PACIFIC PALISADES—Sustainable Works, an organization dedicated to teaching sustainable practices is holding a six-week work shop for residents to offer some tips to save money and improve the quality of life in homes committed to green living.
“Start with what you can do,” said presenter Gina Garcia of Sustainable Works Green Living Workshop at the Aldersgate Retreat Center on September 1.
Sustainable Works is an organization that took root in Santa Monica’s city project designed to help its residents get educated on easy and affordable ways to live green. Now the organization is private, nonprofit, and works autonomously of the city of Santa Monica, allowing them to work in many districts. The first work shop of the series was on Tuesday, September 1. The first segment was about water, a resource both invaluable and depleted in the LA basin. The following workshops will discuss energy, waste, chemicals, transportation, shopping, and food.
The workshops first goal is awareness. Each presentation will present a basic outline considering problems on a global scale and then narrowing the issue down to local problems and solutions that residents can adopt. The workshops are the product of proven results in the Mar Vista Community Council Green Committee. In January 2010, Sustainable Works hosted a workshop that was so successful; the project was given a $45,000 grant from Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to host this newest series of workshops.
At the core of the presentations is a conviction to change basic everyday practices that can be wasteful or abusing resources that are constantly in demand. “The hardest step is changing behavior,” said Garcia. By making changes a little a time, she explained, people are more apt to stick with their newly adopted habits and maintain a greener lifestyle.
Palisadians are encouraged to attend the six-week series of educational workshops at Aldersgate Retreat Center. For more information visit: http://www.sustainableworks.org/
