CHE’s greatest impact occurs through its education and networking efforts. Since June 2007 CHE has collaborated with 12 other organizations to educate over 4000 individuals about the energy crisis, while providing a range of potential solutions such as local economic and cooperative development; lifestyle simplification; and use of appropriate technologies such as wind, solar, biofuels, and sustainable design.

Three significant outcomes from 2007 include:
• Collaboration with partners to organize two Sonnenschein Green Power Festivals in June 2006 and 2007 featuring green power speakers, bands, eco-films, exhibitors, and an alternative fuel and vehicle exposition.

Saturday, June 2, 2007 Hohenwald TN hosted its second annual Sonnenschein Festival with music, nature, alternative energy and art! The festival was the biggest Green Power Festival in Middle Tennessee. It included 25 green power speakers, an alternative vehicle and fuel exposition, two music stages powered by solar energy, a tour of alternative homes, an energy play shop for kids, an eco-film fest and much more!! The festival opened June 1 with an Ecovillage Experience Weekend at the Ecovillage Training Center on the Farm Community in Summertown, TN and Cumberland Greens Bioregional Council Gathering. There were tours of The Farm, community dinner and music Friday night. The festival ended with Sonnenschein’s Sunday Tour of Alternative Homes organized by the Global Village Institute of Appropriate Technology and the Center for a Holistic Ecology. The festival and tour were free to the public! The tour, attended by 45 people, visited more than 10 homes, showcasing solar power off-grid and grid-tie, wind power, passive solar, natural building, solar hot water heating, biofuels, Permaculture gardens and more!

• Collaboration with a team from Vanderbilt University to organize a Climate Action Rally in April 2007—an event which made Channel 2 and FOX news. We brought in informative exhibitors and speakers on climate change and CHE distributed trees for carbon sequestration.

Thousands Gather for Climate Action

April 14, 2007 was the National Day of Climate Change Action. More than 1400 gatherings were held nationwide with thousands of participants from all 50 states telling congress to “STEP IT UP!” The initiative has been calling for congress to cut carbon 80% by 2050. That’s a 3.7% reduction per year. Check out www.stepitup2007.org for pictures and reports from more than 1000 locations across the country!

STEP IT UP NASHVILLE held a Climate Action Rally, sponsored by Lewis County’s Trees for Tennessee and Climate Action Now and the students and faculty of Vanderbilt Saturday, April 14th in Centennial Park, Nashville. Wild Oats was the primary corporate sponsor. Aside from telling congress to step up emissions standards, the purpose of the rally was to offer working solutions for climate change.

Throughout the day speakers and bands took the stage telling Congress that we need climate action now. Supporters joined together to tell the world that the United States of America does care about this issue and that we’re ready to go green. With a 100% chance of rain forecast throughout the day, more than 300 people came to sign the Step It Up petition, listen to speakers and to donate to the Trees for Climate Change Initiative, which raised $600. Some even stayed through the rain to dance to music. More than 50 individuals donated time and resources to host the event and 12 businesses contributed items to the fundraising auction. Vendors braved the rain to give out information on carbon calculations, alternative energy, biofuels, green products and more.

The keynote speaker Albert Bates, internationally recognized author of Climate in Crisis and The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook spoke on climate change solutions such as planting trees and bamboo, using appropriate technology and cutting lifestyle pollution. Others speakers included Douglas Stevenson from the Swan Trust, Jeff Belli from Trees For Tennessee, Andrew Couch and Dave Pelton from Clean Cities of Tennessee and Jacob Gordon from the Climate Project. International Jazz artist Suzahn Fiering both performed and served as Master of Ceremonies; Vanderbilt band ‘The Bluff’; The Watermelons Groove Band; The Bollans and Ed Haggard and The Love Drums all performed on an open band stage despite the inclement weather.

• Debut of the LEDGE Initiative, Green Living Journal, and Green Power Column

Middle Tennessee Green Initiative Receives USDA Support

The Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology (GVI) is partnering with the Center for a Holistic Ecology (CHE) to develop the Local Economic Development and Green Education Initiative (LEDGE). The LEDGE Initiative serves the Middle Tennessee bioregion in an effort to increase local economic growth in the area. In September 2007, the US Department of Agriculture awarded the LEDGE Initiative a $50,000 Grant. The support has come at an ideal time, as our bioregion needs to gear up and prepare itself for both climatic change and a post petroleum transition. The Initiatives founders feel as though ‘going local’ with bioregionalism is one of the key solutions to both concerns. The Initiative highlights the area’s current strengths such as its artisans, farmers, craftsmen, scenic natural areas, and outdoor recreational opportunities. It also aims to help guide the State of Tennessee in creating green power strategies. The primary goal is to increase the number and effectiveness of trained individuals in Middle Tennessee working together to enhance environmental and economic strategies for the 21st Century.

Albert Bates, GVI’s President, is author of The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide (New Society 2006) and many other books on energy, environment and development. Bates, founder of the Ecovillage Training Center in Summertown, TN, represents the Global Ecovillage Network at the United Nations Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations. Bates compares the initiative to similar initiatives being pursued by numerous towns and regions throughout the world, including Seattle, Portland, Arlington, Dublin, Glasgow, Melbourne, Vancouver, Paris, Tel Aviv, Milan, and Barcelona. It is called variously “Energy Descent Planning,” “Sustainable City 2020,” or “Transition Town Initiatives,” but all have a similar set of features: a concerned citizenry and the need to end unchecked fossil fuel addiction and its climate and security consequences.

For more than twenty years GVI has been an internationally recognized organization training tens of thousands of people in areas related to appropriate technology and towards the development of small cottage industries. More than 70 percent of the population benefiting from these trainings has been from outside of the state of Tennessee. The LEDGE project will adapt our trainings to target Middle Tennessee.

The LEDGE Initiatives first event was in conjunction with the American Solar Energy Society’s national Solar Tours. In October 2007 LEDGE hosted tours showing more than 30 attendees how home and building owners provide their power needs from the sun/wind, save energy from building design and energy-efficient appliances, protect against power outages, and reduce their impact on the environment. The LEDGE Initiative also offered several technical trainings in Permaculture throughout the autumn of 2007.

Throughout 2008, LEDGE will begin creating a Middle Tennessee Green Pages Directory of environmentally and socially responsible businesses. LEDGE will establish a Green Code that evaluates businesses for the Directory and that offers businesses the option of purchasing trees for carbon sequestration and climate change reversal. LEDGE will link local entrepreneurs with the international networks such as the Ecovillage Network of the Americas, Global Ecovillage Network, Post Carbon Institute, the Re-localization Project, Gaia University and to international Green Business Directories online.

The LEDGE Initiative has partnered with the Sonnenschein Festival Committee in Lewis County to host a Green Power Festival to be held June 6-8 in Hohenwald, TN. The festival will include an alternative vehicle and fuel exposition, a farmers’ and artisans’ market, and will host speakers, demonstrations and information booths related to Green Power development. The project also contains outreach adult education, which includes helping organize green business tradeshows, a Green Power column, local presentations and, The Green Living Journal of Middle Tennessee, also supported by the Cumberland Green Bioregional Congress.

• First US Gaia University Graduation!