becoming so powerful that we cannot predict what it might do. At that point, its capabilities could exceed even the power of our imaginations.

Tour to Feature Cohousing Communities in the North Bay Area

For those interested in more community oriented living, a tour in the North Bay Area on Saturday, August 11th, from 9am to 4pm will feature 3 Co-housing commuities in Petaluma, Cotati, Santa Rosa and cost 35 dollars.

Hexayurt, Mechabolic and The GREEN MAN PAVILION

The San Francisco Bay Area is a hot bed of activity for the Burning Man crowd. Recently Katherine Steele of the Urban Permaculture Guild posted something in the Permaculture SF Discussion Group about the Green Man Pavilion at Burning Man. This led to an interesting debate about the merits of Burning Man and those who participate in it at the Permaculture SF yahoo discussion group. Indeed many are critical of the fact that the event is a huge effort that climaxes with the destruction of a massive wood structure – Burning Man. The more conservative and prudish greens see Burning Man as a wasteful celebration of hedonism, while more uninhibited, free living folks see it as a way to “retribalize” – if but for just a week – and take some time out from their modern lives escaping into the desert.

Workshop: Biodynamic Composting Saturday, July 21st, 12pm to 3pm

Workshop: Biodynamic Composting Saturday, July 21st, 12pm to 3pm, $35
Location: Petaluma
Register at www.daily-acts.org or call (707) 789-9664

Learn the fundamental theories behind Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamics, which is the oldest organized system of organic agriculture in the West, while learning a hands-on method of making restorative transformational compost. Harness methods to produce compost that serves not just as a practical medicine for the garden, but as a manifestation of our deeper spiritual beliefs – allowing for a healing of not just the earth but ourselves. A well made tablespoon of compost contains over six billion micro-organisms, but it also contains insights into Eastern and Western perspectives; the four-fold human body; overcoming death and disease and the miracle of nature. Instructor Chas Moore is a Biodynamic practitioner, gardener,
Permaculture designer, consultant, and educator.

Green Building Exchange Promotes Business and Educational Sustaianability at New Bay Area Eco-Center

The Green Building Exchange according to its organizers is a “55,000 SQUARE FOOT FACILITY ENCOURAGES BUILDERS, DEVELOPERS AND CONSUMERS TO ‘THINK AND LEARN GREEN.’”

On July 28 in Redwood City the 55,000 square foot marketplace facility will open to the public.

Its a way for the public to learn first-hand about everything from solar panels to bamboo flooring, energy-saving coil bulbs, and water-saving irrigation systems.

Green Seed Radio is hosted by Ginnie Waters and can be heard every Saturday, 2-3 p.m. on 960AM “The Quake,” which will be be broadcasting live from the grand opening. The Radio show is also produced by Green Building Exchange, and its apparently the first commercial radio show promoting ecological design and green building.

The center is designed to provide information on every aspect of green building, particularly content relevant to promoting sustainability in the Bay Area. Michael Schaeffer, President and CEO of Green Building Exchange says that “As someone associated with the construction business, I was quick to realize that there was a tremendous interest in environmentally friendly construction, but there was no single source that could provide information on all aspects of the industry.”

Eric Corey Freed, founder of organicARCHITECT is recognized for keeling alive the tradition of Organic Architecture first developed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He will share his approaches to organic and ecological design

Visionary architect Sym Van Der Ryn will address ways that design, project planning, education and public access to ecological principles make green building a viable solution to our global challenges;

Sustainable Spaces founder, Matt Golden, who was highlighted on NBC’s “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” addresses a holistic system of identifying improvements in comfort, air quality and energy efficiency in the home;

Green Builders of Marin founder, John Shurtz , will discuss healthy approaches to renovation, reuse of materials in building, and structurally sound building practices;

Scott Fossel, from Green Century Institute, will look at the vision of a whole system approach to ecological and economical urban development. GCI is a founding sponsor of the upcoming 2008 Eco City World Summit in San Francisco.

Zero Waste Business Workshop: Successful Business & Community Partnerships for Sustainability July 31, 2007, San Pedro, CA

Achievement of Zero Waste is dependent upon the successful collaboration of businesses with businesses, businesses with government, and businesses with the public on programs that prevent waste and encourage sustainability. This workshop presents successful models of sustainability that have either achieved Zero Waste or are making significant progress on sustainability, extended producer responsibility, product stewardship, and takeback programs.