Living Carbon’s Briony Penn worked with lead developer and designer Charles Buchwald and others to create the design and site architecture. With a quickly developing mandate in a constantly changing business and governmental landscape, flexibility was a key design criteria. The Headway meta-theme and WordPress CMS keep the site highly responsive, flexible, and easy to maintain.

Original illustrations by Penn have been combined with a voiceover by Buchwald into an effective and friendly introductory video. Working with a tight budget and limited time constraints, the simple animation conveys a sense of the company purpose and method in a concise way, helping to explain the complex process of living carbon offsets.

Charles Buchwald & Friends is proud to be a part of this innovative BC conservation initiative. Please visit the new site to find out more and participate in their projects.

A simple implementation of the WordPress CMS helps ensure the site is easy to update and otherwise maintain and expand. A custom logo and illustrations developed for a promotional print piece add character while reinforcing a consistent message. Understated design and animation convey Janelle’s commitment to quality and tasteful innovation and reflect a bit of the rich agricultural and cultural heritage of Salt Spring Island.

From their site:

GreenWay Partners provides a range of design, planning, research and engineering services to improve our clients’ economic, environmental and social performance. Our mission is to play a leading role in the development and implementation of the policies and practices that effectively regenerate both human and natural systems.

We work with governments, tribes, schools and universities, private firms, and other organizations using a design perspective and innovative methods to develop solutions that respond to the unique context and specific needs of each of our clients.

See more about their successful “Plan It Green” conference, too. And if you are working to make the world a better place, please connect with me on Facebook or here on the web.

CB&F will be at the Salt Spring Island event to donate event photography and post the official photo. Check back to see the photo! Here’s the photo:

Climate Action Day on Saltspring Island, Canada

Here’s what Shoshanah Ray Waxman wrote about the event:

A critical mass bike ride and community rally was held on Salt Spring Island, BC with the theme “Ganges Underwater.” People are dressed up in snorkels, wetsuits and flippers to represent the result of climate change and rising sea waters on our island’s main village. A new water line was mapped out and marked with signs showing which local  businesses and landmarks would be submerged if waters rose 5 meters. Gathering at the high school gymnasium, we heard music from local artists, including a sing-along to a specially composed song “Be the Change” by Phil Vernon. The Raging Grannies graced us with their might, and high school student Geoff McFarlane shared a song titled “Let my World Revolve.” Child entertainer Raffi sang a world premier of “Sustainability”—a song form his forthcoming album “Communion”. We also introduced the idea of a Transition Initiative to make our community more self-reliant and carbon-neutral. Our message to our government is “Don’t let us sink at Copenhagen!”

Here’s more on the day and events, directly from 350.org:

On October 24, 2009, millions of people around the world will take action to spread the number 350, the safe level of CO2 in the atmosphere measured in parts per million, and make sure world leaders are on course to reach that target.

I’m attending a 350.org event near me because I want to be part of the solution. Please check out http://www.350.org to find or start an October 24 event near you.

It’s urgent that we act together and build a movement that will solve the climate crisis and ensure a safe and just future for the world. Please join me, and help build this movement at 350.org

350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

350.org needs your help! To support our work, donate securely online at http://www.350.org/donate

Here’s the official 350.org Flickr page.

If you don’t know about Raffi’s recent efforts, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about them:

In recent years, Raffi has devoted himself to “Child Honouring”, his vision for creating a humane and sustainable world by addressing the universal needs of children. His “Covenant for Honouring Children” outlines the principles of this philosophy.

In 2006, with Dr. Sharna Olfman, he co-edited an anthology,Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around, which introduces Child Honouring as a philosophy for restoring communities and ecosystems. It contains chapters by Penelope Leach, Fritjof Capra, David Korten, Riane Eisler, Mary Gordon, Graca Machel, Joel Bakan, Matthew Fox, Barbara Kingsolver, and others. The book’s foreword is by the Dalai Lama. Resisto Dancing: Songs of Compassionate Revolution is the companion music record album for that book.

In a 2006 speech, Iona Campagnolo, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, referred to Child Honouring as a “vast change in the human paradigm.”

For a bit more, check out Raffi’s Troubadour Music and What is Child Honouring?, as well as our local newspaper, the Gulf Islands Driftwood, and this recent editorial piece, Child Honouring Urgently Needed.

One of the lovely things is that the philosophy encompasses both social and environmental responsibility and sustainability, so that the efforts are inherently green, community-building, and peacemaking.

CB&F are seeking pro bono donations from highly qualified web professionals; please contact us if you are interested in participating in a world-changing movement!

WOLF Kids web site

The WOLF Kids program is a very exciting “nature immersion” program on the leading edge of educational curricula. Here’s an excerpt from the program description:

Wolf Kids offers a nature immersion and home school program where students interact with their natural environment through adventure, challenges, and a lot of fun. A core principal of the program focuses on experience in nature, as it has always been fundamental to the education of young developing human beings. For instance, climbing trees and running, tracking animals, building shelter and watercraft, making fire, discovering edible and medicinal plants, students acquire a keen knowledge of the taxonomy of flora and fauna, as well as traditional outdoor skills. These activities lead to an ecological integrity, which answers the call for affirmation and maximization of the potential of our children. Their classroom is the forest, ocean, fields, streams, and mountains. Their teachers are the otters, birds, shifting winds, and the people who make up our tribe. This full immersion program, utilizes both scientific and indigenous studies. Through hands-on outdoor experiences, students develop an ingrained knowledge and awareness of the natural world, and their place in it. They become eager and quick learners, the stewards and unshakeable voices of our environment, in whatever they choose to do for the future.

Please check out the site and leave a comment to let us know what you think!

The Work That Reconnects: Discovering Our Ecological Self
Sunday, July 19th

“our pain is a measure of our love for our world”

The Work that Reconnects helps us to connect with our deepest emotions about Earth in a respectful and supportive environment. By recognizing and experiencing the profound feelings we have about what is happening on our planet, we develop insight into our radical interdependence. From this understanding comes hope and empowerment!

The workshop utilizes experiential group exercises, ritual, creative process, journaling, movement, time in nature, discussion, and community building. By exploring our “ecological selves” we experience a wider sense of identity and discover new possibilities for engaging our hearts and minds in healing Earth.

Created by deep ecologists Joanna Macey, Thomas Berry, Arne Naess, John Seed and others, these experiences can sustain us as agents of change in the Great Turning – this process of building a Life-Sustaining Community from the wreckage of the Industrial Growth Society.

Goals of the workshop:
to provide people the opportunity to experience and share with others their innermost responses to the present condition of our world
to reframe their pain for the world as evidence of their interconnectedness in the web of life, and hence of their power to take part in its healing
to provide people with concepts–from systems science, deep ecology, or spiritual traditions–which illumine this power, along with exercises which reveal its play in their own lives
to provide methods by which people can experience their interdependence with, their responsibility to, and the inspiration they can draw from past and future generations, and other life-forms
to enable people to embrace the Great Turning as a challenge which they are fully capable of meeting in a variety of ways, and as a privilege in which they can take joy
to bring people into mutual support and collaboration in working for the world

Please contact Shoshanah at shoshanahray@gmail.com or 250-537-8598 to participate in this work shop.

About the facilitator:
Shoshanah has been involved in the Work that Reconnects for approximately five years. She has studied with Joanna Macy and John Seed, and taken a workshop facilitator training with Ruth Rosenhek of the Rainforest Action Network. Last summer she facilitated deep ecology exercises with children at FUN (Friends Uniting For Nature) Camp in Vancouver, including two “Councils of All Beings”.

How can it be more than 100 percent? Carbon offset credits are purchased for that much more of the energy used. We’re doing our best to contribute to efforts to limit the generation of greenhouse gasses and other harmful side effects of energy production.

If you have more ideas about how to improve our service or our environmental footprint, please leave a comment!

So much of design is about finding compromises. Sometimes it’s simple trade offs such as strength vs. weight. With systems thinking like this, the questions become more challenging: how to design so that we consume less? How can design lower our negative impacts on the environment? Can our designs be produced sustainably?

With increasing awareness and emphasis on green design, I’m making this the first of a new category here on this blog. Stay tuned for more!

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard.