Life is a Holiday

This Sunday's New York Times Magazine on Travel, one of the first articles was on EcoTourism. The title "Easy Being Green" and the main point "guilt free luxury" and "green is becoming the new normal in luxury hotels". So now for the self-serving message, the Accidental Environmentalist is either jumping on the bandwagon or driving, we are not sure which, the later giving us more credit than the former, either way the message is the same...We are building a "Luxury Sustainable Resort Community". What does that mean?

Luxury is defined both by design and service. Quality and attention to detail in both construction and design as well as in the details of service delivery. Attention to detail is both sublime and subdued, noticed and yet integrated, it is artistry and common, it is architecture simple and natural in form and function. And service is both attentive an unobtrusive, it is expected yet integrated, it is polite and not overt, it is pleasing and soothing, transparent and personal.

Sustainability is honest, it is true to its origins and location, it is by nature cost efficient yet it requires a significant investment. It creates an environment of plenty and demands restraint and conservation. Sustainability is conscious of its surroundings and transformative in nature.

Resort is a haven. It too is transformative, it takes you from where you were to where you want to be and where you ought to be and back. It can be a subtle change through imperceptible changes to the entire infrastructure around you or it can make you cry, overcome by emotion over the slightest nuance.
Community is about interactions and creating connections with people and places. Connections may last a lifetime or the duration of a holiday, they may continue on or they may end with a simple goodbye. Community in a resort is harking back to that lake house you went to year after year with your family and the memories that stay with you like the stuff you take with you from house to house and never throw out.

The combination of these cardinal elements creates a powerful brew with think is irresistable - it is Playa Viva, the evolution of Casa Viva.

Hot World and Cool Cities

In the back of a greasy hamburger joint in San Mateo, about 9 people gathered, all had received an evite from Rafael Reyes with the Sierra Club. The topic was vague, "come talk about San Mateo, energy and climate action". We went around the table and introduced ourselves, some were retired, some out of work, two educators, two writers, one engineer, one city worker and me and Rafael. Turns out the Rafael has been pretty involved in the Sierra Club, including local chapter president and now elected to the board, good for Rafael.

Each person told their story as to why they came to this meeting. Several mentioned having seen "An Inconvenient Truth" and wanted to do something. (I'm so glad that Al made his movie and that it is motivating people to take action.) The engineer had put solar panels on his house and wanted to do more to make San Mateo a Green City. The city worker had actually helped the city develop a sustainability plan, a copy of which he had in this hand. The retired guy was available to write proposals, position papers and other documents. Some could dedicate more time, others would commit to be a show of force when needed.

As for me, I had just done a tour of the new San Mateo Public Library by the architects who were showing off the Green design elements of the building. Having just finished the book "Greed to Green", the idea of a city making a commitment to becoming green was not foreign. Now I found myself smack-dab in the middle of a group that was actually forming to forward this same cause. Seems that the Sierra Club is embarking on a city by city campaign called "Cool Cities". I am not sure what my level of commitment will be at this time, but I am interested in what we can do at the local level to promote a sustainable community.

Where this will go, I don't know, but it looks like the group has some key elements for success: good people, good cause, good knowhow and a specific target and goal. So the Accidental Environmentalist is now going local. More to come, hopefully, on the success of this new endeavor.

Greening the Desert - Solving All Your Problems

This just in from Tim Murphy, the Permaculturist (is that word in Wikipedia yet?), on our project in Playa Viva. It is a nice little inspiring Flash video on how permaculture is greening the desert of Jordan. You can't miss the exhuberence of our host who will promise to solve the world's problems with a garden.

On Becoming an Accidental Environmentalist

I just read David Gottfried's "Greed to Green" on the plane to and from Chicago this weekend. I was struck by the personal nature of how he tells his story of converting to conservationism. Here is my story, in the form of a blog.

Acknowledgements - I blame my wife fully for what I have become. She is the dreamer. These are all here ideas. That is her both her blessing and her flaw, she is just that, a dreamer, she really can't turn those dreams into sustainable endeavours, at least not by herself. Sure she is a very successful mother, wife, orthodontist, environmentalist, peace activist and more. But she accomplishes all this by nagging you, me, anyone with her dreams and visions long enough until someone else turns it into a "going concern". And so, her passion and dreams is my blessing and my curse. I have had the privilege of being nagged into action on several of those visions. If not for her nagging, I would still be on the couch watching a ballgame enjoying some ideal banter with no one in particular. Three of these visions have allowed me to become "The Accidental Environmentalist" - Calakmul, Casa Viva and now Playa Viva.

I first used the term "accidental environmentalist" in a meeting with Carl Pope, head of the Sierra Club whose offices are here in San Francisco. I was playing tennis with my friend Kevin Gottisman (x-manager of super models, now non-profit internet guru) and he pointed out Carl to me on the court next door. "Hey, that' Carl Pope playing tennis over there", pointed out Kevin between games. I had no idea who Carl was at that point. Sandy and I had just created "Friends of Calakmul" - I know, if I had to do it all over again, I would have picked a better name - and Carl would be a perfect person to talk to about our nascent conservation non-profit. Kevin and I finished our game of tennis and, luckily, Carl was finishing his match as we both walked into the lobby at the same time, he from the courts and me from the locker rooms. I gave Carl my elevator pitch and asked if he would meet me for coffee. He agreed and asked if I would schedule a meeting with his assistant.

A few weeks later, I found myself in Carl's office giving him my best PowerPoint. I told him that I was a sales and marketing guy, media and software were my terrain and I was new to all this conservation stuff, "I guess I'm the Accidental Environmentalist" is what came out next along with my story of how I ended up sitting on top of a conservation easement for 150,000 acres of pristine jungle in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

Carl liked the pitch. He said that we had a great project but that no foundation would fund us because the internet crash had devastated everyone's trust funds. We might get money in a few years after the portfolios were rebuilt but in the interim, all the decent foundations were hard pressed to meet the commitments they had already made, much less make new ones. I thought that was the best and most polite brush off I'd ever gotten until he finished by saying, "I think I can help you find some money to hold you over until things pick back up." That was it, FOC, it makes a better acronym than organization name, was on the map.

So why do a blog? Is it just because of David's book? I have been thinking about doing this for a while. Now that I'm working full time on a sustainable real estate project, I've been reading a lot more blogs, newsletters and general content about the green revolution. So what makes me qualified to write my own rag on the subject? My only qualification is that I'm the Accidental Environmentalist. So other than stumbling into this role, the core lessons that I have learned in this transformation are the same that apply to all of us - use less, spend less, make the most of what you have, tread lightly, make everything around you better than it was when you arrived, make a conscious effort to make this place better for our kids and their kids, set a good example for others.