Ryanne Hodson, Ashley’s sister, has a fantastic website also about sustainable issues:
She did an interview with Ash, check it out!
Archive for the 'Community' Category
We hung out with Tom Bender to talk about the spiritual side of sustainability and architecture.
Check out his site here:
As well as his wikipedia page:
Yestermorrow has so many great classes from basic carpentry to designing your own house.
I mashed together our interview with Dan Eckstein and some of the things we explored with him on Yestermorrow’s campus.
When we hit up N.O. we stayed with Hillary Strobel of Replant New Orleans.
Words-of-Use (as defined by wikipedia):
Bioremediation: any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return the environment altered by contaminants to its original condition.
Mycoremediation: coined by Paul Stamets and refers specifically to the use of fungal mycelia in bioremediation.
Daryl Hannah did a great video with Paul Stamets about mycoremediation, totally worth a watch: http://www.dhlovelife.com/v2/show/archive/index24.html
Compost Tea: made by steeping compost in water, puts necessary microbes back into the soil
Food Security: a situation in which people do not live in hunger or fear of starvation.
We did anther video about food security if you haven’t seen it already: Food Share
I attended The Ecosa Institute in the Spring of 2005. It’s a ’sustainable’ design program, but as Tony points out in the video, they welcome a variety of people whether they are currently students or not. Ecosa focuses on real projects with real clients which doesn’t normally happen in architecture or design school. The most important experience I had there was meeting people who were actually doing things, which inspired me to go on this road trip and meet more people doing things!
I’ve taken many-a-hike at Merk Forest and also stayed in their cabins for a few Vermont winter nights. They are a fun place to visit with kids because of all the farm animals and also a well managed forest and trail system. We spoke with Ken Smith about what they do there and what sustainability means. He talks about sustainability being unrealistic unless it’s reachable by more people. How are these concepts or ideals made ‘attainable’ by a wider population? What do you all think?
We did these interviews with Megan and Pat of The Community Solution during a thunderstorm!
They made a fantastic video about Cuba that you can order off their website.
Cuba – A Peak Oil Country
Cut off from trade by the United States, in 1993 Cuba lost its critical oil imports from the Soviet Union almost overnight. The country had to learn to do without it, and today has lessons for the rest of the world about how it can be done.
Educate yourself about Peak Oil with these links:
Video about Peak Oil by Ryan Hodson + Jay Dedman
Matthew Simmons, Author of “Twilight in the Desert”
Technorati Tags: sustainable, road trip, roadtrip, green, peak oil, conservation, community, community solution, ohio, post carbon, cuba
We visited Paperhand Puppet Intervention in Durham, North Carolina. They collaborate with the local community to perform large shows, march in parades and facilitate school experiences as well as participate in protests and generally make some old fashioned puppet noise.
Many of their stories are centered around nature and environmental issues but they have a wide range of topics from John Henry stories to the enlightenment of Buddha.
Technorati Tags: sustainable, education, green, puppet, paperhand, north carolina, sustainable route, road trip, protest, parade, environment, nature, theater, performance, political theater
Burlington Currency Project is a really cool organization making their own money that only circulates in the local economy.
There are a lot of great resources on the BCP website to learn more about how BCP works as well as theories and info on all sorts of alternative currencies.
This was one of my favorite stops on the road trip because it was an entirely new idea for me. Since then I started watching a google video series about the history of money and how it works. It’s totally worth a watch especially for it’s hilarious public access graphics.
Ithica Hours: this was the inspirational local currency project for BCP
Time Banking: Another project underway with BCP is Time Dollars, this website explains that further.
Burlington Time Dollars Wiki: Soon to have a video blog started by the fabulous Joanna Dillon
Other Alternative Currencies Worldwide
Money Masters: A documentary all about money! (Did you know the Federal Reserve is a privately owned bank?)
The Future of Money, By Bernard Lietaer: book
Technorati Tags: Sustainable, Green, Money, currency, local currency, alternative currency, local money, time dollar, time bank, community, business, burlington bread, burlington currency project, vermont
