Good being green

From my inbox to you:

Transit:  Is Wake County ready for it?
A community forum on transit

Thursday, June 26, 2008
7 pm – 9:30 pm
NCSU McKimmon Center, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, NC

Community Partner Host Groups:
Downtown Housing Improvement Corp., North Carolina Conservation Network, Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, Sierra Club Capital Group, Society for Women Environmental Professionals, WakeUP Wake County, WTS NC Triangle Chapter

Forum Sponsors:
Community Leaders: City of Raleigh, Dean Debnam, Falcon Engineering, Triangle Community Foundation

Community Builders: Capitol Broadcasting Company, Carolina Asphalt Pavement Association, Carolina Cottage Company, Cherokee, NC Go!, PBS&J, Stewart Engineering

Community Supporters: Community United Church of Christ – Justice in a Changing Climate, Greg and Anita Sawhney Flynn, Anne S. Franklin, Kimley-Horn & Associates, The Louis Berger Group, Inc., North Carolina League of Municipalities, Stan Norwalk, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Mack Paul, Ralph Urban Development I, LLC, Josh and Anna Stein, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh Social Action Committee, Carter Worthy, York Properties

We also would like to extend a special thanks to RTN and WRAL for taping and airing the forum.
 
Forum Agenda

Welcome and Overview     7 -7:10 pm
Karen Rindge, Chair, WakeUP Wake County
Joe Bryan, Chair, Wake Board of Commissioners

Keynote Address    7:10 – 7: 45 pm
“By Choice or by chance:  How can transit help us plan for a future of growth?”
Carol Coletta, CEO, CEO’s for Cities
Q&A: 7:45 – 8:00 pm

The Charlotte Transit Story    8:00 – 8:15 pm
Keith Parker, CEO, Charlotte Area Transit System
Introduction by Jonathan Parker, Sierra Club Capital Group
Q&A: 8:15 – 8:25 pm

SHORT BREAK  8:25 – 8:30 pm

Panel Discussion on Local Perspectives on Transit    8:30 – 9:25 pm
Community leaders respond with their perspective to questions related to the future of transit in the Triangle.

Moderator and introductory remarks:
Nina Szlosberg, board member, NCDOT, and NC 21st Century Transportation Commission

STAC overview:
John Hodges-Copple, Triangle J Council of Governments

Panel Participants:
Mary Ann Baldwin, Raleigh City Council
Matt Christensen, Division Vice President, KB Home
Courtney Crowder, SE Raleigh Assembly
Sig Hutchinson, Board Chair, Triangle Transit
Smedes York, Co-chair, Special Transit Advisory Commission
Kirsten Weeks, Cisco Systems

Closing Remarks    9:25 – 9:30 pm

Presenter Biographies
Carol Coletta is president and CEO of CEOs for Cities and host and producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show Smart City. Before moving to Chicago to head CEOs for Cities, she served as president of Coletta & Company in Memphis. In addition, she served as executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation. Carol is a passionate advocate for cities, and she has devoted her life to answering the question: What makes cities succeed?

Keith Parker is the Director of Public Transit for the City of Charlotte and the Chief Executive Officer of the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS). As one of the fastest growing transit systems in the country, CATS provides bus, paratransit, and light rail service to Charlotte area residents and visitors. Mr. Parker’s prior positions include Assistant City Manager for the City of Charlotte, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Director of CATS, Chief Executive Officer for the Clark County Transit Authority in Vancouver, Washington, and Assistant General Manager for the Greater Richmond Transit Company in Richmond, Virginia. In 2004, Keith was recognized as a “40 Under 40” award winner by the Charlotte Business Journal as one of the region’s most promising young leaders.
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I very much wish I were going, but instead I’ll be in Chapel Hill at the MyNC.com launch party!

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

“There’s a lot of ‘green scamming’” said Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farms Organic Yogurt at today’s Footprints Conference 2008, but every company including Walmart and John Deere are claiming their grass is greener.

Live blogging from the conference, I can only regurgitate tidbits right now and save video for you for later.

Just know recycling and carbon offsetting is “a morning after pill”, a failure to have strategically thought out your impact.

By the way, Walmart has officially been mentioned eight times today and been a part of two major talking points, all of it in purely supportive nature.  Who’d have thunk it?

Tomorrow, the Triangle has a plethora of events regarding sustainability, nature and biking.  Check out the Annual Footprints Conference in Durham, the Comprehensive Bike Plan meeting in Raleigh or Eleni’s (amazing) documentary, Seeing Through the Fence (second screening, by popular demand) at Duke.  Details are (from my inbox to yours): 

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2008 Annual Fuqua Footprints Conference: “Market-Based Approaches to Global Challenges”
When:  Wednesday, April 2, 9:30am - 5:00pm
Where:  Fuqua School of Business (driving directions)

Audience: Duke students, faculty, staff, and the public
Footprints 2008 examines the ways we can harness market forces to achieve positive, sustainable change as well as exposes the dangers inherent when a new set of players enter spaces formerly inhabited primarily by NGOs and nonprofits. What will change now that institutional investors can make significant returns on green investments, global financial institutions see opportunity in banking the world’s poor and multinational corporations are marketing their “causes” to achieve competitive differentiation?

This will be a day of interactive workshops, thought-provoking debates, engaging speakers, and panel discussions on how to integrate professionals – no matter their field – into the social fabric of our society, both professionally and personally. Afternoon keynote address: Gary Hirshberg, CEO Stonyfield Farm and author of Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World.

More information and registration at: www.footprintsconference.com

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The City of Raleigh is developing a Comprehensive Bicycle Plan that will guide future bicycle improvements in 

Raleigh and we want YOU to be part of the process.

The plan is intended to reflect the needs and wishes of the community;  therefore, the City is asking for your input:  the first public workshop will be held on April 2nd, 2008 at the

Glen Eden Pilot Neighborhood Center (1500 Glen Eden Drive, Raleigh).  Please stop by anytime between 4:00 – 7:00 PM to learn more about the project, talk to City staff and project consultants, and provide your input to the process. The City wants to hear the citizens’ priorities for bicycle facilities and programs.  Please feel free to distribute this so that all Raleigh citizens are informed.

In addition, please take a few minutes to fill out an online comment form for the project. 

Online Comment Form Link: (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xyxe0TrdbunTnFsUR7hp8w_3d_3d)

Please pass the word along to any and all cyclists in the Raleigh Area!

Thank you for your time.  Happy and safe bicycling!

 

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Seeing Through the Fence screening!

For those who were not able to make the original Durham premiere, I wanted to let you know about another screening taking place at Duke University on 4/2!

Here are the details:

Where: White Lecture Hall (room 107), East Duke Building, East Campus at Duke University
When: Wednesday, April 2, 7:30pm
FREE!  Open to the public. Copies now available!

Also, for folks who were interested in purchasing a copy of the movie, copies are now available for sale here:
www.porchlifeproductions.com/yourporch.html.  We set up a Paypal account to make ordering easy. I’ll also have copies available at the above event.

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I’ll be at the Fuqua Conference, and until then…

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

In case you hadn’t heard the buzz about the Sustainability Conference coming up, held for two days at the McKimmon Center on NCSU campus:

Save the Date: 5th Annual North Carolina Sustainable Energy
Conference: Our Future Now!!!

April 8-9, 2008
McKimmon Conference and Training Center
NC State University, Raleigh, NC

Information and registration: http://www.energync.net/conference

I won’t be at this one, but if you go, let all of us know the deal.

~Sustainably Yours, Ashley Sue