WORD OUT! The Blog to Build a New Society

This just in from Ellis Jones, PhD. author of The Better World Shopping Guide and co-author of The Better World Handbook.

You already recycle, give to causes you believe in, and try your best to help those around you, but do you feel like you aren't living up to your potential for creating a more just, peaceful and sustainable world? Are you ready to take the next step? Then join the acclaimed authors of The Better World Handbook, Ellis Jones, Ross Haenfler and Brett Johnson, July 24-28 as part of the Shadowcliff Sustainability Series at the stunning Shadowcliff Mountain Lodge in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colarado.

If you care deeply about the state of the world but feel that you don’t have enough time, energy, or the right skills to make a difference, then this workshop is for you! Envisioning a world based upon economic fairness, comprehensive peace, ecological sustainability, deep democracy, social justice, simple living, and revitalized community, this workshop will help you to fight cynicism, reconnect with the world, and reclaim your power to impact it. It will inform and inspire you to transform your values into effective action in all areas of your life...money, shopping, food, family, work, community, home, media, politics…and give you tools to help others do the same. The beautiful Rocky Mountains provide the perfect environment for reflection, collaboration, and re-energizing. You will make new friends, eat good food, and leave inspired to take a wide range of new actions to truly make a difference in the world.

For more information or to register visit the Shadowcliff site or call Bob Mann at 970-627-9220.

   

This just in from Sarah James and Torbjörn Lahti, authors of The Natural Step for Communities. Sarah and Torbjörn will be leading a 3 ½ -day intensive workshop on Eco-municipality Planning & Leadership Training from September 29-October 2, 2010 in Cambridge. MA.

The aim of this course is to empower planners, citizens, and their local governments to initiate and lead a change process to make their communities sustainable. This approach has a substantial track record of successful implementation – possibly the most extensive in the world - in over 100 municipalities in Sweden, U.S., and beyond. Planners and potential local leaders will develop the skills necessary to lead a planning process that involves community sustainability education, bottom-up participatory planning, a comprehensive and systematic approach, and a strategic implementation process to transition to becoming a sustainable community.

For full details and registration information, please click here.

To learn more about implementing sustainability at the community level using the Natural Step framework, including dozens of successful case studies, check out The Natural Step for Communities.

Chapters Indigo Books & Music has partnered with three BC organizations — the Association of Book Publishers of BC, the BC Association of Magazine Publishers and the Sierra Club BC — to present “Read Local, Buy Local,” a new event series that encourages readers to think locally when purchasing reading material, just as they do when selecting food and other products. We are thrilled that several of our authors will be featured at the Earth Day Author Series in Vancouver and Victoria. Events will be held at Chapters Robson (788 Robson St., Vancouver), Chapters Granville (2505 Granville St., Vancouver) and Chapters Victoria (1212 Douglas St., Victoria) on April 22, 24 and 25.

For the full schedule, including complete descriptions of each event, click here. The times and dates of our authors' appearances are below.

• Laura Matthias, author of ExtraVeganZa 3 p.m., April 22nd, Chapters Victoria
• Guy Dauncey, author of The Climate Challenge, 7 p.m., April 24th, Chapters Victoria
• Carolyn Herriot, author of A Year On The Garden Path, 1 p.m., April 24th, Chapters Victoria
• Robin Wheeler, author of Food Security for the Faint at Heart , 3 p.m., April 24th, Chapters Robson
• David Tracey, author of Guerrilla Gardening, 3 p.m., April 24th, Chapters Granville

   

   

We always love it when an author manages to find their way to our corner of the world for a visit. Ted Bernard, author of Hope and Hard Times: Communities, Collaboration and Sustainability and his wife, Donna Lofgren, spent the afternoon with us this past Monday.

New Society Publishers was the first stop on Ted's Pacific Northwest book and speaking tour. As he makes his way from Gabriola Island to Northern California, he will be blogging as he goes. Here is an excerpt from his first entry in which he describes his visit to Gabriola as "Utopia?"

When most authors visit their publishers, it means a tedious trip to a big city, taxi fares, smoggy air, high rise buildings and high prices for everything. A trip to my publisher requires none of this. Instead, one heads deep into temperate rainforests, crosses a couple of straits (ok, requiring ferries rather than taxis), and weaves along country roads until you find a fir tree with a crook. At the end of the narrow forest road is a lovely set of cedar-sided, energy efficient buildings, including the home of publishers Chris and Judith Plant, gardens, outlying cottages, chickens, and sundry pets. Utopia? Our hosts seem to think so.

You can read his entire post on his website. For complete tour details, please click here.

Chip Haynes doesn’t mean you should squeeze your size 9 feet into a size 6, but he does mean that it is time to shrink our combined global footprint. In his most recent book, Wearing Smaller Shoes – Living Light on the Big Blue Marble, his light hearted approach to saving money while incidentally saving the planet is irresistible. Here he is in person to let you know just some of the ways he and his wife, the Lovely JoAnn, have managed to shrink their footprint and their power bill.