Sustainable Communities Roundtables and Public Forum

A series of roundtables is occuring around Wisconsin with a final public forum to occur March 25-26 in Menasha at UW Fox Valley!

Central Wisconsin Roundtable

Date: Feb. 26, 9 a.m.-noon

Location: Travel Guard, 3300 Business Park Drive, Stevens Point

Contact: Center for Land Use Education, 715-346-3783

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De Pere Roundtable

Date: March 2, 1-3:30 p.m.

Location: Kress Family Library, 333 N. Broadway, De Pere

Contacts: Judith A. Knudsen, judith.knudsen@ces.uwex.edu, 920-391-4651
Catherine Neiswender, catherine.neiswender@ces.uwex.edu, 920-232-1972

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Southeast Wisconsin Roundtable

Date: March 2, 9 a.m.-noon

Location: Waukesha County Administration Center, Room 255, 515 W. Moreland Blvd., Waukesha

Contacts: Karen Fiedler, kfiedler@waukeshacounty.gov, 262-896-8014
Jerry Braatz, jbraatz@waukeshacounty.gov, 262-548-7786
Steven D. Brachman, steve.brachman@ces.uwex.edu, 414-227-3160

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Chippewa Valley Roundtable

Date: March 3, 9-11 a.m.

Location: Eau Claire County – UW-Extension, 227 1st Street West, Altoona

Contact: Andrew Dane, andrew.dane@ces.uwex.edu, 715-226-1347

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Chequamegon Bay Roundtable

Date: March 3, 6-8 p.m.

Location: Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, 29270 County Highway G, Ashland

Contacts: Timothy Kane, timothy.kane@ces.uwex.edu, 715-373-6104
Tom Wojciechowski, tom.wojciechowski@ces.uwex.edu, 715-682-7017

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Rhinelander Roundtable

Date: March 5, 9-11 a.m.

Location: University Transfer Center, Room 200, Nicolet College, 5364 College Drive, Rhinelander

Contact: Daniel Kuzlik, dan.kuzlik@ces.uwex.edu, 715-365-2750

To register for the final public forum, find more info here. The forum fee is $100, with lower rates for students. Also, students, community members and grassroots/non-profit organization members may inquire about scholarships by emailing sustainablecommunities@uwex.uwc.edu or by contacting Gloria Eichenseher, gloria.eichenseher@ecc.uwex.edu, (608) 265-2955, or Wisconsin Relay 771.

Filed under: Sustainability News, Sustainable Communities Roundtables, Sustainable Public Forum , sustainable communities public forum, Sustainable Communities Roundtables

New “Local Acre” beer made of only Wisconsin ingredients

Lakefront Brewery to unveil true Wisconsin beer

Lakefront Brewery Inc. says it will release the first beer made entirely with Wisconsin ingredients since Prohibition on Thursday, Dec. 10.

“Local Acre,” which features organic malt, will make its official debut

Filed under: Events

USDA Webinar for Local Food $: Monday Dec. 7, 2pm Central Time

Could your community tap into the next round of money from the USDA for local food production? You may want to register for the Monday Dec. 7th USDA webinar to be held at 2pm Central Time.
Five million dollars has been awarded to organizations commited to local food:
“Launched in September 2009, the ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative emphasizes the need for a fundamental and critical reconnection between producers and consumers. ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ includes such major agricultural topics as supporting local farmers and community food groups; strengthening rural communities; enhancing direct marketing and farmers’ promotion programs; promoting healthy eating; protecting natural resources; and helping schools connect with locally grown foods. “
Find out more here: Webinar on USDA and Local Food.

Filed under: Events

3 Sustainability Planning Sessions for the Public in Madison: Oct 22, Oct 29, Nov 5

If you want to weigh in on the future of sustainability in Madison, come to one of 3 public meetings. The city is trying to make sure it has a greener future. Be a part of it!

“Sustainability is the ability to meet our needs without compromising the needs of future generations. ”

Join the City of Madison to inform the City’s Sustainability planning.

Please come to a community forum and learn about what the city is doing to make Madison’s community, economy and environment sustainable and share your priorities to shape upcoming efforts that will improve and sustain our quality of life now and for generations to come.

Community Meetings
* October, 22nd at Goodman Community Center – *6-8:30pm 149 Waubesa St.
* October, 29th at Overture, Wisconsin Studio – *5:30-8pm 201 State St.
* November, 5th at Sequoya Branch Library – *5:30-8:00pm 4340 Tokay Blvd
*Please come 15 minutes early for refreshments and to pick up materials It’s a conversation for you and generations to come, so please come and let us hear what you have to say about a Sustainable Madison.
For more information about this event and sustainability, go to
http://www.cityofmadison.com/sustainability/community/

Filed under: Uncategorized

The Natural Step Network USA is offering training in Chicago

Nov 18-20, 2009 Chicago, IL.

STRATEGIC SUSTAINABILITY FOR LEADERS – LEVEL 1 COURSE

Presented by The Natural Step Network USA and Strozzi Institute Associates

The Natural Step USA’s foundation course for sustainability champions and leaders will provide participants with a more robust understanding of The Natural Step Framework. Participants will gain skills and knowledge to make the case for change, apply a systems based approach to internal planning, and guide decision making to achieve sustainable results inside of the organization and out. The course includes a 1 year Individual Membership in The Natural Step Network and access to our community site, TransformAgents.org.
This three day-course will incorporate building personal leadership qualities that will enable you to powerfully influence your organization and inspire bold and courageous change.Register at http://www.naturalstepusa.org/SSFL

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We were blown away!: Montfort Wind Farm Road Trip Report

Prairie winds were in full force when a July 25th Next Step Wisconsin group visited the Montfort Wind farm. Carol Gruba gathered the fourteen wind watchers who hailed from Dodgeville, Chicago, UW Madison, The Natural Step Monona, MATC Madison, and the Madison Area Permaculture Guild.

The enthusiastic wind tourists peppered their guide Carol Anderson with questions about the wind plant and Carol readily answered. She owns the land that is underneath 4 of the GE turbines owned by NextEra, and she has compiled information and photographs on the wind farm since its construction. She hosts about 55 tours a year for elementary, high school, college, and community groups. Carol informed the Next Step Wisconsin group that the wind installation was the largest wind farm in the U.S. upon its commission in summer of 2001.

Other facts about the wind farm include:
*Montfort Wind Farm turbines begin to generate electricity at a wind speed of 8.9 mph and their computer-monitored blades ensure they safely cease operation at 56 mph
*Each 1.5 mW turbine generates enough electricity to power 350 homes
*The 20 wind turbines operate optimally at a speed of 26.8 mph.
*6 land owners lease land to NextEra for the 20 wind farm turbines

Carol Anderson rotates her family’s 550 acre Montfort-area farm through soybeans and corn with the help of her brother. She is a retired Cornell professor of human development and former Associate Director of Cornell’s Cooperative Extension.

Pictures are here.

Does this sound like a fun trip?! Register your interest in future green road trips: leave a comment, visit Carol Gruba on facebook, or send an email to bookluvn at yahoo . com.

Filed under: Events, Tours , montfort wind farm, wind in wisconsin, wind tour

Pictures from our windy road trip!

Apologies for this brief post – I am moving in 2 days.

Lovely photos of our road trip to Montfort’s wind farm July 25 are here!
Fourteen people came and the day was BEAUTIFUL.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Mega-Windy Tour to Montfort July 25th

It’s time to see megawatts of wind up close and
personal. In fact, you’ll have a hard time missing this awe-inspiring string of 20 towers
slowly spinning a total of 30 megawatts of green power 330 feet over your head.

Carol Anderson has welcomed our Next Step group and friends
for a tour of the 3 wind turbines she has
on her property near Montfort on July 25th. Plans are to leave
Madison at 9am with an arrival of 10:15 – 10:30am. Carol will give
us a lot of facts about the windmills on her property and wind
energy in general.

I strongly encourage all involved to carpool – I will do my best
to organize car pooling with a departure point being the Goodwill
Store on Verona road south of Madison.

Food following? We will be brown bagging it at a local park. I’ll
bring along icewater and drinking cups and emergency snacks for
the not-so-prepared.

Contact Carol Gruba to confirm your tour spot-please email
info@fullspectrumsolar.com

More questions? See the FAQ which follows.

Exactly where are we going-a map please? Confirm your spot on our
tour roster for this information.
Who owns the windmills? FPL Energy (perhaps known by some as
Florida Power and Light)

Why are we touring this site? In a recent earth day fair survey at
Habitat for Humanity’s Restore a top interest for a tour was wind
energy.

What is going on with wind in Wisconsin right now?
Renew Wisconsin is your best bet for up to the moment info. on
wind energy activity, wind basics, and wind advocacy in our state.

Who is our advocate for wind in the United States? American Wind Energy Association or AWEA. AWEA also collects information on the national wind market, etc.

Filed under: Tours , 1.5mw enron, montfort, wind tour

MREA Fair ’09: Speaking & Listening

Thank you to those who attended the talk that Liz and I gave at the MREA on Sunday. We placed a PDF version of our slides on the yahoo group [to sign up, send an email to NextStepWisconsin-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]. You can also send an email request to Carol– bookluvn at yahoo.com.

We spoke at 10am on a Sunday morning and we had almost 30 people in attendance. Our topic: What sustainability groups inspired by the Natural Step framework are accomplishing around Wisconsin. We made sure we had 10 minutes for the audience to comment and question. Here are some brief notes from our audience:

Peter Henry mentioned the WWISC: the Western Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Communities. He said that WWISC serves as sustainability communication point for northwest WI communities. His group sponsored a visit from a speaker from the Canadian chapter of the Natural Step recently [Email me some more details, anybody, as I could find none online.]. Pete Henry reports on WWISC activities at the blog ecomunicipality.com,

Another audience member filled us in on Eau Claire activities:
Recyclemania is a big deal at UWEC – this is a competion amongst schools to see who can recycle the most.
UW Eau Claire is measuring its carbon footprint
UW Eau Claire has a vibrant Green Team.

Fon du Lac
My notes say only “UW Global Warming Horicon” I did find the vibrant Fon du Lac Fire Souls web site which is really a wiki. I see over 100 members and plenty of current activity there…this looks like a good model for online connection!

Madison & SustainDane
Part of our speech addressed the need to carry the energy of the study circle into immediate action, and I mentioned the Earth Victory Garden project group of SustainJefferson. One of our audience members – Tricia Nason – discussed the growth and success of SustainDane’s “RainReserve” rain barrel project. She considers this an excellent next step for those who have completed a study circle on the Natural Step framework.

The night before, I spoke at length with a longtime MREA attendee and supporter Mary Carhartt of Grass Roots Energy Farm in Colorado. She was very pleased that we offered information on the actions that Natural Step groups have either inspired or carried out directly. I hope the spirit of Wisconsin and sustainability is carried to the west with her! We also had audience members from Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. They all stated they will be bringing Wisconsin ideas home for their local sustainability efforts.

I hope I don’t sound too corny here, but that’s the power of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association fair: it doesn’t really hit you until you’re there in person, but it really does connect a set of leaders in renewable energy and sustainability from all corners of the United States and beyond. I suspect there are established leaders who come in need of a booster shot of hope, and some who did not know they were going to become leaders until they were invited to. If you couldn’t make it this year, pledge to go in June of 2010—see you there!

Filed under: Events , midwest renewable energy fair, mrea, talk

Sign up for The Next Step Yahoo Group & See you at the MREA Fair

In an effort to help sustainability leaders to connect across the state, we created a yahoo group: NextStepWisconsin.
How do you sign up? Two steps.
1) Send an email to:
NextStepWisconsin-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
and
2) You’ll get a reply email to sign in.

We hope you will find this group to be a useful place to share news, event notices, ideas, and ask for help from other sustainability and natural step leaders in our state.

It’s time to enjoy the 20th annual Midwest Renewable Energy Fair along with 30,000 other people! $15 gets you 1 day’s entry to oodles of exhibits and 208 workshops on energy and sustainable living. The subject range is staggering: From Timber Framing for the Rest of us to Organic eating on a dime. From Building a sustainble brewery to….

10AM Sunday What are These Natural Step People Doing?
So many things to say – First – Liz Ferguson and I are giving a talk on our survey of Natural Step activities in Wisconsin. We set out to find out what the breadth and depth of Natural Step-inspired activity is in Wisconsin. The results are, not suprisingly, that there is so much going on it is very difficult to condense into a 40 minute talk [we are leaving some time for discussion at the end]. If you can come by, please do. We would love for you to get some ideas from our talk, find some connections with others, and inform us of any gaps in our info!

And MORE: Natural Step, EcoVillage, Enact Talks, Integrated Design…
*Test Ride EnAct: Steps to Green Living. Sunday Noon, Green tent
*The Natural Step, a Systems Perspective. Sunday 2pm, Maroon tent
*Integrated Design – The Jumping Together of Knowledge. Sunday 12 noon, Purple tent

See the full MREA workshop schedule here:

http://www.the-mrea.org/fair_workshops.php

Filed under: Sustainability News , energy fair, midwest renewable energy fair, mrea, next step wisconsin yahoo group, nextstepwisconsin, sustainability, the natural step