February 2nd
Chris Edgar w/Texas Forest Service
February 9th
Valentines Show w/
Jennifer Lucas, Theo Chocolate
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On Thursday, January 26th Shades of Green hosted Paul Robbins for a discussion on the City of Austin’s proposed electric rates increases. Paul breaks things down in just the right amount of detail for an informative discussion. Listen to Shades of Green Energy each week at 1 PM in Austin, TX on KOOP 91.7 FM! Brad Love from Angel Productions talked with us about Symphony Awakening, a concert and expo he organized that was sponsored by Texas Green Network, Austin EcoNetwork, One World Theater and others. The event benefited SafePlace, Urban Patchwork and One World Theater Children’s Outreach Programs. The musical performance tells the true story about the Achuar tribe, a people indigenous to the Amazon and a green revolution. The unique tribe from deep in the rainforest of the Amazon has issued a call for help from people of the North to save their rain forest and the rest of the world. There is a now powerful grass roots interest in sustainability and consumers are awaking to the fact that they can have an influence, they can make being green profitable. The Austin EcoNetwork Expo following the symphony gave people the opportunity to meet green businesses, farmers, environmental organizations and government agencies that are helping advance a healthy, sustainable community. Two organizations in Austin are helping young professionals launch careers in the energy industry by providing the opportunity to network, build connections and stay informed on career opportunities. Renewable Energy Student Association, RESA is a student chapter of American Solar Energy Society and a club affiliated with Austin Community College, whose intended goal is to promote the educational and professional success of current and future practitioners in all the fields related to renewable energy. Jason Shaw, President and Mary Kelly, Vice President of RESA joined us live to talk about RESA activities. Another organization in Austin helping young professionals stay connected is Young Professionals in Energy, YPE. It is a non-profit energy industry networking organization with over 20,000 members worldwide. Steven Shannon, representing the local Austin chapter, told us that YPE aims to facilitate the advancement of young professionals in the energy industry around the world through social, educational and civic service oriented events. YPE runs a year-round calendar of events in 20 chapters around the world. Click here to listen to the Podcast.  From the left, Steven Shannon, Host John Hoffner, Mary Kelly, Co-host Reed Sternberg and Jason Shaw David Kuhlken from Pedernales Cellars and Gary McKibben from Red Caboose Winery joined Shades of Green Radio hosts at the KOOP studios on Thursday, December 22nd at 1:00 p.m. on 91.7 FM and streaming live on www.koop.org to talk about sustainability and green building design at Texas Vineyards. David Kuhlken is co-founder and winemaker at Pedernales Cellars. The cellar and case storage facility at Pedernales Cellars are all cooled using a ground loop geothermal cooling system that cuts in half their energy consumption for maintaining the climate in the production space. They continue to add to their green building design at Pedernales Cellars. Most of the bi-products of the winemaking is composted and re-used at the vineyard in the spring. Steps taken to eliminate invasive species at the vineyard have led to the re-establishment of seeps and springs that had previously been lost. The work has helped to make a better habitat for the native Hill Country wildlife on the property.  John and son, James with guest, David Kuhlken at the KOOP studios Gary McKibben, owner and architect at Red Caboose Winery called in and also joined us on-air with interesting details on sustainable green building details for vineyards. The people at Red Caboose Winery are interested in more than traditional winery design. Red Caboose Winery incorporates sustainability design principles, including: gravity wine flow, solar PV electricity panels on roof, geothermal chilling and cooling, capturing rainwater from our roof for irrigation, and using sustainable materials. All of these fundamental green building design principles translate to energy efficiency and cost savings. Listen to the podcast to hear the details!
Clay Butler, founding partner of The Butler Firm and member of Solar Austin, and Audrey Thompson, President of Solar Austin joined Shades of Green Radio in the KOOP studios to discuss the latest Solar Austin initiatives, the upcoming Power Lunch series and their recent work to bring solar to Austin. On Wednesday, December 21st Solar Austin is hosting a Happy Hour and Forum to discuss the announced rate change proposals and the future of solar power in Austin. The Happy Hours starts at 5:30 and Forum begins at 6:30 p.m. at the 29th Street Ballroom at Spider House. Butler will moderate a panel of speakers that include:
This Shades of Green Radio Program was a wrap up for 2011 regarding sustainability and environmental advocacy with several of the 8 Great Organizations who co-hosted Austin’s Green Holiday Party on Thursday, December 15th starting at 6 PM. The party was co-hosted by
Reporting on a year of environmental work in Austin we heard from: David Power, deputy director, Public Citizen who discussed energy efficiency laws pending in the governors office where your support is needed to help encourage adoption. He also brought our attention to their blog, texasvox.org. Stacy Guidry, program director, Texas Campaign for the Environment, TCE that has recently celebrated their 20th anniversary. Jane Baxter-Lynn executive director, U.S Green Building Council, Central Texas. Brandi Clarke Burton, founder, Austin EcoNetwork discussed the way the website is a center for information on sustainability in Austin. AEN has a calendar, blog and directory. She also discussed their new communication tool, the Eco Newsletter which you can sign up to receive when you visit the AEN website. Ken McKenzie-Grant, vice-president, Design Build Live. …. And the outlook for 2012 is looking bright green! Scott Price and Joe Day work with Slow Money Austin, which is a member of Slow Money Texas and the Slow Money Alliance. Slow Money Austin is working to increase capital opportunities for food entrepreneurs. Scott and Joe talked with us about opportunities to invest to help grow local food development something they described as feeding the soil of the economy. Slow Money Alliance website says, “The 21st Century will be the era of nurture capital, built around principles of carrying capacity, care of the commons, sense of place and non-violence.” Continuing on in the show we talked about Climate Change and Global Warming with Michael Tobis, Research Science Associate at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. Tobis is very much a software engineer working with one of the largest computers in the country. His global simulation studies provide a great deal of data and as Tobis explains, “Humans are increasingly the main impact on the environment, which is getting warmer.” He continued, “We can’t live on a growth economy forever.” To hear more from Michael Tobis listen to the podcast of the show where Michael provides an in depth perspective on the continued climate change and its impacts. You can also read more about Michael’s research at Planet3.org. Russel Smith, executive director at Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association, (TREIA) talked about the development of TREIA and gave a brief historical perspective of a recap on the annual gathering of Texas renewable energy industries at the Texas Renewables 2011 conference held in Corpus Christi November 6th through 9th. Smith reviewed major issues impacting renewable energy industries in Texas, many of which were discussed at Texas Renewables 2011. Click here to listen to the Podcast.
Past and present hosts and co-hosts gathered in the KOOP studio to celebrate Shades of Green Radio Program’s 5-Year Anniversary on-air! On-air party was then taken to Black Star Co-Op for some eco-friendly beer. Black Star Co-op means supporting livable wages, democratic workplaces, local farms, and quality products from your community brewpub! David Weinberg, Texas League of Conservation Voters and Laura Huffman, Texas Nature Conservancy joined us on Shades of Green Radio Program to discuss the issues of on the ballot this November and many of those issues are related to conserving and preserving the environment and protecting the important water resources we have in Texas.  David Weinberg joins us live on Shades of Green Radio |
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