Greenr - Accelerate the Change!

Ahead of next weeks Cleantech Forum in San Francisco cleantech.com’s David Ehrlich reports on recent cleantech funding deals:

LED and solar power companies pick up some cash, along with deals for waste treatment, lithium ion batteries and wind power. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Ausra, Tel Aviv’s Pythagoras Solar and Cool Earth Solar in Livermore, Calif., all pulled in financing this week for team sun power, with Boulder, Colo.-based Albeo Technologies grabbing some cash for artificial lighting with its LED technology. Continued at: media.cleantech.com.

Its always good news to see cleantech companies funded - but we need to see more, a lot more…

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From Room Full of People, producers of the SF Beta events announces a new one: MARCH 4: SF Green

SF Green is San Francisco’s premier mixer on green technology, organized with Steve Newcomb, former founder of Powerset. Think of it as an SF Beta with bonus carbon offsets. We’ll be featuring demos from a number of prominent green technology companies, and will be bringing in a number of leaders from the field.

Tickets are available at http://sfgreen.eventbrite.com.

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Maude Barlow, internationally renowned water activist, author, and National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest citizens’ advocacy group speaks on Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley in Berkeley, CA.

The event will be presented by Jerry Mander, co–director of the International Forum on Globalization, Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, and Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.

When

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
7:30 p.m.

Where

First Congregational Church of Berkeley
2345 Channing Way (at Dana)
Berkeley, CA

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Planetwork “brings a collaborative systems view rooted in conscious evolution to sustainability & technology.” What does that mean? Well for me it meant meeting up with some of the most interesting people I know. And in April, following Green Festival  in Seattle, the Planetwork folks are staging their first conference for a while:

The unMoney Convergence is an interactive (un)conference on the systemic transformation of money and its connection to the social transformation of the planet as a whole. Everyone who comes is welcome to present (the format will be 80% open space technology.
The purpose of the convergence is to support an inclusive conversation, collective disernment, exploring potential for collaboration and action bringing together those engaged in a range of different efforts from the edge of the ‘conventional’ to very experimental.   This includes, social venture and entreprenurship, micro-credit, slow money, complementary currencies, open money, ecological accounting, monetary systems theory, value network mapping, barter networks etc.
There will be a thematic thread through the conference synergy with technology developmets in digital identity, mutual credit creation, value measurement and wealth acknowledgment.
This event is being co-organized by Kaliya Hamlin, Chris Lindstrom and Bill Aal.  It’s organizational sponsors include Planetwork,  RSF Social Finance,  E.F. Schumacher Society Current Innovation and Tools for Change.

Website/Wiki  *  *  *   Blog  * * *   Registration (early registration of $250 closes Feb 29)

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As a kid I tended a sizable vegetable garden. I don’t know what inspired me (a suburban kid) to till the backyard soil at age 10. But I loved the work and the joy of fresh, local food stuck with me. It was also the beginning of my entrepreneurial life as I sold produce to neighbors.

So today I was pleased to hear from my friends at Straus Communications that Slow Food Nation is coming to San Francisco later this year.

Most people have lost touch with food and farms, and this event will create a space in which we can celebrate, explore, and educate ourselves about food that is delicious, ecologically sustainable and socially just.

Slow Food Nation inspires and empowers Americans to build a food system that is good, clean and fair.

The world’s most pressing questions regarding health, culture, the environment, education, social justice and the global economy are all deeply connected to the food we eat and how it is produced.

Slow Food Nation is an event at the center of a movement with national impact and global implications. It will engage tens of thousands of attendees in learning how everyday choices affect our wellbeing, our culture and the health of the planet.

The event will be held from August 29 to September 1, 2008 in San Francisco, and will bring hundreds of farmers and food artisans from across the country to present an extraordinary range of foods and preparation techniques. It will offer activities for all ages, including food, music, talks, forums, workshops, films and exhibits, all highlighting food that supports an agricultural system that is good, clean and fair.

More at www.slowfoodnation.org

Put it in your calendar now!

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One of the hottest event tickets of the year is the annual TED Conference held in Monterey. From its roots in technology, entertainment and design, the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience - and you can share some of it via nearly 200 videos, from which I’ve selected the following as most relevant to Greenr’s mission to “Accelerate the Change!”:

Janine Benyus: 12 sustainable design ideas from nature

William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle

Amory Lovins: We must win the oil end game

Larry Brilliant: The case for informed optimism & TEDTalks: Larry Brilliant

William Kamkwamba on building a windmill

John Doerr: Seeking salvation and profit in greentech

Jeff Bezos: After the gold rush, there’s innovation ahead

Craig Venter: A voyage of DNA, genes and the sea

Majora Carter: Greening the Ghetto

Enjoy!

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Here are some events to get you (me!) out from behind the computer:

• Boston - Feb 2-3 - Going Green Expo
• Pasadena - Feb 5-7 - The Art Center Summit: Systems, Cities & Sustainable Mobility
• San Francisco - Feb 8-9 - Engineers for a Sustainable World
• San Francisco - Feb 25-27 - Cleantech Forum

Know of events I should know about? Let me know…

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In case you missed Bill speaking at AlwaysOn’s GoingGreen conference last year (and at $3k per seat, you probably did!), here are some excerpts from his “strategy of hope” for sustainable design keynote.
http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/2282
http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/22932

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While they typically talk bits and bytes, hardware and software, these Silicon Valley institutions have decided to start the year out with green themes:

Commonwealth Club in conjunction with Computer History Museum start out the year with: IT’S EASY BEING GREEN | WEDNESDAY JANUARY 23

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/sv/ (sorry…no direct event link…)

and Tuesday, January 29th Churchill Club presents “The Green Rush: Prospects, Perils, and Opportunities” http://www.churchillclub.org/eventDetail.jsp?EVT_ID=759

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