Green Living Workshops start next week

If you wanna go green but don't know where to start, sign up for the Sustainable Works Green Living Workshops. These 6-week programs on sustainable city living tackles a different eco-area each week -- from shopping to energy to travel -- putting you on the fast track to green living.

Workshop participants track their progress via a "Life Style Survey," keeping the program interactive and action-oriented. I took the workshop a while back, and picked up interesting new eco info while meeting some great like-minded environmentalists.

Cost: A $25 materials fee, which gets you a workbook, a resource guide, and a whole bunch of eco shwag from reusable bags to CFL bulbs. But for those who can’t afford that, Sustainable Works does offer scholarships.

Pick from one of three upcoming workshop sessions:

• Wednesdays, 7 pm - 8:30pm, starting Jan. 16. Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica
• Thursdays, 7 pm - 8:30pm, starting Jan. 17. REI, 402 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica
• Saturdays, 1 - 2:30 pm, starting January 19 pushed back to start Feb. 9. Virginia Ave. Park. 2200 Virginia Ave. Santa Monica

To sign up, call Sustainable Works at (310) 458-8716 x1, or email Roth_Barent@smc.edu.       

How does Sustainable Works afford to run this? This nonprofit’s a project of Community Partners. It’s funded by Santa Monica’s Sustainable City Program. Non-Santa Monica people are welcome to participate too, however.

Wish you could go, but stuck on the east side? You're not alone; I've gotten emails from people despairing about this before. To help fix the problem once and for all, call up your city councilmember and ask for the city of LA to pick up the Sustainable Works program. Barent of Sustainable Works (incidentally, Barent also runs Green Drinks) tells me one phone call alone can get the momentum going to make this happen.

When it does, not only will you the workshops be closer to you, you'll help out LA businesses, who'll be able to get free business greening consultations from Sustainable Works all year long. Find your councilmember on the City of LA Website; just scroll down a bit and put your address in the "My Neighborhood" field.

Photo courtesy of Sustainable Works

Comments

[Roberta]

I happen to attend the Santa Monica Farmer's market yesterday, and was curious about what the Sustainable Works Program was all about. It definitely irks me that LA does not have one, and as you suggested emailed LeBonge regarding the absence of the Program in LA. I did sign up for the program and looking forward to attending.