Ten Good Things About a (Not So) Bad Year
Medea Benjamin, CommonDreams
I had the privilege of starting out the year witnessing, firsthand, the unfolding of the Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square. I saw people who had been muzzled their entire lives, especially women, suddenly discovering their collective voice. Singing, chanting, demanding, creating. And that became the [...]

The 12 most hopeful trends to build on in 2012
Published by YES! Magazine on Sat, 12/31/2011
Original article: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/sarah-van-gelder/12-most-hopeful-trends-to-build-on-in-2012
by Sarah van Gelder
Who would have thought that some young people camped out in lower Manhattan with cardboard signs, a few sharpies, some donated pizza, and a bunch of smart phones could change so much?
The viral spread of [...]

[ Monday, January 9, 2012; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] at Joel D. Valdez Main Library
101 N. Stone, Downtown (free lower level parking off Alameda St)

How do we “green” our homes and neighborhoods?
How do we work together and contribute to each other?
How do we prepare for climate change?
Join us on January 9th to learn of some exciting efforts now underway in your home town to [...]

[ Monday, February 6, 2012 to Wednesday, February 8, 2012. ] Early registration ends January 6!

Brad Lancaster, Senior Watershed Specialist with Watershed Management Group and author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, will lead this hands-on technical training covering advanced greywater systems.

Greywater use is not only allowed by an increasing number of municipalities, it’s actively encouraged by many authorities in efforts to preserve water, reduce energy and [...]

[ Tuesday, March 20, 2012; 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Thursday, March 29, 2012 to Saturday, March 31, 2012. ] Introductory webinar: March 20th, 3-5pm (PDT).
Hands-on training: March 29-31, 2012, Tucson, Arizona.
 

Watershed Management Group has been working with community members to install neighborhood level Green Infrastructure (GI) projects in Tucson since 2008. Now WMG is offering an in-depth professional training covering the “how to” of organization and design for community led GI installations.

James MacAdam, Green [...]

Dreaming New Mexico has built a map of pragmatic and visionary solutions to create a more localized and green economy with greater local self-reliance and enhanced prosperity.
Peter Warshall is Co-Director of the Bioneers’ Dreaming New Mexico Project, and a world-renowned water steward, biodiversity and wildlife specialist, research scientist, conservationist, and environmental activist.

from 2011 September TEDx [...]

The following national plan for investing in the energy-efficiency of our buildings is a further evolution of  Ed Mazria’s 2009 Plan which Sustainable Tucson is suggesting as a model to develop a local green retrofit  stimulus program. See the Mazria Plan here:
 
$4B public-private program for energy efficiency planned
Jim Kuhnhenn The Associated Press , Arizona Daily [...]

Inside the Civano Project: A Case Study of Large-Scale Sustainable Neighborhood Development (Mcgraw-Hill’s Greensource Series) 2009
By C. Alan Nichols and Jason A. Laros
Forward by Sustainable Tucson — Co-Founder Bob Cook
Forward
The following story is about a group of people who recognized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and took it upon themselves to reinvent the future and work for [...]

By Caroline Dobuzinskis
 
(Ed Mazria’s  Revised One-Year, 4.5 Million-Jobs Investment Plan available here:)
 
With the job market crashing and a reported one in five mortgages underwater, the need for complex solutions to fix the US economy grows increasingly urgent. Ed Mazria, founder of the non-profit research and education organization Architecture 2030, has put forward a proposal to [...]

With half of all mortgaged homes “underwater” and owing more than their market value, housing prices continue to decline even after four years of collapsing prices. The ongoing global credit and debt crisis combined with declining house prices spell disaster for the home-building industry for at least the next decade. The escalating climate crisis also [...]

2012 Green Retrofit Economic Stimulus Proposal for Tucson
With half of all mortgaged homes “underwater” and owing more than their market value, housing prices continue to decline even after four years of collapsing prices. The ongoing global credit and debt crisis combined with declining house prices spell disaster for the home-building industry for at least the [...]

UA Natural Resources Professor Emeritus Guy McPherson and Sustainable Tucson founding coalition member addresses the International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change: Vision, Action, Leadership recounting his journey to personal accountability in the current crisis of civilization. Taking material from his latest book, “Walking Away From Empire” , Guy demonstrates Gandhi’s  recommendation: “Become the [...]

The Dark Side of the ‘Green’ City
By Andrew Ross
PHOENIX
The struggle to slow global warming will be won or lost in cities, which emit 80 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. So “greening” the city is all the rage now. But if policy makers end up focusing only on those who can afford the low-carbon technologies [...]

How Germany became Europe’s green leader: A look at four decades of sustainable policymaking
by Ralph Buehler, Arne Jungjohann, Melissa Keeley, Michael Mehling

In Brief
Over the last 40 years, all levels of government in Germany have retooled policies to promote growth that is more environmentally sustainable. Germany’s experiences can provide useful lessons for the United States (and [...]

[ Saturday, October 8, 2011; 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. Saturday, November 5, 2011; 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. Saturday, December 3, 2011; 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. ] Here are Bean Tree Farm’s workshop listings for fall, 2011, plus a special solar energy class we’re excited to be hosting.  For more info and any questions, check out www.beantreefarm.com, or email beantreefarm(at)gmail.com

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October 8 ~ Earth Plasters, Paints and Pigments ~ 8am-12noon:
Art, mudslinging and a feast of harvested native foods and garden bounty

The morning will include:
~ harvesting and preparation of [...]

[ Monday, October 10, 2011; 5:15 pm to 8:45 pm. ] Sustainable Tucson is offering a very special Book Sale fundraising event at our October  General Meeting. We have more than 150 titles, including some hard-to-find classics. The winter reading season is coming, so come and browse this rich collection of sustainability literature. You can shop with gifts in mind for particular friends, relatives, or colleagues [...]

[ Monday, October 10, 2011; 5:45 pm to 8:30 pm. ] Sustainable Tucson General Meeting – at Milagro Cohousing Community
Monday, October 10th, 5:45 – 8:30 pm, and come early at 5:15 pm for a tour

Note: this meeting will be at the Milagro Cohousing Community instead of the library (click here for map). If you can come earlier, there will be a tour of Milagro from 5:15 [...]

[ Saturday, September 17, 2011; 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. ] Sept 17, 2011

10 am – 4pm

Looking for inspiration and ideas as to how to green and beautify your home landscape without increasing your water bill? Watershed Management Group (WMG) is offering a self guided tour of residential rainwater harvesting systems. The tour will include examples of earthworks, greywater systems, and various types of cisterns and [...]

[ Saturday, September 17, 2011; 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. ] Stimulated by the positive response at Sustainable Tucson’s August general meeting on alternative building.
Javier Lopez and Tom Mendola are organizing an opportunity to play in the mud (tell your friends!)

You are invited to come participate in a cob/adobe bench building and green tea party.

We will make a few adobes and put together mud and straw [...]

[ Monday, August 8, 2011; 5:45 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Sustainable Tucson General Meeting
Monday, August 8th,  5:45 – 8:00 pm
Joel D. Valdez Main Library 101 N. Stone
(free lower level parking – off Alameda St
This month’s General Meeting will continue our project on “Becoming a Desert Community” by presenting films relevant to desert natural buildings  and thriving desert communities.

Our Main film is    “First Earth: Uncompromising Ecological [...]

[ Thursday, June 2, 2011; 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. ] Ground-breaking Watershed Management Group Invites Public to Take Action

WMG invites the public to their OpenHouse Thursday, June 2nd 2011 from 7:00pm – 8:30pm at the Ward III Council Office. Presentations by board, staff, and community members on local, regional, and international programs in sustainability will be featured. Come and learn about opportunities to get involved; [...]

[ Sunday, May 8, 2011; 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. ] Please join the Old Fort Lowell Neighborhood Association, the Arizona Solar Energy Association, and the Southern Arizona Regional Solar Partnership in a free solar home tour on May 8, 11-3. Check in at the Old San Pedro Chapel, 5230 E Ft Lowell, for a map of the houses. Meet neighbors who have gone solar and [...]

 
So what is the sustainable path forward?
The most often-adopted definition of sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”  What is important about this definition is that we have to consider the needs of future generations. What is most productive though is that [...]

[ Monday, June 13, 2011; 5:45 pm to 8:00 pm. ] On Becoming One Desert Community
A Desert Community is a group of people that have the culture, the tools and knowledge, and the commitment to thrive here in the normal times, and survive here, in the worst time.  Becoming a desert community is our future, or we don’t have one.

What will it take…  What can we [...]

[ Sunday, March 20, 2011; 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm. ] Time again to invite you all to proclaim local community from the rooftops. One rooftop at least.

Join in on the action on the roof of the Pennington St Parking Garage, 110 E. Pennington St.

What is Common Ground?

What it is… is a CELEBRATION, where every group, organization, congregation, small business, performer, artist, EVERYBODY in the Tucson [...]

On January 10th, as part of our General Meeting, Sustainable Tucson held its own version of the community conversations being held around the city by Imagine Greater Tucson. After completing a paper survey about what we liked and what we wanted to change about the Tucson region, four groups of people discussed their answers to [...]

[ Saturday, January 15, 2011; ] Starting January 15th, Bean Tree Farm will have a series of workshops to help you explore native and local foods, herbs and earth crafts. To find out more, visit the website here.

All Sonoran Permaculture Guild classes and workshops can be viewed at:
http://www.sonoranpermaculture.org/courses-and-workshops/

[ Friday, February 10, 2012; 10:08 am; Tuesday, January 25, 2011; 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. ] Learn about Green Retail. Download the notice here.

greenretail2011flyer

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010- Natural Building and Passive Solar Design – This workshop includes hands on work with straw bales, adobe blocks, mud based plasters, cement based plasters, and cob. We’ll do hands on building of small structures like benches and walls – projects that you can easily do at your own [...]

[ Saturday, October 23, 2010; 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. ] The U.S. Green Building Council, AZ Chapter, Southern Branch’s 3rd annual Expo featuring up to 60 exhibitors of green building products, businesses, and organizations; public and professional educational seminars; and a Green Home Tour. Jerry Yudelson, world-renowned author and sustainability expert is the keynote speaker. For more information, or to purchase tickets for the Green [...]

[ Friday, October 1, 2010; 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm. ] This is a Seven Event Series which traces the origins and current status of our landscape and cultural evolution, transitions into a focused conversation on local resources, scarcity and the regulations which address our use of these resources within the environmental design community, next moves into a specific discussion of our contemporary perspective on developing [...]

[ Thursday, October 21, 2010; 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. ] Salpointe Catholic High School

Join Watershed Management Group (WMG) for a Green Infrastructure Showcase & Open House celebration with Samos Neighborhood, Salpointe High, WMG, and the City of Tucson, all leaders in green infrastructure for Southwest neighborhoods. This event will include an introduction to WMG\’s Green Streets – Green Neighborhoods program, an outdoor tour of [...]

[ Saturday, October 2, 2010; 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. ] Introduction to Permaculture – In this one day overview of Permaculture design, ethics, and principles you will have the opportunity to put together a long term plan for your sustainable home and landscape – one that takes care of people and takes care of our environment at the same time.

Location: Mesquite Tree [...]

Imagine Greater Tucson, a collaborative effort to define a publicly supported vision and clear action plan to help shape the region’s future is kicking off its multi-year campaign at the end of the month. There are many opportunities to get involved and to help ensure that sustainability is a fundamental concern of the campaign. Learn [...]

[ Saturday, October 16, 2010; 8:00 am to 12:30 pm. ] Tucson is emerging as a regional and national leader in the implementation of green infrastructure strategies. Green infrastructure uses natural processes to provide environmental services. Many local examples use small basins to capture, clean, and infiltrate stormwater from streets and parking lots, while providing passive irrigation to gardens of native plants.

Join Watershed Management Group’s Green [...]

The Teaching & Helping Program of Empowering Local Communities, Inc. is organizing a project to reduce the energy use of as many Tucson homes as possible on the Day of Climate Action, October 10, 2010 (10-10-10). We are looking for Tucson homeowners who want to participate in doing energy conservation projects on their homes on [...]

Barbara Rose, a teaching team member of the Sonoran Permaculture Guild has announced a series of intensive workshops about native foods, herbs, and earth crafts on the first and third Saturdays of each month.
More details are available at www.beantreefarm.com.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY RETROFITS FOR HOMEOWNERS
Are you interested in improving the energy efficiency
of your home?
Approximately 300 homes located within the City of Tucson will be selected to receive energy efficiency upgrades to reduce the home’s energy use by 15-20%.
Residential energy efficiency retrofit work may include things like substituting compact fluorescent light bulbs for [...]

The Pima Association of Governments just approved the Second Tucson Region Indicators Report. It provides a snapshot of the region with data on key measures that characterize its current health from an environmental and community perspective.
Five theme areas are: Natural Resources, Air Quality, Water, Transportation and Energy, and
Community and Economy, to represent the essence of [...]

[ Wednesday, June 23, 2010; 3:30 pm to 7:00 pm. ] Where: YWCA, 525 N. Bonita Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85745

FREE WORKSHOP

This FREE workshop is your guide to straight forward sustainable business practices.
Obtain Tucson Electric Power’s available incentives which can pay as much as 90% of the installed cost on select efficiency measures

Become a Certified Green Business through the City of Tucson
Increase your bottom line through decreasing [...]

Find out about an exciting opportunity to work with your neighbors and save both money and water! Download the flyer here .

Sustainable Tucson is republishing the following call to the community which we originally presented in February 2008. The message is not only more relevant today but portends some of the events which have already happened since then. As we prepare to participate in the upcoming Imagine Greater Tucson process this coming Fall, let’s focus on [...]

Bill McKibben on “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough Planet” (video)
by Michael Brownlee
Description:
As part of his current book tour, author and climate activist Bill McKibben spoke at the First United Methodist Church in Boulder, CO on April 27, co-sponsored by Boulder Book Store and Transition Colorado. The video of his presentation is below, following [...]

[ Thursday, April 15, 2010; 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. ]

By Guy R. McPherson
Published at Energy Bulletin and Guy’s blog: Nature Bats Last
(Guy, a former UA professor, has inspired Sustainable Tucson with his writings and appearances at ST General Meetings during the past four years)
As we continue into the decades-old, but only recently acknowledged era of destruction and extinction, it’s apparent the current model [...]

Dear Community Friends and Partners:

The first print edition of the Green Pueblo Map showcasing our community’s favorite “green” places and spaces will be available later this year.  If you haven’t already done so, we encourage you to “make your mark” on the map by nominating your favorite sustainable sites at www.greenpueblomap.org [...]

[ Friday, March 26, 2010 12:00 pm to Sunday, March 28, 2010 9:00 pm. ] Celebrate our most precious and endangered resource -WATER -with the The Water Project: Tucson’s Synergistic Water Festival on March 26-28, 2010. This event combines the energy of Tucson’s sustainability community with the vibrant arts community to provide an opportunity for the public to experience a festive collaboration, learn about water issues and have some fun!

This [...]

[ Friday, March 19, 2010 to Sunday, March 21, 2010. ] COMPREHENSIVE QUINCHA WORKSHOP (bamboo, mud and straw {cob})
School of Krofting Educational Series

Date: March 19, 20 and 21 2010
Cost: $180 per person ($50 non-refundable deposit to reserve a space)
Instructor: Kyle Young

Location:
School of Krofting
Erda Kroft Farm
Arivaca, Arizona

Online at: http://www.erdkfroft.com

During this 3 day workshop, we will be building a small quincha house. Quincha is an ancient building [...]

[ Saturday, April 17, 2010; 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. ] Tucson\’s 16th Annual Earth Day Festival and Parade will be held on Saturday, April 17, 2010 at Reid Park. The theme for the 2010 Festival is “All Species Deserve a Place on Earth!”  All species great and small – insects, plants and animals – the Earth needs them all!

Exhibits related to the environment will include [...]