Okay, so here's my short recap of the last couple of weeks:
After a week in Portland, we interviewed the eco-pioneer, Carsten Henningsen, with Portfolio 21, http://www.portfolio21.com/. For decades he's worked on getting others to invest in green and social businesses, and has used the natural step guidelines to help structure the overall business. http://www.ortns.org/about.htm Using strict criteria, their successful firm is dedicated to promoting sustainable business practices. I enjoyed talking with him, because I strongly feel that we can make social and ecological responsible choices through our dollars, and investing in the businesses that Portfolio 21 is involved with sends clear messages to our consumer country. So what if Andy and I don't have $5000 to invest in green mutual funds, it does make us think about who and what we support.

Though we haven't interviewed anyone at cityrepair, we did ride upon one of their intersection projects in Portland. Biking through the intersection, each corner provides a space for community to meet. On one corner there is a tea station, with hot water, a variety of teas, and cups to boot. On the other corner one can drop of goods and write messages, and the other two we found a children's playhut and book exchange. The area is whimsical, colorful, and fun, so much so, that Andy and I had to peak around and enjoy! http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/about.

In addition to discovering Portland, we ended up renting a car to arrive in John Day, OR for their 10th annual Solwest, http://www.solwest.org/. Jennifer Barker, a woman with passion, tenacity, and perseverance created something out of nothing in her small town of John Day. Basically, she wanted to go to the energy fairs that were happening in other places in the country such as in Custer, WI(MREA) http://www.the-mrea.org/, or the the one in California, but it was too far to drive. With a seed of an idea and little money, she thought of the possibility of bringing something similar to her hometown. Every year for the past 10, the town now comes alive with entrepreneurs, off and on grid type folks, innovative businesses, and people who just like to have fun! For the three day festival, Jennifer had secured a table for us, we received free camping from Mike(and great marriage advice) and interesting bike stories from his dad, Jerry, and new friendships with Tom and his wife Sandra, delicious vegetarian meals, and the information from dozens of great people who have been working on capturing solar energy, figuring out how to use biodiesel/vegetable oil long before they were "green" buzz word, and taking action on saving money using renewable resources. Throughout the weekend, we received great ideas about solar energy, the business in general, and how it's booming so much manufacturers can't keep up in Oregon.



After going back up to Portland, we finally headed to the western interior of Oregon on bikes. Escaping the narrow lanes and rushing traffic outside of Oregon City we finally got to Corvallis. Our new friends, Liz and Ryan, volunteered to put us up for the evening and after a nights sleep and a much needed massage we headed to Jonathan's place.

I was excited for the home tour, as he lives relatively close to the town center and lives in a on-grid, off-grid house. He produces most of his energy with his solar arrays, where basically he pays just his taxes and small water bill. In addition, he also grows a lot of his food intake year round, and the technology that I was floored with was his composting toilet. Okay, so it's not new technology, rather it's something very simple, a bucket filled with a sawdust base. It smells of woodchips, and he takes it out once every two weeks(depending on the load) to turn into compost. The composting pile has to get high enough in temperature to kill any pathogens. So if composted correctly(and he has yet to have any problems), it ends up being human safe, doesn't pollute the water table, and provides nutrient rich soil, while cutting down on the water bill. When I get back to Bloomington, I'm definitely going to have to read the Humanure book, http://www.weblife.org/humanure/ as it really was a common sense surprise. With his composter and off the grid-on the grid set up, individuals could implement these practices in urban or rural areas. The only large obstacles is that the solar arrays are costly upfront, and though Oregon has many progressive incentives that would pay one back, other states aren't as fortunate.







Further in the day, we then had an appointment with Brandon, over at the Oregan State, http://oregonstate.edu/sustainability/about.html who led us around campus in the electric cars and showed us the Leed building, along with talking extensively about the universities initiatives.They have received numerous recognitions in their green practices, such as the EPA's Best Workplaces for Commuters, and are a "sustainable campus leader" in the nation. In addition to Brandon tireless efforts, the university is part of the city's sustainable coalition and they have signed on to the American Colleges and Universities President's Climate Commitment(which Bloomington has yet to do). http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/index.php

Andy and I ended the evening with Maureen and her husband Paul, talking about the Natural Step principals, and the Northwest Earth Institute Series that she has been heavily involved with for the past decade. I felt akin to her words, as I was involved in both applications in Madison, WI. The Natural Step basically is a set of conditions developed by an oncologist that creates sustainable systems. Businesses, such as Shorebank and Nike, have been implementing the conditions to their practices and cities have been signing on as well, such as Madison, WI and Portland. As for the NWEI, there are books that facilitates dialogue about creating sustainable livestyles, discovering ones sense of place, living more simply, etc. http://www.nwei.org/

The next day before heading to Eugene we stopped off at the very active Coop, First Alternative http://www.firstalt.coop/, and talked with Emily. She informed us of the coop solar panel and recycling initiatives, along with the local 6 program, which promotes the 6 surrounding counties that are producing food. At the end of August they are asking the community to participate in the local 6 challenge, where 80%of the diet for two weeks will come from the local area. I like the marketing of promoting local counties, as it seems more tangible to me then eating in a 100mile radius, as I don't know what farms that would include. The Co-op also promotes the local farmers with a info binder that customers can peruse while checking out the produce. Emily was gracious in giving us a tour and information, and even helped me with ideas on my sister's bachelorette get together.

So now we are in Eugene trying to figure out our next adventure, and hopefully will come up with some ideas soon. Hopefully it will include a shower, as Andy and I camped at some fishing pond with no amenities last night.