Customize a Program to Meet Your Goals
G3 develops customized workshops, lectures, tours and events for City agencies, water providers and public or private groups and organizations. Contact G3 for development of an event that supports your organization’s mission or funding goals. Some examples of these programs include:
2011 Generation Water: Water Efficiency Professional Training Program
Generation Water: Water Efficiency Professional Training Program
G3 worked with non-profit Generation Water to develop and implement a Water Efficiency Professional Training Program for its youth employees who are part of their green workforce development effort under the State of California’s first Green Innovation Challenge Grant (a $2.5 million grant to grow the water efficiency sector) received by Generation Water and partners in June 2010. This five-day Custom Program emphasizes Assessing Sites using a Watershed Model, Designing for Attainable Sustainability, and Plant/Soil/Water Stewardship for Minimizing Resources. Students were enrolled in the Program through both Generation Water and its partner in the grant, Los Angeles Conservation Corp.
Generation Water and LA Conservation Corp Students Build A Sponge Garden
The Program divides its time between classroom work using a workbook, exercises, and a Powerpoint presentation, and field work using the Hands-on experience of assessing, designing, and building a Sponge Garden (Rain Garden) in a residential property. Each day another aspect of the Sponge Garden is explored, until the planting and irrigation is installed on the final day, and the project is turned back to the property owner.
Throughout the week, students were assigned to teams for evaluation of basic Watershed Wise Landscape concepts including: ETo, Soil Party (Biology in Living Soil), Plant Community, and Runoff Coefficient.
Students’ ability to work in groups, share knowledge and teach others basic concepts, and build upon ideas from the classwork were evaluated in the field. Individual progress in comprehending both the mathematics and the concepts was evaluated using Pre-Assessment and Post-Course Quizzes.
For more information about the Water Efficiency Professional Training Program, check out the G3 Blog Posts on this topic.
2004 – 2008 Green Gardens Tour – Benefit for the Virginia Avenue Project
In 2004 Marilee Kuhlmann and Pamela Berstler co-developed a Sustainable is Attainable Residential Garden Tour as a fundraiser for the Santa Monica-based non-profit, Virginia Avenue Project. The goal of this part-science fair, part-garden tour was to:
- Educate homeowners about ways to reduce their dependence upon turf-centric water-guzzling gardens and
- Involve the Project youth, parents and volunteers by training them to docent the sustainable gardens.
Each year, 7 – 9 gardens were selected from those submitted by regional landscape professionals based upon a rating derived from six tenants of sustainability. A reference book was created by the Green Gardens Tour Committee including plant lists, articles on sustainable techniques and suggestions for moving existing gardens to the new sustainable paradigm. The gardens were docented by Virginia Avenue Project folks, the participating landscape designers, and a Green Gardens Tour Committee member. ”HOW-to” demonstrations of all the sustainable aspects were conducted in each garden, and a discussion was encouraged about areas that needed improvement to achieve a fully sustainable design.
May 2008 – Mediterranean Garden Society: Radical Discussion of Sustainability
This day-long program on sustainability was presented by G3 Los Angeles as a fundraiser for the Mediterranean Garden Society of Southern California. The program began at the Santa Monica Public Library with talks by G3 Founding Members, Pamela Berstler and Mayita Dinos.
The lectures were followed by a tour of the library garden and lunch. After lunch, a tour and discussion in four sustainable gardens was led by G3 Founding Members: Marilee Kuhlmann, Susanne Jett, Pamela Berstler and Stephanie Wilson Blanc. Each garden’s designer and installer discussed specific techniques used to achieve Attainable Sustainable Landscape Design – to reduce runoff and water use through innovative approaches like drip and low-flow irrigation, infiltration and cisterns.
2007 Zero-Runoff Seminar
Produced by G3, included a four hour panel discussion, presentations and luncheon sponsored by Ewing Irrigation, City of Santa Monica, and APLD Southern California District.
