Greenopia 2.0 and trees as acupuncture for the city

If you're one of the few green Angelenos who don't have a copy of "Greenopia" yet, you should -- hold off on buying one for a couple of weeks. That's because "Greenopia," a local guide to eco products and services, is coming out with a 2.0 version the first week of December!

Also, the first edition is officially sold out, so you really have no choice but to wait.

The new guide may not have hit the stores yet, but that didn't stop Greenopia from throwing a party to celebrate it. So last night I went back to the Wired LivingHome for Greenopia's "Eco-Salon: A Celebration of L.A.'s Top Green Businesses."

(above: The party crowd. Black will always be the new black, except for the two people up front. Hi Jessica in white!)

Highlight of the night: An inspiring talk by Andy Lipkis, founder of TreePeople, who had just gotten back from a summit of 728 U.S. mayors who have signed a Kyoto Protocol-like agreement for their cities and towns. TreePeople's work ranges from tree-planting and management to community involvement in enviro-oriented projects to water conservation and cisterns.

Last night, Andy talked mostly about working more organically with communities -- a message TreePeople has been putting out there for quite some time now. (Watch a short video about TreePeople’s diplomatic work in the L.A. area, in which one TreePeople employee says “We know it doesn’t work when you go in and tell a community ‘This is how it’s going to be.' ")

(left to right: Mike of Opportunity Green, Andy Lipkis of TreePeople, and me)

Andy also spoke about L.A.'s need for better water management, noting how cisterns and other stormwater management practices could've supplied Los Angeles millions of gallons of water when it rained a couple weeks ago. (Read more about TreePeople's work pilot projects to this end in the free downloadable booklet, "Rainwater as a Resource.")

Afterward I asked Andy what he thought about the whole Million Trees L.A. project -- you know, the one that's been criticized for counting trees that aren't actually getting planted. Andy described trees as "acupuncture for the city," noting that TreePeople strives to make its efforts strategic, community-based and long-term.

The night as a whole was fun and inspiring, with so many people doing enviro-related work milling about. Some, like Karen of Opportunity Green, actively worked the room handing out fliers (Our conversation: "You haven't written about us!" "But I did! I did!").

Others, like me, wandered around rather aimlessly -- nibbling on lettuce wraps and sipping white wine (red wasn't served, perhaps to avoid bad wine stains in the new house?), making plans to ride an electric motorboard (hi Linda!), and finally figuring out how to change settings on my camera to take pics indoors (thanks Mike).

So expect better photos to go with this spiffy new L.A. Times design, but deep down inside I know you'll miss my wacky, weird camera style (example right).

De-car-ing: Cabbed it there via EuroTaxi, carpooled back (thanks Ferris and Stacy)

Photos by Siel

Comments

[James]

Have you vistied this yet...

http://www.forester.net/sw_0207_santa.html

[Siel]

No, not yet. Good suggestion :)