The ENC

I'm looking forward to our field trip to the ENC this Saturday. It's located in my neighborhood, and I've spent many a pleasant hour there either with my students, on my own with a sack lunch or wandering down the impressive trail looking at birds. I've personally seen its transformation from a portable plunked down on a piece of rough land, surrounded by a glorious trail through a dozen simulated classic California habitats, to now a dazzling LEED platinum certified green building - providing a stunning portal into the nature center. This building is the first in Orange County to receive this level of certification! LEED-certified buildings, "have smaller development footprints, are healthier environments for occupants and serve as stewards in environmental and social responsibility." In the words on the ENC website,


The ENC has been teaching and growing within our community for over 35 years. Having a building of our own has been a dream since our inception and we can finally say that our dream has come true. Our 8,500 square-foot sustainable learning center provides vital classroom and educational spaces and serves as an educational tool itself. We hope that our building can show the benefits of environmentally-conscious design and teach our visitors how to implement sustainable features in their homes and businesses. Most importantly, we hope the center will inspire our visitors to make personal investments in the protection of the environment.


To learn more, please follow this link to the LEED Platinum ENC Building page: http://www.encenter.org/visit/greenbuilding.shtml

I'm excited to see an such a vital, important and worthy organization grow exponentially. The ENC truly is spreading the word for the environment. With the advent of their Green Building, it's an impressive place now both outwardly and inwardly. 

Green Dreams

So far I'm thinking I want to work as a Green / Sustainability Consultant in the RRM field. I've been consulting for 20 years in the educational and academic coaching field, and truly love the consulting process. I enjoy being called in to figure out what the problem is, come up with solutions and design a plan, which I then help my clients implement. Watching a client's transformation for the better is truly inspiring! Efficiency and creativity are my middle names, so I'm grateful that in the Green field ... I've found a niche that fits me just right. Mother Earth is dear to me, and I passionately and wholeheartedly throw myself into her service!

Evolution

I've learned a ton of things in the past 6 weeks in my classes at IVC - especially, and simply, an expanded consciousness about discards. This is probably the biggest change in my life as a result of taking these classes: I'm now more aware than ever about how the improper discard of items after their useful lives has created a nightmare of epidemic proportions. That being said, the next most important thing I've learned is that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT! And that I am a part of that something! I just cannot wait to keep learning more about the entire field and settling into what my part in this trashy transformation will be :)