What's Next for Sustainable Neighborhoods?

The Sustainable Neighborhoods initiative supports local / global organizing towards creation of sustainable communities worldwide.

Sustainable neighborhoods are born from both the positive hope and aspiration of community members to create ecological, democratic and genuinely humane neighborhoods and villages as well as from the harsh experiences of the dark side of human experience and communities out of balance with nature and society.

Over the next few months, we will be sharing more of our experience of networking for a new kind of neighborhood.

SN members will be posting regular updates here, and we will be undertaking a more systematic networking of local/global sustainable neighborhoods resources.

If you would like to contribute writing, resources or suggestions for this networking effort, please contact us to share your ideas and learn more.

The Next Generation of Green Building Thinking

The Next Generation of Green Building Thinking - From Green At Work
LEED for Neighborhood Development – the pilot rating system launched jointly by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) is off to a promising start. A total of 238 developments have signed up to participate in the pilot program, which will be the first national certification system for sustainable neighborhood design and development. LEED for Neighborhood Development will integrate the principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building into the design and development of communities, moving beyond the single green building approach. The LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot is on track to be one of the largest launches yet for a new LEED program. 

“The LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program is the next generation of green building thinking,” said Rick Fedrizzi, USGBC President, CEO and Founding Chair. “By applying what we’ve learned about individual green buildings to entire neighborhoods, we’re linking urban planning and environmentally friendly design and construction in a whole new, beneficial and healthy way.” 

“Tapping the greenest building potential today means stepping outside the four walls of a structure into the places where projects are situated. Taking a more comprehensive approach lets builders draw on a host of new opportunities for reducing the overall environmental footprint by making communities mixed-use and pedestrian friendly,” said NRDC’s Ashok Gupta. “Creating a neighborhood-based standard encourages architects, builders and planners to think bigger about energy savings, transportation impacts, and the overall shape of cleaner, healthier, more efficient communities.”

February, 2009, TBA: St. Catherine Street Neighborhood Association Strategy & Sustainability Workshop

February, 2009, TBA:
St. Catherine Street Neighborhood Association Strategy & Sustainability Workshop
Louisville, KY, USA
Contact: Steve Sizemore, 502 290 7623
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January, 2009 TBA - Sustainable Neighborhoods Organizing Workshop

January, 2009 TBA
Sustainable Neighborhoods Organizing Workshop
Louisville Free Public Library, Main Branch
Fourth and York Streets
Louisville, KY, USA

Contact: Brent Tennel 502 619 4352

Jan 12, 2009: Ever Green -Clifton/Crescent Hill/Clifton Heights Sustainable Neighborhood Organizing Meeting - Neighborhood Organizing Meeting -

Ever Green - Sustainable Neighborhood Organizing Meeting - 
Clifton/Crescent Hill/Clifton Heights Neighborhoods network

Monday January 12th @7pm

Location:

Earthenirvana
2132 Frankfort Ave.
Louisville, KY 40206
Located on Frankfort Avenue right behind the Bike Couriers Bike Shop. Where the railroad tracks cross Frankfort. We face the Clifton Center
(502) 690-4224

RSVP: earthenirvana AT gmail.com
More info: http://www.earthenirvana.com/menu.html
Here are informal notes from the last meeting: The November Ever Green meeting was a great success, filling the conference room at Earthenirvana to overflowing with neighborhood activists who share a common commitment to sustainability in these neighborhoods that cover the major watersheds above the Butchertown confluence of Beargrass Creek.

Neighbors at the meeting committed to establishing sidewalk recycling bins on Frankfort Ave., and to exploring the use ofgreen maps as tools for everyone in the neighborhood to participate in neighborhood planning and action for sustainability. Matt Martin of Earthenirvana committed to placing the first few bins, Pat Brinson will be following up with contacting Metro Council, and David Silverman will be working on sustainable community maps for the next meeting.

Many other ideas were discussed, from the need for open and inclusive self organizing rather than more traditional forms as a model for Ever Green, to actions neighbors can undertake now, such as orcharding, edible landscaping, shared composting, co-op housing beekeeper training, solar retrofit, energy efficiency improvements and so on, to those activites which will require political commitment and longer term planning, such as light rail and more. Another action emerging from the meeting is to followup on the Community Ecology model for total recycling developed this winter, with members of FABA (Frankfort Av. Business Association) and SBCN (Sustainable Business and Community Networks) taking the lead.

Neighbors will continue to meet and take steps towards sustainability, to be further developed into action items in coming weeks.

Jan 9, 2009: Permaculture & Community Meeting 1 pm Friday Jan 9, 2009

Permaculture and Community Meeting 

1 p.m. Friday, January 9, 2009 

at 

Clifton Community Center,

2117 Payne St.,  

Louisville, KY, USA 40206

www.cliftoncenter.org

This will be a short introduction to Permaculture with Peter Bane and Ann Kreilkamp of the Association for Regenerative Culture, who are visiting here to explore community support for  permaculture training and collaboration in the Louisville area. 

If you'd like to learn more about this world class ecological community training program, or if you would be interested in being a student in the ecological design of gardens, homes and communities, please attend!  If you or your community agency, organization or business are interested in participating as students or sponsors in the eventual development of the Louisville Permaculture Guild, please encourage them to attend as well. 

This meeting follows from an initial organizing meeting Jan 4 which convened some 20 local people to meet with Ann and Peter to discuss organizing support for permaculture training here. This includes finding 20-50 prospective students who can either pay for the course or find sponsorships or provide non-financial services in exchange.  

Organizations are invited to participate and benefit not only by sending students and joining the sponsoring consortia as it develops, but by exploring participating in a site in upcoming courses.   For example, if you or your garden, organization or community center would like to host or be one of the ecological design sites for the ten day / 5 weekend course this spring, you should attend this Jan 9 meeting to learn more. Similarly, permaculture certification can provide benefit through training in valuable green job skills and business opportunities for individuals and organizations.

For Louisville area students who have participated in the Ecovillage Design Education through Adena Center courses and practicums held at Webster University or Clifton or elsewhere globally, it is possible that there will be some credit reciprocity for Permaculture , Gaia and Sustainable Settlements design certification.

It is our hope that the ARC will serve as the educational umbrella for Louisville area trainings as we develop open and transparent democratically accountable sustainable neighborhood associations and work towards permaculture collaboratives and guilds here.

To learn more:

Permaculture Activist: www.permacultureactivist.net

Louisville Permaculture Listserv: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/louisvillepermaculture/

Open Louisville Living and Learning for Sustainability: http://groups.google.com/group/sustainabilityeducation

Sustainable Neighborhoods: 

http://sustainableneighborhoods.blogspot.com

Jan 8, 2009: Old Louisville Sustainable Neighborhood Organizing Potluck

Old Louisville Sustainable Neighborhood Organizing Potluck

7 PM Thursday

January 8, 2009

1370 S Third St., (rear entrance) Louisville, KY, USA 40208

Gathering to meet folks interested in organizing sustainable neighborhoods associations in Louisville, particularly in the Old Louisville area.

For more information call 502 608 3951 /  or email sustainableneighbor@gmail.com

Link to Facebook Forum: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=37469879564

Here is the Agenda for the next Old Louisville Neighborhood Potluck - Feel free to use this and other materials from this website ( www.sustainableneighborhoods.blogspot.com ) and resource list in building your own sustainable neighborhood or ecovillage group.

Agenda For Old Louisville Sustainable Neighborhood Organizing Meeting
Thursday, January 8, 2008

Neighborhood Sustainability With Process in Mind

MORE INFORMATION:

www.sustainableneighborhoods.blogspot.com

Welcome
Introductions
Name, Neighborhood - Sustainable Idea or Project
Ecovillages and Sustainable Neighborhoods - Quick Overview

What is a Sustainable Old Louisville Neighborhood Network?
Media Presentation Draft by Christine Chisenhall 

Discussion

Action Items:

1) Organizing the Louisville Permaculture Guilds: Old Louisville Permaculture Training Opportunity 

2) Study Group First Chapter: Ecovillage Design Education ( http://gaiaeducation.org ) action / learning project for the neighborhood

3) Old Louisville Economic Alternatives:  Membership committee for Falls alternative currency, cooperatives, and other neighborhood sustainable economics projects

4) Report back on Living Machines working group ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_machines ). Draft building schedule for demo units in neighborhoods throughout the region.

5) Community communications projects beyond Power Point: web and other media outreach for the January meeting.

6) Louisville Green Maps

6) Green Institute neighborhood training startup schedule 

7) Green Convene networking and Sustainable Louisville community organizing.

Ideas 
Ecovillages
Neighborhood Democracy
Living Machines
Placed Based Sustainable Neighborhoods Groups
Green Mapping
Urban Gardens and Urban Ecology
Neighborhood Ecology Tours
Cooperatives and other forms of organizations
Demonstration sites

Have an idea to suggest ?

Post it on the Comments section below.

Networking
Where do we go from here?
People and Places - Including our neighbors
Sister Neighborhoods
Building the Green Institute and other support systems

Next?
The long now
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