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Vermont Earth Institute
Coming soon...VEI's new and improved website. Check us out early in July for our new look. Find out more about us on
VEI's Website
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Vermont Earth Institute's new course!
Sustainable Systems at Work
Have you loved participating in a VEI discussion group in your community and wanted to share the sustainable practices at your workplace? You would concur with a recent survey by Fresh Marketing that revealed that, "Ninety percent of workers want more sustainability training." Now there's a discussion course specifically for the workplace. It's a five-session course called Sustainable Systems at Work that is designed to help shift businesses toward a more sustainable operation and work culture. The intended audience is a management team. The course moves from presenting the need for environmental sustainability; to offering case studies; to identifying, prioritizing and planning for the integration of sustainability goals.
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You may remember a Sustainable Times article this spring about an Upper Valley group of business people that piloted this course. They and many Oregon pilot groups loved the course and provided a lot of feedback. The Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) curriculum development team listened well. They added and dropped readings, and addressed the needs and concerns of businesses.
The Sustainable Systems at Work anthology will be available the first of August. In the meantime, the Sustainable Systems at Work course isn't the only good course for a workplace. We recommend the new editions of NWEI's/VEI's Global Warming (4-sessions), Choices for Sustainable Living (7-sessions), and Voluntary Simplicity (5-sessions). For more information about NWEI's workplace programs see www.nwei.org/workplace_programs. You can check out what else that survey revealed about workers and sustainable business practices.
Contact us here to schedule a course for your workplace! or check out our website to learn about all of our courses.
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LIFTING THE YOKE -
LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO AMERICA'S FARM
AND FOOD CRISIS
Ron Krupp, author of The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening and Vermont Public Radio Garden and Farm Commentator for the past 8 years, announces the publication of his new book, Lifting The Yoke. Ron's garden book received the Christian Science Monitor - Garden Book of the Year award for New England in 2002.
Lifting the Yoke deals with many of the farm and food issues that are in the news on a daily basis, such as globalization,hunger and obesity - and local, sustainable solutions. The foreword to the book is by Bill McKibben and there are testimonials by Meghan Sheridan of the Vermont Fresh Network, Roger Allbee, the Vermont Secretary of Agriculture, Dorigen Keeney of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger and Vern Grubinger of the Extension Service.
Ron has been involved with farm and food issues for the past 35 years - having started the Brattleboro Farmers' Market in the early 70s, coordinated the Tommy Thompson Community Garden in the Intervale for 15 years and published the Green Mountain Farmer in the early 1980s.
To order Lifting the Yoke - Local Solutions to America's Farm and Food Crisis, please email Ron Krupp,woodchuck37@... or call 802-658-9974 or visit his website. You may contact Ron Krupp for interviews, book signings and readings.
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Zero Waste
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"Although unheard of a decade ago, there is considerable recent
interest in designing industrial production processes that produce zero
waste...the goal is a worthy motivator."
Kenneth Geiser, Materials
Matter
Zero
waste suggests that the entire concept of waste should be
eliminated.
Instead, waste should be thought of as a "residual product"
or simply a "potential resource" to counter our basic
acceptance of waste as a normal course of events.
Opportunities such as reduced costs, increased profits, and reduced
environmental impacts are found when returning these "residual
products" or "resources" as food to either natural and industrial
systems.
This may involve redesigning both products and processes in
order to eliminate hazardous properties that make them unusable and
unmanageable in
quantities that overburden both industry and the
environment.
Zero
Waste strategies consider the entire life-cycle
of our products, processes and systems in the context of a comprehensive systems
understanding of our interactions with nature and search for
inefficiencies at all stages.
With
this understanding, wastes can be prevented through designs based on full
life-cycle thinking. Indeed,
we should work to "design" our wastes, if any, so that they have
future applications.
A
Zero Waste strategy leads us to look for inefficiencies in the use of
materials, energy and human resources.
To achieve a sustainable future, extreme efficiency in the use of
all resources will be required in order to meet the needs of all of the
earth's inhabitants.
reprinted from Zero Waste Alliance
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Remembered.
Surrounded by family, Sylvia Ferry died on
March 9th, after a brief illness.
She was an activist and environmentalist extraordinaire. She walked her talk and engaged people of all
ages and persuasions with her beaming eyes and strong presence. She served the Two Rivers Project and
championed their cause and was a consistent supporter of VEI. She is missed by
her family, members of the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, the Two Rivers
community and all those she touched.
************
Tarin Chaplin died May 25th
with friends and children present. A
life-long eco-choreographer, activist, writer and dancer, Tarin sought to
connect people to the earth. VEI members
will especially remember her for the children-of-all-ages footprint parade at
Knoll Farm in 2006.
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Upcoming Events
JULY 10-12 SOLARFEST
Tinmouth, VT
The New England Renewable Energy Festival features over 95 workshops on the art of sustainable living; over 20 acts on two solar powered stages;
please visit www.solarfest.org.
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July 23, 2009NOFAvore Social
Waitsfield, Knoll Farm 6-8 pm
Celebrate the taste of Vermont's local and organic food at a NOFAvore Social with Knoll Farm and NOFA Vermont (the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont)! We invite you to join us for dinner featuring our Vermont
Farmers Fare pizza with local and organic cheeses,meats, and toppings, hot from our wood-fired oven.
The celebration will provide an opportunity to meet other NOFA Vermont supporters in your region, introduce your friends to NOFA Vermont, and tour Knoll Farm.
These gatherings are free and open to all (NOFA members and non-members alike). Please do pre-register by
contacting the NOFA Vermont office at 802-434-4122. Find out more about NOFA Vermont online by clicking here
TRAINING for TRANSITION
July 25-26,
City Hall Montpelier
Training for Transition is an in-depth experiential introduction to Transition for those considering bringing Transition to their community, and also to meet the training requirement for local initiating groups. This two-day course was developed by Naresh Giangrande and Sophy Banks of the Transition Network, in Totnes, England.
To register or for more information,
Call 802-456-8122 or transitiontownmontpelier@...
Climate Change, Privilege and Consciousness
with Carolyn Finney, Steve Glazer, and Kaylynn TwoTrees
Sat, July 25, - Mon, July 27,
Waitsfield, Knoll Farm
Climate Change: Understanding its Effects, Personally and Culturally
Climate change is here to stay and is affecting all of us in some way. However, climate change enters peoples' lives differently: sometimes as information, others times as material effects. It's important to all of us, and to our collective humanity, to understand these impacts on our emotional, social and
cultural realities.
For more information and to register visit: http://www.wholecommunities.org/calendar/
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Cartoon by Leah Wittenberg
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Spring into Summer!
* Start a VEI discussion course in your neighborhood, workplace, community center or place of worship. Find out about our newly revised Choices For Sustainable Living and Voluntary Simplicity courses
*Bring Garbage to your town (see story this issue)*Hang Out.......your clothes, that is (see article this issue)
* Let Burlington "Kick the Bottle" teach you how to start a no plastic bottle group in your town. Contact KTB @ this email address.
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Vermont
Earth Institute's
Summer Benefit Dinner
Wednesday July 8
Come
join us at Tilley's Cafe, just south of Main St. on Church Street, Burlington, VT, on
Wednesday, July 8, 2009. Tilley's Cafe, a proud partner with Vermont
Business Environmental Partnership, will donate 15% of their earnings that
evening to VEI. Please spread the word, enjoy scrumptious seafood, American,
vegetarian creative fare and delectable drinks AND support VEI's mission
to help Vermonters Live Lighter, Live Better.
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Vermonters can let it all hang out...the laundry, that is.
Vermonters
have long been known for their frugality, independence and common
sense. More recently, residents have garnered a reputation for
environmental consciousness and sustainability. All of these values
have come to the fore in the "Right to Dry" provision recently passed
by the Vermont legislature and spearheaded by Orton Family Foundation
founder Lyman Orton.
Thanks to the new law, all residents in the State now have the right to
dry their laundry on a clothesline-a right that, until last month, was
prohibited by some condominium associations and housing complexes.
Considering the significant energy consumption of a domestic
dryer-which can account for more than 15 percent of a household's
energy bill-this simple measure has the potential to make a big impact.
Orton joined supporters on the Statehouse lawn in Montpelier June 4th to celebrate the victory. "There is nothing more consistent with [a Vermonter's] heritage of practicality, frugality and common sense than hanging laundry on a clothesline and allowing nature to dry it with zero use of energy," Orton said in his testimony to the legislature.
But beyond the energy savings at stake, Orton believes the use of a
clothesline also speaks to how we, as Vermonters, choose to live and
what kind of society we want to be a part of. "It's about our heritage,
our culture and our social interaction," said Orton. "We pride
ourselves on small town character," he said. "We don't live
exclusively; we live inclusively, and that means airing our clean and
dirty laundry."
Orton collaborated with Project Laundry List to organize the
celebration at the Statehouse. The organization's Founder and Executive
Director, Alexander Lee, who has supported the issue since 1995, said
opposition seems to be rooted in concerns that line-drying laundry
reduces property values. While Lee admits outside drying could pose
problems for people with allergies or large families, he sees this
legislation as a definitive milestone in the nationwide campaign. "We
call on every American to support this basic right to dry," said Lee,
"and we're excited that Vermont is playing a critical role."
This is a press release of the Orton Foundation
For More Information Contact:
The Orton Family Foundation
802.388.6336
www.orton.org
And for more information about the Right to Dry initiatives,
Click here for Project Laundry List |
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Is Garbage Coming to Your Town?
![Garbage]()
Keep three months'
worth of garbage in your garage. Instead of throwing trash to the curb, pile all that waste and watch it sit and rot.
Sounds like a crazy idea, but the McDonald family of Toronto did just
that as the subjects of a new environmental documentary called Garbage!
The Revolution Starts At Home, by Toronto filmmaker Andrew Nisker.
VEI will be partnering with different groups around the State and the Upper Valley to bring you this film.
Coming this Fall, Chittenden Solid Waste District (CSWD) and VEI have showings planned in Shelburne and Williston. Let us know if your community group would like to help organize a showing.Contact VEI here or CSWD here.
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Marc Rosenbaum's talk draws crowd of 100 in White River Junction
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Deep Energy Retrofits and Zero Net Energy Homes.
Marc Rosenbaum founded
Energysmiths in 1979 and has focused on integrating renewable energy systems, daylighting, high performance envelope
design, health-sustaining mechanical systems, food production and storage,ecological waste systems, efficient electrical and water systems, and benign, resource-efficient materials selection into his projects.
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Plastiki
In the tradition of Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-tiki, David de Rothschild is planning to sail the Pacific Ocean on a boat made
of plastic bottles.12,500 plastic bottles to be exact!
Mr. Rothschild's goal is to raise public awareness of
the immense amount of floating marine debris in the oceans. In this
case, he will be sailing through the Northern Pacific Gyre, now
unfortunately also known as "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch". He hopes
to show that the countless tons of plastic and floating waste created
by society every day does not simply disappear without consequences.
The floating plastic becomes the world's largest death trap for marine
animals who ingest the trash, often choking or becoming malnurished as
a result.
De Rothschild will be navigating through a man-made disaster called
the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating landfill located between
California and Hawaii that's twice the size of Texas.."
The Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch is a decidedly different kind of
target. Outside of a small circle, few folks know anything about it or
its evil twin, the Western Pacific Garbage Patch. Both swirling systems
are created by slow-moving currents called the North Pacific
subtropical gyre that suck up garbage from around the world. Of the 200
billion pounds of plastic produced each year, researchers estimate that
10 percent ends up in the ocean, and a 2006 United Nations report
calculated that each square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of
plastic. Worse still, more than a million marine mammals and birds die
each year from gulping down these bobbing bits.
To read more about Plastiki's exciting journey, please take a look at the article from National Geographic Adventure. Click here to read more
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In the garden of gentle sanity
May you be bombarded by coconuts
of wakefulness.
a quote from Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
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We welcome your ideas, photos, cartoons and poems ..... your input into this newsletter. Let us know your localvore recipes, your successes, the sustainability events that you or your community are involved in. Together, our efforts, our initiatives, our learning, make up the Earth Insititute.
Contact Us
Valerie Esposito: Executive Director
(802) 881-2039 vt.earth.institute@...
Barbara Duncan: Upper Valley Program Coordinator
(802) 333-3664 Summer (603) 643-0328 winter vei@...
Leah Wittenberg: Northwest Program Coordinator
(802) 343-1956 veicoordinator@...
www.vtearthinstitute.org
P.O Box 404, Burlington, Vermont 05402-0404
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