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Dear Karen,
Although the economy is faltering and times
are tough with foreclosures and a plummeting
stock market, awareness and opportunity in
the world of sustainability is on the rise.
In this issue, you'll read about the recent
success of a global conference on
renewable energy, where entrepreneurs and
investors wax
hopefully about the expansion of the
renewable energy industry. Closer to home, a
recently released solar industry workforce study
conducted by the California Community
Colleges and co-sponsored by the Solar Living
Institute highlights expanding job
opportunities with upward mobility in the
California solar industry.
More hopeful news includes the unveiling of a
seed bank in the Arctic that will maintain
biodiversity for future generations by
storing millions of seeds from around the
world, and San Francisco continues in the
forefront of preparing for peak oil with the
creation of a city-sponsored Peak Oil Task Force.
As always, Solar
Living Institute workshops are a
practical way to further your knowledge and
practical skills in living more lightly on
the planet. Highlighted classes in San
Francisco this March include socially responsible green
investing and a series on green building;
visit our website for an
ever-expanding list of workshops!
Together, we are making a difference.
For the Future,
Lindsay Dailey
Managing Director
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Conventional Wisdom Turns Green |
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Times have changed. The conventional wisdom
that socially conscious investing would never
produce a decent return on investment has
been replaced, and it is now possible to make
green from green, so to speak. Corporations
are introducing environmentally friendly and
socially responsible initiatives into their
operations; consumers are starting to really
understand how protecting our environment is
more than simply a clever idea; and the
financial industry is recognizing the
opportunity for significant return on
investments in companies that address issues
of global warming, peak oil, and poverty. The
market for green investing has never been better.
The timing is perfect for the SLI's upcoming
course, Investing
in a Green Economy which will be held
in San Francisco
on March 8th and co-hosted by Global
Exchange. The workshop will feature cutting
edge financial professionals and visionaries
in an interactive day designed to educate and
guide people to re-direct investment dollars
into building a green economy in a
financially responsible manner. This workshop
is suitable for experienced and
non-experienced investors, small and large
investors, financial professionals, and
individuals wanting more information on
responsible investing.
Sign up today, call 707-744-2017 or visit
www.solarliving.org
For more reading on green investing, See The
Motley Fool:
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Solar Industry Workforce Study Released! |
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The Solar Living Institute collaborated with
California Community College system and
several other community partners on a
recently released study on workforce needs
for the burgeoning solar industry in California.
Good news; while the overall economy
stumbles, solar firms in the Bay Area are
expected to increase employment by up to 17%
in the next year, resulting in more than
1,200 new jobs!
The Solar Living Institute is uniquely
positioned to prepare folks to take advantage
of this growth. We train individuals for a
wide variety of careers in the solar
industry, including jobs in sales,
installation, design, project management, and
more! All of our solar industry related workshops are
listed on our website.
The key findings of the solar industry
report
are listed on the Solar Living Institute
website.
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San Francisco Prepares for Life After Fossil Fuels |
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The fourth floor of San Francisco's City Hall
feels remote. Dimly lit and strangely quiet,
it conveys a sense of isolation from the
powerful people who do their work in the
lower levels of the building.
Here, in an unremarkable conference room, is
where the San Francisco Peak Oil Preparedness
Task Force is conducting its second meeting.
The day's breaking news headlines of oil
reaching $100 per barrel for the first time
in history is perhaps a harbinger of things
to come. One year earlier the price was $58
per barrel. This dramatic increase in such a
short span would devastate economies around
the world if it continued at anywhere close
to that rate
Chairperson Jeanne Rosenmeier, an articulate,
contemplative woman, reiterates the task
force's purpose: "Our charge is to examine
how the city is going to handle rising oil
prices and possible shortages. That is what
we have been asked to do."
While considering models for the study the
task force will prepare, Rosenmeier points to
Portland, Ore.'s recently completed peak oil
report and talks about limiting San
Francisco's effort to outlining the range of
scenarios, from small impacts to large. She's
reluctant to acknowledge the extralarge
scenario - massive worldwide social unrest
and full-scale anarchy in the streets of San
Francisco - which she argues would be harmful
to the group's focus.
Jan Lundberg, the task force member in charge
of "societal functioning," politely
disagrees. "You have to look honestly at what
we are up against," Lundberg tells the
Guardian. "Only then can you come up with
intelligent responses to what is occurring.
If it is a tsunami coming, then you take
action for a tsunami."
For the next 10 months the task force will be
preparing a study of mitigation measures to
be considered by the city government for
implementation into law. Much like the
phenomenon of peak oil, their work will also
be best assessed in hindsight. For now, some
will see them as a team of Chicken Littles
sketching a contingency plan for when the sky
falls.
Yet if the scientific insights that compelled
the Board of Supervisors to form the group
prove prescient, then the report that the
task force is producing may well be crucial
to San Francisco's very survival.
The San Francisco Peak Oil Preparedness Task
Force plans to release its final report in
October.
To read the entire article, visit http://www.sfbg.com/entry.ph
p?entry_id=5549&catid=4
To prepare yourself for peak oil, educate
yourself by taking a
workshop at the Solar Living Institute!
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Jump on the Green Building Bandwagon |
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Innovations in materials and building
technologies have caught the attention of
forward-looking designers, architects,
builders, and green-savvy consumers. Green
Building has moved from fringe to mainstream,
opening new markets and creating
opportunities for new jobs.
If you are a builder, business or homeowner
or simply looking for a career move into the
burgeoning green building industry, the Solar
Living Institute is offering a terrific
series of courses March 14-15 co-hosted by
the Green Building Exchange that will give
you the knowledge and tools to move further
into this exciting new field.
GB
101: Intro to LEED &
Commercial Green Building..........
Mar
14 2008
Will Introduce participants to fascinating
case studies of commercial green buildings
and the key categories used by the US Green
Building Council's Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED)
program for
rating green buildings. These include:
sustainable site selection, water efficiency
measures, energy efficiency, eco-friendly
building materials, indoor/outdoor air
quality and innovative design.
GB102:
Intro to Green
Renovations...........
Mar 15 2008
Homeowners, contractors and designers
preparing to embark on a home renovation
project will find this class filled with a
host of ideas on materials and techniques.
This is an excellent companion course to GB
101 providing a good overview of the industry.
Sign up today, call 707-744-2017 or visit www.solarliving.org
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SLI Attracting New Partners and Funding |
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As Green becomes the new Gold, more and more
media, business and philanthropic
organizations are turning to the Solar Living
Institute with support and donations, in
order to be a part of an organization with a
decade of success in educating and inspiring
the public in all things sustainable. With
recent grant awards from organizations as
diverse as the Mendocino Community Foundation
and the Bay Area Air Quality Management
District, and support from a wide array of
family foundations, the financial support for
our important education work continues to grow.
We are also immensely grateful to the many of
you who have made donations and renewed your
partnerships with the SLI. With
contributions ranging from five dollars to
ten thousand dollars, the diversity of people
who have contributed to our work is inspiring
and heartening to us all. In December of
last year alone, over $50,000 in donations
came in through online and snail mail. These
funds have been key to the many recent
upgrades to our facilities and programs,
including hiring more instructors for our
workshops, expanding our educational offerings to prepare urban youth for green
collar jobs, installing new educational signage
here at the SLI, and offering kids renewable
energy and sustainability education both here
at our site and through classroom visits.
And yet so much more remains to be done. Our
immediate needs include continuing upgrades
to our site and displays so that our ¼
million annual visitors can be best educated
and inspired; continuing to build and refine
our intern village to train the environmental
leaders of tomorrow; and upgrading our
workshop classroom and lab facilities to
better educate our 2000+ yearly workshop
students.
With the continued support of individuals
like you, as well as businesses and
organizations, we will continue to lead the
way in providing the education people need to
be an active part of the burgeoning green
economy. Won't you join us by becoming
a partner, or making
a donation? Be a part of
the solution!
Thank you!
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Village View |
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With the New Year, the Solar Living Institute
is happy to welcome our first session of 2008
interns. On February 15th, the staff
welcomed eight spectacular individuals to our
organization with an evening of food, music,
and conversation.
Coming to us from Colorado, Alex Pell has
been working to make a name in the solar
industry by working as an installer. With
experience in green building and solar
installation, he is currently working as one
of our two site interns.
From Lawrence, Kansas, Brady Karlin has spent
his recent years exploring the wonders of
Yosemite and the WWOOFing life in New
Zealand. While helping on Kiwi farms, he
realized his interest in food production and
has joined us as our garden intern.
A SoCal to NorCal convert, David Peterson has
recently purchased his own piece of property
near Mt. Shasta and is excited to learn how
to go off-grid with his future home. A
talented musician, he helps to keep the
rhythm of the community and has joined us as
our second of the two site interns.
Another SoCal to NorCal convert, Karri Range
comes to us after realizing that the
engineering world wasn't her cup of tea. A
passionate culinary connoisseur, she joins us
as our non-profit administration and
children's education intern.
Coming from Portland, Oregon, Maralena Murphy
has spent a great deal of time working with
the City Repair Project of growing notoriety.
An avid cook and budding guitar master, she
has joined us as one of our three workshop
interns.
A volleyball giant from Illinois, Nathan
Gustus has come west to pursue his interests
in more metaphysical matters. With dreams of
a sustainable travel trailer and a trip
around the country, he has joined us as the
second of our three workshop interns.
From the boats of Sausalito, Nicholas Edwards
has a wealth of experience with restoring the
natural world and human culture through his
work with Paul Hawkens's Natural Capital
Institute. With his straw hat and keen
ability for thinking outside the box, he
joins us as our third workshop intern.
Another leader from the NorCal region, Scott
Kender joins us after a long history of
social activism and volunteerism. A
passionate Green Party leader in Lancaster,
PA and a committed homelessness advocate, he
is currently working as our landscape intern.
A warm welcome to the first session of 2008
interns!
Visit our website for more information on our
internship
program
or to apply
for summer positions!
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Arctic Seed Vault Opens Doors |
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The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened on
February 26th on a remote island in the
Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments
of 100 million seeds that originated in over
100 countries. With the deposits ranging from
unique varieties of major African and Asian
food staples such as maize, rice, wheat,
cowpea, and sorghum to European and South
American varieties of eggplant, lettuce,
barley, and potato, the first deposits into
the seed vault represent the most
comprehensive and diverse collection of food
crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.
At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister
of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the
vault and, together with the African Nobel
Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari
Maathai, he placed the first seeds in the vault.
Built near the village of Longyearbyen on the
island of Spitsbergen, the vault at its
inception contains 268,000 distinct samples
of seeds-each one originating from a
different farm or field in the world.
The opening of the seed vault is part of an
unprecedented effort to protect the planet's
rapidly diminishing biodiversity. The
diversity of our crops is essential for food
production, yet it is being lost. This
"fail-safe" facility, dug deep into the
frozen rock of an Arctic mountain, will
secure for centuries, or longer, hundreds of
millions of seeds representing every
important crop variety available in the world
today. As well as protecting against the
daily loss of diversity, the vault could also
prove indispensable for
restarting agricultural production at the
regional or global level in the wake of a
natural or man-made disaster.
To read the entire story visit ht
tp://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/31808
Take the Solar Living Institute's two day
Permaculture
for Local Food Security workshop to
learn more about this important topic!
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Global Green Light on Renewable Energy |
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According to attendees and exhibitors at the
Renewable Energy World Conference and Expo
North America, entering the renewable energy
marketplace is a business imperative that
cannot be overlooked as renewables quickly
become a solid part of the complete energy mix.
At the show, visitors and exhibitors echoed
each other in their desire to either enter
the market or to reposition their companies
so that they can take advantage of the
phenomenal growth that this industry has been
experiencing. Attendees ranging from
marketing consultants and headhunters to
sheet metal fabrication shops represent the
diverse industries that want to get a piece
of the renewable energy action.
Don Albinger, Vice President of Renewable
Energy Solutions and Building Efficiency at
Johnson
Controls, explained that his company's
interest in the renewable energy market
stemmed from its customers' demands.
"Our customers pulled us into this business.
As we were finalizing or creating
energy-efficiency projects, our customers
were asking us how can they be more green,
how can they be better stewards to the
environment and a natural extension to that
was adding renewable energies," Albinger said.
Currently, renewable energy makes up less
than 5% of Johnson Controls' overall
business. But Albinger predicted that it
could be 15-30% in 3-5 years and 30-50% in
the next 15 years.
"We certainly believe that it's not a dotcom,
it is a sustainable business for us,"
Albinger said. "Our mission here is to make
this business mainstream."
Renewable energy production has grown by over
20% over the past three years. Global solar
photovoltaics (PV), for example has grown
from 3.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2004 to 9 GW at
the end of 2007, according to Brandon Owens,
Program Manager for Strategic Analysis &
Scenario Planning at GE
Energy. Owens says that GE recognizes the
tremendous business opportunity in renewables.
"Looking forward we believe that the combined
global additions of wind and solar PV will
increase to 34 GW by next year. In terms of
dollars, this means that the market size will
grow to $60 billion annually," said Owens.
That's a figure that the company is not
ignoring. "As we like to say at GE, 'Green is
Green,'" he said.
GE Energy's Owens summed up the issues that
all energy markets face: "We are now at a
crossroads - one that is as great as that
faced by GE's founder Thomas Edison at the
end of the nineteenth century - like Edison
we are confronted with the need for a
fundamental transformation in the way that we
do business."
To read the entire article, visit
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/
news/story;jsessionid=7B67623855D4D29F04F0FFA
9443EC454?id=51643
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Jobs at the Institute |
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We have three job openings at the Solar Living
Institute.
Please follow the links below for more
information on
the positions and how to apply:
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| Quick Links |
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