Green Living Workshop Hits Los Angeles

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “workshop” I usually think “work!” a la Maynard G Krebs.  But Gina Garcia’s performance at the opening night of the free Green Living Workshops in Pacific Palisades felt more like a night out. The 90-minute event combined environmental awareness with a potpourri of memorable anecdotes, electrifying images, sobering facts and, thank God, easy to implement solutions for our environmental woes. Since I had taken the Mar Vista GLW over a year ago with Nancy Barba at the helm, I thought I would already know it all.  I soon realized that I had forgotten more than I remembered.  Like the fact that the average Mar Vistan uses more than 40 time their fair share of the Earth’s resources.  (Translation: Our carbon footprint is way too big.)  I particularly enjoyed the clever anecdotes delivered at regular intervals throughout the event. For example, do you know where our obsession with lawns originated?  In 18th century England the well-to-do left a wide swath of earth planted with lawn, rather than vegetables in their front yards. This advertised to the neighborhood that they could afford to sacrifice some of their precious earth for pure enjoyment rather than the necessity of food. Commoners, on the other hand, used every bit of land to grow much-needed crops. That’s right, lawns are a snobbish sign of aristocracy. Isn't that why we broke away from England to begin with?

If you missed this workshop, don’t fret. We will have our own Green Living Workshop series starting up on October 5 at the nearby Bundy Campus of Santa Monica College, Wednesdays from 7-8:30 p.m.  

Learn more at the Mar Vista Farmer's Market this Sunday, September 4, where Sustainable Works will be the guest at the Green Tent.

Jeanne Kuntz combines sustainable, stress-free living with health and wellness. Learn more about successful behavior change on her website, TeachingWellness.com