California

Many Shades of Green: Diversity and Distribution of California’s Green Jobs
January 2011

Many Shades of Green provides the most comprehensive green jobs accounting to date, systematically tracking the most recent available data on green companies, job type, location and growth across every sector and region of California.

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From January 2008 to 2009, the most recent observable year, jobs in the green sector grew more than three times faster (three percent) than total employment in California (one percent). The Core Green Economy now accounts for 174,000 jobs in California. The rate of growth of green jobs has been similar to that of software jobs since 2005.

Source; Many Shades of Green: Diversity and Distribution of California’s Green Jobs, Next10

Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums, City of Quartz, Late Victorian Holocausts

http://www.vimeo.com/5681509
http://www.vimeo.com/5705855

We chose the name “Melissa” because Melissa officinalis, or Lemon Balm, is an herbaceous plant that has been considered a favorite bee plant for a very long time

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What is The Melissa Garden?

The Melissa Garden is a honeybee sanctuary in Healdsburg, California, at the western side of the Russian River Valley. Two acres of gardens planted with honeybee forage are situated in the center of a pristine 40-acre ranch that is lush with native vegetation. The Melissa Garden is a new project that began in the fall of 2007. It is being created to provide honeybees with a place to live natural lives, insulated from known stressors, and nourished in a beautiful setting. The garden is being thoughtfully designed and planted with botanicals that offer year-round nectar and pollen sources honeybees are known to favor. Check out our photo album and watch our garden grow!

http://www.themelissagarden.com/

Laura Allen, Co-founder of Greywater Action, at a packed Greywater Info Session for the Community of Petaluma, mid-July 2010.Photo Credit:  Ron and Laura Paul of Greywater Marin.

Progress in California Regulation and in Inspection Procedures

Laura Allen, on progress made in California Greywater regulation, on recent Greywater Action strategies and successes, and expectations for the future of greywater usage in California:

http://www.vimeo.com/14249649

Rigorous Greywater Education

Laura Allen describes the remarkable curriculum and installation projects of their 5-day Greywater Installer’s Course, and outlines their 1- and 2-day Greywater Courses, as well:

http://www.vimeo.com/14249207

Register for the upcoming 5-day Greywater Installer’s course, organized by Daily Acts, and to be held in Sebastapol Mon 13 Sept. – Fri 17 Sept.

Students who take the 5-day Greywater Installer’s Course, and who pass the certification exam, and complete the 5th day installation project which Laura describes in the video above, are listed as Level 1 Installers on Greywater Action’s Installer Directory.  I took the 5-day course last month,  in July 2010, and found it to be outstanding preparation to get out in the field, and have already been on my first consultation.  Not bad for an atmospheric scientist who has logged untold hours programming computers, but has rarely picked up a drill!  It’s entirely attributable to Greywater Action’s rigorous teaching methods.

Greywater Resources

Laura Allen describes resources that Greywater Action has developed for Greywater Installers and how to access them:

http://www.vimeo.com/14248937

Many Greywater Action members take an active role in the Greywater Alliance, a wonderful resource to keep both the greywater curious and seasoned greywater installers updated on this rapidly  progressing field.

Greywater system specification table for 4 common greywater systems.  Source:  http://cleanwatercomponents.com/education/greywater

Addressing the unique greywater installer’s needs to (1) merge components from disparate sources, and to (2) purchase single items that may typically only be available in bulk, Laura and her colleagues have created Clean Water Components, a for-profit website that sells pre-packaged, ready-to-use, greywater components.  They also offer complete greywater system maps in PDF format, to be sure you install your greywater systems correctly, as well as other items ranging from ‘how-to’ books to modern indoor composting toilets.

Next up in Greywater:   Branched-Drain Installation Footage/Stills and the most recent Bay Area Greywater Roundtable Footage.

CBS interviews Penny and James from the Regenerative Design Institute, Bolinas, California, Feb 23, 2010.

Penny & James were recently interviewed by CBS evening news “Green Beat”! This video clip is a great way to share with your friends and family about some of things that happen at Commonweal Garden.

The Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) is a non-profit educational organization with the vision that all people can live in a mutually enhancing relationship with the earth. We envision a world in which people, inspired by nature, create and maintain healthy and abundant livelihoods that enhance fertility and biodiversity on the planet. We envision humans as a positive, healing presence on Earth, creating more abundance on the planet than would be possible without them.

Source: RGI Video Blog


Regenerative Design Institute

During 2009 Nicholas Roberts and Kirstie Stramler visited permaculture, transition and cooperative sites throughout Australia, California, New York City, Spain, France, England, Scotland and Denmark. An earlier draft of this presentation was given to the Swansea Heads Sustainable Neighbourhood on Saturday, 6th February, 2009. Thanks to Kate Beswick and Tom Toogood

lake road

Lake Road to Copenhagen – 2009 Permaculture Cooperative R&D

Don Lotter on Agroecology, Permaculture and his very early ecological footprint software EarthAware

This interview is an introduction to Don Lotter PhD who is currently a permaculture farm manager in Tanzania, and has recently written an excellent critique of the transgenic food plant science-industry complex: The Genetic Engineering of Food and the Failure of Science

We will be speaking to Don more in coming weeks about various aspects of his work.

A Food First backgrounder on Don Lotter, or the International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food in May 2009. The Genetic Engineering of Food and the Failure of Science. Part 1: The Development of a Flawed Enterprise (PDF), and Part 2: Academic Capitalism and the Loss of Scientific (PDF)

Don in Tanzania

Don in Tanzania

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