Here is a list of our workshops for the remainder of 2006. Be sure to take advantage of these great learning opportunities. Also be sure to see additional information on workshops later in this newsletter.

OCTOBER
26-27 -- Grid-Tied PV System for Do-It- Yourselfers*
28-29 -- Design and Install a Grid-Tied PV System*

DECEMBER
1 -- Introduction to Green Renovations (SF)
2 -- Introduction to Commercial Green Building (SF)
3 -- Find Your Dream Job in Green Building (SF)
8 -- How to Make and Use Biodiesel (SF)
10 -- Find Your Dream Job in Biodiesel (SF)

If you’ve been thinking about finding your niche in the emerging green economy, you won’t want to miss our Green Career Conference. This special event will feature leading green entrepreneurs and career experts who will present the full range of opportunities in the green economy and potential employers from a variety of green companies.

Learn why you don't necessarily need a green background to find a successful career with a company whose work is in line with your values. You'll come away with ideas, strategies, resources and contacts to help you find your dream green job!

Green Career Conference Program
Saturday, November 18, 2006
First Universalist Unitarian Center, San Francisco

8:30-9:00 - Registration and Coffee

9:00-9:30 - Welcome
Speaker: John Schaeffer, Founder of Real Goods and the Solar Living Institute

9:30-10:30 - Green Careers Overview
Intro and Moderator: Marie Kerpan, Founder of Green Careers
This panel, hosted by an expert on green careers, will feature the subject matter experts who will present the following four green career sessions. The purpose is to introduce the speakers, and to give participants a snapshot preview of the following four sessions.

10:30-11:45 - Solar & Renewable Energy
Julie Blunden: VP External Affairs, SunPower Corp.
Joe Marino: President, DC Power
Jeff Oldham: President, Regenerative SOLutions
John Schaeffer: Founder and President of Real Goods

11:45-12:30 - Networking Lunch
Participants are provided with an organic lunch, and given the opportunity to network with other career seekers and presenters.

12:30-1:45 - Biofuels & Alternative Transportation
Kimber Holmes: Executive Director of Biodiesel Council of California and Co-Founder of the BioFuel Station
Steve Heckeroth: Chair of the ASES Renewable Fuels and Transportation Division
David Blume: Author, Alcohol Can Be a Gas!

1:45-3:00 - Natural & Green Building
David Arkin: Principal, Arkin Tilt Architects
Massey Burke: Natural Builder and Designer
Dana Porteus*: Founder, SkySide Studios

3:15-4:30 - Sustainable Agriculture
Eliza Frey*: Winemaker, Frey Vineyards
John Roulac*: Founder and President, Nutiva
Albert Straus*: Founder, Straus Creamery

4:30-5:15 - Where Do You Go From Here? Strategies and Tactics for Finding Your Green Career
Speaker: Marie Kerpan, Founder of Green Careers
In this concluding session, you will receive tips on how to choose a direction, learn strategies and tactics for a successful search including info on interviewing, networking and targeting, the functional resume, and the importance of structure and follow- up.

5:15-7:00 - Networking Session
Presenters, panelists, and potential employers will be available during the networking session to answer questions and interact with attendees. A no-host bar will be available and hors d'oeuvres will be served.

*Invited but not confirmed

12:30 to 7:00 - Career Center - (in adjoining room)
In this resource-packed area, you will find job listings and tables with information about a variety of green companies. Drop in throughout the day to pick up material, or visit with one of the many potential employers and HR representatives who will be available throughout the day.

Join the Solar Living Institute for an evening of
Organic Red Wine and Chocolate

Mendocino comes to Manhattan!

The Solar Living Institute warmly invites all of our kind-hearted East Coast supporters to an evening of organic wine and world-class chocolate from Chocolat Michel Cluziel, to benefit our Solar Living Institute in Hopland, California.

Hear the latest positive news in solar power, green building, alternative fuels and more from the West Coast; learn about our new educational programs for 2007; network with your fellow Solar Living Institute supporters; and sample the world's finest chocolates and organic wines.

When:
Tuesday, October 24th, 6-9 PM
Where:
Chocolat Michel Cluizel
First Floor, ABC Carpet & Home
888 Broadway (19th Street)
New York, NY 10003

RSVP: 707-744-2017 (please no guests without RSVP)
Or by email: doron.amiran@solarliving.org

If you are unable to attend, please consider making a donation at www.solarliving.org.

You don't have to travel to Hopland to take a Solar Living Institute workshop! In an effort to bring you the cutting edge knowledge you need to live more sustainably and cut down on fossil fuel usage, the Solar Living Institute is bringing its most popular workshops to the Bay Area.

This November and December, learn how to make biodiesel, how to renovate your home in a non- toxic, environmentally friendly manner, how to garden in urban spaces, and much, much more! Visit our online calendar for a full listing of San Francisco workshops coming up this fall. Register soon, as these workshops fill up quickly.

Plus, stay tuned for our 2007 workshop calendar, as we'll be offering many more workshops in the Bay Area!

Prepare for Peak Oil--Workshop Special

Modern industrial societies are built on cheap fossil fuels, but cheap oil and gas will likely soon be things of the past. What will be the impacts — personally and societally? And what strategies will work best for families, bioregions, and nations, as we enter the post-carbon era?

Join world-renowned Richard Heinberg, author of The Oil Depletion Protocol and The Party’s Over, for Powerdown: The End of Cheap Oil, a full- day workshop on November 2, as he provides participants with practical strategies to prepare for peak oil.

Stick around on November 3 and 4 and join Jason Bradford and Brian Weller in our Organizing Sustainable Communities workshop. Join these economic localization experts as they provide further insight on how to localize food, energy and basic goods production. This interactive workshop, which receives rave reviews from our students, will surely inspire you to get involved in preparing your own family and community to deal with the impact of peak oil.

Register for both classes and save $75!

Arizona State University has announced the creation of the world's first degree granting School of Sustainability. The new school is at the center of a university-wide, interdisciplinary initiative to find solutions to the most pressing sustainability issues the planet faces. The School, which begins enrolling students in January, will offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in sustainability. Within five years, the school expects to have 450 undergraduate students and 50 students each in its master’s and doctoral degree programs. The curriculum builds upon an existing base at ASU that includes 300 courses, 80 degree programs and 170 research projects that involve sustainability.

Higher education increasingly is playing a major role in promoting sustainability, and many campuses now view sustainability as essential to modeling social responsibility as an institutional value. It has become routine for campuses to evaluate building construction, purchasing choices, and energy use for environmental impact. Colleges and universities are also using the concept of sustainability as they develop new curricula and encourage innovation among students and faculty. The emergence of national organizations devoted to sustainability in higher education and the designation of 2005–14 as the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development have further raised higher education’s profile in the sustainability movement.

For more information:

• ASU Launches World’s First School of Sustainability, ASU Insight, Oct. 5, 2006
• At Arizona State, Degree Programs Mark New Commitment to Sustainability, AAC&U News, Oct. 2006

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) has announced plans to install 1 megawatt (MW) of solar generating capacity on each of its 9 campuses. The solar panels should provide enough electricity to completely power each campus. The district also plans to build a renewable energy Central Plant and add "sustainability curriculum" at each campus. The plans were announced at the Solar Power 2006 conference in San Jose last week. The solar program is part of a $2.2 billion "greening" program approved by voters in 2001 and 2003.

The nine colleges of the LACCD use, on average, less than one megawatt per campus, so self-generating that amount through the use of photovoltaic panels will provide enough electricity to meet all daytime requirements. Future plans call for using excess electrical energy to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen, and to use the hydrogen in the evening to power fuel cells for electricity on campus. According to the California Energy Commission, one megawatt is enough energy to power 1,000 average California homes.

LACCD is currently "greening" its nine colleges as part of its $2.2 billion Proposition A/AA Bond modernization and sustainable development programs, funded and approved by Los Angeles voters in 2001 and 2003. LACCD is utilizing incentive programs from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison. As part of its commitment to energy education, the LACCD is creating a sustainable development curriculum that integrates classes, green building education and certificates along with displays such as learning solar station kiosks on each college campus.

The LACCD is a leader in pursuing sustainable energy goals. The District's sustainability practices have been recognized by numerous organizations, including the U.S. Green Building Council, California Climate Registry, Global Green USA, and Flex Your Power. The goal of the LACCD's energy plan is to make each of the District's nine college's energy self-sufficient. The LACCD is one of the largest community college districts in the country, educating nearly 200,000 students each year.

For more information:

• LA Community College District News Release, Oct. 17, 2006
• 9 District Campuses To Function On Solar Energy, CBS 2 News, Oct. 17. 2006

Construction began Oct. 9 on the 322-megawatt (MW) Whitelee windfarm project in Scotland. The onshore windfarm -- with its planned 140 wind turbines -- is part of the country's aggressive goal to have 18% of electricity generated in Scotland come from renewable sources by 2010 and 40% by 2020.

Situated south of Glasgow on 55 sq. km of open moorland, the US$560 million windfarm is expected to become operational in 2008 and, when completed in summer 2009, produce more than 2% of the country's annual electricity needs. "Within three years, 140 turbines will rise above Eaglesham Moor, harnessing enough wind energy to power 200,000 homes, that's most of Glasgow. It will be the largest onshore windfarm in Europe and make a major contribution to our twin aims of securing energy supplies and tackling climate change," said Alistair Darling, UK Secretary of State for the Department of Trade and Industry.

The viability of harnessing waves as a lucrative renewable energy source received a boost following the announcement that the world's first commercial wave energy project will begin delivering wave- generated energy to the north of Portugal this week.

The first stage of the European Union-funded program, the result of two decades of research at Lisbon's Superior Technical Institute, will bring the first 2.25 megawatts ashore at Agucadoura, in northern Portugal, and will power 1,500 homes through the national state run electricity grid system. The venture uses groundbreaking Pelamis wave devices manufactured by Edinburgh firm Ocean Power Delivery, considered the world's leading wave technology.

Portugal's State Secretariat for Industry and Innovation have predicted wave power could account for up to 30% of the country's gross domestic product by 2050. Renewable energy experts have determined wave farms in Portugal could yield as much as three times as much energy as that produced by a wind turbine park for the same investment cost. As part of the government supported alternative energy plan, another 28 wave power devices will be installed in Portugal within a year, reaching a target of 22.5 megawatts of electricity produced using wave energy.

Ice losses now far surpass ice gains in the shrinking Greenland ice sheet, NASA scientists reported Oct. 19 in Science Express, the advance edition of the journal Science. The researchers estimate the annual net loss from the ice sheet equals six years of water flow from the Colorado River. The research team reported that Greenland's low coastal regions lost 41 cubic miles of ice per year between 2003 and 2005 from excess melting and icebergs. During the same period the high-elevation interior gained 14 cubic miles annually from excess snowfall.

"With this new analysis we observe dramatic ice mass losses concentrated in the low-elevation coastal regions, with nearly half of the loss coming from southeast Greenland," said lead author Scott Luthcke of NASA Goddard's Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory. "In the 1990s the ice was very close to balance with gains at about the same level as losses. That situation has now changed significantly." The study details a dramatic acceleration in the rate of ice mass loss since the late 1990s that is nearly identical to reports earlier this year based on radar measurements of glacier acceleration.

Greenland is now losing 20% more mass than it receives from new snowfall each year, the researchers concluded. "This is a very large change in a very short time," said coauthor Jay Zwally, a project scientist with ICESat, a NASA Earth observing system mission. "In the 1990s, the ice sheet was growing inland and shrinking significantly at the edges, which is what climate models predicted as a result of global warming. Now the processes of mass loss are clearly beginning to dominate the inland growth, and we are only in the early stages of the climate warming predicted for this century."

There is growing interest about the fate of the Greenland ice sheet, which has the potential to dramatically affect sea levels. Greenland harbors about 10% of the world's freshwater in its ice sheet, which is up to two miles thick in places. Scientists estimate that if the Greenland ice sheet melted completely, the world's oceans would rise more than 20 feet.

The planet will face more deadly heat waves, prolonged drought, intense rainstorms and other weather extremes by century's end, U.S. climate researchers said Oct. 19. The study using supercomputer simulations from nine different climate models for the periods 1980-1999 and 2080-2099 looked specifically at how weather extremes could change from global warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gas.

Recent droughts in the Western U.S. and Australia may only be precursors of what is to come. Each model simulated the 2080-2099 interval three times, varying the extent to which greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere to account for uncertainty about how fast society may act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For all three scenarios, the models agree the number of extremely warm nights and the length of heat waves will increase significantly over nearly all land areas across the globe. In addition, most areas above about 40 degrees north will see a significant jump in the number of days with heavy precipitation, including the northern tier of U.S. states, Canada, and most of Europe.

The models agree that dry spells could lengthen significantly across the western U.S., southern Europe, eastern Brazil, and several other areas. They also predict that the average growing season could increase significantly across most of North America and Eurasia. The models also all predicted an upsurge in extreme storms. "It's the extremes, not the averages, that cause the most damage to society and to many ecosystems," said lead author Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "We now have the first model- based consensus on how the risk of dangerous heat waves, intense rains, and other kinds of extreme weather will change in the next century."

The new study will appear in the December issue of the journal Climatic Change. It is one of the first studies to draw on the extensive and sophisticated climate modeling that will form the basis of the upcoming Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The research comes in the wake of a study by British climate scientists, released earlier this month that found drought could double by century's end because of global warming, threatening the survival of millions of people around the world. The study warned that this estimate may actually be too conservative, as it does not take into account the potential for carbon feedbacks in the climate system that are likely to accelerate warming across the planet. It showed that extreme drought could affect 30% of the world's land surface, up from the current span of 3%.

Thinking outside the box is something EnviroGLAS Products principal Tim Whaley does well. Nicknamed "Scrappy" by the Dallas Business Journal, the Texas entrepreneur was granted a U.S. patent in 2003 for developing the "method of making a terrazzo surface from recycled glass." The idea for combining the multi-colored crystals with epoxy resin to create recycled glass terrazzo came to him after he saw a news story in July 2002 about Plano, Texas's overabundance of crushed recycled glass.

Two years and several awards later (including the Recycling Alliance of Texas's 2003 "Closing the Loop Program" award and the Texas Environmental Excellence Award for small business in 2005) Whaley is at it again. This time it was the City of Dallas who asked him if he could do anything with a bunch of old toilets and commodes.

This brand new terrazzo surface is made from recycled tubs, sinks and toilets. It's easy to maintain, durable, eco-friendly and beautiful. Available in hundreds of resin colors, the bone- colored porcelain looks fantastic in neutral and earth- toned resins, and really pops in bold resin colors like black, yellow, blue and red, shown here.

EnviroGLAS offers EnviroMODE terrazzo as well as their recycled glass terrazzo finishes in a countertop product called EnviroSLAB and in rectangular tiles called EnviroPLANK for flooring, walls and other creative uses. Both the recycled glass and porcelain can also be used as aggregate in traditional poured in place terrazzo flooring. What's more, the two types of aggregate can be mixed together for a more complex design. The first installation of an EnviroMODE EnviroSLAB is in a Chicago area home basement, the renovation of which will air on the HGTV program "New Spaces" in November.

Heat and scratch resistant, EnviroMODE and EnviroGLAS surfaces are highly resistant to common stains and are easily cleaned with neutral cleansers. The products are VOC-free and do not require a seal. For more information, go to www.enviromode.com and www.enviroglasproducts.com.

The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream (DVD or VHS)

WE OFFER THE BEST PRICES ON THE INTERNET

Order from us (standard case at $16.25 or cardboard case at $13.95), and help support our work. ALSO AVAILABLE IN SPANISH: El Fin del Sueño Americano

The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era and as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary. The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia?

This DVD, or VHS, is an excellent introduction to the issue of oil and natural gas depletion coming soon to a neighborhood near you. If you haven't picked up a copy of this riveting documentary, do so today! You won't want to miss it!

COMING THIS FALL: Greg Greene's long- awaited sequel to The End of Suburbia

We will begin taking pre-orders soon!

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, THE END OF SUBURBIA (see above) explored the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet enters the age of Peak Oil.

In ESCAPE FROM SUBURBIA director Greg Greene once again takes us “through the looking glass” on a journey of discovery – a sobering yet vital and ultimately positive exploration of what the second half of the Oil Age has in store for us.

Through personal stories and interviews we examine how declining world oil production has already begun to affect modern life in North America. Expert scientific opinion is balanced with “on the street” portraits from an emerging global movement of citizen’s groups who are confronting the challenges of Peak Oil in extraordinary ways.

The clock is ticking. ESCAPE FROM SUBURBIA asks the tough questions: Are we approaching Peak Oil now? What are the controversies surrounding our future energy options? Why are a growing number of specialists and citizens skeptical of these options? What are ordinary people across North America doing in their own communities to prepare for Peak Oil? And what will YOU do as energy prices skyrocket and the Oil Age draws to a close?

The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times by Albert K. Bates

Available 11/17/06 -- 10% discount for preorders

Over the coming years we will need to move from a global culture addicted to cheap, abundant petroleum to a culture of compelled conservation, whether through government directive or market forces. The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook provides useful practical advice for preparing your family and community to make the transition.

This book takes a positive, upbeat, and optimistic view of "the Great Change," promoting the idea that it can be an opportunity to redeem our essential interconnectedness with nature and with each other. The many rifts that have grown up since oil became the world's prime commodity can be mended: between cities and their food sources; the design of the suburban built environment and its car-oriented sprawl; runaway greenhouse warming, clearing of forests and toxification of rivers, oceans, and land. Topics covered include:

• Rebuilding civilization
• Changing your needs
• Water and waste disposal
• Energy and transportation
• Equipment and Tools
• Food storage and First Aid

Also including light-hearted, playful recipes -- some using basic, wholesome foods, some illustrating food growing or preservation, and all emphasizing organic, flavorful and locally grown produce that readily substitute one for another -- this book is about having your catastrophe and eating it too.

The author, Albert Bates, has been Director of the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology since 1984 and the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm in Tennessee since 1994, where he has taught sustainable design, natural building, permaculture and restoration ecology to students from more than 50 nations.

Eating Fossil Fuels: Oil, Food, and the Coming Crisis in Agriculture by Dale Allen Pfeiffer

Available 10/31/06 -- 10% discount for preorders

The miracle of the Green Revolution was made possible by cheap fossil fuels to supply crops with artificial fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation. Estimates of the net energy balance of agriculture in the US show that ten calories of hydrocarbon energy are required to produce one calorie of food. Such an imbalance cannot continue in a world of diminishing hydrocarbon resources.

Eating Fossil Fuels examines the interlinked crises of energy and agriculture and highlights some startling findings:

• he world-wide expansion of agriculture has appropriated fully 40% of the photosynthetic capability of this planet.
• The Green Revolution provided abundant food sources for many, resulting in a population explosion well in excess of the planet's carrying capacity.
• Studies suggest that without fossil fuel based agriculture, the US could only sustain about two thirds of its present population. For the planet as a whole, the sustainable number is estimated to be about two billion.

Concluding that the effect of energy depletion will be disastrous without a transition to a sustainable, relocalized agriculture, the book draws on the experiences of North Korea and Cuba to demonstrate stories of failure and success in the transition to non- hydrocarbon-based agriculture. It urges strong grassroots activism for sustainable, localized agriculture and a natural shrinking of the world's population.

The book's author, Dale Allen Pfeiffer, is a novelist, freelance journalist and geologist who has been writing about energy depletion for a decade. The author of The End of the Oil Age, he is also widely known for his web project: www.survivingpeakoil.com.

The Sun-Inspired House illustrates numerous house design concepts related to the sun. It also addresses the related subjects of passive solar, passive cooling, energy- efficient construction, green building, and sustainability. Over 50 house plans show examples of integrated concepts. Numerous examples, photos, and testimonials from homeowners describe the livability of these sunny and comfortable houses built in North America.

A Sun-Inspired house is:

• sunny, open, and creative
• warm in winter and cool in summer
• integral to green & sustainable design principles
• complementary to active solar & zero-energy
• fuel-efficient and practical, yet elegant
• healthy and environmentally-friendly
• a comfortable place to call home

Author Debra Rucker Coleman, Architect and founder of Sun Plans Inc. has been designing passive solar homes since 1985. In 2002 she received the “Best Practice” Sustainability Award for Residential Buildings from the Sustainable Building Industries Council. Her houses have been on the National Tour of Solar Homes and have appeared in Fine Homebuilding, Solar Today, Mother Earth News, Home Power, Home Energy, numerous other publications.

There are some really excellent books coming out this year, and you can get them right here at our web store. For a short period of time, we are offering a special pre-order discount of 10% on the following titles: Eating Fossil Fuels by Dale Allen Pfeiffer (due to be released Oct. 31) and The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook by Albert K. Bates (due to be released Nov. 17). You won't want to miss them, and at 10% off the regular retail price, this is the best price you will get for these important books. Don't miss these great prices!

Additional new and recent titles added to our web store that you will want to be sure and read include the following: Planet U by Michael M'Gonigle and Justine Starke, Planetwalker by John Francis, The Oil Depletion Protocol by Richard Heinberg, Biodiesel America by Josh Tickell, Towers of Deception by Barrie Zwicker (this promises to be an extraordinary expose on media coverage of 9/11 by the narrator of The End of Suburbia DVD many of you have seen), Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast (five autographed copies are still available), Energy Switch by Craig Morris, Solar Water Heating by Bob Ramlow with Benjamin Nusz, Your Green Home by Alex Wilson, Cutting Your Car Use by Randall Ghent with Anna Semlyen, Biodiesel Basics and Beyond by William H. Kemp, Ecocities by Richard Register, and the film Ecological Design now in DVD format.

Be sure to check out our other titles in the following categories:

• Ecological Design and Planning
• Energy and Appropriate Technology
• Environment and Economy
• Natural and Green Building
• Oil and Natural Gas Depletion
• Progressive Leadership
• Sustainable Living
• Food and Permaculture

We encourage you to shop with us. Our online bookstore is growing rapidly. We are adding titles weekly to bring you some of the best reads on sustainable living available. Shop with the Solar Living Institute, and help support our valuable work!

We're hiring here at the Solar Living Institute. We have a position open for Administrative Assistant.

Administrative Assistant: Our excellent Administrative Assistant has also decided to go back to school, and we are looking to replace her also as soon as possible. This position reports to our Operations Manager. Review the job description for the Administrative Assistant position and send your cover letter and resume to our Executive Director, Bob Gragson, at bob.gragson@solarliving.org.

For other energy and environmental positions throughout the world, you might also check out these websites:

• Green Dream Jobs
• Environmental Jobs & Careers
• Environmental Career Opportunities (EcoJobs)
• EcoEmploy.com
• Idealist.org
• EcoTrust Jobs
• Orion Grassroots Network
• EnvironmentalCareer.com
• Green Energy Jobs
• The Nature Conservancy