The organization’s blog, which I edit, is chock full of fantastic contributions, but today I finally contributed a post, and thought it might be a nice end-of-year blog to share w. you all as well!

So, if ya got about 5 min., hope you check this out…and in the process, learn about WIJABA!  Who knows, maybe you’ll find an occasion to travel in 2012 and help build school libraries wherever they go next!

http://www.justabookaway.org/blog/?p=511

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Julie

******

I believe that you make your own experience….and your own community.

So I admit it would annoy me when some high school friends would come home from college for their breaks and say to me, “How can you really get anything out of such a big school?”  You see, many of them were attending Ivy League universities (smaller classes, smaller campus) and I was attending UCLA (with a mere 35,000 students).

My response?  “Do you go visit your professors’ office hours and get to know them? Have you sought out an activity that you can embrace that gives you satisfaction in return?”  Often the answer to the first question was “uh, no”, but I had, and that made the school ‘smaller’ to me.  Some had done the latter.  For me, the latter was what made my college experience and played a major role in forming my approach to life.

My major was fantastic and I use every day what I learned.  But as it was more theoretical, I found the perfect practical complement, the college radio station at UCLA, where I became an on-air personality, head of the mobile DJ unit, and most importantly, the Director of Operations.  I ingrained myself, learning how things ran, how we worked with the administration to get funding, hiring/firing, and creating an alumni fundraiser…and I made a handful of lifelong friends.  Also key to my life (and to this discussion):  we were the underdog media outlet on campus, and we all banded together with a determination that everyone else should know about and respect what we offered.

Fast forward to today…

Those of us involved in the world of sustainability like to think that everyone around us is, too, and that everyone in the country is at least aware of the concept or the importance.  Of course, that is so not true, and we are certainly ‘the underdog’.  Just walk to your local convenience store, or go to a school meeting or art show, and see what the level of awareness is in displays or in talking to fellow attendees.

So become an active underdog and find a community that resonates with YOU (not your friends, not your spouse, but YOU first) and ingrain yourself.

My special focus happens to be green building.  I discovered that the Los Angeles Chapter of the US Green Building Council was opening a Westside branch (where I live) by wandering into a presentation.  I then offered to come and help where I can.  Now, not only am I fully ingrained in our branch and help create programming and support our team, but I’m more active in the overall Chapter and have met some of the smartest and nicest people I know.

A+D Museum

I attend events through Green Drinks or Women of the Green Generation, and support Global Green, Rock the Boat film and Pipe Dreams film, but committing myself to one group solidly that resonates with me daily has served me (and hopefully them) well.  This has lead me also to involvement with the great A+D Museum, and even aligns with some of my clients.

Find a group that resonates with you to walk in to or go online and get involved with?  Some ideas…

• Get involved with the Charlotte Green Team – go-to source on sustainability efforts within the Charlotte, NC, community.  What’s your town’s equivalent?
• Help toward expanding the green workforce through Green for All.
• Fight the Tar Sands.  Here is a link with a wonderful list of resources from Burbank Green Alliance and Wilder Utopia.
• Do a search in your community for green organizations and pick one.  Detroit, MI, has Greening Detroit, for instance.
• Help a person or community rebuild with Habitat for Humanity.
• Engage kids in learning and advocating for a sustainable economy and education: Teens Turning Green or Green Works in Kansas City.
• Industry specific?  The furnishings industry has formed the Sustainable Furnishings Council.
• Get active on your school’s PTA and if remodeling is being done, help guide it sustainably; or help initiate an organic garden on campus.  Become the green voice for your kids.
• Understand and learn to work with native flora at the Theodore Payne Foundation; start with a class, and you might find you do more!
• Help organize locally worldwide through 350.org.  

I met a recent college graduate a few months ago at a LOHAS event and he was overwhelmed with the green group choices in Los Angeles alone.  I bet you can imagine my response…

Would love to here from everyone about your local opportunities, YOUR interests…please share!  What will YOU get involved in and try out for 2012?

Grand Opening Event Oct. 6 with Entra Magazine

Los Angeles, CA (August 2011) – The new Community & Co. bears its mission in its name. Founder and interior designer Jennifer Ridel believes that a more perfect community transpires from a group effort, and she plans to have her Melrose Ave. interiors showroom be an inviting ‘salon’ to all.  With a Grand Opening event on Thursday, October 6th, Community & Co. (8259 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, CA 90046) is comprised of a collection of carefully curated new and vintage furniture pieces, with a mix of home accessories, select fabric lines, as well as art and events.

The Grand Opening event, by invitation, is in partnership with new stylish online Entra Magazine, whose team of print-media veterans brings the best in international design and architecture to the Web. Please contact Julie@dubroworks.com or rosette@dubroworks.com for invitation.

Ridel is the heart, soul and businesswoman behind this endeavor that focuses on creating a “community” space where art meets home. She draws people in to her sphere with her uplifting attitude. Infusing humor and fun into her serious passion for quality modern and elegant design has paid off. After meeting Charles Hollis Jones and having what Ridel describes as “jam session-like” conversations with him where ideas just flew, the pioneering American artist and furniture designer selected the entrepreneur’s showroom to be the sanctioned Los Angeles retailer for his new and vintage pieces. They are the cornerstone of Community & Co.’s floor. Hollis Jones crafted the award-winning Edison Lamp, is recognized by the Smithsonian for his groundbreaking use of acrylic and Lucite, and has supplied Frank Sinatra to President Barack Obama with custom pieces.

“Original handcrafted, heirloom quality furnishings, decorative objects and art—each of which has a story—are paramount to the eclectic showroom,” says Ridel. “A chair is not just a chair, it’s a chair with a past, a history, and a soul.”

Community & Co. also has an exclusive deal with noted Brooklyn, NY, based design studio Eskayel, which uses imagery from owner/designer Shanan Campanaro’s paintings as primary source material for fantastically patterned bespoke wall coverings, textiles, pillows, and ceramics, all sourced/made in the Northeastern U.S. The showroom is also the exclusive retail outlet for the new sleek and modern outdoor fireplaces, Modfire, created by designer-artist Brandon Williams and fabricated by steel artisans. Modfire was named ‘Best Furniture and Accessory Design’ at the 2011 Dwell on Design show in Los Angeles.

Two other lines offered will be Fenix and Foundation. The eclectic Fenix line of functional art pieces has a sculptural feel and is designed by owner Ridel, who has long admired the work of Gio Ponti, Antoni Gaudi, Tony Duquette and Marcel Wanders. Foundation is Community & Co.’s line of stylish upholstery staples, manufactured in Southern California. Plus a well-curated, globally-sourced selection of additional designers and product will be represented throughout the showroom on an ongoing basis.

Hollis Jones, Campanaro and Modfire owners Williams and Marty Young will be in attendance on Oct. 6th.

Reflecting this diverse crossroad where individual ideas, stories, culture and design meet, Community & Co. features a space dedicated to events that will range from art shows to book signings, surprise musical events and community gatherings. The goal of the space is an effortless atmosphere where knowledge of design and the arts will inspire and influence.

In the end, says Ridel, “It really is the ability to manipulate space and curate environments with design and the overall atmosphere that changes your mood immediately. It is my goal that each person feels that change when they walk in to the space, and then wants to transfer that to their home.”

Community & Co. also offers in-house design for residential, hospitality and commercial projects.

www.communityandco.com
https://www.facebook.com/CommunityandCo

Media Partner: www.entramagazine.com

http://greenisgood.fm/2011/04/electronic-waste-journal-ismail-oyekan-gathergreen-eduardo-sciammarella/

If you don’t know the GreenIsGood.com show by John Shegerian, he’s one of the best interviewers, and really understands and relates well to ENTREPRENEURS…because he IS one.

Follow @JohnShegerian

Follow @GatherGreen

Sign up for RELEVANT Green Deals / Actions / Info at www.GatherGreen.com

And on that note…be sure to check out my first post!

http://blog.practicallygreen.com/2011/04/reduce-reuse-recycle-were-celebrating-earth-day-every-day-at-practically-green/

Lots of great bloggers posting this week on that site, too, for Earth Week…so be sure to sign up there and take your easy, but directed, test to get you on a cool step-by-step path.  Love how they break it all down for you!

Have a GREAT Earth Day, everyone!

“We like to bring this perspective to as many clients as possible,” states Stevens.  “Using the right plant materials in the right places so that the end result looks just as good in 20 years with a minimal maintenance after-care program is the sustainable dream. It’s even easy to create ‘eco-friendly’ landscaping that is sophisticated and beautiful—not dry and barren—if it is well designed.”

Stevens notes that our traditional vision in America of the perfect landscape is what we copied from European architecture, which often includes symmetry and lushness.  While Stevens is proud of his work on many projects that have such a classic tenor, he hopes to provide confidence in creating an “American” garden which uses what makes sense for where we live, creates a haven uniquely our own, and also cleans the air as one important benefit.

But it’s the financial and time savings that Lindeman/Stevens sees as maybe the most timely benefits of choosing an “American” garden.  Using appropriate and beautiful regional plants results in longevity of survival and simplicity of maintenance.  These are certainly sustainable concepts, both for the environment and for people’s personal finances. Sophistication, cohesion and yes, symmetry, with the surroundings are the corresponding, positive visual results.

After installation, Lindeman/Stevens offers an “afterC.A.R.E.” (Create A Responsible Environment) plan that is uniquely prepared for the client and their design, especially smart if a large investment has been made.  This can include scheduled visits by the team, working with the client (or their gardener) to ensure proper maintenance—from specialty pruning, feeding schedules, water conservation, to professional pest and disease inspections. Stevens’ high-end clients who have used the “afterC.A.R.E.” services since installation have seen that with minimal, yet knowledgeable, service they have attained the longevity of their investment. Others have realized the program’s benefits later, after not paying attention to their original design investment, and then having to spend unnecessary time and money to return it to its proper state.

“We like to find the alternatives to what people are used to seeing,” says Lindeman.  “Dennis’ eye as a working artist has helped him look at and combine plants in a different way, one that others wouldn’t initially think of until he shows them the big picture.  And if he turns their garden more eco-friendly in the process, that’s a wonderful plus.”

ABOUT LINDEMAN/STEVENS

Dennis Stevens serves as the principal designer, with longtime business partner Karla Lindeman, for Los Angeles based Lindeman/Stevens Landscape Design.  In the landscape design profession for over 20 years, Stevens specializes in contemporary California-inspired landscapes, as well as traditional and modernist exteriors.  The partners believe in providing truly great design that will look just as good in 10 or 20 years as when it is installed.

An accomplished painter as well as landscape designer, Stevens is passionate about translating his artistic skills into sophisticated, timeless outdoor environments that also incorporate a sustainable outlook toward minimal maintenance.  His global work has been recognized by magazines from Architectural Digest and Garden Design to Variety, and featured in many film and television programs. His client list includes Hollywood celebrities, CEOs, noted architects and designers. Lindeman is a longtime collaborator of Stevens, with a history in landscape architecture, real estate development, business ownership, and a passion and ability for working with a wide variety of plants.

Combining an artistic approach with in-depth horticultural knowledge, Lindeman/Stevens achieves distinctive outdoor designs worth talking about.  Lindeman/Stevens is a member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, and involved with the Los Angeles Conservancy and the Nature Conservancy. (www.lindemanstevens.com)

For rest of article from EBN:  http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2011/1/27/SPI-Green-Firm-Certification-Goes-National/

Thanks for sending me this, Tova Greenberg of Nexus Green Building Resource Center (www.nexusboston.org)!

I’m turning 46 next month.

As I was driving home tonight listening to “Mexican Home” by John Prine, not sure of the connection but my mind wandered to the last few days and how many different art events I had attended (it’s LA Arts Month here in L.A.).  Because I’ve been so busy, I’m a day or two behind in writing up my diary—and yes, I do “catch up” so I have daily entries.  Obsessive?  Maybe so; but it also provides a sense of completion for me, as well as a wonderful way to recall what I did and when.  Some people have that instantaneous memory that can relay where they were on what date, doing what and with whom.  Not I.

When I’m this busy, the days seem to run into each other, and suddenly I realized that my regular check-ins on Foursquare would be providing me that memory trigger to be able to accurately document my days in my diary.  And then it hit me further:  these two conduits through which I keep track of my world could not be more different.  One is utterly private; my penmanship is so messy and small, I’ve never had to have a lock on my diary to protect either against my little sister (as a teen) nor potentially nosy mates (as an adult).  The other could not be more public. (And just to address it:  yes, Facebook could be used the same way, but I personally don’t use FB as much for where I am as for posting articles, sharing photos, etc., with the periodic–hopefully relevant–post about what I’m doing.)

Everything is shorter, more compact these days when it comes to information.  Complex thoughts or bits of information are consistently “dumbed down” to the simplest catchphrase.  Foursquare is a perfect example of that.  You don’t even NEED a catchphrase, you just find your location when you are someplace, and click “Check In.”  Yet I’m hooked.  Maybe because I’m a marketer; maybe because I know I have the counter-response to it in the evening, when I sit down and review the day.

I’m not declaring my diary entries as scintillating as ones would be from, oh, Lindsay Lohan (if she had the wherewithal to write one) or Bill Clinton (who did).  Admittedly, after 31 years of notebooks that range in style from flowery teenage diaries to “Composition Books” to the current recycled notebooks, the process often is quite rote (“Woke up, went to gym, worked at desk most of day…”).  But inevitably, as I quietly let the pen take over and enter a stream-of-consciousness mode, a nugget may creep in, something I did or read that I hadn’t realized had much significance at the time; or very personal reflection to an emotional event.  The privacy of my one-woman dialogue also periodically encourages snarky running commentary on any ridiculous personalities or situations I’ve encountered that day—a la Ricky Gervais at the 2011 Golden Globes.  Better here than ‘in public’.

You just don’t get this with Foursquare (and hopefully on Facebook, you don’t go overboard either).  There is something magical about a personal, thoughtful relationship with oneself; I treasure it.

I love that I can check in on Foursquare, earn my points that will someday get me a free Starbucks coffee or make me Mayor of my gym.  It’s a hoot!  But in our days that are inundated with information from every corner imaginable corner—phones, iPads, radio, TV, YouTube, eNewsletters, newspapers, etc. etc.—that quiet time with my own diary, my own reflection (even if you do it on your iPad) is a valued, and PRIVATE outlet, even when it feels periodically like an obligation after this many years…one I just can’t seem to let go.