Sept 13, 2010

Presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy.

What can wind energy generating technology provide for this region?  What obstacles are preventing wind energy generation for being accepted in WNC? Can responsible actions be taken to increase the utilization of wind as a source of renewable energy?

This program will address these questions beginning with short presentations from experts in the field followed by an organized discussion with community members in the audience. Issues to be addressed include: the creation of responsible wind policy on state and county levels, the technical feasibility of wind generation as a renewable energy source for this region, the economic implications of wind turbines both industrial and residential scale, among others.

May 24, 2010

Presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy.

Panelists

Russ Martin, former Mayor for the City of Asheville.

Anthony Brenner, founder, Push Designs. Push intends to build the healthiest homes possible, and their designs rely on the principles of research. Currently Push is in the finishing stages of the very first home in North America built with Industrial Hemp and Pure Panel.

David Madera, co-founder of Hemp Technologies LLC in Asheville, NC, which builds and distributes Tracical ® Hemcrete ® from Limetechnology UK Ltd. With two Hemcrete houses complete in the USA, Hemp Technologies has five more houses slated for construction this year and two more proposed.

David Mosrie, a veteran of the sustainable building industry, works as a builder, designer, consultant, and broker. He is the published author of several articles, including one in the April 2010 edition of Environmental Design and Construction.

Clark Snell, Managing Director, The Nauhaus Institute (NHI), a not-for-profit research organization that develops, shares, and popularizes affordable carbon neutral building and living solutions. Clark is the author of two books on alternatives to conventional construction, The Good House Book and Building Green.

Presentations

Anthony Brenner

David Madera

David Mosrie

Clarke Snell

Audio

Green Monday 15 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks

April 19, 2010

The Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute, in sponsorship with the City of Asheville and Buncombe County, announces this special “Town Hall” BRSI Green Monday.  The purpose is to educate and gain community views about a financing option that Harvard Business Review has called one of the “Breakthrough Ideas for 2010.”

North Carolina and fifteen other states have enabled local governments to issue a form of PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) Bonds.  PACE bonds allow local governments to provide loans to businesses and homeowners to make energy efficiency improvements.  PACE loans are intended to be repaid through an assessment on the improved property.  Both the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Commissioners have already directed staff to examine the potential for providing PACE loans.

This special event will be held Monday, April 19, from 5:00-7:30 p.m. in the Public Works Building, 161 S. Charlotte Street, Asheville.  Admission is free and open to the public.

The program will provide information about the legislative authority in North Carolina, how the PACE program is working across the country, the particular issues that need to be considered in creating a program at the community level in North Carolina and some of the issues being evaluated by the staffs of the Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Commission.  It will also include an interactive format to engage the community about the concept of the energy funding initiative and various facets of how a program could work in Asheville and Buncombe County.

The overall goal is to explore the opportunities and challenges that would be part of implementing a PACE initiative in our region.

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with a generous grant from Progress Energy.

Panelists

Paul Bellows, Chair, BRSI Board of Directors and panel moderator

Steve Cochran, Chair, Community Energy Action Council

Jeff Hughes, Director Environmental Finance Center, UNC School of Government

Holly Jones, Buncombe County Commissioner

Brownie Newman, Vice Mayor, City of Asheville

Presentations

Jeff Hughes

Brownie Newman and Holly Jones

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks

March 22, 2010

Can you imagine Asheville with 15-minute transit service on major corridors, where your kids could independently visit their friends? Do you want to bike or walk on a Greenway to work each day? Do you need sidewalks to connect your neighborhood with local businesses?

“Envisioning a Low Carbon Transportation Future” is the topic of the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute’s next Green Monday, March 22, 2010, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., in the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce second floor conference room. Admission is free and open to the public.

Our current transportation infrastructure occupies the largest portion of land, is the single highest federal spending infusion into Asheville, and has resulted in the highest sources of carbon emissions in Buncombe County. Is it possible to use pedestrian walkways, bicycles, vanpooling, carpooling, telecommuting, and flex-work schedules as a means to reduce carbon emissions and traffic congestion? How do we pay for it all?

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy.

Panelists

Yuri Koslen, Transportation Planner for the City of Asheville

Mike Sule, Asheville On Bikes and Get There Asheville

Bruce Emery, Transportation Planner, Asheville Design Center

Heather Strassberger, Regional Planner-Transportation, Land-of-Sky Regional Council and French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization

Hanna Raskin, Asheville Transit Commission

Presentations

Yuri Koslen

Marc Hunt

Heather Strassberger

Hanna Raskin

Bruce Emory

Audio

Green Monday 11 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks

February 22, 2010

What choices should we be making now in order to diminish the impact of development on the natural world? Better yet, from a more positive point of view, what are the opportunities for designing the built environment so that it encourages human interaction, improves productivity and conserves natural resources?

“The Built Environment” is the subject of the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute’s next Green Monday, February 22, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., in the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce second floor conference room. Admission is free and open to the public.

We will explore our options as citizens and stakeholders in the built environment and in how best to mobilize diverse factions into positive, cooperative action.  Scheduled panelists are Moderator Andrew Euston, FAIA, former Senior Federal Urban Design Administrator with the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Jim Barton, focusing on The Great Shift: Peak Oil, Climate and Transformation, and Asheville’s role as a town in transition; Linda Giltz, AICP, Regional Planner, Land of Sky Regional Council, on innovative land and natural resource initiatives; Patricia Hinkley, on cold season vegetable greenhouses; David Johnson, FAICP, on his visits to Curitiba, Brazil, and other cutting-edge planned communities; and Jan Moran and Paul Rollins will share their experience in developing Civano, a planned, sustainable community in Tucson, Arizona.

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy.

Panelists

Andrew Euston, FAIA, Moderator, former Senior Federal Urban Design Administrator with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Jim Barton

Linda Giltz, Regional Planner, Land Of Sky Regional Council

Patricia Hinkley, Wintergreen

David Johnson, FAICP

Jan Moran, formerly of Civano Community, Tucson, Arizona

Paul Rollins, formerly of Civano Community, Tucson, Arizona

Presentation

Civano

Audio

Green Monday 12 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer: Stu Zonder. Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks

January 11, 2010

What are the opportunities for sustainable bioenergy in Western North Carolina? How do we integrate environmental, economic, and social sustainability into the biofuels supply chain?

“Sustainable Bioenergy” is the subject of the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute’s next Green Monday, January 11, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., in the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce second floor conference room. Admission is free and open to the public.

As background, we will explore definitions of bioenergy and biofuels, and describe the multifaceted biofuels supply chain, including feedstock production, harvesting, storage and transportation; biofuel production; biofuel distribution; and biofuel uses in transportation and power generation. Topics to be addressed include research on cane crops, forest products, biodiesel production and distribution, and environmental benefits of biomass boilers.

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy, and is cosponsored by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for BioEnergy Sustainability and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Panelists

Rebecca Efroymson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute

Dean McCraw, Biofuels Center of North Carolina

Susan Fox, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station

Tom Ranney, North Carolina State University, Mountain Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center

Brian Winslett, Blue Ridge Biofuels

Randy Dellinger, Foothills Bio-Energies

Garald Cottrell, Wellons Energy Solutions Groups

Presentations

Rebecca Efroymson

Dean McCraw

Susan Fox

Tom Ranney

Randy Dellinger

Garald Cottrell

Audio

Green Monday 11 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks

December 14, 2009

Concern about climate and related environmental change tends to focus on the impact on the natural environment, exemplified by effects on plant life, and on the built environment, exemplified by coastal flooding and attendant loss of property. But these changes can also have a profound effect on human health. Increases in air pollution—particularly of ozone and aerosols—have a demonstrable, significant impact on respiratory health, even though the consequences of aerosols are only now being researched and understood. Addressing public health in the context of climate and environmental change is especially important in Western North Carolina, with its higher than average incidence of asthma and other respiratory disease in children as well as adults.

Panelists

Rangasayi N. Halthore, Senior Research Scientist, Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center, University of Maryland – Baltimore County

Jeffrey D. Schmitt, Adjunct Professor, Physiology-Pharmacology, Translational Sciences Institute, Program for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Michael A. Torres, Professor of Biology, Warren Wilson College

John E. Allen, Jr., Interim Chief Scientist & Director of Atmospheric Science, Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute

Presentations

Rangasayi N. Halthore

Michael A. Torres

Jeffrey D. Schmitt

Audio

Green Monday 10 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks, www.PurpleCat.net

The Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute has launched the Sustainability Indicators Project (SIP) in order to determine the best answers to questions of data availability and suitability, and to forge collaborations with other institutions in the region already engaged in parallel and overlapping efforts.

The primary goal of the Green Economy Asset Mapping Project (AMP) is to understand Western North Carolina’s Green Economy as a system of assets and shared knowledge. This system includes entrepreneurs and their supply chains, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, civic leaders, workforce development and economic development organizations, and assets in the built and natural environment. AMP will provide a full understanding of our region’s asset base, lay the foundation for strategic planning and implementation, deepen understanding of key regional systems and linkages, and catalyze partnerships.

Local involvement is the core of AMP. The Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute will provide necessary tools and resources, but the information will be gathered in 30 counties of Western North Carolina by teams of concerned citizens, who will hand off their results to other teams of concerned citizens, who will turn that knowledge into plans for action.

The promise of AMP is the creation of new jobs that protect the integrity of Western North Carolina’s environment, a national ecological resource.

November 9, 2009

Scientists at the National Climatic Data Center have projected a high probability of a return to drought conditions for our region. In addition, they have stated that future rainfall is more apt to occur in high volumes but in limited areas. The combination of those factors, plus ongoing development practices that favor rapid channeling of rainwater off of residential and commercial property, would lead to further reduction in groundwater supplies as well as increase erosion, the #1 source of NC water pollution.

Panelists

Richard Heim, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center

Ted Campbell, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Water Quality

Carter Cone, North Carolina State University, Water Quality Group

Bill Eaker, Land of Sky Regional Council

[in absentia] Robert Sweeney, BRSI Water Quality & Resources

Presentations

Richard Heim

Ted Campbell

Carter Cone

Robert Sweeney

Audio

Green Monday 9 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks, www.PurpleCat.net