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.

NOVEMBER
2 -- Powerdown: The End of Cheap Energy
3-4 -- Organizing Sustainable Communities
9-10 -- Design and Install an Off-Grid RE System
11-12 -- Off-Grid PV Systems for Professionals
13 -- How to Make the Financial Case for PV (SJ)*
14 -- Breakthrough Solar Sales & Marketing (SJ)*
18 -- Green Career Conference (SF) -- NEW!
19 -- Ecological Urban Gardening

*Note: Nov. 13 and 14 workshops are filling up quickly. Register Soon!

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
Albert Straus*: Founder, Straus Creamery
Chad Smith: Supply Chain Sustainability Manager, Earthbound Farms
*Invited but not confirmed

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 and panelists, as well as a wide variety of potential employers whose job listings are displayed in the Career Center area, 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.

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 wide variety of green companies. Drop in throughout the day to pick up information about different companies, view current job listings, and leaf through the most cutting-edge publications.

Then, come back during the networking session from 5:15-7:00 PM, to speak with a representative of the many employers who will be attending to speak with you about job opportunities.

Please visit our website to view the lineup of green companies who will attend the networking session. You won't want to miss this unique opportunity to meet representatives from leading environmentally friendly organizations who are hiring!

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!

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!

The Biogas Energy Project at UC Davis began its operation Oct. 24. The research and technology demonstration facility will process eight tons of leftover food scraps each week -- and later as much as eight tons daily -- from premier restaurants such as San Francisco's Slanted Door, Jardiniere, Scoma's, Boulevard and Zuni Café, and Oakland's Oliveto and Scott's Seafood. Food scraps will be processed into methane and hydrogen to be used for energy.

This Biogas Energy Project is the first large-scale demonstration in the United States of an "anaerobic phased solids digester," a new type of digester developed by Ruihong Zhang, a UC Davis professor of biological and agricultural engineering. Unlike other digesters, an anaerobic phased solids digester can process a wider variety of wastes at greater speed.

Each ton of food scraps is anticipated to produce enough energy to provide electricity to power 10 average California homes for one day. Zhang's system differs from other anaerobic digesters, most of which are in use on municipal wastewater treatment plants and livestock farms, in three key ways:

• It processes a wider variety of wastes -- both solid and liquid -- including food scraps, yard trimmings, animal manure and rice straw. More than 5 million tons of food scraps go into California landfills each year.
• It works faster, turning waste into energy in half the time of other digesters.
• It produces two clean energy gases -- hydrogen and methane. Other digesters produce only methane. The gases can be burned to produce electricity and heat, or to propel cars, trucks and buses.

Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.

Duke University and The Home Depot are partnering to create "The Home Depot smarthome," a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in areas such as security and home monitoring, communications, energy efficiency, entertainment, environment and health.

The facility will be a combination residence hall, undergraduate research laboratory and engineering outreach project that will house 10 upper-class engineering students each year. It will serve as a technology prototype assembly and testing center where students -- including the dorm residents, more than 100 student members of the Duke Smart House Club and entire engineering classes -- can test new residential technology ideas developed by Duke students. The occupants will live with (and in) the design ideas of the larger group to provide feedback on issues such as technology usability and adoption, energy efficiency and automated control.

Sustainability features will include cisterns that capture and reuse rainwater and solar panels that track the sun through the day. The 6,000-square- foot dorm house has been designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification. The house is expected to be completed by Fall 2007.

The Home Depot's sponsorship is valued at $2 million in cash and in-kind donations over a three-year period to cover the cost of the dorm construction.

For more information:

Following last week's news that the population of the United States has now exceeded 300 million, a new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) details the strain on the world's natural resources and the declining numbers of the animal species that depend on them, and offers solutions to reverse downward trends in both these areas.

Humans are consuming the planet's resources 25% faster than the earth can renew them, a rate "unprecedented in human history," the WWF said Oct. 24 in its 2006 Living Planet Report. If we keep it up, we'll need two planets' worth of natural resources by mid- century, and "exhaustion of ecological assets and large-scale ecosystem collapse become increasingly likely," says the report.

The United Arab Emirates is stressing the planet most per capita, followed by the U.S., Finland, and Canada. Humanity's ecological footprint more than tripled between 1961 and 2003, outpacing the global population, which more than doubled in that time period. Pollution, deforestation, habitat loss, and overfishing have caused the populations of many species to decline by about a third since 1970, WWF said.

Measurements of crop yields, carbon-dioxide emissions, fishing and the use of forests suggest that humankind’s ecological footprint is too big to be sustained. Using United Nations projections of the worldwide growth of the human population and economies, the report predicts that by the middle of the century “large-scale ecosystem collapse” is likely.

The world’s average footprint is calculated to be 2.2 hectares per capita but only 1.8 hectares of each person’s consumption can be regenerated by the planet each year. Carbon-dioxide emissions are the biggest single factor within the footprint, accounting for up to 48% of man’s impact on the globe, according to the report.

For more information:

If you're not elbow-deep in the business world, you might not know there are global guidelines for companies to follow when they report on their sustainability initiatives. And if you didn't know that, you certainly don't know that the third edition of those guidelines was unveiled earlier this month in the Netherlands, to much fanfare.

The first week of October saw a crowd of 1,150 people from 65 countries rubbing shoulders in the Netherlands, including royalty (in the form of HRH the Prince of Orange), politicians (including former Vice President Al Gore and Margot Wallström, VP of the European Commission), titans of industry (like Gerard Kleisterlee, CEO of Royal Philips Electronics, and Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, chair of Anglo American), and the heads of multilateral agencies (among them Achim Steiner, the new United Nations Environment Program executive director). All came together for the launch of "G3," the latest version of the Global Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

In a world with more than 50,000 multinational corporations, the GRI counts just over 1,700 companies using its guidelines in some way -- and far fewer reporting "in accordance," which requires comprehensive reporting against the GRI's core indicators, plus CEO or board-level sign-off.

Leading global companies are finding value in reporting far more information on their sustainability performance than the GRI currently demands. Far from fretting about a plateau (although this is a clear present and future danger), the launch of the G3 guidelines will hopefully boost interest in the business impacts of sustainability issues like climate risk.

Here's some motivation to go on that diet: you'll use less gasoline. Non-commercial US vehicles are using at least 938 million more gallons of gasoline annually than they did in 1960 because drivers and passengers are considerably heavier and are dragging down fuel economy, says a University of Illinois study to be published in The Engineering Economist.

In 1960, the average adult female weighed 140 pounds and the average male weighed 166; in 2002, the averages were 164 and 191 respectively, and 62% of adults were considered overweight. That 938 million gallons represents $2.8 billion if gas is selling for $3 a gallon, and could fuel some 1.7 million cars for a year, or feed the entire US gasoline addiction for three days. "We had no idea the numbers would be this big," said study coauthor Sheldon Jacobson.

Among teenagers, the group where obesity is rising the fastest, average weights for male teens increased from 151 pounds in the early 1970s to 164 pounds by 2002. Female teens also got heavier on average, from 128 pounds in the early '70s to 140 pounds at the turn of the century.

Automobile manufacturers reduced vehicle weights from 1975 through 1987 in reaction to oil shortages created by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to the Federal Highway Administration. What was later identified as the "Hummer effect" started in 1987 when average vehicle weights began a steady increase that has lasted through 2006. Heavier Americans are canceling out some of the vehicle fuel-economy improvements achieved by keeping tires inflated to the proper pressure, tuning up engines and removing unnecessary items from trunks.

For more information:

• Our appetite for food boosts consumption -- of gasoline, LA Times, Oct. 25, 2006
• Americans' spare tires take toll at gas pump, study says, Chicago Tribune, Oct. 25, 2006

A handful of large publishers are beginning to think about the eco-impact of the paper they publish on. The paper industry is the fourth-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions among U.S. manufacturers. Paper production uses gobs of energy, and then there's the impact of chopping down trees at the front end and of recycling or burning old newspapers and magazines at the back. Time Inc. participated in a study published this year that determined that an average copy of Time magazine resulted in about 0.29 pound of greenhouse gas-emissions; in May, the company asked its paper suppliers to reduce their emissions 20% by 2012. Rupert Murdoch recently announced a plan to make News Corporation carbon neutral. "We've recognized that these are issues that are important to our readers and, increasingly, important to our advertisers," says David J. Refkin of Time, Inc. Declining circulation of many newspapers is also helping to decrease emissions, as readers flock to online media.

RENEW Wisconsin filed testimony with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) last month calling for implementation of Advanced Renewable Tariffs (ARTs) in the state by January 1, 2008. The move is the first formal action by a non-governmental organization in the US to urge adoption of the policy mechanism used in Germany, France and other countries to successfully spur rapid development of renewable energy.

Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin's executive director, submitted testimony to the PSC in two separate proceedings stating that RENEW favors setting fixed rates or tariffs for distributed generation based on the cost of production of each renewable technology -- and does not support basing tariffs on the wholesale price of electricity. Though a small step in itself, Vickerman's PSC testimony could set a precedent in the U.S. since RENEW Wisconsin's position is a significant departure from the position of most American non-governmental organizations involved in utility rate cases.

RENEW also submitted an exhibit outlining detailed categories of tariffs for each technology and a manner in which the specific tariffs can be determined. According to RENEW's filing, the rates would have the following attributes, the principle elements of Advanced Renewable Tariffs as used in France and Germany:

• Simple, comprehensible and transparent
• Fixed prices sufficient to drive development
• Lengths sufficient for profitability
• Prices differentiated by technology

Clemson University, Furman University, and the University of South Carolina each received a Leadership Award from the US Green Building Council (USGBC) South Carolina Chapter. The Leadership Awards recognize outstanding organizations that have shown vision, leadership and commitment to the advancement of green building and construction in South Carolina. Clemson's Advanced Materials Research Laboratory was the first public/state-funded project in South Carolina to be LEED Certified and the first certified at the Silver level. Furman University's Hipp Hall was the first LEED Certified and is still the only Gold Rated building in South Carolina. University of South Carolina's LEED Silver West Quad Dormitory is one of the largest green residence halls in the US.

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

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 title: The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook by Albert K. Bates (due to be released Nov. 17). You won't want to miss this book, and at 10% off the regular retail price, this is the best price you will get for this important book. Don't miss this great price!

Additional new and recent titles added to our web store that you will want to be sure and read include the following: Eating Fossil Fuels by Dale Allen Pfeiffer, 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 two position openings:

Administrative Assistant: 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. The position is open until filled.

Workshop Coordinator: This position reports to our Workshop Director. Review the job description for the Workshop Coordinator position and send your cover letter and resume to our Workshop Director, Lindsay Dailey, at lindsay.dailey@solarliving.org. The position is open until filled.

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