April 19, 2010

The Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute, in sponsorship with the City of Asheville and Buncombe County, announces this special “Town Hall” BRSI Green Monday.  The purpose is to educate and gain community views about a financing option that Harvard Business Review has called one of the “Breakthrough Ideas for 2010.”

North Carolina and fifteen other states have enabled local governments to issue a form of PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) Bonds.  PACE bonds allow local governments to provide loans to businesses and homeowners to make energy efficiency improvements.  PACE loans are intended to be repaid through an assessment on the improved property.  Both the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Commissioners have already directed staff to examine the potential for providing PACE loans.

This special event will be held Monday, April 19, from 5:00-7:30 p.m. in the Public Works Building, 161 S. Charlotte Street, Asheville.  Admission is free and open to the public.

The program will provide information about the legislative authority in North Carolina, how the PACE program is working across the country, the particular issues that need to be considered in creating a program at the community level in North Carolina and some of the issues being evaluated by the staffs of the Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Commission.  It will also include an interactive format to engage the community about the concept of the energy funding initiative and various facets of how a program could work in Asheville and Buncombe County.

The overall goal is to explore the opportunities and challenges that would be part of implementing a PACE initiative in our region.

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with a generous grant from Progress Energy.

Panelists

Paul Bellows, Chair, BRSI Board of Directors and panel moderator

Steve Cochran, Chair, Community Energy Action Council

Jeff Hughes, Director Environmental Finance Center, UNC School of Government

Holly Jones, Buncombe County Commissioner

Brownie Newman, Vice Mayor, City of Asheville

Presentations

Jeff Hughes

Brownie Newman and Holly Jones

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks

March 22, 2010

Can you imagine Asheville with 15-minute transit service on major corridors, where your kids could independently visit their friends? Do you want to bike or walk on a Greenway to work each day? Do you need sidewalks to connect your neighborhood with local businesses?

“Envisioning a Low Carbon Transportation Future” is the topic of the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute’s next Green Monday, March 22, 2010, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., in the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce second floor conference room. Admission is free and open to the public.

Our current transportation infrastructure occupies the largest portion of land, is the single highest federal spending infusion into Asheville, and has resulted in the highest sources of carbon emissions in Buncombe County. Is it possible to use pedestrian walkways, bicycles, vanpooling, carpooling, telecommuting, and flex-work schedules as a means to reduce carbon emissions and traffic congestion? How do we pay for it all?

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy.

Panelists

Yuri Koslen, Transportation Planner for the City of Asheville

Mike Sule, Asheville On Bikes and Get There Asheville

Bruce Emery, Transportation Planner, Asheville Design Center

Heather Strassberger, Regional Planner-Transportation, Land-of-Sky Regional Council and French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization

Hanna Raskin, Asheville Transit Commission

Presentations

Yuri Koslen

Marc Hunt

Heather Strassberger

Hanna Raskin

Bruce Emory

Audio

Green Monday 11 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks

February 22, 2010

What choices should we be making now in order to diminish the impact of development on the natural world? Better yet, from a more positive point of view, what are the opportunities for designing the built environment so that it encourages human interaction, improves productivity and conserves natural resources?

“The Built Environment” is the subject of the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute’s next Green Monday, February 22, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., in the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce second floor conference room. Admission is free and open to the public.

We will explore our options as citizens and stakeholders in the built environment and in how best to mobilize diverse factions into positive, cooperative action.  Scheduled panelists are Moderator Andrew Euston, FAIA, former Senior Federal Urban Design Administrator with the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Jim Barton, focusing on The Great Shift: Peak Oil, Climate and Transformation, and Asheville’s role as a town in transition; Linda Giltz, AICP, Regional Planner, Land of Sky Regional Council, on innovative land and natural resource initiatives; Patricia Hinkley, on cold season vegetable greenhouses; David Johnson, FAICP, on his visits to Curitiba, Brazil, and other cutting-edge planned communities; and Jan Moran and Paul Rollins will share their experience in developing Civano, a planned, sustainable community in Tucson, Arizona.

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy.

Panelists

Andrew Euston, FAIA, Moderator, former Senior Federal Urban Design Administrator with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Jim Barton

Linda Giltz, Regional Planner, Land Of Sky Regional Council

Patricia Hinkley, Wintergreen

David Johnson, FAICP

Jan Moran, formerly of Civano Community, Tucson, Arizona

Paul Rollins, formerly of Civano Community, Tucson, Arizona

Presentation

Civano

Audio

Green Monday 12 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer: Stu Zonder. Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks