[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - December 15, 2014
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Dec 14 11:34:55 PST 2014
Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke at world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index
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Monday, December 15
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6pm 3D Printing Drones! A 3D Hubs Meetup
7pm Climate Change and Plant Conservation: Is managed relocation an option?
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Tuesday, December 16
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11am Webinar: Learn about the City of Cambridge's contest on the Urban Heat Island Effect
6pm Meet, greet, and eat -- and remember information trends from 2014
6pm Boston VR [Virtual Reality] Meetup with AltspaceVR
6pm Big Data for Social Good Challenge
7pm CafeSci Boston - “Music to our Ears”
7pm FWDMonthly - Alternative Futures: How the Voices of Tech Impact the Future
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Wednesday, December 17
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7:30am December Boston Sustainability Breakfast
12:15pm A Day in the Life of Post-Communist Europe
4pm Harvard Origins Forum
4:15pm Computational Identification of Materials for Solar Energy Conversion Including Semiconductors for Water Splitting
6:30pm Social Computing
6:30pm Coastal Ecosystems and Climate Change
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Thursday, December 18
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3pm W.I.R.E Event: Taking up Space on Earth: Theorizing Territorial Rights, the Justification of States and Immigration from a Global Standpoint
6pm Earthos Conversation Series Topic: WASTE
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Friday, December 19
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10am Hidden Vulnerability in the Fukushima Meltdown: A Sociotechnical Perspective
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
Do It Yourself Solar: Austrian Self-Build Coops
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/08/1350298/-Do-It-Yourself-Solar-Austrian-Self-Build-Coops
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Ongoing:
Design for Resilience Exhibition
12/10/2014 to 02/06/2015
McCormick Gallery, Boston Architectural College, 320 Newbury Street, Boston
Design for Resilience asks us to think, discuss, and take action as we consider how to better connect ourselves to our ecology and our infrastructure to ready ourselves for the future. What will Boston look like in 2050? What will our coastal cities look like in 2115?
Rebuild by Design has been answering these questions of resilience - the ability to withstand, adapt, and recover from shock - with an innovative process that relies on unprecedented collaboration to create unique solutions for a stronger tomorrow.
In response to Hurricane Sandy's catastrophic landfall in October 2012, President Obama's Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force launched Rebuild by Design as a design competition to generate solutions to not only the storm's devastation, but also to long-standing physical and social vulnerabilities now exposed and exacerbated. Rebuild by Design connects design teams with researchers and policymakers as well as residents, businesses, and community-based organizations whom the storm affected. These collaborations enable the teams to develop socially, environmentally, and economically rigorous interventions that better prepare us for a future impacted by climate change. This exhibition showcases the competition's ten finalists and their detailed design proposals for creating a more resilient region.
We bring this exhibition to Boston to engage and educate ourselves and our fellow citizens about our own urban vulnerabilities; to showcase the power of collaborative problem solving and community engagement; and to highlight the forward-thinking work that local organizations are producing to protect us from increasing risk, intensifying storms, and rising seas. Exploring the Rebuild by Design proposals, along with new work from Terreform ONE, opens a window that suggests how Boston could arrive at a safer tomorrow.
These transformational designs and the process that generated them are a call to action. Join us in taking control over our destiny and creating a resilient future for the City of Boston.
Join the conversation @theBACboston using #RebuildBoston
Funding for this exhibition is generously provided by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Boston Architectural College
Contact: shaun.orourke at the-bac.edu
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Monday, December 15
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3D Printing Drones! A 3D Hubs Meetup
Monday, December 15
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
Middlesex Lounge, 315 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/3d-printing-drones-a-3d-hubs-meetup-tickets-14738331747
Do you like 3D printing? How about drones? Would like to find out more about both topics, and find out how you can create drone parts using a 3D printer? Come join us for this FREE event, and learn, and network with others in the 3D Printing and Drone communities!
We'll have an awesome speaker, Jordan Pelovitz discussing design and sharing a couple of his 3D printed projects. A couple 3D printers will also be running, and we'll have a fantastic DJ. A number of people are bringing their own 3D printed drones to the event, so feel free to bring something to show others!
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Climate Change and Plant Conservation: Is managed relocation an option?
Monday, December 15
7:00PM - 8:30PM
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Boston
Cost: $10 (Students: email to register for free.)
Jesse Bellemare, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College
Climate change is projected to be one of the top threats to biodiversity in coming decades. Species with small geographic ranges, often called “endemics”, may be at especially high risk of extinction because unsuitable climatic conditions could develop rapidly across the entirety of their ranges. If such species are unable to disperse long distances on their own to follow suitable climatic conditions, it has been proposed that human-assisted colonization or "managed relocation" might be an option of last resort to avoid extinctions. With this approach, climate-threatened species would be intentionally translocated to new regions as conditions deteriorated within their native ranges. Jesse Bellemare will speak about his research to better understand how the distribution and diversity of these rare species is related to past climate change, such as the Ice Ages, and to predict how the species might respond to the threat of modern anthropogenic climate change. Will managed relocation of species be a viable solution to prevent rare species extinction?
http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu
An Arnold Arboretum Lecture for Adults
Contact Name: Pam Thompson
pam_thompson at harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2014-12-16-000000-2014-12-16-013000/climate-change-and-plant-conservation-managed-relocation#sthash.MIC3K5Oj.dpuf
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Tuesday, December 16
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Webinar: Learn about the City of Cambridge's contest on the Urban Heat Island Effect
Tuesday, December 16
11:00 AM Eastern Time
RSVP at http://goo.gl/vzyAz4
The “urban heat island” effect is when an area within a city is significantly warmer than its surroundings.
Exacerbated by climate change, this phenomenon can result in increased energy use (especially for air conditioning) and negatively impact public health and air quality.
The City of Cambridge, Massachusetts is seeking projects, policies, and programs for how to mitigate the urban heat island effect and help their city better prepare for climate change.
Join us for a free informal Google Hangout to:
learn about the contest
ask questions about the prompt or online platform
talk to the contest organizers
What: Free Climate CoLab and City of Cambridge Google Hangout
When: Tuesday, December 16th, 11am - 12pm Eastern Time
Why: To learn more about the issues and ask questions of the contest organizers.
Registration Link: http://goo.gl/vzyAz4
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Meet, greet, and eat -- and remember information trends from 2014
Tuesday, December 16
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
John Harvard's, 33 Dunster Street Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/neasist/events/219049779/
We'll be in the bar area.
Join members of the NEASIST (NE Association for Information Science & Technology) Program Committee as we celebrate the year that was! We've picked out ten trends in information that you should know about, whether you're a consumer of information or an info pro. Come talk over what we consider the information highlights of 2014 -- and if you think we've missed something important, tell us about it before 2015 begins!
This event is open to all--you don't need to be a member of ASIS&T to join us. The only requirement is that you be excited about connecting with others in the local information science community!
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Boston VR [Virtual Reality] Meetup with AltspaceVR
Tuesday, December 16
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Virtual-Reality/events/218620744/
Come and experience the future of social virtual reality and collaborative development! We will have plenty of demonstrations of VR and related technology, and we welcome you to show your own work.
Our special guest is Bruce Wooden from AltspaceVR, a toolkit for building online virtual worlds accessible through the Oculus Rift and other immersive displays.
AltspaceVR is a social platform for VR, seeking to build a practical, natural, and fulfilling way for people to communicate online using VR. Within AltspaceVR, users connect in virtual spaces to create shared experiences around web content - watch videos, play games, and collaborate inside of VR. The AltspaceVR API lets developers spawn objects in VR space using Javascript. AltspaceVR recently closed a $5.2M seed round from investors including Dolby Family Ventures, Lux Capital, and Google Ventures.
http://altvr.com/
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Big Data for Social Good Challenge
Tuesday, December 16
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
hack/reduce, 275 Third Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Big-Data-Developers-in-Boston/events/219084973/
Join Us: Big Data hack night at Hack/Reduce on Tuesday, 12/16 from 6-9. Hear about the new Big Data for Social Good Challenge, share ideas, and work on your project.
More on the Big Data for Social Good Challenge.....
CALLING ALL DEVELOPERS .... JOIN THE BIG DATA FOR SOCIAL GOOD CHALLENGE
Big data exists in just about everything we use and do. It comes from phones, cars, roads, power lines, waterways, food crates, and innumerable other items you’d never think of as computers. This data speaks volumes about our collective behavior and society – so let’s use it to do something incredible! IBM invites developers and data enthusiasts to take a deep dive into real world civic issues using big data and the IBM Bluemix Analytics for Hadoop service. Analyze one of our curated datasets or bring your own! Use Hadoop and your data to create a clickable and interactive data visualization to highlight insights that you’ve found.
Ready to get started? $40,000 in prizes will be awarded....
Don't forget to register for the Big Data for Social Good Challenge: http://ibmhadoop.challengepost.com
More information at http://www.meetup.com/Big-Data-Developers-in-Boston/events/219084973/
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CafeSci Boston - “Music to our Ears"
Tuesday, December 16
7:00 PM to 8:45 PM
Middlesex Lounge, 315 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/NerdFunBoston/events/219085883/
“Music to our Ears: How does sound help us understand the world?" with MIT's Dr. Josh McDermott
Josh McDermott will discuss auditory scene analysis - the process by which the brain infers events in the world from the sound signal that enters the ears. One aspect of auditory scene analysis is “the cocktail party problem,” in which the brain receives sounds from multiple sources and must extract the content of one of them, for instance when following a conversation in a restaurant. McDermott will also discuss a second scene analysis problem, in which sound from a source interacts with the environment on the way to the ear, profoundly altering the source signal by introducing reverberation. Both problems are critical to our ability to understand speech and appreciate music.
Josh McDermott is an Assistant Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT
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FWDMonthly - Alternative Futures: How the Voices of Tech Impact the Future
Andi Dankert
Tuesday, December 16
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
Cambridge Innovation Center, Venture Cafe, 5th Floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
What does the future of our country look like, and who decides? Technology is the bright spot of our economy, and the tech community represents the best of American values. As this year comes to a close, we look forward seeing the future role of the tech community in the democratic process. Join FWD.us and its members to celebrate the success of executive action and discuss how the voices of tech will impact the future.
Our Chapter has divided its advocacy efforts into three main projects: 2.0, Democracy and Co-founders. These teams, active now for THREE months, have devised plans to mobilize this community. With the President’s most recent announcement on immigration reform, now is the perfect time to become involved in the Boston chapter. Join the most committed and talented supporters from the Boston and Cambridge communities who have proven to make lasting change!
RSVP HERE: http://www.fwd.us/field_121614_futurebos
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Wednesday, December 17
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December Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, December 17
7:30 AM to 8:30 AM (EST)
Pret A Manger, 185 Franklin Street, Post Office Square, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/december-boston-sustainability-breakfast-tickets-13973329605
Join us for the December installment of our Boston Sustainability Breakfast, an informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals together for networking, discussion and moral support. It’s important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good!
So come, get a cup of coffee or a bagel, support a sustainable business and get fired up before work so we can continue trying to change the world.
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A Day in the Life of Post-Communist Europe
WHEN Wed., Dec. 17, 2014, 12:15 – 1:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Cabot Room, Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Visiting Scholars Seminar: New Research on Europe (CES)
SPEAKER(S) Alenka Kuhelj, associate professor of law, University of Ljubljana; visiting scholar, CES, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO art.goldhammer at gmail.com
DETAILS Nowhere - not even in Italy, with its storied mafioso past and present - are the roles of mafioso boss and his mob cronies being as faithfully reenacted as in today’s Eastern Europe. Ex-leaders and other holdovers from the Communist regime are running states from their armchairs, shuffling about the pieces in a veritable game of high-stakes chess as they see fit. And business is good: Many former Communist countries have yet to let go of their Communist past; true, they’ll happily call the current system capitalism, and yes, former Party leaders have successfully fashioned themselves into capitalist patrons, but look closer, and it’s plain to see how little has changed. With the collapse of Communism, the communist leaders and their offshoots managed to pocket a quick fortune through privatization and to hold on to their position as a social elite. A number of them bought stock issues - the means through which privatization was achieved - from the workers and used them to become a wealthy corporate elite. Ask them and they’ll tell you it has nothing to do with politics; theirs is a rags-to-riches success story. It therefore comes as no surprise that they’re also self-styled philanthropists, doling out small, symbolic scholarships to the children of those very workers who, about twenty years ago, were duped into selling their ownership stakes at fire sale prices. My life to date has been fairly evenly divided between communism and capitalism. Thus, I have decided to put my thoughts about a post-Communist East European society on paper. My article A Day in the Life of Post-Communist Europe presents a number of everyday scenes from this “post-Communist” world. However, I do not depict only how I am experiencing the situation- the story lines presented in the paper are also those of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances, and their dilemmas and thoughts.
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/#/events/2870
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Harvard Origins Forum
WHEN Wed., Dec. 17, 2014, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Geological Museum, Haller Hall (Room 102), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Origins of Life Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Anna Balazs, University of Pittsburgh
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO kelly.moreno at cfa.harvard.edu
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Computational Identification of Materials for Solar Energy Conversion Including Semiconductors for Water Splitting
Wednesday, December 17
4:15pm to 5:15pm
Harvard, Biolabs #1080, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Dr. David Ginley, National Renewable Energy Lab.
R.B. Woodward Lectures in the Chemical Sciences, Harvard-MIT Inorganic Chemistry Seminar.
Contact: Helen Schwickrath
helen at chemistry.harvard.edu
p: 617-496-8190
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"Social Computing”
Wednesday, December 17
6:30p
le laboratoire, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.lelaboratoirecambridge.com/#!programs/c18hu
Sep Kamver
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Coastal Ecosystems and Climate Change
Wednesday, December 17
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Brian Helmuth, PhD, Professor, Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences andSchool of Public Policy and Urban Affairs; Director, Sustainability Science and Policy Initiative,Northeastern University. Helmuth Lab
The vitality of coastal ecosystems is of critical importance to life on Earth. Professor Brian Helmuth's lab is one of the most prominent research groups to carry out very complex investigations of these ecosystems. Using the most advanced techniques, the Helmuth lab explores the effects of climate and climate change on the physiology and ecology of marine organisms. They record patterns of growth, reproduction, and survival in important coastal species. A major goal of this approach is to inform decision makers with scientifically accurate and useful forecasts. Although Dr. Helmuth's primary focus is on North American rocky intertidal ecosystems, his lab also collaborates with researchers around the world.
More information at http://www.northeastern.edu/helmuthlab/People/Helmuth.html
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Thursday, December 18
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W.I.R.E Event: Taking up Space on Earth: Theorizing Territorial Rights, the Justification of States and Immigration from a Global Standpoint
WHEN Thu., Dec. 18, 2014, 3 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, HKS Ash Center, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Room 226, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center
SPEAKER(S) Mathias Risse, Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy, HKS Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
CONTACT INFO Jason_Anastasopoulos at hks.harvard.edu
973.641.8258
DETAILS The Workshop on Immigration, Race and Ethnicity (WIRE) at the Ash Center is a bi-monthly seminar style forum for Harvard and Boston area researchers and students working on the topics of immigration, race and ethnicity from a diverse variety of perspectives. Workshop sessions are thematically organized and themes are different each semester. For the fall semester of 2014, the themes are: (1) Experiments on Race, Immigration, and Public Policy; (2) Economic Impacts of Immigration and Immigration Policy and; (3) Ethics of Immigration and Immigration Policy.
LINK http://www.ash.harvard.edu/Home/News-Events/Events/Workshop-on-Immigration-Race-and-Ethnicity-WIRE
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Earthos Conversation Series Topic: WASTE
Thursday, December 18
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
Earthos Lab, 1310 Broadway, Ground Floor, Somerville
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/earthos-conversation-series-topic-waste-tickets-14702364167
Cost: $15 suggested donation
How do we collaboratively innovate and design our systems to minimize net waste?
We've invited thinkers and innovators from different arenas who are grappling with this question. Together, we'll explore emerging ideas and efforts in Boston, New England and beyond.
Each month, Earthos hosts a Conversation about a key resource at the New Earthos Lab for resilient and sustaining regions. Each conversation focuses on a resource system, and how it relates to the other resources: food, water, energy, land, biodiversity, waste, and people. The purpose of the Conversations is to collaboratively build knowledge to inform the emergence of regions that support local efforts and lead to global sustainability into the future.
The Earthos Lab brings people together to research, learn, and collaborate towards robust regional systems.
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Friday, December 19
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Hidden Vulnerability in the Fukushima Meltdown: A Sociotechnical Perspective
WHEN Fri., Dec. 19, 2014, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Center Library (Littauer-369), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Law, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Sulfikar Amir, assistant professor in the Division of Sociology at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
DETAILS In this MTA Seminar, special guest Sulfikar Amir will discuss how vulnerability became hidden in the Fukushima nuclear power station and how that led to a meltdown after the nuclear power facility was struck by a tsunami. Using the sociotechnical perspective, the presentation examines the implication of the Fukushima reactor design on the ability of the system to withstand the shock. A broader analysis on the institutional structure of the Japanese nuclear industry is also presented to show how vulnerability was a product of institutionalized ignorance.
LINK http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/#/?i=1
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Upcoming Events
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Monday, January 5
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Robots, automation and tech in Agriculture
January 5
5:30 pm - 8:00 pm
TechSandBox, 105B South Street, Hopkinton, MA
RSVP at http://www.techsandbox.org/robotics-and-manufacturing.html
Cost: $35/20
We New Englanders know the difference in the taste of locally grown produce; think of tomatoes in January in New England! And then there’s managing crop growth and harvesting which is backbreaking work that often uses low wage labor. And, we have such a short grwoing season here… or do we?
Let’s see why agriculture and Massachusetts may appear more often in the same sentence! And how technology is helping with growth in diverse applications from golf course management, to local crop growth, to management of large nurseries.
Panelists:
John Kawola, CEO, Harvest Automation www.harvestai.com
Brad McNamara, CEO, Freight Farm www.freightfarms.com
David Wooden, CTO and Co-founder, Plantbid www.plantbid.com
Green and Clean Tech
Website: http://www.techsandbox.org/robotics-and-manufacturing.html
Organizer
TechSandBox
Phone: 508-435-7263
Email: barb at techsandbox.org
Website: http://www.techsandbox.org/
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Tuesday, January 6
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Boston TechBreakfast
Tuesday, January 6
8:00am - 10:00am
Microsoft New England R&D Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/215003152/
Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations.
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :)
Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Bagels & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
CloudStock - Ann Calvin
Golfswell: Golfswell App - Aaron Rosenthal
Songspace - Christopher Igoe
Rejjee, Inc.: Rejjee / Mobile Blue - Ken Smith
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words
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Howard Gardner Lecture #1: Truth Reframed
WHEN Tue., Jan. 6, 2015, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, GSE, Gutman Library 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Education
SPEAKER(S) Howard Gardner
DETAILS Since the dawn of civilization, humans have struggled to describe the defining virtues of civilization—and, in the process, have confronted some of mankind’s most difficult and enduring questions.
In this lecture series, Professor Howard Gardner traces the astonishing transformations in our conceptions of these three virtues in our lifetime — and describes the newfound challenges in making sense of them. How do we distinguish truth from “truthiness” in the Age of the Internet? How do we judge beauty when modern artists treat it like an outdated virtue? And how do we distinguish right from wrong in age of relativistic and politicized morality? In his lectures, Gardner will explore the current state of these virtues, argue for their continued importance in human society, and explains how we should be educating for them in the twenty-first century — both in and out of the classroom.
LINK http://www.gse.harvard.edu/calendar#/?i=1
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BASG: Investing in Sustainability
Tuesday, January 6
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EST)
The Venture Cafe - Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 5th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/basg-investing-in-sustainability-tickets-14768433783
Cost: $10-12
BASG ushers in the new year with: Investing in Sustainability
How do investors use sustainability reporting and social impact mission to evaluate the value or risk of their investments? What do we need to know as CSR professionals? As potential investors ourselves?
Come meet, hear, and engage with our speakers for the evening:
Timothy Smith
, SVP and Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement, Walden Asset Management
Investors with over $7 Trillion in AUM are now involved in Sustainable and Responsible Impact investing (SRI). Tim will describe the growth and impact of SRI and the responsiveness of companies to the sustainability message and agenda.
Tim joined Walden in October 2000, where his primary responsibilities include overseeing shareholder advocacy, public policy, assisting in client services and acting as the spokesperson for Walden on social issues. Walden Asset Management manages approximately $1.7 billion for individual and institutional clients. Walden has been a national leader in responsible investing for over 35 years working on dozens of issues like the environment, sweatshops, climate change, Apartheid in South Africa, executive compensation, corporate governance and equal employment opportunity in the U.S. among others.
Previously Tim served as Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) for 24 years. Tim is the past Chair of the Board of Social Investment Forum and continues to serve in advisory roles Shared Interest, World Neighbors, and the Kimberly-Clark Sustainability Advisory Board, General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church.
In December 2007 Tim was named by Ethisphere Institute as one of top 100 most influential people in Business Ethics. He holds a Masters in Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and a BA from the University of Toronto.
Susan Musinsky
, Director Social Innovation Forum, Root Cause
Susan will share insights from her work to facilitate collaboration among leaders from nonprofits, philanthropy, government, and business to make progress on pressing social issues and how Root Cause’s model for investing in sustainability has evolved with time.
Susan has dedicated her career to building communities committed to creating social impact. Under Susan’s leadership, the Social Innovation Forum has grown from a small volunteer initiative to a respected model for directing resources for solving social problems to the best available approaches. Since 2003, the Social Innovation Forum has worked with more than 70 Social Innovators and Impact Entrepreneurs in Greater Boston and helped them to attract more than $16 million in cash and in-kind resources.
Previously, Susan was executive director of the National Conference for Community and Justice's (NCCJ) Boston office, which grew threefold under her leadership. She has participated on many local boards, including serving as past chair of Congregation Beth El's Tzedkah Hevra group, and as a founding member of the Watertown Community Foundation's Board of Directors. Susan holds an Ed. M. from Harvard University, and a BS from the University of Vermont.
John Chaimanis,
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Kendall Sustainable Infrastructure (KSI)
Over $1 Trillion of renewable infrastructure investment is needed every year through 2030 to combat climate change. There are great returns and potential pitfalls along the way. John will share one way to invest, which generates outstanding cash yields with no correlation to public markets.
John is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Kendall Sustainable Infrastructure (KSI), a private equity firm that invests in low risk and high-yield clean-energy assets using a strategy that evolved from his many experiences in the energy industry. At KSI he works closely with registered investment advisors, family offices, and institutions to generate returns through investments in contracted solar, wind and hydro projects.
In 2005, Mr. Chaimanis began working in clean energy finance as it formed the perfect match between his business interests with his passion for making a positive impact. After working with regional project developers in the New England area, he joined a subsidiary of Edison International in California where he acquired and developed 250MW of wind energy projects, investing over $500 million dollars. Mr. Chaimanis regularly advises clean energy startups, and consults with investors looking to understand the clean energy investment landscape. Prior to working in energy investing, Mr. Chaimanis founded a charter school.
Mr. Chaimanis holds an M.B.A. from Babson College, and a B.S. in Finance from Villanova University, and he has earned certification from US SIF for Sustainable and Responsible Investing (SRI).
Robert Fernandez, Vice President Credit Research, Breckinridge Capital Advisors
The $3.7 trillion municipal bond market has long been used by state and local governments to finance public improvements such as water treatment plants, K-12 school facilities and hospitals. Rob will share how municipal bonds offer sustainable investors the opportunity to invest in essential environmental and social projects and earn a market return through the relatively new but growing green bond market.
Rob joined Breckinridge in April of 2010 as a Vice President of Research. He has 11 years of experience and most recently was Senior Research Analyst at Opus Investment Management where he analyzed corporate and municipal bonds. Rob began his career in credit research at State Street Bank as a participant in its commercial loan officer development program. He has also held commercial credit analyst positions at Cambridge Savings Bank and Eastern Bank.
Rob is a member of The Boston Security Analysts Society, the CFA Institute and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. He holds a B.S. from Boston College and an M.B.A. from Boston University.
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Friday, January 9
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Ignite Craft Boston 2015
Friday, January 9
6:30 PM (EST)
MIT, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Room 123, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/ignite-craft-boston-2015-tickets-12536339529
Donations accepted
Craft, Community, and 5-Minute Talks
Ignite Craft Boston is an Ignite event with a crafty crowd. If you had 5 minutes on stage to talk about your crafty passion in Boston, what would you say? What if you only got 20 photos or other visuals, and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world, folks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.
For more about this event please visit Common Cod Fiber Guild's website at: http://www.commoncod.com/ignite/
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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development
- http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info at bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Intern with Biodiversity for a Livable Climate!
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate (BLC) is a nonprofit based in the Cambridge, MA area. Our mission is to mobilize the biosphere to restore ecosystems and reverse global warming.
Education, public information campaigns, organizing, scientific investigation, collaboration with like-minded organizations, research and policy development are all elements of our strategy.
Background: Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon sink on the planet. Restoring the complex ecology of soils is the only way to safely and quickly remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the ground, where it’s desperately needed to regenerate the health of billions of acres of degraded lands. Restoring carbon to soils and regenerating ecosystems are how we can restore a healthy hydrologic cycle and cool local and planetary climates safely, naturally, and in time to ensure a livable climate now and in the future.
Our Work: immediate plans include
Organizing the First International Biodiversity, Soil Carbon and Climate Week, October 31-November 9, 2014, and a kick-off conference in the Boston area, “Mobilizing the Biosphere to Reverse Global Warming: A Biodiversity, Water, Soil Carbon and Climate Conference – and Call to Action” to expand the mainstream climate conversation to include the power of biology, and to help initiate intensive worldwide efforts to return atmospheric carbon to the soils.
Coordination of a global fund to directly assist local farmers and herders in learning and applying carbon farming approaches that not only benefit the climate, but improve the health and productivity of the land and the people who depend on it.
Collaboration with individuals and organizations on addressing eco-restoration and the regeneration of water and carbon cycles; such projects may include application of practices such as Holistic Management for restoration of billions of acres of degraded grasslands, reforestation of exploited forest areas, and restoring ocean food chains.
Please contact Helen D. Silver, helen.silver at bio4climate.org for further information.
781-316-1710
Bio4climate.org
SharedHarvestCSA.com
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Climate Stories Project
http://www.climatestoriesproject.org
What's your Climate Story?
Climate Stories Project is a forum that gives a voice to the emotional and personal impacts that climate change is having on our lives. Often, we only discuss climate change from the impersonal perspective of science or the contentious realm of politics. Today, more and more of us are feeling the effects of climate change on an personal level. Climate Stories Project allows people from around the world to share their stories and to engage with climate change in a personal, direct way.
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
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HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha at sbnboston.org
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Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
https://www.carbonsalon.com/
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/
Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation, contact jmatthaei at wellesley.edu
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://mitenergyclub.org/calendar
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar/events/index.php
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Boston Area Computer User Groups: http://www.bugc.org/
Arts and Cultural Events List: http://aacel.blogspot.com/
Boston Events Insider: http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
Nerdnite: http://boston.nerdnite.com/
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list