What is a Green Living Workshop?

A Green Living Workshop consists of ten - fifteen individuals who meet once a week for six weeks to learn about concepts of sustainability. The crew meeting, or sustainable living workshop, lasts an hour and a half.

We meet at locations all around Santa Monica and are happy to arrange a workshop in your neighborhood!

During the crew meetings our participants learn how to incorporate sustainable practices into their everyday lifestyles, improve their quality of life, and save money while saving resources.

Our Sustainable WorksBook is a comprehensive and up to date resource guide that provides valuable information and recommendations in six resource areas. Each chapter increases one's understanding of the local, regional, and global environmental impact of their daily choices.

Our program helps residents:

  • divert solid waste through recycling
  • become water efficient
  • eliminate toxic chemicals
  • minimize transportation impacts
  • reduce energy use
  • and learn to make better consumer choices

Each week a trained Crew Leader facilitates the hour and a half meeting. Crew Leaders review participants' lifestyle assessment, educate on the topic, demonstrate a variety of simple activities, and recommend specific changes that reduce participants' environmental impact and improve their quality of life. Each of the six meetings engages residents in hands-on, interactive and educational experiences.

Depending on funding availability Sustainable Works will also provide tools for implementing our recommendations, such as free canvass bags, compact fluorescent light bulbs or coupons to local sustainable businesses.

How can a Green Living Workshop change your life?

  • help you save money through resource-use efficiency
  • connect your actions with the world around you
  • develop relationships with your neighbors and connect you to the community
  • teach you how to implement eco-friendly activities in your daily routine
  • improve your quality of life through healthy living

Why join a Green Living Workshop?

  • Join because natural resources are valuable
  • Join because you can make a difference
  • Join because you will learn what you can do on a daily basis
  • Join because Green Living Workshops are FUN

What are the program requirements?

  • Attend all meetings
  • Complete the Lifestyle Survey
  • Pay the $25 materials fee

WASTE REDUCTION

An easy step for residents to make is to recycle their bottles, cans, and paper. By participating in curbside recycling programs and proper disposal of hazardous wastes (like batteries), you will be diverting waste from the landfill and keeping our Bay clean of pollutants. We'll help residents reduce the amount of waste they produce and demystify what can and cannot be put in the recycling bin. Remember, there is no such place as "away"!

Did you know?

  • 2.5 Million Plastic Bottles are thrown away each HOUR in America.
  • Plastic outweighs plankton by a factor of 2.5 in the surface waters of Southern California.

 

WATER EFFICIENCY

Water is a limited and precious resource, especially in Southern California. In fact, we import the majority of our water from other places, such as the California Bay Delta and the Colorado River. When you conserve water, you're also conserving electricity (moving water hundreds of miles along the California Aqueduct) and natural gas (water heating)! Saving resources means saving money. Our program provides residents the knowledge and tools to become water wise!

Did you know?

  • A steady drip can waste 20 gallons of water per day. A toilet can leak up to 200 gallons.

 

TOXIC CHEMICALS ELIMINATION

Did you know it has been determined that home Indoor Air Quality can be more toxic than the air outside? You can help "Clear the Air" in your own home by replacing toxic cleaners and chemical solvents with less toxic alternatives. Let Sustainable Works show you how.

Did you know?

  • Some chemicals have immediate toxic effects. Others are toxic to our bodies only after repeated, long-term exposure? Unfortunately, we're exposed to toxic chemicals both indoors and outside every day.

 

TRANSPORTATION IMPACTS

You can improve your quality of life and the environment when you reduce the amount of time you spend in your car. If you have to commute, consider moving closer to where you work, carpool or take advantage of the public transportation system.

Another wonderful mode of transportation is walking and biking. You not only get to where you are going, you also get exercise. We have resources that will make it easier for you.

Did you know?

  • The biggest single technology causing greenhouse emissions is the automobile.
  • If each commuter car carries one more passenger, an estimated 600,000 gallons of gasoline will be saved, and 12 million pounds of carbon dioxide will be kept out of the air.

ENERGY REDUCTION

Did you realize that conserving energy doesn't mean that you have to be in the dark? There are so many easy ways to light up your life while reducing your energy consumption. We'll show you how to save energy and money too!

Did you know?

  • Incandescent light bulbs use 75% more energy than compact fluorescent bulbs. Their design hasn't changed since Thomas Edison invented them in 1879.
  • America's refrigerators consume 7 percent of our country's electricity, which equals the output of about 25 large power plants.

 

PURCHASING CHOICES

From the super market to the shopping mall, making informed choices can help influence business to become more sustainable in their business practices. Your purchasing power can support social change on many levels from fair labor standards to reducing the amount of non-recyclable packaging and toxic chemicals you bring home. We can help you vote with your dollar!

Did you know?

  • Consumer products have impacts that are not advertised. In the short term, they can be irritants; in the long term they can cause birth defects and cancer.
  • On average, American food travels about 1,200 miles from the farm to the consumer.

 

The Top Ten

Learn about the top ten things you can do to be more sustainable:

THE TOP TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO

 

Sustainable Works strives to implement the recommendations we provide to others. As a commitment to sustainability, our website is hosted from a solar powered site.

Special thanks to the City of Santa Monica Environmental Programs Division for their technical assistance, gracious support and continuous inspiration.