E-SAGE 2009

Hello everyone,

2009 Community Meeting Topics

We’ve decided that we are going to have one meeting a month where anyone can come to learn about sustainable topics and network with like-minded individuals. Here's what is going on for the next year.

Jan 23 – Food Security & the Global Food System

Feb 6 – No Interest Banking (Mark Anielski)

Feb 26 – Michael Shuman, “Small Mart Revolution”

Mar 11 – Nutritional Therapy

Mar 31 - Peter Brown, "Right Relationship Building a Whole Earth Economy"

Apr 4 – Go Green Eco Expo (U of A Butterdome)

Apr 16 – Urban Agriculture

May 8 – Green Homes & Eco-villages

June 4 - Alternative Energy (Solar Electric)

July 7 – How to be a Good Edmontonian

Aug 5 – Ancient Wisdom

Sept 10 – Organizing for Social Change

Oct 2 – Growing a Local Economy

Nov 2 – Arts & Transformation

Dec 11 – E-Sage 2nd Anniversary Party

You are welcome to attend the meetings!

Time: 7:00 – 9:30 pm

Place: Village Lifestyles (10429 – 79 Avenue)

The meetings start at 7:00, and our guests usually present for between 1 and 2 hours, and then we have a nice amount of time for mingling and networking.


Business Meetings

We've made a decision to try something different this year with the business meetings. Because everyone seems to really like the guest speakers and networking that goes on with the community meetings, we are going to have those every month - and encourage anyone who has a business connection to the topic to attend the meeting so that you can be involved in the discussion and networking that goes on. We are still going to set aside time and space for the business meetings, but that time is dedicated time for the committees working the projects below to meet and work on them. That being said, we are looking for people to be on the project committees. Read on for more details.

We been asked to collaborate on some exciting projects and we need your help. Please read the project summaries, if you have any interest in these projects & have a few hours to spare each month, we’d love to hear from you.

Email maureen@e-sage.ca or call 780-435-5683


1. Develop policies to support & encourage sustainable businesses

Last spring the City of Edmonton’s Office of Environment and Energy invited us to help develop policies to encourage more green businesses in the city. This year we are looking for people to be part of a committee to complete this task. We are starting from scratch: developing a method to collect information, conducting interviews and meetings, analyzing the results and making recommendations. One of the perks of this project is getting to work with Michael Shuman when he visits at the end of February.


2. Develop an online directory of sustainable, green, local, products, services, organizations, & events

E-SAGE is building an online directory that will act as a central link to all the great sustainable lifestyle resources that are available in the Edmonton area. This directory is unique because of our “sustainability” ranking system. For example, the first requirement is that a business or organization must be local, which means 51% of the ownership and decision-making power is located in Edmonton. After that there are a series of criteria which measure the commitment to meet environmental, social and economic standards that promote overall sustainability. We are looking for people to help refine the sustainability index, nominate possible candidates to include in the directory, interview them using the sustainability questionnaire, determine their rank, and add them to the online directory.


3. Organize and Host Green Trade Shows

One of the main purposes of E-SAGE is to facilitate connections and create synergy between the people in the “green economy”. We have met so many awesome people who do fantastic, creative work – we want them to meet each other and find out if there is some way they can work together. A regular series of trade shows would allow our business members to showcase what they do to other business people and the wider community, and maybe spark some collaborative projects!

4. Organize and Host Green Job Fairs

There are so many opportunities for the entrepreneurial types out there. We’ve had many comments at our meetings from people who wish they could find someone to do this or that – but no one is doing it...Yet. At the same time there are many people who have decided to leave the traditional careers they have trained for or worked in to find something more meaningful or fulfilling.

We believe there will be more and more opportunities to shift into green careers as our economy falters. There is already one green job fair being planned for March 5/09 to be held at the U of A campus, we are welcome to help with the planning of that event and host another one in the fall.

Further reading:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2966

5. Co-Create our Organization

The fundamental question comes up in any group, “How do we make ourselves sustainable?” This is a question E-SAGE is considering right now. We’d like to know what our meeting attendees think of that. If we were to organize into some form, what form should it be? What are the pros and cons, and what value does E-SAGE hold in the community? If you are interested in exploring this question and helping to make sure E-SAGE can continue to provide great education, networking and action opportunities, we invite you to get involved.