GMO Free Sonoma County is a grassroots movement comprised of volunteers working to prohibit growing GMOs in Sonoma County and to Label GMOs in CA. We strive to educate people regarding ZGMO concerns.
Our Current Mission:
To have the Sonoma County Supervisors vote our ordinance into law, which would make it unlawful for any person, partnership, corporation, firm, or entity of any kind to propagate, cultivate, raise, or grow genetically engineered organisms in the county.
The passage of this ordinance would uphold these purposes:
To protect Sonoma County’s native plants, trees, and animals from transgenic contamination by GE organisms;
To defend and promote the economic integrity of organic, conventional, and other markets that are harmed by transgenic contamination by GE organisms;
To protect Sonoma County from increased pesticide use resulting from GE plant propagation and cultivation; and
To preserve the right of Sonoma County residents to reject GE organisms resulting from health-related, moral, or other concerns.
Help us join Marin, Mendocino, Trinity, and Santa Cruz Counties who already have simislar ordinances in place.
If you are a Sonoma County resident, are 18 years old or older, and have not already signed, please visit our website: www.GMOFreeSonomaCounty.com, and sign our online petition and/ or volunteer. If you represent a business or organization you may also endorse.
Dean William Silver the Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Sonoma State University is joined by his son, Benji Silver, a survivor of a rare form of Leukemia which is a type of blood cancer, in building urgency for addressing sustainability today.
Based in Sebastopol, California, just north of San Francisco, we’ve built and converted vehicles to electric power since 1991.
Now we’ve invented the SWITCH – an electric vehicle which we like to think of as “a vehicle for education.”
Combined with our curriculum it includes everything students need to learn to build an electric vehicle.
Adjustable lectures, projects and tests allow the course to be taught is as few as 8 weeks or as many as 19
Project based lab assignments mean more activities for more students
Most of the components are build or configured away from the vehicle, install once they are complete
ALL wiring is provided. Everything is cut to length, professionally terminated and labeled for ease of assembly, the wiring looms are even color coded
Training for the instructors is provided. In one week we demonstrate the basic functionality of the components and the teachers actually build a SWITCH during the class. The training is approved for Continuing Education credit in California.
Switch Vehicles has made this a program for success. Based on project based instruction we include STEM as part of our coursework.
We were started by two long time EV builders and enthusiasts. One founder taught How to Convert your car to Electric at the local community college, the other was involved with Electrothon racing at high schools up and down the state of California as far back as 1995.
Kiva Zip is a website that enables financially excluded and socially impactful entrepreneurs to access 0% interest small business loans. The loans are crowd funded by hundreds of lenders from around the world that read the the borrowers story, and lend as little as $5. Lenders and borrowers can communicate directly on the Kiva Zip platform, and lenders become potential customers, business advisors, and brand ambassadors to the borrower's business.
The Kiva Zip model also includes Trustees, who partner with Kiva Zip to recommend small business owners to the program. We have over 500 trustees in the U.S. who work with financially excluded and socially impactful entrepeneurs. Our Trustees vouch for an entrepeneur's character and business in order for them to qualify for the Kiva Zip program, but do not hold any financial obligation. Whether it's a grocery store, startup incubator, church, or student group - Kiva Zip empowers people to fuel their communities with capital raised on our platform.
Founded in 1979, The Commons (www.commons.org) is an institute of the whole focused on researching and solving the challenges of building sustained, high-performance collaborative cultures, using a whole systems/design science approach. The Commons’ basic strategy is to aggregate best practices into toolkits, organized to assist businesspeople and other civic leaders to be more financially literate, procedurally literate, systems literate, and emotionally literate.
The first commercial spin-off of the intellectual property is Performance Management Institute www.integralpmi.com
Ryan Honeyman is a sustainability consultant, executive coach, keynote speaker, and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, October 2014), the world’s first book on B Corporations.
Ryan helps businesses save money, improve employee satisfaction, and increase brand value by helping them maximize the value of their sustainability efforts, including helping companies certify and thrive as a B Corp. His clients include Ben & Jerry’s, Klean Kanteen, Nutiva, CleanWell, Exygy, and the Filene Research Institute.
Honeyman Sustainability Consulting, a Certified B Corporation, was recently honored—alongside Patagonia, Seventh Generation, New Belgium Brewery, GoLite, and Method—on the 2014 B Corp “Best for the Environment List,” which recognizes businesses that have scored in the top 10% of all B Corps worldwide for positive environmental impact.
Ryan has written articles for TriplePundit, Sustainable Industries, and the CU Times. He has also been a featured speaker at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, San Francisco State University, Mills College, the California College of the Arts, the Sustainable Enterprise Conference, the Marin Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, the New Sector Alliance, Nextspace, the Impact Hub Oakland, and the Impact Hub SoMa in San Francisco.
Ryan sits on the board of directors for the B Corp B2B Networking Group and Conscious Capitalism Bay Area. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Strong partnerships exist between family farmers and their communities. CAFF strives to build on shared values around food and agriculture, and work together in practical, on-the-ground programs. These partnerships create locally based economic vitality, improved human and environmental health, and long-term sustainability of family farms.
Nick will go deeper into his tale of the journey of starting CropMobster. Learn from their start as wild-eyed innovators. You'll hear how, in one year CropMobster has established its footing, and this venture is starting to grow. CropMobster has been featured in TIME Magazine, at the Commonwealth Club, and has been honored with numerous awards. Nick will reveal some specific tips and reflections that bring sustainability theory down to earth and deliver daily economic, environmental and social value.
In this talk James will discuss the Indigenous fair trade and organic supply chain, an alternative apparel production model. Apparel supply chains are infamous for having a high incidence of labor and environmental exploitation. Child labor and low-wage conditions are common as manufacturers seek the least expensive and least regulated countries in which to produce. In addition, textile production has environmental and health impacts from high-pesticide use in conventional cotton fields, to water contamination from toxic dyes used in yarns and fabrics. Consumers are concerned with labor and environmental issues but often are not aware of alternatives that are available to them.
Bitcoin and the underlying technology of cryptocurrency is poised to revolutionize the world of banking and financial equity. In this introductory workshop, you'll learn what Bitcoin is, why the technology is revolutionary and how you can get involved in the community. Find out how businesses can save 2-3% on credit card fees and have instant access to a global market. Discover how digital currencies are supporting thriving local economies. Don't miss this opportunity to educate yourself on the fundamentals of Bitcoin and see how you and your business will benefit.
Tiny houses and electric vehicles are exciting trends that make economic sense and have strong emotional appeal. Jay Shafer, Founder of the Four Lights Tiny House Company, takes us on a captivating journey through the world of tiny houses and smaller living. Jim and Peter of Switch Vehicles show us how driving can be fun and efficient. Hear how these low-cost, low-impact solutions in transportation and housing are feeding a growing appetite for environment-friendly solutions and are bringing the American Dream back in reach.
Upgrade your Management Operating System (MOS) – Build practical transparency about how the company as a whole creates value by applying the core logic of business math* to developthriving businesses and satisfying workplaces
Performance Management Institute’s (PMI) Accounting 3.0 ® enables mission-driven companies to implement purpose and metrics-driven culture. PMI delivers an upgraded MOS developed by the people who do the value creating work, installing a direct path to a mature measurement, reporting, and accountability system that can thrive in today's market.
By zeroing in on key decisions and actions that affect both profit and cash, everyone can prioritize on the most crucial drivers, and focus their teams on leveraging those drivers to deliver specified results. See www.performancemanagementinstitute.com/pmi-case-studies/
The PMI Solution also allows scaling to be done more easily as new management and staff is brought on, because leadership and staff business acumen has gone from informal personal wisdom to easily transferred & capitalized business knowledge.
Our core textbook on how to use accounting information to make money is Managing by the Numbers: A Common Sense Guide to Understanding and Using Your Company’s Financials (INC./Perseus), and on the decision/ action side is Transforming Performance Measurement:Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success (AMACOM).
* The mathematical relationship of organizational property, contracts, and cash in the bank - to each other and related business decisions and actions
It is representative government, as custodian of our tax dollars, that funds the commons. Civic engagement is a key part of a sustainable economy, as only engagement builds public awareness and the political pressure required for responsive government. For three long years, Sonoma County’s 11 libraries have been closed Mondays and evenings as a result of an unprecedented 25% cutback in hours. Attendance has plummeted by 32%. Sonoma County per capita funding is one-third of the funding in Marin and San Francisco Counties. How do we combine 21st century web tools with grassroots volunteer efforts to sustain and grow our vital commons, like libraries, which are at the heart of our thriving community?
