Learning the Green Life

It’s a new year, and the Green Project wants you to know about a bunch of great green learning opportunities we’ll be a part of in the coming weeks and months. Here’s a run down of the good green education coming up.

• Howalt University: Creating a Greener Workplace on January 19
• Recycling: Demystified on February 9
• Making Compost and Rain Barrels on March 11
• New: Composting for Beginners on March 20 at the Lawn and Garden Show
• Stop Treating Our Soil and Trees Like Dirt on April 6
• Plain Green Conference and Marketplace on April 28-29
• Permaculture Design Course April, 2010-February, 2011
• How to Lose Your Car (and Start Riding the Bus) on May 11
• Custom Green Your Business Workshops available anytime.

Now, for all the details…

Howalt University: Creating a Greener Workplace

This series of workshops from Howalt McDowell Insurance is totally free for anyone. On January 19th from 8:30-10:30 am, Green Project director Joe Bartmann will host “Creating a Greener Workplace,” an interactive class to help you increase your staff awareness of sustainability principles in fun and effective ways. You can be part of the class in person at Cherapa Place, or watch the live webinar online. Click here for more on Howalt U.

Sioux Falls School District Community Education

The Green Project is partnering with Sioux Falls Public Schools to bring a series of affordable green classes to the Community Ed schedule for Spring 2010. Community Ed is a catalog of non-credit courses offered to people of all ages at a very affordable cost. We’ll be hosting these Spring courses

1. HOME545 Recycling: Demystified. Feb. 9, 6:30-8 PM at the Household Hazardous Waste Facility. Fee: $19
   Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! Learn the ropes of recycling in Sioux Falls, from getting rid of the nasty stuff in your garage to discovering easy ways to reduce and reuse materials and resources locally. Get better at saving money and saving our environment by avoiding the landfill.
2. HOME546 Making Compost and Rain Barrels. March 11, 6-8:30 PM at the SD Cooperative Extension Service. Fee: $19
   Turn your back yard into a resource factory and reservoir. Collect rain water to irrigate gardens and trees in dry months. Turn leaves, grass clippings, food scraps and other organic waste into fertilizer and mulch the way nature intended. Hands-on demonstration in building a rain barrel. (Take home your own rain barrel for an extra $25 material fee).
3. HOME547 Stop Treating Our Soil and Trees Like Dirt. April 6, 6:30-9:00 PM at Outdoor Campus. Fee: $19
   There are a lot of factors working against healthy trees in and around Sioux Falls. Find out why our community may lose nearly half of its deciduous trees in coming years! Topics covered are the Emerald Ash Borer, diversifying our community forest, planting trees for prosperity, the importance of healthy topsoil, the “Bathtub Effect” and alternatives to water-guzzling grasses. In Partnership with Sioux Falls Beautiful.
4. HOME548 How to Lose Your Car (and Start Riding the Bus). May 11, 6:30-8:30 PM at Sioux Area Metro Headquarters (formerly Sioux Falls Transit). Fee: $19.
   37 million metric tons of carbon emissions and 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline are saved due to U.S. public transportation use. Learn how to use the Sioux Area Metro (SAM) system. Discover how to read a bus schedule, where the bus can take you, the cost and how to transfer to another bus.

You can download a PDF course catalog (find the green courses on page 17) or click here to register online.

Sioux Falls Lawn and Garden Show

New! Green Project director Joe Bartmann and City of Sioux Falls Sustainability Coordinator Aimee House Ladonski will host a workshop at the Sioux Falls Lawn and Garden Show on March 20, 2010 from 11am to 12pm. Learn how to turn kitchen waste into “black gold” for your plants and garden at Composting for Beginners. More details coming soon.

Plain Green Conference and Marketplace 2010

The Sioux Falls Green Project is the host of this year’s Plain Green, April 28-29 at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science. Plain Green is a two-day conference and marketplace advancing sustainability in the Northern Plains. Connect, learn and take action with hundreds of other leaders in green design, cities, business and ideas. Enjoy star-power keynotes, two floors of green exhibitors, and two days of workshops, breakout sessions and panels covering topics like conservation design planning, green marketing strategies, green healthcare, eco-affordable home building, green office makeovers, LEED, straw bale construction, EPA compliance and much more.

We’ll be launching a shiny new Plain Green website and opening registration very soon. Plus, hold on to your hats for the big announcement of our 2010 keynote speakers, coming soon. Plain Green was founded by South Dakota State University and Koch Hazard Architects. Register here.

Permaculture Design Course

Glacial Lakes Permaculture is hosting an all-seasons Permaculture Design Course starting in April 2010 in Sioux Falls. Learn about permaculture throughout the seasons, with a focus on cold climates. This team-taught course covers the standard PDC curriculum commonly taught all over the world, but will include extra information tailored to the colder climate of the northern plains, as well as practical, hands-on components to spur active learning about permaculture processes and design.

The course will take place over 12 weekends, meeting one full weekend (Saturday and Sunday) in April 2010, but only on Saturday during the rest of the year-long course. Come learn how to apply permaculture to your home, farm, and life throughout the four seasons!

Learn more or register for PDC here (save money by registering early!).

Custom Green Your Business Workshops

The Green Project hosts free custom-designed workshops for partner companies and organizations. To learn more, contact us.

Tagged as: Courses, Education, Learning, Permaculture, Plain Green, Workshops