Blogging today from this day-long conference in Hollister CA (90 miles south of San Francisco, in San Benito County — home to world garlic capital Gilroy)
The conference is produced by BALLE, the Business Network for Living Local Economies. The goals:
1. balance the need for economic growth and housing development with the competing desire to retain open space and family farms…
in part through a focus on
2. …leading a major transformation in the global economy, creating new jobs while producing less waste…[focusing on] industry sectors projected to grow over 15% per year for the foreseeable future:
– sustainable agriculture (organic/fresh/local)
– renewable energy
zero-waste manufacturing
– green building
with
3. a collaborative approach to economic development
(I’ll be anchoring the panel on zero-waste manufacturing and green building… and no doubt having something to say about regional metabolism analysis as a tool for ecologically wise economic development.. and perhaps about regional sustainability dashboarsd as well. (More on that to come.)
