|
Written by Robert Leaver
|
|
Thursday, 05 March 2009 |
|
Rising sea level, the
urbanization of America
and the world, and rising energy prices, are major conditions impacting how we
think about and how we will design our next buildings and create whole places.
Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
(NESEA) pulls together the diverse disciplines of builders, developers,
engineers, property management companies, and professional service providers.
I thought that you would find valuable resources at
this conference to help you more effectively understand and handle these
environmental conditions as they impact the creation of healthy buildings and
places.
In
addition, for the past 34 years, this group has been home to the best talent in
the northeast regarding high performing/green buildings, renewable energy, and
sustainable transportation. What sets NESEA apart is its commitment to
solutions, proven results, pioneering technology, and collaborative whole
systems thinking. I have worked with these
good folks off-and-on since 1994 and have found them to be an exceptional
resource and a remarkable professional association of practitioners. Currently, I am working on strategy and
governance with them.
Every
March, NESEA puts on its Building Energy
(BE) conference in Boston
for over 3,000 professional practitioners. Couple of highlights from this year's program:
- Conference theme is: Real Solutions. Real Experts. Tuesday,
March 10 to Thursday, March 12, 2009 Boston
MA. Checkout: www.BuildingEnergy.nesea.org
for the conference program.
- This year's keynote talk on
"Deep Energy Retrofits of Existing Buildings" will be delivered by Marc Rosenbaum, a colleague of ours
since the early 90's.
- A variety of tracks to weave
the conference together. I
co-designed Whole Systems in Action, track 7, along with some of
New Commons' closest NESEA colleagues:
John Abrams, Amelia
Amons, Paul Lipke, Bill Reed and Jamie Wolf (see our bios here). We all
plan to deliver a highly practical and interactive program. Our aim is to raise the level of
understanding and the practice of whole systems collaboration. This one tool will help us all more
effectively handle climate change and the reality that oil levels are at
post-peak. Click here to see our
track content: http://buildingenergy.nesea.org/trackseven.php
I hope to
see you at NESEA-BE09. It will be worth
your time!
|
|
|
Written by John Speck
|
|
Tuesday, 27 January 2009 |
|
On Monday, January 19, 2009, millions of people were trying to get into Washington, DC, to view the historic inauguration of Barack Obama. But Robert Leaver was one of the few people trying to get out.
The weekend before the inaugural, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) along with seven other organizations co-convened the first New Economy Roundtable, facilitated by Robert Leaver. Robert has worked with BALLE for many years and played a key role developing BALLE's predecessor, the New England Business for Social Responsibility.
BALLE itself seeks to develop policies that support and reinvigorate local economies. In their own words:
BALLE believes in the power of local businesses to transform
communities for the better by working cooperatively toward a shared
vision. We imagine cities and towns of every size and political stripe
engaged in shared learning to build community assets like sustainable
agriculture, green building, renewable energy, community capital,
zero-waste manufacturing and independent retail - what we call the
building blocks of Living Economies. We envision a time when local
economies not only generate community wealth, but also are catalysts
for civic action, social diversity and ecological health -- for
sustainable communities.
|
|
|
Written by John Speck
|
|
Thursday, 11 December 2008 |
|
This live blogging more-or-less records the panel discussion where Robert Leaver posed questions to the panel of Garry Bliss and Thom Deller before opening the conversation to all participants.
|
|
|
Written by John Speck
|
|
Thursday, 11 December 2008 |
|
Ha! Beat you to the punch. Before you can tell me ALL the errors in the little Providence & Beyond movie, I'll fess up to the ones I've found.
- Yes, I know that Amtrak regional stops in South Kingstown, not North Kingstown
- Yes, I know that's a shot of RISD, not Brown. It was a good shot and the Zip cars are not associated with the institution. Zip cars are a private enterprise that serve colleges primarily.
- Did total miles driven in the US really slip for the first time? I'll check that out. If it's not the only dip, it's one of the only dips.
What else is all wrong? Leave a comment and let me know.
PS. I'll be live blogging a little later. But first, I must premier this erroneous film.
|
|
|
Written by John Speck
|
|
Thursday, 04 December 2008 |
|
The 12/3 drop-in session turned into a mini-seminar with a couple of new connections. Three women from the Providence Public Library wanted to know how they could maximize their web 2.0 efforts. And Monsurat from the Providence Plan 's New Roots non-profit resource center just wanted a general explanation. And longtime New Commons friend and Providence & Beyond member Jeff Broadhead was looking to find social network communities in South County, er, Washington County.
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next > End >>
|
| Results 28 - 36 of 62 |
Blog 
Preservation Future: a Conversation
Transformational Cooperative Volunteerism - John Speck