Upcoming Events to Feed Your Soul & Other News Tidbits

There's so much going on, so I decided to put everything in one post for easy perusing.The summer is almost over - hooray!  I'm looking forward to boots and jacket weather.  Just a little longer... Speaking of heat, if you haven't read the Demos 'Economic and Environmental Impacts of Climate Change in Arizona' Report, you can download it HERE.  If you're feeling proactive after reading it, send a quick email to Mayor Stanton and/or your Council person to ask them when Phoenix is going to create a Climate Change Adaptation Plan (here's the Chicago plan as an example). Let me know what they say!

At the end of August, Rogue Green and Downtown Voices Coalition launched Change By Us PHX - an awesome web based community engagement tool that allows you to share your ideas for our city, but even more importantly, allows you to START or JOIN projects.  Huge thanks to code guru Marc Chung and Local Projects for making it possible.  Our idealistic hope is that people will be inspired to turn there ideas into reality.  Less talk - more action.  The project section is great because it combines everything in one place - project needs, events, discussions & external links.  Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Last week, I was super honored to be profiled in a grist.org article about our battle with SB1507 last legislative session.  My main partner in fighting the good fight was Sandy Bahr, Exec. Director of Grand Canyon Chapter Sierra Club and an all around phenomenal human.  Jonce Walker, Jeff Frost, Phil Allsopp & Talonya Adams all helped me keep my sanity by allowing me to rant on a regular basis over those long weeks!  The grist piece was a featured story, and I got nice notes from people all over the country (and world) after it ran which was a surprise and super appreciated, especially as I had been scolded by so many people locally for being so vocal about the bill and getting the media involved.  A huge shout out to Emily Gersema for breaking that first story - a story that ended up going national shortly thereafter, which in my opinion, played a huge role in the bill finally dying.  I've been a big grist fan for many years, so was and am still dorking out over it.  It's kind of like the Rolling Stone of the environmental industry...

On to events!

In lieu of our September Rogue Green event, we're supporting one of our favorite local magazines!  THIS THURSDAY please come to help Green Living AZ Magazine celebrate their 2 year anniversary in one of the coolest buildings in downtown Phoenix - monOrchid!  All of the event details can be found HERE.

On September 21st, it will be time to set up parks for our 4th annual Park(ing) Day Phoenix during Friday morning rush hour in downtown Phoenix.

 PARK(ing) Day was originally created in 2005 by Rebar, a San Francisco-based art and design studio, as an experimental exploration in repurposing public space.  It is an annual, one-day, global event that promotes the importance of green and urban public spaces. It is intended to help people rethink the way we use our streets and creates diverse conversations about how we can make sustainable cities. This concept of PARK(ing) Day is based on the idea that putting money into a parking meter is like ʻrentingʼ a public space.  Event info can be found HERE.  Click HERE if you're interested in volunteering to help with organizational tasks.

On Sept. 26th, I'll be doing an educational seminar for Local First AZ called 'Tips & Tricks for Small Business - Start-Up Through the First Year."  Open to members only and $5 in advance.  6p - 7p at monOrchid. 

Jonce Walker and crew are gearing up for Pedal Craft Vol 2 on Sept. 28th.  Work on a bike rack the weekend before at EDGE Industries and keep your eyes peeled for a special Rogue Green chalkboard project thrown in the mix!

Save the date for Oct. 4th Rogue Green with special guest, green architect & author, Eric Corey Freed!

My co-hosts for the evening will be AZ Green Living magazine. Location & ticket link will be posted this week on the event.

Tickets - $15/advance $20/cash door $5/cash door student w/ID
Drinks & refreshments provided.

SPEECH TOPIC:
Attack of the Dodo-Sapiens: innovative new models for sustainable development

Our way of life is killing us. Whether by tradition or habit, the human race does some silly things that hurt us all in the long term. Our cities, buildings and surroundings have been designed around abundant and cheap oil, but now we have painted ourselves into a corner and are stuck there.

The next generation of buildings will have to do better than just energy efficiency and recycled materials. Our lack of foresight has made our building toxic, wasteful and unaffordable. Simply "being less bad" isn't enough and will delay our progress for generations. In order to undo the damage of the past, we need innovative, new models for how to build deep green, bio-based buildings.

In this talk we will explore how the lessons learned from biomimicry, crowdfunding, psychology and history can provide new insight into ways to design and finance living, regenerative buildings for everyone in a matter of decades. We'll uncover specific, bold ideas for how to retrofit our existing cities and suburbs. Using case studies, we will discover new tools to design and fund a new wave of innovative buildings.

Using biomimicry and organic principles as a guide, we'll uncover tangible, deployable lessons we can apply to our built environment. With specific examples, you'll learn innovative methods to sell clients on these ideas, while creating healthier buildings in the process.

This brand new talk is "bullet-point free" (no boring, text heavy slides used). Using rich graphics and video, this presentation will expand your imagination and and provide you a list of actions to take into your own community. Presented by the acclaimed speaker, architect and author of "Green Building for Dummies."

I hope to see you soon, and please feel free to send me an email if you have questions or comments about any of the items here!

Love and laughter,

Msss. Champion