Presentations

Director Vinit Allen is available to present at conferences and events on the following topics:

1. Global Sustainability — the big picture

Understanding the basics of what it would take to achieve global sustainability—a healthy planet and a just, thriving human society—begins with understanding the primary cultural drivers that are causing so much damage. The many threatening issues we face, both environmental and social, are symptoms of these cultural drivers, so this is the most effective place to focus our work. The presentation features a powerful short documentary video, as well as an interactive exercise that reveals how strongly our own cultural input has affected our worldview and behavior.

2. The Ecological Footprint — our most critical indicator for personal and global sustainability

The ability to quantify the many environmental challenges we face is critical to solving them; the adage “what gets measured gets managed” applies fully here. The Footprint is a precise way of measuring our impact, from our own personal actions and consumption, to those of our community, nation, continent and the planet as a whole. This impact is in relation to the natural regenerative capacity of the planet, so we become very clear how much we are drawing against our “principal” of available resources.

3. The “Three Pillars of Sustainability” — why every issue includes ecology, economy and equity.

We now know that environmental, social and economic issues all need to be approached holistically, taking into account the other two. Environmental issues, for example, have social and economic implications that are part of the causes and must be addressed—hence the term environmental justice (EJ). We've learned a lot recently from both failed and successful attempts to deal with problems, and the one thing that's crucial is to bring all the stakeholders in to bear on the issues.

4. Personal Actions for a Healthy Environment — in order of priority

Many of us now know many “green” actions we can take, but few people know the relative impacts of these actions. How many compact fluorescent bulbs would we need to install to offset a plane trip of 500 miles? Recent data now allows us to know how different actions compare in terms of actually lowering our personal Footprint, and why.

5. Sustainable Communities — principles and practices

We now have several excellent models for successful local communities, such as Transition Towns and BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies). We examine the proven principles and practices, and look at successful examples in different parts of the world. What are the areas we need to work on, and what are the steps to get there?

 

Panel

Roadmap to a Healthy Future — the game plan for humanity

As we are finding out, solving humanity's big challenges in the key areas of environment, human rights and economics will require a great deal of cross-sector collaboration—the days of the single issue silo focus are over. This lively and engaging dialogue with a diverse group of influential movers and shakers will be exploring what the key foundations need to be for a master plan that will move us in the direction of a world based on ecological stewardship and social justice, and what each of us can do to help bring this about.

 

Past Presentations

All events on this page were produced by the Sustainable World Coalition in collaboration with other public service organizations, as noted below.

Past Events

In Collaboration With The Environmental Forum Of Marin

Making The Connections: Knowing The Implications Of Our Daily Choices

Vinit Allen presented, examining three daily activities: purchases, food choices, and information sources. His PowerPoint presentation can be requested free of charge.

Point Reyes Visitor Center (West Marin), "the Barn" Classroom

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In Collaboration With The Foundation For Sustainable Development

  Conservation, The Environment, And Sustainable Development

Panelists gave a global overview of the connections between environment, social justice, and economics. They addressed the challenges of working in conservation in developing countries, and the importance of creating sustainable solutions to protected areas.

Panelists:

Olin Cohan, founder of Universitarea Protegida, a project established in 2003 to work in partnership with Nicaraguan university students and local non-governmental organizations managing natural reserves. Olin will speak about the challenges of working in conservation in a developing country and the importance of creating sustainable solutions to protected areas.

Vinit Allen, founder of Sustainable World Coalition, producers of the Sustainable World Symposium in San Francisco. Vinit will give a global overview of the connections between environment, social justice and economics.

Alicia Robb (Moderator), Founder And Director of The Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD).

The World Affairs Council
312 Sutter Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, Ca 94108
Info: 415/785-1888

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In Collaboration With Ella Baker Center For Human Rights, Circle Of Life And Small Village Enterprises

  Bridging The Social Justice & Environmental Movements

Community conversations about people and the environment in the Bayview/Hunters Point area and beyond. Dynamic, passionate panel discussion with community leaders, elders and youth, and special guests Van Jones and Julia Butterfly Hill. Networking with Bay Area non-profit organizations and lively Conversation Cafe discussions.

Panelists:

Van Jones is the founding director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, focusing on community solutions to youth incarceration.
Julia Butterfly Hill is the founder of Circle of Life, taking a stand for peace, justice and environmental sustainability.

Cedric Jackson Sr. Is president of the San Francisco Black Leadership Forum; and serves on the board of the NAACP as the chair of labor & industry.

Veronica Hunnicutt is Dean of Students at City College of San Francisco, Southeast Campus, and served on the Mayor's Citizens' Advisory Committee For Community Development.

Location: Southeast Community College,
Alex L. Pitcher Community Room
1800 Oakdale Ave. (At Phelps), San Francisco

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In Collaboration With Sunrise Center

  Protecting The Rainforests And Their Tribal Custodians

The rainforests, the lungs of the earth, are absolutely crucial to survival of life on the planet. Home to the greatest biodiversity of plants and animals, much is at stake. Yet they are being destroyed at the breathtaking and incomprehensible pace of a "football field" per second. Oil, timber, mining companies and livestock outfits are all moving in as fast as they can. Protecting the indigenous tribes that inhabit them may be the single most effective strategy.

Speaker: David Tucker, Executive Director of the Pachamama Alliance. David addressed what can be done based on their own successes in working with the Achuar tribe in the rainforests of Ecuador.

Video: The Eagle And The Condor

Location: Sunrise Center
45 San Clemente, Suite C-200, Corte Madera
Info: 415-924-7824

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In Collaboration With Sunrise Center

  Personal Sustainability:

Pointers & Principles For Lightening Our Impact

Here in the US, we have 5% of the world's population, yet we consume 25-30% of the world's natural resources. This situation is grossly out of balance and is having a dramatic effect on the rest of the world where billions are living in poverty, millions are starving, and many of the earth's ecosystems are being destroyed at perilous and ever-accelerating rates. We must become conscious of what appropriate, sustainable use of resources is and how to adopt a lifestyle that truly models this awareness. This also extends to where our purchasing and investment dollars are going.

We all now have the responsibility of learning about sustainable living and doing our share! The fate of the earth does depend on us.

Speaker: Lawrence Axil Comras has been leading seminars and workshops focusing on the home as the spark for transformational personal and social change since 1998. He has lectured on greening the home as a spiritual activity at genesis farm, at the most recent earth day at new college, and given presentations to environmental leaders at the new cosmology retreat at the Santa Sabina center and the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) convention. Axil founded and runs Green Home: www.greenhome.com.

Video: Escape From Affluenza

Location: Sunrise Center

45 San Clemente, Suite C-200, Corte Madera

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In Collaboration With Sunrise Center

When The Whales Stopped Singing:

A Grassroots Effort To Protect Sea Life From Navy Sonars

The event combined documentary videos, reports of lobbying, audience question and answer, and storytelling and music.

The need for the natural quiet of oceans and the dangers of intense manmade sound was made clear.

The presentation enabled us to feel our deep connection with the web of life. From that sense of interconnection, right action to protect the things we love follows naturally. The use art and music further enhanced the experience.
Speaker: George Taylor is co-founder of Seaflow and a long time resident of Marin county, in California. Sheilah Glover, Seaflow board member, is an activist and well-known Marin artist, as a member of Nicholas, Glover and Wray, a vocal trio.

Location: Sunrise Center

45 San Clemente, Suite C-200, Corte Madera

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In Collaboration With Sunrise Center

Campaign Finance Reform

Rescuing Democracy From The Hands Of Big Money

Many of us are aware of the common practice of large corporate campaign contributions in the expectation of favored treatment by politicians — essentially bribery. The extent of the buy-off is staggering, and until we can reform this process, we will not have a government that truly represents the people or that protects the environment. This is a real "tipping point" issue that will unlock many other needed reforms.

Speaker: Gary Krane, founder of Fair Elections.

Videos: two complementary Bill Moyers documentary videos. The first, free speech for sale: taking back our democracy, clarifies how powerful corporations, with large monetary resourses, control legislation, public officials, and voters, thereby stripping us of our democracy and free speech. The second video inspires us by demonstrating a constitutional solution to this problem of money and politics.

Location: Sunrise Center

45 San Clemente, Suite C-200, Corte Madera

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In Collaboration With Sunrise Center

Understanding Global Warming

Global warming is now known to be causing a great deal of destruction and desertification around the globe, and scientists know that this is only the very beginning:  average temperatures have increased about 1º F and are expected to rise between 3º And 11º by the end of the century. Computer models indicate tremendous upheaval and now even indicate the possibility of an ice age within just decades.

Expected effects include: rapidly spreading diseases, plant and animal range shifts and population changes, coral reef bleaching and die-off, heavy snowfalls, downpours and flooding, droughts and fires. There is a lot that can be done, but we must make it a collective priority.

Speaker: Edward Mainland has been part of the Sierra Club's National Global Warming Forum for the past several years, and served as vice-chair, Sierra Club Task Force on Global Environmental Security And Survival. He is a local advocate for Cities For Climate Protection (International Council On Local Environmental Initiatives), and is a co-founder of Sustainable Novato.

Video: powerful documentary that shows the many destructive effects of global warming in a way that heightens the awareness and increases motivation to insist on solutions.

Location: Sunrise Center

45 San Clemente, Suite C-200, Corte Madera

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In Collaboration With Sunrise Center

Hydrogen One:

The Answer To The Sustainable Energy Revolution

Hydrogen is a long term solution to our energy needs. Oil will be depleted within our lifetime. Efforts to achieve our energy goals need to begin now. Mr. Bar-Gadda explained the background of our present energy emergency, covering the impact of global warming and fossil fuel pollution. He concluded with a vision of the future world powered by hydrogen.

Speaker: Ronny Bar-Gadda has worked with new energy technologies ever since his first job with Exxon (now Exxon-Mobil) where he was Exxon's first manager for the alternative energy production from biomass program. At Exxon, Ronny invented the first garbage-to-gasoline process. He has since started three companies, the latest (Bar-Gadda, LLC) concentrating on his latest invention to produce cheap hydrogen from water.

Video: dynamic, inspiring and fast moving documentary that explores alternative fuels and vehicles currently available in the us, Germany, Japan and Canada. This video brings to light the importance of eliminating petrochemical fuel, and features the heads of rocky mountain institute, Worldwatch and other key organizations.

Location: Sunrise Center

45 San Clemente, Suite C-200, Corte Madera

Co-Creating a Thriving World: Multi-Media Telecourse

Essential Knowledge for Empowered Action

Announcing a profound, new kind of sustainability experience – a virtual multi-media telecourse, in basic and advanced versions, that:

• deepens your understanding of all major global issues and their interconnections -- offering the biggest-picture view imaginable
• immerses you in a conscious community that shares your values
• engages your head, your heart, and your hands
• supports you in taking positive action toward planetary healing
• earns you a certificate in sustainability,em>(14-week version only)

First, there was the Sustainable World Sourcebook -- a one-stop shop for all the major global issues, their most promising solutions, and what you can do to help. The Sourcebook is the winner of the 2011 International Book Award, Environment Category.

Next we created the companion Learning & Engagement Guide. Its questions for contemplation, themes for discussion, videos to watch, experiential activities and community action ideas engage both the mind and the heart. They make the Sourcebook come alive.

Co-Creating a Thriving World, offered in basic (7-week) and advanced (14-week) versions, is a multi-media telecourse that immerses you in community while you deepen your understanding of the state of the world. Based on the Sourcebook and Learning & Engagement Guide, this highly interactive experience will be offered to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world this spring, as part of the largest sustainability education initiative ever, the Spring of Sustainability. (The 14-week version leads to a certificate in sustainability.)

In both versions, the course includes a weekly 90-minute conference call, an online forum, and dozens of provocative, intriguing individual and group activities. It offers experiences that can change your life while you work with your classmates to contribute to solutions to our most pressing issues, from local to global.

The 7-week version will next launch in May, 2012.  And Co-Creating a Thriving World will debut its 14-week certificate version in early summer, 2012. For more information, contact us.