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Bay Localize News #7 - Building a Vibrant Local Economy (Winter '08)

Building a Vibrant Local Economy

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead

You've heard the disheartening news about oil prices popping above $100/barrel, rumblings of a recession on the horizon, and the coming fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq.

Do we have any power over these events beyond the polling booth? Bay Localize believes the answer is a resounding yes!

We can strengthen our local economy against recession. By investing in local clean energy and local production, we keep jobs and funds circulating within our communities in a vibrant regional economy.

We can leave our oil addiction behind. By investing in livable communities and functioning public transportation, we can get out of our cars and enjoy walking or riding to work, school, and play.

We can build a region that meets the basic needs of all its residents, no matter the ecological and economic challenges we face in the coming years. We're organizing local caucuses through out the Bay Area to document and empower your vision of how to move forward.

Bay Localize invites you to join us in building a healthy local ecology and economy. The Local Clean Energy Alliance is forwarding policies for renewable energy in the East Bay. Our Rooftop Resources Project is inspiring our region's residents, builders, businesses, and governments to meet our most basic needs through ecological building design. And we're launching an exciting new project to build a regional platform for localization in the Bay Area!

There are plenty of ways to plug in and get active with our work — please see the end of the newsletter for ideas. We hope you enjoy reading our Winter newsletter, and are inspired to join us and get active!

Together for the future,

—Aaron, Allyse, Dave, Ingrid, Kirsten, and Nile

Join Bay Localize!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:


A 21st Century Greenprint for Local Clean Energy

The Bay Area is incredibly well-positioned for a transition to a local clean energy economy, perhaps more so than any other region in this country. That's the conclusion from the forthcoming 21st Century Energy Greenprint, which outlines our energy policy context from the state level to selected East Bay cities, and highlights new tools we can use to dramatically increase the proportion of renewable energy we use to power our homes, businesses, and public buildings. Look for the Greenprint on the Local Clean Energy Alliance website by March, or place an advance request by e-mailing dave@baylocalize.org.

As of the beginning of 2008, the Local Clean Energy Alliance is proud to introduce our new regional alliance organizer, David Room! He is coordinating our efforts to mobilize East Bay residents, businesses, and organizations around a regional agenda that creates green-collar jobs, cuts pollution, and brings affordable, clean energy to our communities. Room also comes with a strong energy and organizing background, having served on Oakland's Oil Independence Task Force, and having co-founded Bay Localize, along with his own consultancy, Energy Preparedness.

The new year also brought the Ecology Center of Berkeley and the Urban Alliance for Sustainability as the latest community partners to join the Alliance. For nearly 30 years, the Ecology Center has served as a central Bay Area hub of environmental activism and social justice, a leader in community recycling, and a vital resource for responsible, low-impact living. The Urban Alliance for Sustainability strategically identifies opportunities for cooperation, inviting individuals to learn about sustainability; acting as an intermediary between you and the multitude of non-profits, businesses and civic groups implementing solutions; and developing programs and delivering services to facilitate actions with a whole-systems approach. If you represent an organization, business, or association wishing to join our growing Alliance, simply Sign On to Our Platform and come to our next convening to help build a local clean energy future for all!


ALERT! Act Now to Support Bay Area Transit

Reducing our reliance on cars is one of the most effective actions we can take to end our addiction to oil and spewing greenhouse gases. But to do so we need a public transportation system that serves all Bay Area communities with quick, convenient, safe, and appealing options to get where we're going. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is currently formulating its 25 year plan on how to spend more than $100 billion on transportation in our region. That's a lot of money! Will it fund more freeway gridlock, or the enhanced bus and train systems we want to use?

The MTC Commissioners work for you, and they are seeking public comment! Call your commissioner to let her or him know how to spend MTC's billions to get your family, your neighborhood, and our region out of our cars. Visit this page to find contact information for the commissioner for your county. For talking points, see the platforms developed by our partner organizations:

OPPOSE AC TRANSIT TRANSIT FARE HIKES!
If you live in Alameda or Contra Costa Counties, did you know AC Transit is considering raising bus fares? We need riding the bus to be more affordable, not more expensive! Now is the time to weigh in. Call your AC Transit board representative — see this Action Alert for full details.



Rooftop Systems, New Initiatives Help Meet Local Needs

The Bay Area has been blessed with 23 inches of rain this year, compared with last year's average of 15 inches. Yet with the boon of plentiful moisture comes extreme storms like those in late January, which dropped an average of 3 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.

The challenge of managing extreme weather conditions continues to weigh on municipal utility services. This is where appropriate rooftop technology like rainwater catchment and living roofs can play an effective role. Given the documented performance standard that living roofs can retain up to 70% of precipitation in a storm event — and considering the common rule of thumb that 1,000 square feet of roof surface can capture 600 gallons of rainwater with one inch of precipitation — these systems offer incredible benefits to both individual buildings and city services!

Bay Localize is advocating for a statewide water systems strengthening program as part of Proposition 84 to help fund the implementation of these rooftop systems. As this program goes through its scoping and implementation phase, a greater alliance of green roof and rainwater catchment stakeholders are needed to secure this support. Please contact Ingrid Severson, Rooftop Resources Project Lead Organizer, for further details.

Implementers across the Bay Area and the country are downloading their free copies of Bay Localize's recently released report, Tapping the Potential of Urban Rooftops, which investigates the feasibility, productivity, and best practices of appropriate rooftop technologies for common urban buildings. California universities are initiating living roof "lab" projects, while professional roofing firms are gearing up to enter the green roof market. Kasra Kamooneh of Sustainable Roofing Solutions has remarked, "For whatever reason, I underestimated the level of thoroughness and technical detail you guys have accomplished in your study. In fact, I am looking forward to acquiring the report so that I can study it and learn something."

In the North Bay, a team of green roof advocates is launching their own rooftop resources initiative to advance the industry as part of a Green Job Corps in Santa Rosa. A prominent hotel in downtown San Francisco has rooftop space for which they are seeking partners to implement and manage an edible roof garden. (Please contact Ingrid Severson, Rooftop Resources Project Lead Organizer, for further information about this project.) These folks are all finding that living roofs, edible roof gardens, rooftop solar, and rainwater catchment systems can be installed on existing buildings, often without costly structural improvements.

Some of the best examples of these systems can be seen in our forthcoming web gallery. This online forum is a great way to view rooftop project successes, upload your own, engage in dialogue and share knowledge. From a fly-ash based 1,300 gallon cistern to large and small scale solar power systems, from the artful rainwater catchment at Mills College to a "DIY" living roof studio, our new online gallery will showcase the flexibility and variety of rooftop systems. Look for a special notice in your inbox soon announcing the launch of this new resource!

You're also invited to check out our new Frequently Asked Questions page, which includes information about various rooftop systems and technology, as well as the Rooftop Resources Project.


Tools and Convenings for Going Local

We're always looking for better ways to engage our community (you!), and this year we want to help you better engage your communities as well.

Toolkits are sets of strategies, templates and best practices that organizers can draw from to make their work for social change more efficient and thus more effective. Bay Localize is developing a Localization Toolkit for community organizers to make it easier for you to take the task of localization into your own hands and bring the vision of a thriving regional economy home.

We've also committed to creating more dynamic events, more often and with more tangible results. In the coming months Bay Localize will be holding a series of gatherings focused on sharpening the direction of the localization movement in the Bay Area and building consensus on priorities, strategies and targets. Read more about our current thinking on this localization event series and post your feedback. Please post your comments online so that everyone can have the benefit of your input — no need to register or anything like that.

Help us help you! We're looking for feedback and guidance on the specific form of the Toolkit and events series. What tools do you need? What are the greatest challenges that you face, and what kind of support or information would help you overcome those challenges? What kind of gatherings would best support your own work to build a better Bay Area?



The Fire in the Belly

Bay Localize is launching "The Fire in the Belly" as a new feature in our newsletter on what personally motivates people to work on localization. Our first feature is written by Dave Room.

We will be inviting other members of our movement to contribute to future editions. These essays are personal statements exploring the diverse viewpoints that lead to localization as an organizing framework, and as such do not necessarily reflect the positions of Bay Localize.


To improve our ecological and social bottom lines, we need to fully understand what is going on. Despite mounting evidence that we are headed for converging crises, we remain in the stupor of complacency, continuing to accept the black box economy and its abstractions, which hide everything about the products we consume beyond their form and function. We consume not realizing that the stories behind the materials, production, distribution, and end-use of our favorite items are fueling the fires we so urgently need to put out.

My perspective — informed by the work of Michael Dowd, Brian Swimme, and Thomas Berry on the "Great Story" — is that every atom in our bodies and the world around us (except hydrogen) was forged in the fiery belly of a star and expelled into the universe billions of years ago. Amazingly, about 4.5 billion years ago, the dust and gas left over from the formation of the Sun coalesced to form Earth and the other planets in the solar system, and about 3.5 billion years ago, the biosphere began evolving from single cell organisms. Just as the eye is stardust evolved to see and ears are stardust evolved to hear, we are stardust evolved to the point of becoming aware of itself and of evolution.

As the first beings aware of evolution, we are evolution becoming aware. We are evolution becoming conscious. With this perspective, as Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute suggests, our charge becomes one of active participation in the conscious evolution of life on the planet.

Recognizing the emerging need to drastically reduce dependence on fossil fuels and to curb greenhouse gas emissions, I have come to the realization that localization is a key organizing principle of the conscious evolution of our economy and culture.

Moving production closer to consumption reduces the need to transport goods and therefore reduces oil consumption and carbon emissions. Less obviously but more importantly, localization blows away the abstractions. Once we start making things, we have to get beyond form and function, affording us the opportunity to begin developing ecologically balanced and equitable economic relationships and systems.

Through localizing our economy — taking control of the entire product life cycle and determining what gets produced and how — will we have the opportunity to co-create and celebrate positive, life-affirming stories behind the form and function of the products we use.

Dave Room coordinates the Local Clean Energy Alliance of the East Bay and is working on a number of projects involving Energy Preparedness and localization. Check out the Stardust Localizing blog at http://stardustlocalizing.com.

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Oakland Solar Home Tour Seeks Renewable Energy Activists

The Oakland Solar Home Tour needs volunteers! The tour happens every fall in conjunction with the National Solar Home Tour and offers the public and opportunity to learn about renewable energy and green building. Homeowners and businesses show you firsthand the benefits of investing in solar and renewable energy.

Volunteer tasks include: researching Oakland's solar resources and organizing a database; contacting system owners, solar vendors, and city departments to collate information; learning about Bay Localize's Rooftop Resources Project and Local Clean Energy Campaign; and helping to set up and coordinate the tour. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in learning about solar energy and wanting to promote a grassroots educational event. To get involved, please e-mail Dan Antonioli or call (510) 652-7593.

Help Equip Low-income Homeowners in Oakland with Solar!

Bay Localize ally Aaron Reaven is pioneering the use of City of Oakland Redevelopment Agency funds to install solar PV and hot water heaters on homes owned by low-income residents to increase their affordability. If anyone would like to help with door-to-door outreach in the north Oakland project area with Aaron to enlist eligible low-income property owners, please call him at (510) 547-7589. Better yet, any Oakland tenant living in the rectangle bordered by 53rd st., 67th st., Vallejo and San Pablo Ave. (inclusive), could join the Redevelopment Committee and help steer resources toward a renewable, locally resilient future. Ask Aaron Reaven for further details.


Events Roundup: Upcoming and Recent Activities

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Look for announcements of other upcoming gatherings on our online Events page.


RECENT EVENTS:

This Winter has been a time of reflection for Bay Localize as we've begun revisioning how to best be of service to our communities. It has also been a time of reconnection with our allies in the broader movement for sustainability and social justice in the Bay Area.

In December, we celebrated another year of accomplishment with scores of friends and colleagues in our spacious new office at the Central Historic Building in downtown Oakland. We also publicy unveiled our new report, Tapping the Potential of Urban Rooftops, which outlines the many benefits and productive possibilities of green roofs, rainwater catchment, and solar photovoltaic systems here in the Bay Area. Thanks to everyone who joined us for a night of conversation, networking, and plenty of local eats and drinks!

In January, Rooftop Resources Project Organizer Ingrid Severson and Local Clean Energy Coordinator Dave Room took part in a KPFA Living Room dialogue with other local leaders about exciting green initiatives here in the Bay Area (listen to the program).

Bay Localize also participated at Focus the Nation, a national teach-in that engaged millions of students, political leaders, and decision-makers about global warming solutions. We shared our vision of localization to participants at S.F. State University and U.C. Berkeley, which both held campus events in connection with the national effort. An incredible range of speakers presented, including Hunter Lovins from the Rocky Mountain Institute and Van Jones from the Ella Baker Center and Green For All.

Earlier this month, Bay Localize also took part in a special event with Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley. In his new book, Plan B 3.0 - Mobilizing to Save Civilization, he outlines a survival strategy for our early twenty-first-century civilization in the face of looming crises.


Support Bay Localize Today!

Volunteer with Bay Localize!

Are you interested in donating your time to your community and the environment in a meaningful way? Bay Localize needs steady, dedicated volunteers to help with office work and other projects. Come join us in our lively, friendly office in downtown Oakland right next to BART, to make the world a better place for future generations. We welcome seniors! Afternoon hours preferred. Please send your letter of interest and resume to kirsten@baylocalize.org with "Volunteer Application" in the subject line, or call us at (510) 318-0610.

Intern with Bay Localize!

Thinking of a career in local energy and climate change policy? Interested in building community through energy conservation? Flexible internships available with responsibilities according to your experience! We are happy to work with your institution to arrange academic credit. Send a cover letter, resume, and writing sample to kirsten@baylocalize.org with "Internship Application" in the subject line. Internships are unpaid, with a stipend available for local travel.

Have a Computer to Donate?

Reuse is even better than recycling, and we can offer your old computer a good home! Pentium 4 processors and newer, receipts for tax write-offs available. Contact kirsten@baylocalize.org or call (510) 318-0160. We are interested in laser printers, LCD monitors, fax machines, and photocopiers as well. Thank you for your generosity!

Invest in Bay Localize!
We would be honored to count you among our growing range of supporters. Your contribution will help us to forward localization projects and initiatives in the Bay Area. Each donor of $25 or more receives a one-year subscription to the award-winning quarterly publication, the Earth Island Journal.

To make a tax-deductible contribution, please click on the online donation link below, or write a check or money order made payable to Earth Island Institute (our fiscal sponsor) with "Bay Localize" in the memo and mail it to:


   Bay Localize
   436 14th Street, Suite 1127
   Oakland, CA 94612

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Thanks for your support!

About Bay Localize News
Bay Localize News features regular news and updates from Bay Localize, a growing network of nonprofits, businesses, and municipal leaders working to build a more self-reliant, sustainable, and socially just Bay Area.

EDITORS: Allyse Heartwell, Aaron Lehmer

CONTRIBUTORS: Allyse Heartwell, Aaron Lehmer, David Room, Kirsten Schwind, Ingrid Severson, Dan Antonioli, Aaron Reaven

For more about Bay Localize, please visit our website at http://www.baylocalize.org.



Contact Us:
   NEW ADDRESS!

   Bay Localize
   436 14th Street, Suite 1127
   Oakland, CA 94612 USA
   (510) 834-0420
   Web: http://www.baylocalize.org

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