>> The second Westside Permaculture Gathering will be an "Intro to Permaculture" primer, put together by community permaculturists, as well as a local potluck. All are invited to the free event: Monday, June 23, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the Santa Monica Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. Contact Sean Jennings at swjennings@gmail.com with questions.
>> At the "ReGreen: Green Home Improvement" event, everyone from homeowners to design professionals can find out about the ReGreen program -- "best practice guidelines and targeted educational resources for sustainable residential improvement projects" developed by the American Society of Interior Designers' Foundation and the U.S. Green Building Council. The free event happens Tuesday, June 24., from 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at the Multi-Purpose Room of the Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. RSVP to gbrc@globalgreen.org are appreciated but not required.
>> Hear the authors of the Homegrown Evolution blog, Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen (interviewed here), at an L.A. Eco-Village event titled "The Urban Homestead: A Talk, Slide Show and Book-Signing." The event happens Thursday, June 26, at 7:30 p.m., at the L.A. Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles. Suggested donation's $5; RSVP to crsp@igc.org.
>> Join artist Jane Tsong and curator Donna Conwell for a conversation at the Farmlab Public Salon, " 'Everything is Alive' and Other Street Projects." "Everything is Still Alive" is an art project in which native California poppies were planted on patches of exposed earth in the L.A. area: "where the poppies survive, orange blossoms reveal the disparate patterns of land management." The free event takes place Friday, June 27 at noon at Farmlab, 1745 N. Spring Street #4, Los Angeles.
For more eco-themed events happening in the L.A. area, check out the Emerald City green calendar.
Photos courtesy Jane Tsong via Farmlab
 Summer's almost here, so get some sun! Besides enjoying the beach, maybe this is the summer you'll start harnessing some of the solar energy for your home -- especially since Californians have lots of rebates and financing options available for home solar systems.
If you're fuzzy on the short- and long-term costs and benefits of installing solar panels, a sun-powered event happening on Monday can help. Titled "Solar by the Numbers: 2008 Financing Options for Home Solar Systems," this informative panel will illuminate "new ways to finance the installation of solar electric and solar thermal systems ... -- options that weren’t available even a year ago."
When: Monday, June 16 at 7 p.m.
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, Multi-Purpose Room (2nd floor), 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica
Cost: Free; reserve a space by calling (310) 458-4992
The event's put together by Solar Santa Monica, part of Santa Monica’s Office of Energy and Green Building Programs, so the panel discussion will be most relevant to Santa Monica residents, as well as solar manufacturers and installers, financiers, and real estate investors who do work in Santa Monica.
Speakers include Gary Groff of New Resource Bank, one of Solar Santa Monica’s financial partners; Nat Kreamer of Sun Run, a company that provides solar electricity through a guaranteed power purchase agreement; and Maurice “Mo” Rousso of Helio Micro Utility Inc., which offers renewable energy financial products.
If you do sign up to get state rebates for installing solar power, make sure you really do take action within 12 months. The San Francisco Business Times reported earlier this month that "More than one in eight homeowners and businesses that signed up for lucrative state solar power rebates have dropped out without installing a system, leaving $9 million in "stranded" incentives trapped in the California Solar Initiative program." This means new people who sign up -- and actually install a solar system -- will qualify only for smaller rebates. Be a good neighbor; keep the solar promises you make.
Photo by Mike Spasoff via Flickr
>> Too many Californians are not actually installing solar systems after signing up to get rebates. "More than one in eight homeowners and businesses that signed up for lucrative state solar power rebates have dropped out without installing a system, leaving $9 million in "stranded" incentives trapped in the California Solar Initiative program." This means new people who sign up -- and actually install a solar system -- will qualify only for smaller rebates. (via Treehugger)
>> The top 5 coolest green building products, as voted on by 679 home-building professionals. A tankless water heater tops the list. (via Jetson Green)
>> The California Energy Commission gave $1 million to San Francisco to build a grease-to-biodiesel facility, expected to be completed this December. Some private biodiesel producers aren't happy about it.
>> The next Green Business Networking event happens from 6-9 p.m. tonight at the Ambrose Hotel, 1255 20th St., Santa Monica. Cover's $10; free wine and organic appetizers once you're in.
>> Missed the L.A. River Ride on Sunday? Damien Newton at Streetsblog LA has a pictorial recap. Ride vicariously.
Photo by Mike Spasoff via Flickr
 Enviro-fans of Dwell magazine: You'll be glad to know that the focus for the 3rd Annual Dwell on Design will be sustainability in the L.A. area. The conference and exhibition will showcase and discuss modern design, architecture while examining ways to encourage sustainable living in an increasingly dense city.
And you can check out the exhibition -- with more than 200 exhibitors -- for free! Just use the codes below.
When: Conference on June 5 and 6; Exhibition on June 7 and 8 (exhibition preview for conference attendees on June 6).
Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles.
Cost: Exhibition tickets cost $25 online (free with code BDODEC) or $50 at the door; conference registration costs $349 ($50 off with code GRP22SP). Register here.
The exhibition include lots of green panels that examine everything from what L.A.'s new green building codes will mean to new resource and energy efficiency innovations to sustainable interiors. Lots of panel members are also LEED-accredited professionals!
If the conference and tour aren't enough, you can sign up to take a tour of green homes in L.A. And on June 6, you can watch 16 L.A. designers produce 2D sustainable and modular dwellings, rooms and furniture in a tournament-party at MOCA. $50 gets you into the evening event, featuring an open bar and a live DJ.
Green eco-boutiques are springing up all over the Valley. Already, there's greenROHINI in Sherman Oaks and Deborah Lindquist's boutique in North Hollywood. Now, Valley Village is getting its own eco-boutique: Green and Greener.
Self-described as an "eco-living general store and design center," Green and Greener will carry everything from sustainable clothing to clay plaster to gardening supplies. In addition to the products, Green and Greener will showcase eco-living inspired art, as well as offer eco-consulting services. Alegre Ramos, who owns Green and Greener with her husband Sean, is an LEED-certified Accredited Professional as well as a businesswoman, and will continue her work in green interior and landscape design too. In fact, Alegre re-did the Green and Green building itself in eco-fashion; you can see the green transformation the building went through here.
Get there on opening day, June 10 from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., and you'll get 10% off your purchase -- in addition to a free gift with your purchase.
And while getting around the Valley without a car isn't always easy, Green and Greener shoppers will be rewarded for their de-car-ing efforts. Customers get a 10% discount on their purchase any day they get to the store without driving. Green and Greener's put together a handy public transportation map to help you out -- and bike racks are right out front!
Green and Greener. 4838 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Valley Village. (866) 337-5602
Photo by Joshua Targownik
 >> Green kitchen remodeling, explained and dissected by Gwendolyn Bounds in the Wall Street Journal. "When the sawdust finally settled -- just this week, in fact -- the $83,119 renovation cost for my 300-square-foot kitchen was about $26,000 less than the average upscale, 200-square-foot kitchen remodel last year, according to Remodeling Magazine." (via Jetson Green)
>> Easy-Off Oven Cleaner's really, really toxic, so here's how to clean your oven greenly. Get your step-by-step instructions on Lime.com.
>> Dump a computer in a landfill, pay $400 in fines. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control is cracking down on people illegally dumping e-waste and other hazardous materials in the landfill. Take the junk to your nearest e-waste or hazardous household waste facilities instead.
>> Two different eco-designers have come up with umbrella stands that water plants with residue rainwater. Which do you think is cuter?
>> The high cost of the virtual water trade. Virtual water = "the water supplies that make possible the world trade in commodities, especially food." "The world's biggest supplier of virtual water is, or was until a couple of years ago, Australia. It exported 70 cubic kilometres of virtual water, in the form of fruit and crops, a year. That's 70 billion tonnes, if you can imagine that better. Then came drought." Earlier: Roses are red and water-intensive.
Photo by Betsy via Flickr
 Santa Monica's gotten greener and greener of late -- too crunchy, perhaps -- to the point that now, we have about a biggish eco-event a day happening within the small city.
Take next week, for example. On Tuesday, we have "Smart Growth," a city-funded FREE Sustainable Santa Monica Event that centers around a presentation by Dimitris Klapsis, LEED Accredited Professional and a senior project manager with HMC Architects in Pasadena. Green building enthusiasts can stop by the Santa Monica Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, at 6 p.m. to hear Klapsis speak.
Then on Wednesday, we have "Green is the new Black," an environmental panel and reception organized by the Yale Club of Southern California, who despite their Ivy League education, couldn't manage to find a more creative title than this tired, now-hackneyed one. They're smart enough to charge $15-$25 to cover costs for the event, however. It goes down in The Haworth Showroom at the Water Garden, 1601 Cloverfield Blvd., Santa Monica, from 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
Thursday will take eco-activists back to the Santa Monica Public Library for a panel on "Running a Green Household." The FREE workshop will teach you how to make the best decisions while evaluating and purchasing products and services for your home. That happens in the Multipurpose Room of the SMPL at 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, starting at 7 p.m.
I know there's green stuff happening in other parts of the city; I keep track of them here. It just seems that most of them seem to be happening in Santa Monica. Of course, I live in Santa Monica, so perhaps I get a disproportionate amount of notices about events happening here while I never hear about others. Know 'bout an eco-event that's not on my calendar? Let me know, and I'll add it on.
>> Santa Monica's Green Business Certification is getting popular, with beauty shops, hotels and consulting firms all going after the green sticker. Earlier: Office eco-audits and certifications.
 >> Want a Green Business Certification for the city of L.A.? City Councilman Richard Alarcon's expected to introduce a motion to fund a $200,000 pilot certification program with city money. Call your council member to show your support for it.
>> What to expect from a home energy audit. Anh-Minh Le gets her home audited, then details the process and offers tips in the San Francisco Chronicle. (via Re-Nest)
>> D.J. Waldie on why you should take the bus and support public transit funding, even if it sucks sometimes. "All of us should know that we are actually making a new citizenry for a different city." I've actually rarely found the 720 or 704 to be as crowded as Waldie describes, but I guess I generally ride during off-hours. Earlier: D.J. Waldie and going green at Antioch College.
>> Some compromises between environmentalists and big business are beneficial, say Audubon California and Natural Resources Defense Council people as they tout the deals they helped broker between conservationists / environmentalists and oil / development companies.
What would happen to your house if you -- and everyone around you --suddenly disappeared? Would your lawn grow lush with lavender plants? Would your fireplace turn into a beehive? And if so, how quickly?
Now you can visualize your house without you via this 2-minute animation. How long do you think it would take your house to disintegrate, leaving no trace of your having lived in it? Pick a number (of years), then watch this:
The animation's part of the promotion for Alan Weisman's book "The World Without Us" -- a book that I thought sounded intriguing, but didn't read because it also sounded really, really depressing. I mean, this is a book that shows, in a sense, how unnecessary we humans are. If we died out, the ecosystem would continue on -- corroding our subways while helping birds and animals and plants flourish.
But the animation's piqued my interest now. Plus, the book appears to have a silver lining. According to the book's website: "As [Weisman] shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman's narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that doesn't depend on our demise."
I'll pick up the book soon. In the meantime: How close was your guess for the time it'd take for your house to integrate?
Thanks to Mary Forgione, LATimes.com's deputy web editor for travel and books, for the tip.
>> Tesla, the all-electric sports car, opened its first U.S. store in Los Angeles. The grand opening was on May 1; the store's located at 11163 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles.
>> Not all tires are created equal, with some lowering fuel economy by 10% or more! "With no standardized rating available, consumers often unwittingly choose tires that hurt fuel economy." It seems the only way to figure out whether one's tires will allow for better fuel economy than another is by trial and error. Maybe a tire rating site is in order?
>> Riverside gets BikeLids -- which are sort of like covered parking for your bicycle. Since the BikeLid's secured with a U-Lock or padlock, it doesn't seem to offer additional security from theft -- but your bike'll be shielded from the elements.
>> Twitter meets hi-tech home energy conservation. Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM fame Twitters his home energy use stats. According to earth2tech, "The Twitter stream is an exercise in using the data from home automation feeds, and the hope is that, by making energy usage data transparent and easy to digest, it will change consumer behavior and reduce energy consumption." (via Wired Science)
>> See for Yourself: How Greenhouse Gas Emissions will affect the U.S. economy. This Yale website lets you set up economic models using various assumptions, run a cap-and-trade program, and see what the resulting economic impact is. (via grist)
Photo from the Tesla store grand opening by Jeremy Jacquot, used with permission. More of Jeremy's pictures from the event can be found on Flickr.
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