Category: Infrastructure

Community Building, Edible Brattleboro, Green Collar Economy, Infrastructure, Local Economy, Pathways to Thriving, Permaculture, Systems Thinking

The Launch of Edible Brattleboro

cimbriab

A lively group of Brattleboro residents met today at the Brattleboro Co-op cafe to launch a new project. Each of us came to the meeting with varied backgrounds and the unifying goal of encouraging land owners to consider moving away from traditional landscaping and towards using permaculture to design edible front yards. There are already a large number of homeowners in the town proper who grow more kale and other veggies than box hedges and day lilies. We hope to recruit these forward thinkers to assist with implementing similar projects in community spaces.

Upon arriving in Brattleboro I contacted some human service organizations to offer assistance in creating edible forest gardens on their property, as a service project. The ideal organization will see the value in designing their site as a space that will serve many functions: food for the clients and staff, outside meeting areas, wildlife habitat, and badly needed stormwater management that will slow the flow of water to the Whetstone and Connecticut Rivers. This week I will send out invitations to the directors of some of these organizations to explain the benefits of partnering with Edible Brattleboro. Imagine Morningside Shelter surrounded by blueberry bushes! Picture Brattleboro Housing Authority properties with community gardens which could provide healthy food for the families in residence. Permaculture can make this happen in a way that is low maintenance, manages stormwater and educates kids about food systems. Edible Brattleboro can make this happen in a manner that further binds our community together. Do you know a human service organization in Brattleboro that would benefit from partnering with us?

Our first project will allow our team to become acquainted, and to more fully understand the individual gifts we bring to the group. It will provide an an opportunity to share my knowledge of permaculture with people eager to learn about its framework and principles. Our new group is eager to get started. Would you like to play with us? We will be presenting information on Edible Brattleboro at the Climate Change Cafe meeting hosted by Post Oil Solutions Tuesday January 27th at 6 pm in the meeting room at Brooks Memorial Library. Our next team meeting is scheduled for Sunday February 1st, before the CT Rivershed Permaculture Group meeting. (Don’t worry, we’ll be done before the Super Bowl starts!) Feel free to contact me to learn more about Edible Brattleboro, everyone is welcome to participate as we grow edibles everywhere!

Community Building, Energy, Green Collar Economy, Infrastructure, Local Economy, Systems Thinking

Traditional energy funding models fair game for renewables

cimbriab

Traditional energy funding models fair game for renewables

Interesting article in Environmental Magazine about the use of traditional funding models for fossil fuel projects being adopted to attract investors to renewable energy projects. If this can help smooth out the cyclical availability of funds through tax incentives, this might invite capital and bring some momentum to companies offering renewables.

Community Building, Energy, Green Collar Economy, Infrastructure, Local Economy, Systems Thinking

How do we build sustainable infrastructure?

cimbriab

Until now, there have been no common standards by which sustainable infrastructure projects could be measured. With the Envision™ Rating Tool, launched in 2012 through a collaboration between the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, project design teams now have a way to evaluate infrastructure designs, and their suitability for a particular community.

Envision™ provides these teams with a framework for evaluating and rating the benefits and impacts of all types of infrastructure projects on the stakeholders, the natural resources and the local economy. As communities build projects to support the needs of their stakeholders, more and more are considering how to best use resources over the life cycle of a project.

If we consider the recent senior housing project at the Carroll County campus, we could ask how the building will be used when the senior population has declined. Can the building be dismantled and the resources used elsewhere? Can it easily be transformed into additional correctional space, or perhaps as dormitories for criminal justice students? The answers to these questions will help us rate whether this infrastructure project was planned to be truly sustainable.

Envision™ has sixty sustainability criteria, called credits, divided into five sections: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate and Risk.

As the only credentialed Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, I can lead your infrastructure project teams through the process of developing sustainable projects by assessing, evaluating and grading sustainability indicators over the course of the project’s life cycle. What arises is a project design which truly includes input from all stakeholders that will best serve your community.

Envision™ can be used by infrastructure owners, design teams, community groups, environmental organizations, constructors, regulators, and policy makers to:
• Meet sustainability goals as defined by the stakeholders.
• Be publicly recognized for high levels of achievement in sustainability.
• Help communities and project teams to collaborate and discuss, “Are we doing the right project?” and, “Are we doing the project right?”
• Make decisions about the investment of scarce resources.
• Include community priorities in civil infrastructure projects.

The Envision™ tools help the project design team:
• Evaluate environmental resource origins and benefits as an integral part of the project
• Assess costs and benefits over the project lifecycle, considering what happens to the resources when the project function is no longer relevant or appropriate.
• Use outcome-based objectives based on these new considerations.
• Reach higher levels of sustainability achievement than is currently acceptable.

Together we can design your infrastructure project to be truly sustainable. I can guide you as we develop a stakeholder engagement model that ensures the project will serve the community. Please get in touch to discuss your project.

Community Building, Green Collar Economy, Infrastructure, Local Economy, Systems Thinking

Vermont’s Public Banking Bill

cimbriab

Vermont’s Public Banking Bill

Four dynamic organizations in Vermont have formed a coalition to investigate “the costs and benefits of consolidating into a single entity multiple state government operations relating to finance and lending, grant-making, investing, and banking.” Global Community Initiatives, Donella Meadows Institute, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, and GNHUSA introduced Senate Bill 55 on January 25, 2013. “The bill defines who will serve on the task force and allocates $25,000 for the work.  The task force will determine if reorganizing financial operations would provide benefits in terms of efficiency and increased economic activity.”

On December 7th these organizations held a conference on the New Vermont Economy in Montpelier attended by members of every sector. The conference was organized using the Open Meeting structure, which is to say, attendees volunteered to lead meetings on topics relating to the overall topic of public banking.

To support the coalition please write a letter to the Vermont Legislature. A directory of legislators can be found by clicking here.

To sign up to become a member of the coalition Click here.

Community Building, Energy, First Circle Coaching, Green Collar Economy, Infrastructure, Inner Ecosystem, Insights, Local Economy, Systems Thinking

Trust as a Leverage Mechanism

cimbriab

When looking to create a thriving system it is important to consider the leverage points. For instance, in our work with Berlin BetterBuildings we discovered that one of the most important leverage points is in one’s ability to be trusted. When we first came to town many looked at us skeptically. Through our partnership with the Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire energy efficiency program, ably coordinated by Joseph Lajewski, we were able to help fund the energy audits required to create a scope of work. People were able to see exactly what work needed to be done, approximately what that work would cost and what the estimated payback period would be based on the savings. However, much of the time, the cost of implementing the work, usually a large capital injection, was beyond the reach of our clients. RMANH had a generous incentive for implementing the work, but we at first did not. It was only after we developed our incentives that our commercial clients became truly committed.

There were many times over the year and a half between when I first began promoting this program and when we offered the incentives. Each time a new deadline needed to be met, the clients took a leap of faith and submitted the required paperwork, never really thinking they would be going through with a project. You can imagine how good it felt to see their faith rewarded with valuable incentives.

There were many tough conversations, but we at Berlin BetterBuildings never promised something we couldn’t deliver. We were responsive, respectful and confident that our clients would benefit from the program once they were able to participate. Earning their trust directly affected the success of this program, and will contribute to the economic development of this North Country mill town. It is an honor to work to support a community like Berlin NH.