Peter and I are staying for a few days at Meg and Dave’s lovely new home in Bartlett NH. They built the house from scratch over the last year or so, from 100% non-toxic materials (no plywood, glues, formaldehyde’s, etc)– many of our regular readers are familiar with the house already.

Curious enough to come to see it? They’ll be hosting an open house on June 22nd with representatives from Revision Energy (formerly Energy Works), and several more of their vendors and partners.

Yesterday afternoon, Meg and I went for a little drive to Bethlehem – “the Poetry Capital of New Hampshire” – to catch a presentation by Michelle Long of Sustainable Connections. Michelle is always inspiring to listen to; she and her husband have made some incredible achievements in Bellingham Washington through their work with Sustainable Connections. I’ve heard her speak now 4 or 5 times and every time, though it is always generally the same outline, there is new material reflecting the amazing impact they have made since the last time I heard her talk.

For example this year one of the big gains was in renewable energy usage in their county. They went from 0.6% to 12% in a single year– as a direct result of the Sustainable Connections campaign. No only that, but because of bulk pricing, the price of renewable energy dropped 40%!

I took away a few important tidbits yesterday:

Number 1 was that for each of their programs they do three things: Market Development, Education, and Connections. This makes a lot of sense. For example with their Green Building program, not only are they training architects and builders, but they are also working with consumers to build demand for green buildings. And they are connecting the architects and builders with local government officials to help ensure that innovative projects can get through the regulatory process. Result: highest per capita number of LEED buildings in the country, two LEED Neighborhood Development pilot projects, and 800 LEED accredited professionals.

Number 2 was “Be specific!”. The example she gives is her “Bike Friendly” Campaign- rather than simply telling her member businesses to be bike friendly, she gives them materials that specifically describes 8 steps to become bike friendly, and includes with the materials a form you would need to submit to the city to get a bike rack in front of your store.

Number 3 was a “Bias for Action“. Just do something already! You can talk all you want about the perfect solution, but . . . there is no perfect solution, just thousands of good solutions working together to change our perspective and right some wrongs.

So, let’s get to it!