Heart of Green

Full Circle Forum

You are invited to Philanthropy Remixed, the latest in mad DJ skills, I mean, Full Circle Fund's signature annual Forum that is always the place to be. Join this rocking night of civic engagement featuring Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and showcasing bold models for sustainable social change. 

Full Circle Fund presents

Forum 2008

Philanthropy Remixed - A New Generation In Motion

 

WHERE:

Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel

One Nob Hill, San Francisco

WHEN:
Thursday November 13, 2008

6:00 pm  VIP Reception

6:30 pm  Action Expo

7:30 pm  Main Program with Sheryl Sandberg Keynote

8:00 pm  Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus

8:30 pm  Networking Party to 11:00 pm

INVITATION:
View the full Forum Event Invitation

RSVP:
Reserve your spot here

FULL CIRCLE FUND:
The nonprofit Full Circle Fund is an engaged philanthropy organization cultivating the next generation of community leaders and driving lasting social change in the Bay Area. They offer the following Circles: Technology, Environment & Energy, Housing, Education, and the new Global Economic Opportunity Circle.

I serve as a member of the Environment & Energy Circle and have been working with Green For All and the Ella Baker Center on their green jobs program. Hope to see you at the Forum - it is always a bustling and inspiring night!   www.fullcirclefund.org

Amazon Watch Party

The Amazon rainforest is one of the most extraordinary places on earth. Did you know for example that rainclouds from the Amazon supply over half of the water for America's farmlands?  and that the Amazon basin stores over 85 billion metric tons of carbon? 

 

I am excited about the upcoming Amazon Watch event on October 30 in, where else, the Green Room in San Francisco. Enjoy a delicious luncheon, celebrate the recent victories in protecting the Amazon and the indigenous peoples who live there, and hear the always-astounding words of Luis Yanza - the Goldman Environmental Prize winner from Ecuador.

Amazon Watch Celebration Luncheon
October 30, 2008
12 noon - 1:30 pm
The Green Room, War Memorial Veterans Building
401 Van Ness Avenue, Second Floor
San Francisco

Space is limited. Complimentary entry. Donor's Choice.
Rsvp to 415-487-9600 or to rsvp at amazon watch dot org

Learn more about Amazon Watch at www.amazonwatch.org

Democracy 24

You are invited to the Democracy 24 Green Block Party starting Friday October 24 at 6:00 pm at the corner of Bay and Columbus in San Francisco (old Tower  Records location) to celebrate democracy and all things green.

This party, which runs a whopping 24 hours, features multiple djs, dancing, organic cocktails, art installations, spoken word performances, a giant 24-foot ice sculpture and much much more.

It is hosted by SFGreenClean - one the greenest dry cleaners in the nation, Democracy 24, and the fabulous eco-fashion boutique Eco Citizen. Speaking of fashion, enjoy a 24% discount off everything at Eco Citizen on Friday October 24 only.  24 hours on the 24th for democracy and the environment. Now that is hope personified!

Systematic Landscapes by Maya Lin

Maya Lin has always been a green maverick with a hammer. At only 21 years of age, she won the competition at Yale to design the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial in DC and has been raising eyebrows ever since.

See the new extraordinary Maya Lin exhibition entitled Systematic Landscapes at the de Young Museum in San Francisco opening this Saturday October 25 and running through January 18.  Step inside the earth and see her jaw-dropping 2x4 hill made from 60,000 sustainable wooden blocks that swell into a wave. And that is just the beginning.

As a famous environmental artist, Maya Lin honors the striking and beautiful patterns inherent in nature and geography – and helps us to see them and ourselves in a new light. Be awed, delighted, entertained, and inspired at Systematic Landscapes, which is presented by PG&E. You can even walk through Blue Lake Pass (pictured) and under Water Line. Then take a stroll through Golden Gate Park while you are there. If you are like me, you simply don’t get there enough!  De Young Museum

For more environmental art – both attractive and provoking – take a trip through the intriguing pictures at www.greenmuseum.org and you just might find some jewels like Chrysanne Stathacos. But then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Hot New Book by Van Jones

The new book by Van Jones is out!   It is called The Green Collar Economy - How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, and it is hotter than a solar thermal plant.  What are the two problems?  Poverty and global warming/oil dependence.  What is the solution?  In the words of Van Jones, the green collar economy "connects the people who most need work with the work that most needs to be done."

The head of the Green For All organization, Van Jones is one of the most visionary and inspiring leaders of our time.  His solution is bold and compelling in its simplicity:  put millions of people to work re-powering America with clean energy. Get ready to install millions of solar panels, retrofit and weatherize millions of buildings, manufacture and install thousands of wind turbines, and green our cities with trees, parks and gardens. The future is bright green, and it includes everyone.

Think of it as a Green New Deal.  If we continue implementing, we can help to create millions of green collar jobs, rescue our economy, and save our environment. Now seems like a pretty darn good time to do this. How fast can we make this green dream a reality?  A fantastic pilot program is happening at the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, and more are sprouting up across the nation.  This is the ingenuity of the human spirit at work, and it is a beautiful thing. The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones.

Update:  Van's book is now on the New York Times best-seller list propelled by an outpouring of support from grassroots fans and online communities. Look in next Sunday's paper! 

Brower Youth Awards

On October 21st, over 1,000 people will flock to San Francisco for the Brower Youth Awards, the top environmental prize for young green rising stars in North America. This year the amazing American Idol recording artist Elliott Yamin will be in the house performing two songs.

Brower Youth Awards
The top environmental prize for young people in North America

WHEN:
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
5:30 pm  VIP Opening Reception
7:30 pm  Awards Show
9:00 pm  Post Reception

WHERE:
Herbst Theatre & Green Room
401 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco

FEATURING:

• Glamorous Awards Show
• Performances by American Idol Elliott Yamin
• Exclusive pre-show VIP Reception
• The six young BYA Winners and their inspiring words
• DJ Dojah
• Magnanimus Wines including Mendocino Farms and the new Talmage
• Multimedia videos
  
• Volute Wine
  
• An eco-friendly event

FAMOUS PAST WINNERS:

• Billy Parish (04) for Energy Action Coalition, Campus Climate Challenge
• Jon Warnow (07) for Step It Up
• Actress Q’orianka Kilcher (07) for success in the Amazon

HONORARY HOSTS:
Paul Hawken, Bill McKibben, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,  Q’orianka Kilcher, Carmen Chu, and other honorary guests.

HOST COMMITTEE:
Nadine Weil, Jennifer Snyder, John Knox and Carole Roberts, India Badiner, Josh Becker, Jared Blumenfeld, Shirley Richardson Brower,  Peter and Mimi Buckley, Martha Davis, Helen and Raj Desai, Larry Fahn, Josh Floum and Maggie O’Donnell, Annette and Fred Gellert, Michael Hathaway, Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Allan and Marion Hunt-Badiner, Cynthia Kang, Eric Kessler, David and Betty Kollen, Leslie and Jacques Leslie, Marianne Manilov, Anna and Rob McKay, Dave Phillips and Pam McCann, Kimberly Pinkso, Kelly Quirke and Stephanie Alston, Sudeep Rao, Adam Werbach

GUESTS:
1,000 guests including VIP entertainment, business, youth, environmental, community, and cultural leaders. Sponsored by Visa, Clif Bar, esurance, As You Sow, Back to Earth, Cavallo Point and Heart of Green.

RSVP:
The show is almost sold out.
Reserve your spot at www.broweryouthawards.org
All proceeds benefit the nonprofit Earth Island

DRESS:  Cocktail or Luxury-Eco

ABOUT:
The nonprofit Earth Island was founded in San Francisco in 1992 by legendary green pioneer David Brower who helped to save the Grand Canyon, King's Canyon, and Point Reyes; created the World Heritage System; and was nominated for the Nobel Piece Prize three times.  Earth Island is an environmental incubator with a proven model that develops environmental leaders for the future.  They support a green portfolio of 45 environmental entrepreneurs and projects in global warming, oceans, youth environmental leadership, conservation, restoration, organic farms, nature education in schools, and more.  Their New Green Leaders Initiative is the beneficiary of the Brower Youth Awards and has motivated thousands of young people to care for the planet.

This Old Bag Party

We all have old handbags stuffed into the closet – and new handbags we would love to buy that are either too expensive or not green enough or both. Enter the party to solve all of our handbag problems - This Old Bag: The Power of the Purse event on October 17 at the W San Francisco.

This not-to-be-missed party benefiting the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund features cocktails, appetizers, and 300 handbags including many donated and autographed by celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, Minnie Driver, Julianne Moore, Sharon Stone, and Oprah Winfrey. Most exciting for eco-fashionistas with a heart of green will be the new party section called Pink Goes Green featuring recycled purses.  

This Old Bag: The Power of the Purse Party
Friday October 17, 2008
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
W San Francisco
181 Third Street, San Francisco

Don't let someone else snag your bag.  Reserve your spot at www.thisoldbag.org

    

Rock the Vote

I rarely discuss politics on Heart of Green but occasionally I just can’t help myself.  Now is one of those times.

In San Francisco on November 4, I strongly urge everyone to get out and vote first and foremost (rock the vote!), and while you are there, please consider voting No on Proposition H – the hostile takeover of PG&E. Yes, hostile. As crazy as it might sound, our local Board of Supervisors is proposing a $4 Billion unsolicited public takeover of our local gas and electric utility. This is a very bad idea for at least the following seven reasons:

1. We don’t have $4 Billion to spend right now

2. Do we really want to give the Board of Supervisors the right to issue bonds in the future to takeover all public utilities (electric, gas, phone, Internet) without voter approval?  Um, no.

3. We don’t want our energy bills to increase $400 a year

4. No offense to anyone, but the Board of Supervisors seems unqualified to run an energy utility, prevent blackouts, keep the lights (CFLs) on, and lead us into the clean energy century. Think about the Muni bus system for example. Enough said.

5. Proposition H is not about what is best for San Francisco. It is an ideological power grab, and a dangerous one.

6. The Board of Supervisor members behind Proposition H support socialized power, not renewable energy.  They recently voted to build a new fossil fuel burning and polluting power plant in Potrero Hill.

7. Proposition H will not lead to a cleaner and greener city. There is no guarantee that the energy will be clean. They tried to call it a "Clean Energy Act" on the ballot but were legally barred because it was not true. PG&E is a leading solar power utility in the country and earned the 2007 Solar Portfolio Leadership award from the Solar Electric Power Association.

Renewables:  PG&E is on track to meet the aggressive renewable energy portfolio goals set by the state of California for 2010.  PG&E’s power mix is currently 14% renewable, 17% large hydroelectric and 22% natural gas.  I have studied this issue in depth and have come to the conclusion that it is very easy to say "increase renewables to 100%" and very difficult to do this in practice.  We need significant federal and state investment incentives for transmission and storage technology to make this happen. For example, wind blows mostly at the wrong time, at night when less energy is needed, and we have no way of storing it currently. PG&E can invest in large solar thermal plants in the desert which they are doing, but then how do we bring the energy from the desert to San Francisco?  New transmission lines are needed to achieve radical increases in renewable energy. That said, we should be pursuing the transition from dirty fossil fuel energy to renewables as fast as possible in the spirit of Google's clean energy plan.

As Supervisor Carmen Chu says, “As a city, our priorities need to be solving the budget crisis and keeping our parks clean and our streets safe. Spending $4 billion on a power system takeover is the wrong priority.”

So let’s give Proposition H the heave-ho. Let’s keep the lights on, the renewable energy plans on track, the greenhouse gases in check, and the money in the residents’ pockets. Let’s not right a blank check to the SF Board of Supervisors. Please vote No on Proposition H. See also the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial An electrified risk: Reject Prop H

And while you are there, please consider voting Yes on Proposition 2 to help stop cruel animal farming and support family farmers. The web site www.ecovote.org also has some excellent analysis and recommendations on many ballot measures. www.rockthevote.org

Wild Conservation Expo

My favorite wild animal act is coming to town – and no, it is not a circus act. It is the annual Wildlife Conservation Expo featuring the top big animal trainers (read: conservationists) from all over the globe. 

 

What is your favorite endangered species – tigers, cheetahs, elephants, okapi, antelopes, snow leopards?  They are all here at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo this weekend at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco on Saturday October 4 and then at the always-rocking Garden Party on Sunday at founder Charlie Knowles’ private home in the Los Altos Hills complete with live music and even livelier wild cat ambassadors.  www.wildlifeconservationnetwork.org