Why are We Going to West Coast Green?

If you love green building and live near San Jose, West Coast Green is simply irresistible.

Basha will be taking photos for the live blog, using all she's learned so far in UC Berkeley Extension's landscape architecture program to focus in on exciting visuals worth a thousand words. (Maybe I can get her to write a few of them down, to go with the snapshots). That field is just on the cusp of a green sea change; and the west coast is certainly on the leading edge.

As for me, getting to graze the cornucopia of green building, hearing many of my ecological design heroes live (Sim Van der Ryn - wow!) and meeting new ones (Sarah Susanka, Eric Corey Freed) is a dream - too long deferred - coming true. It's been years since I worked in Sustainable Communities at EPA (a program that wouldn't have existed without Al Gore's leadership) and had the chance to take the Sustainable Building Advisor certification course then offered only in Seattle. But the excitement has stayed with me; and getting to write about such a dynamic gathering and exchange of up-to-the-moment ideas and case studies is almost overwhelming. Getting to be there in person is a great blessing; and I hope to share as much of the feel of the event as possible with folks who couldn't make it but feel just as passionately as I do about the capacity of creative, intelligent, caring people to work together to not just stop the climate crisis but to restore and rejuvenate our communities.