5th Annual Green Home & Building Tour and Home Show

Small Is Beautiful, and so is Efficiency and Conservation of Resources

On Saturday, October 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Coalition invites you to our 5th annual Green Home & Building Tour and Home Show. With this year's theme Small is Beautiful, you will see a "Tiny House", visit a 400 sq. foot home that has been built almost entirely with recycled wood and steel, and another home with a 1084 sq. footprint that is all about water conservation and efficiency while creating a food forest. Along with the homes, learn about and tour an aquaponic system as part of a local permaculture farm, then drop in next-door at Ojai Olive Oil, also sustainably farmed with a permaculture approach.

This 140 sq. ft. tiny house built for Sol Haus Design owner Vina Lustado is the featured 'Small is Beautiful' home on Tour.

That's just the start of what lies in store for you at this year's Green Home & Building Tour and Home Show. View the start of a "Garbage Tower" inspired by the famous art "Garbage Wall" by Gordon Matta-Clark. The finished wall will be on full display two weeks later at the Ojai Art Festival. Other Green Tour attractions include a drawing for a $600 bike for kids who bring a parent; a showing of bikes powered by the sun, and several workshops.

Start your tour at The MOB Shop, 110 W. Ojai Avenue, where you can purchase your tickets and pick up your map to the self-guided Tour. While you're there, browse the Green Home Show with products and design ideas for homeowners wanting to increase sustainable products and practices in the home and lessen utility bills.

A special thank you to our many sponsors that make the Tour possible. Please consider them for services and product purchases.

to read more click here.

Green Coalition hosts
Ojai Film Festival FOCUS EARTH

'HARMONY: A New Way of Looking at Our World'

Sunday, November 10

For the better part of three decades, His Royal Highness Prince Charles has worked side by side with a surprising and dynamic array of environmental activists, business leaders, artists, architects and government leaders. They are working to transform the world, address the global environmental crisis and find ways toward a more sustainable, spiritual and harmonious relationship with the planet. Harmony is narrated by HRH the Prince of Wales, and produced and directed by filmmakers with Academy Award and Directors Guild nominations to their credit.

Please join us Sunday, November 10, 3 to 5:30 p.m. at the Ojai Playhouse for a film screening followed by a conversation with a panel of distinguished professionals and activists.

Then immediately following the HARMONY screening and panel discussion, please join us at the Ojai Art Center, Gallery Room for the Filmmakers' Reception and Fundraiser for the Coalition, 6 to 8 p.m.

Chef Terri (now famous for all our gastronomical events) will prepare an all organic, vegetarian buffet dinner prepared with mostly locally grown ingredients. Meet the filmmakers and panelists up close and personal. Your ticket will automatically enter you to win an original artwork by local and nationally acclaimed artist, Christine Brennan.

This event is a fundraiser for the Coalition to continue our good work making a difference in the Ojai Valley. So, please do a GOOD THING for us and have a GREAT EXPERIENCE at the same time - We THANK YOU for your support!

Our generous sponsor for this event is Nutiva Organic Foods.

Click here to learn more or purchase tickets.

The Solarize Ojai Valley Group Purchasing Program Still Available through October 18

On Monday, The Ojai Valley Green Coalition (OVGC) and the Community Environmental Council (CEC) decided to extend the deadline to sign up for the Solarize Ojai Valley program until October 18. This program extension will offer Ojai Valley homeowners additional time to sign a contract and take advantage of limited-time, discounted pricing. Solarize Ojai Valley is the second community-led solar program that the two non-profits have run in the region; the program has already helped 13 Ojai Valley homeowners start saving with solar.

Solarize Ojai Valley makes it simple and affordable for Ojai Valley homeowners to go solar. CEC and OVGC thoroughly evaluated and vetted our installer partner for the program, California Solar Electric (CSE), and then secured from them a discounted price available exclusively to Valley residents. Homeowners can have peace of mind knowing they are working with a reputable contractor and getting a great price. We hope that more homeowners will take advantage of the program because of the extension.

The program offers a nearly twenty-percent discount from the 2013 average price for solar in the Ojai Valley. Ojai resident and OVGC member, Carol Vesecky, took advantage of the discounted Solarize pricing and added a 4.6 kilowatt solar array to power her home and 2 acres of fruit orchards. The solar panels are now helping Carol to save over $1700 a year on her utility bills.

"I wholeheartedly recommend going solar and Solarize made it easy," says Carol. "Everyone from CSE and the Solarize program was easy to work with, knowledgeable and responsive. They listened to my concerns and helped me find the ideal solar solution. Because the installer was vetted, I felt confident moving forward with solar and now I am seeing real savings on my bills."

Homeowners who are interested in learning more about the program or signing up to get a solar proposal can visit www.SolarizeOjai.org or call (805) 963-0583 x 105 for more information.

Bike to School Week presented by our
Friends at The MOB Shop

From Monday, October 7th to Friday, October 11th, The Mob Shop in cooperation with the City of Ojai, the Ojai Police Department and local schools will host Bike to School Week in the Ojai Valley.

The premise of Bike to School Week is simple: provide a safe route for kids and parents to travel to school by bicycle in order to empower kids to ride by themselves, therefore increasing ridership, reducing traffic and providing incentive for the city to create more bike friendly roadways.

When kids (and parents) are provided safe roadways and choose to bike to school the list of benefits is long. Here are just a few, courtesy of Bikes Belong:

* If the number of kids who walk and bike to school returned to 1969 levels, it would save 3.2 billion vehicle miles, 1.5 million tons of COČ and 89,000 tons of other pollutants annually. This is the equivalent of keeping more than 250,000 cars off the road for a year.

* Fourth grade boys who bike or walk to school have lower BMIs and body fat than non-active commuters. Kids who actively commute to school are also more likely to remain at a healthy weight.

* Kids who bike or walk to recreation sites (parks, playgrounds, etc.) use them more often. The safer it is to bike or walk to play sites, the more likely it is that kids will bike or walk there.

to read more click here.