Register now for the workshop of your choice before it sells out. Response to our workshop program this year has been overwhelming. Almost all workshops offered to date have sold out. So register early.

With over 200 workshops offered in 2007, our program has grown substantially. We are offering a variety of workshops in Southern California in both Los Angeles and San Diego, and we have started to expand to the East Coast where new incentives are making solar an attractive investment. We also continue to offer workshops in San Francisco, San Jose, Hopland here at the Solar Living Center, and other locations.

Select a topic below for a listing of workshops in an area of interest to you:

• Basic Building Skills
• Biofuels & Alternative Transportation
• Green & Natural Building
• Green Careers & Business
• Local Sustainability
• Permaculture & Organic Food
• Solar & Renewable Energy
• Sustainability for Educators
• Water Security
• Women's Learning Series

Part two of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) report is due out in April, and according to a draft, things are looking quite the opposite of good. The report, the second of four scheduled to be issued by IPCC this year, focuses on the effects of climate change. Among other bleak things, it says effects are already being felt -- as opposed to the 2001 report, which said chaos was still on its way. It also says unless the world takes action on emissions, we face massive water and food shortages, increased death rates for the world's poor, flooding, fire, and species extinction in as little as two decades! The report awaits government review, but no major changes are expected.

For more information:

• Top Scientists Warn of Water Shortages and Disease Linked to Global Warming, The New York Times, March 12, 2007
• New Climate Report Warns of Droughts, The Age, March 11, 2007

Now you can give money to the Institute without paying out any money!

We would like to introduce you to a new online search tool that raises money for the Solar Living Institute at no cost to you. It's called GoodSearch, and it is an online search engine that will donate one cent to the charity of your choice (such as the Solar Living Institute) for every search you perform.

GoodSearch is partnered with Yahoo, so your searches are as good as any other. Using GoodSearch is simple - just go to this page and you will automatically be contributing to the Solar Living Institute. Make it your homepage, one of your home tabs, add it to your Favorites, or download it for your toolbar, and it will be even easier to support our programs.

If everyone who reads our newsletter used GoodSearch for their online search needs, it will mean thousands of dollars per year for the Solar Living Institute. Thanks for your support!

In our bookstore we have an area that lists the latest titles that we have added. Be sure to check out these new additions.

We provide FREE shipping on book and DVD orders totaling $100 or more.

Be sure to check out our books in the following categories:

• Biofuels
• Climate Change
• Ecological Design and Planning
• Ecovillages
• Environment and Economy
• Food and Permaculture
• Fossil Fuel Depletion
• Natural and Green Building
• Progressive Leadership
• Renewable Energy
• Sustainable Living
• Waste Composting
• Water, Water Collection, Greywater Systems, and Ponds

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:

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.

Administrative Assistant: This position reports to our Executive Director. 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.

For additional energy and environmental positions throughout the world, the following are some good websites for your review:

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

Special Event: Investing for a Green Economy
San Francisco, March 17

Massive investments are required to address the issues of global warming and peak oil, which presents enormous opportunities for both investors and socially-conscious individuals alike. How can we redirect millions of investment dollars towards building a green economy?

Increasing your understanding of the socially responsible financial markets is the first step toward making informed, responsible and effective investments that stimulate positive change. With that knowledge both large and small investors can proactively select investments that build a green economy while meeting and often far surpassing financial goals.

Join cutting edge financial professionals and visionaries in an interactive day that will educate and empower you to re-direct your investment dollars into building a green economy in a financially responsible manner.

This incredible information-packed workshop includes the following presentations:

• How Financial Markets Work
  Rupert Ayton, CEO of the Center for the Development of Social Finance
• Investing in the Private Markets: Venture Capital
  Phil Kranenburg, President of Kranenburg Capital Management
• Green Banking
  Peter Liu, President of New Resource Bank
• Innovations in Social Finance
  Esther Park, Director of Lending Programs at the Rudolf Steiner Foundation
• Local Investment Initiatives
  Don Shafer, Director of Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
• Socially Responsible Stocks & Mutual Funds
  Eric Leenson, Progressive Asset Management

This workshop is suitable for experienced and non-experienced investors, small and large investors, financial professionals, and those wanting more information on responsible investing. Sign up online today for Investing for a Green Economy.

We are already in full swing in preparation for SolFest XII to be held Aug. 18-19, 2007. Alice Walker, Bruce Cockburn, and others will appear this year on the SolFest main stage.

For those of you who want to exhibit at the event this year, we anticipate brisk booth sales and encourage you to line up your booth early.

For more information on being an exhibitor at this year's event, continue to check the Exhibitor page on our website. This year's exhibitor map is already downloadable, and it will soon be followed by this year's exhibitor brochure.

This spring in San Francisco, join us for an exciting three days of peak oil preparation. We are lucky to be joined by Richard Heinberg, who will address The Great Energy Transition, and Dr. Jason Bradford and Brian Weller of WELL who will lead Organizing Sustainable Communities.

These visionary leaders and their interactive workshops will give you the most up to date analysis of peak oil, its effects, and most importantly, provide you with a set of tools that will help you prepare yourself and your community for an oil-free future.

Join us on March 30-April 1! Register for all three days (two workshops) by March 25th and save $50! Sign up today, as there is limited space remaining. Call our office today at 707-744-2017 to sign up and take advantage of this great offer.

The green building industry is expected to grow to a booming $20.5 billion market by 2010. In the meantime, professionals across the country are preparing themselves to take advantage of this growth and learn the skills necessary to participate in the green building movement.

In March, you can take advantage of the Solar Living Institute’s 3-day green building training on March 23-25. Courses include:

• March 23 - Intro to LEED & Commercial Green Building
• March 24 - Intro to Green Renovations
• March 25 - Find Your Dream Job in Green Building

Sign up for all three classes by March 20 for a savings of $60. Call our office today at 707-744-2017 to sign up and take advantage of this great offer.

Most people are unaware that environmental problems such as climate change can be easily avoided, at a profit, through the intelligent application of appropriate technology. The Carbon Buster's Handbook describes how to achieve this goal in the residential field.

The first book in North America to provide a detailed carbon accounting of a family's carbon emissions and how to reduce them, it systematically analyzes energy costs and evaluates which measures yield the highest returns for the environment and the pocketbook. It provides answers to questions such as:

• Which measure is more effective: putting solar panels on your roof, or buying a hybrid car?
• Where do I need to invest first: in high-efficiency shower-heads, or solar tubes?
• Is a $500 fridge that uses 800 kWh of power per year a good buy?

The book allows individuals to quickly and accurately assess which products are a good deal and which aren't. It systematically analyzes residential carbon emissions and energy costs and prioritizes solutions based on highest carbon reductions and monetary returns, yielding results that are often surprising. The book enables readers to dramatically reduce their carbon emissions - far below the levels targeted under the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, readers implementing the recommendations will save an average of US$15,000 in energy costs over the next five years.

Crude Impact is a powerful and timely story that deftly explores the interconnection between human domination of the planet and the discovery and use of oil. This documentary film on DVD exposes our deep-rooted dependency on the availability of fossil fuel energy and examines the future implications of peak oil -- the point in time when the amount of petroleum available worldwide begins a steady, inexorable decline.

In 1956, M. King Hubbert, a geologist at Shell Research Labs, shocked the oil industry by predicting that United States oil production, the largest in the world at that time, would peak in the early 1970s and then continuously and irreversibly diminish. His prediction was vilified and largely ignored -- until it came true. In Crude Impact, modern day disciples of Hubbert presage how quickly global peak oil will become a reality and its many serious implications for our way of life and our world.

Journeying from the West African Delta region to the heart of the Amazon rainforest, from Washington to Shanghai, from early humankind to the unknown future, Crude Impact chronicles the collision of our insatiable appetite for oil with the rights and livelihoods of indigenous cultures, other species and the planet itself. With great depth and insight, the film highlights the underlying myths and beliefs that are propelling us toward what many experts believe will be a cataclysmic period for humanity.

This timely, eye-opening investigation parallels the high-powered drama of Syriana but brings it to a level of accessibility, awareness and action for citizens on all points of the economic-cultural-political spectrum. A story filled with discovery, sorrow, outrage, humor and ultimately, hope. Crude Impact uncovers the complex entanglement of the fate of humankind with its fierce dependence on petroleum, while providing a vital inspiration for change.

Crude Impact was awarded the Best Environmental Feature Film at the 3rd Annual Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles. It was also awarded the Social Justice Award at the 22nd Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival in Amsterdam.

Crude Impact uncovers some harsh realities about our world and our relationship to fossil fuels. Yet as discussed in the film, there is cause for hope. Crude Impact is meant to inspire us to take action, because as Dr. William Rees says in this film, "this new knowledge gives us the possibility of creating a brilliant future for all of us."

What comes after you've created the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team? George Fitch, creator of that bobsled team and now the Republican Mayor of Warrenton, VA, wants to make this town of 8,000 energy independent by 2010 by building a $30 million biomass plant at the local dump. "You don't have to be a big fan of Al Gore to realize that this is critical to our community and our national security," he says. He seems to be winning over residents of this farming community 50 miles west of Washington, DC.

For more information:

• Grand-Thinking Va. Mayor Seeks Town's Energy Independence, The Washington Post, March 12, 2007

Wrapping up a two-day summit, the European Union (EU) 27 member states have agreed on an ambitious green-energy goal. The plan -- to use 20% renewable energy by 2020 -- will "establish us as a world pioneer," says German Chancellor and summit chair Angela Merkel, who brokered the deal. Two major concessions made resistant countries agree: the 20% will be an EU average, allowing national goals to vary which would benefit poorer countries, and the deal gives a nod to the potential "benefits" -- although this editor certainly can't think of any -- of nuclear so that France would agree to the plan. Coupled with a pledge to cut emissions 20% by 2020, the move is "the most ambitious package ever agreed by any commission or any group of countries on energy security and climate protection," says European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Of course, as Merkel points out, the EU spews only 15% of the world's emissions: "The real climate problem will not be solved by Europe alone."

The EU plan involves:

• A 10% minimum target on the use of bio-fuels in transport by 2020
• A commitment to increase use of solar, wind and hydroelectric power
• A possible ban on incandescent bulbs - with filaments - in offices, street lights and private homes by the end of the decade

EU officials are working on a directive that would compel the use of modern low-energy fluorescent light bulbs. It could come into force as early as next year. The Australian government announced similar plans to phase out old-style filament bulbs last month.

For more information:

• EU Agrees Renewable Energy Target, BBC News, March 9, 2007
• EU Ministers Deadlocked on Binding Target for Green Power, The Independent, March 9, 2007
• EU Summit Adopts Bold Environmental Strategy, Reuters, March 9, 2007
• European Leaders Agree on Energy Plan, The Washington Post, March 9, 2007

SolarWorld AG is set to establish an integrated solar silicon wafer and solar cell production facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, that will become the largest solar factory in North America once the plant reaches its projected capacity of 500 megawatts (MW) by 2009.

The Germany-based company will invest an estimated $400 million to expand and develop its new facility, which it recently acquired from the Japanese Komatsu Group for $40 million. The Japanese Komatsu Group had already invested approximately $500 million in the Hillsboro location -- but had never gone into production.

Following the acquisition, SolarWorld group will shift its solar crystallization activities from Vancouver, Washington, to Hillsboro, Oregon, with production scheduled to begin in the summer of 2007. In the first stage of the expansion, capacities will be enhanced to 100 MW. At the same time, the company will double the capacities of its specialized solar module factory at the Camarillo, California, production site to 100 MW.

The new wafer and cell factory will produce highly efficient, mono-crystalline solar silicon products, expanding SolarWorld's technological spectrum. The products from the company's integrated production in Freiberg, Germany, are primarily based on high efficiency multi-crystalline silicon.

News of the new solar manufacturing plant comes at the same time as several other renewable energy developments in Oregon, including:

• Oregon Senator Smith's co-sponsoring of the Securing America's Energy Independence Act (S590) which will extend and improve the federal incentives use for solar projects (Investment Tax Credits),
• Oregon's increase to 2 MW for net-metered systems,
• a push in the state legislature for 25% renewable energy standard that includes provisions for community renewables such as solar,
• a bill increasing the state tax credits for businesses investing in renewable energy projects from $3.5 million to $10 million,
• a bill requiring state financed buildings to include 1.5% of the project costs for solar energy installations, and
• a bill increasing the incentives for residential solar hot water and solar electric systems.

Known primarily as being a country rich in oil reserves, the United Arab Emirates will soon play host to a new research institute that offers postgraduate programs in renewable energy and sustainability in its capital city of Abu Dhabi.

In late February, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC) signed a cooperative agreement to help develop the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

With plans to admit the first postgraduate students in the summer of 2009, the Masdar Institute will operate as an independent, non-profit research and educational institution, conducting courses in English and offering postgraduate degrees to men and women in the United Arab Emirates, Middle East, North Africa and the South Asian region.

"The guiding philosophy of Masdar is to transform the natural resource wealth of the country to a long-term, sustainable knowledge economy through the development of human capital that can effectively compete in the global marketplace," he added.

Abu Dhabi is the headquarters of the United Arab Emirates oil operating companies. The city holds 94% of the country's oil reserves, covers around 87% of the United Arab Emirates total land area and is home to 38% of the population.

The average restaurant generates 50,000 pounds of waste (half of it food) and uses 300,000 gallons of water every year. The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) provides environmental assessments and "certifies" restaurants for using eco-friendly measures like efficient light bulbs, unbleached napkins, and Styrofoam alternatives. But only a tiny percentage of the nation's one million restaurants have gone the GRA way. Sustainability in the $500 billion U.S. restaurant industry is "in its very early stages," says Todd Mann of the National Restaurant Association. Owners have sometimes been frustrated with corn-based plastic spoons that melt in hot soup, or cleaners that are nontoxic, phosphate-free, petroleum-free, biodegradable, and VOC-free.

The association, based in Sharon, Massachusetts, helps restaurants figure out how to be more environmentally responsible and ultimately secure their certifications. Among the steps it encourages: using energy-saving light bulbs, water- and energy- conservation programs, and napkins made from unbleached paper. It insists that its certified restaurants do not use polystyrene foam products.

By this spring, his group will have certified almost 300 restaurants as meeting its standards of energy conservation and environmental stewardship. “A lot of restaurant owners are seeing that this is good, cost- effective business, but also that there is now a strong consumer base that values this,” said Michael Oshman, founder of the Green Restaurant Association in 1990.