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"Since we are not a flawed species but one that is just mistaken, operating on old unexamined assumptions, we have the ability to change and to learn new more adaptive ways of being. Re-examining the assumptions that we live by will give us access to change."
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Larry Dean Tackett Bio -
I graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a Bachelors degree in Biology and Psychology and studied Anthropology at the University of Arkansas,
My overall focus is as a cultural change agent. In 1986, I created a strategic plan of action to end hunger and homelessness in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1987, I directed the People-to-People Initiative, a project of The Hunger Project, to generate a conversation for taking care of our own in the United States. In 1989, I moved to London, England and formed a company to market alternative environmentally conscious industrial technologies. The objective was to offer developing countries a means to develop an industrial infrastructure that’s environmentally sustainable. I worked in Kenya to set up these technologies.
Returning to San Francisco, I began researching community living and have lived in three different sustainable communities whose guiding principles are non-violence, mutual respect, diversity, all are responsible and accountable, everyone is equally powerful, non-hierarchical, contribute to local community, be of service and enjoy life to the fullest. We practice a green lifestyle, by gardening organically, reducing electricity and water usage, pooling resources and volunteering.
Professionally I am a Hellerwork Practitioner and own Suite Spa, an en-suite spa services company. Environmental sustainability is one of our guiding principles. In 2002, I co-created the Healing the Waters Project, to generate the conversation in the spa industry to take on sustainable practices and formed a sustainability taskforce in the International Spa Association. Out of this project the Green Spa Network was formed. In 2008, Green spas were in the top ten spa trends.
I am a long time member of the Pachamama Alliance and a Facilitator of the “Awaken the Dreamer, Change the Dream Symposium.” The purpose of the symposium is to create an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet as the guiding principle of our times.
In my other volunteer work, I have been a member of Sustainable Novato since its inception and currently serve as president. I serve on the advisory board of the Sustainable World Coalition, the publisher of the Sustainable World Sourcebook and the advisory board of The Away Station, a reuse facility in Fairfax, CA.
In 2003, I formed the Gardeners Of Eden, whose purpose is to get people to commit to tending and caring for the earth, being in synergy with all life.
I hold myself as a guardian and steward for all life.
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"If a business is not sustainable by definition it will not survive."
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Marin and the Bean Stalk? The Planetshifter.com Interview with Larry Tackett, President, Sustainable Novato
Sustainable Novato Goals: - To educate, inspire and empower the community in the practical application of sustainable principles, and the actions required to affect publlic policy.
- To establish more grassroots support for sustainability advocacy at the local level.
- To ensure that long-term city planning is done within the context of sustainability.
- To educate and empower our friends and neighbors to act in the interests of a Sustainable Novato
What are your goals as the incoming President of SN?
My main goal is to build on the success of our advocacy and educational programs and begin engaging the community more fully, to expand from activism to activation. The city government cannot be the only arbitrator determining the health and vitality of our community. I want to create ways to get the support of the citizens of Novato to participate in building a sustainable future.
To do this it is essential to expand our community outreach. To collaborate with every interested organization in the city, civic clubs, the faith based community, schools, senior centers. I really want to get the elders to contribute their wisdom to the conversation.
We will be honing our public conversation and expanding our public speaking opportunities. I think we need to reframe how we speak about sustainability. We have been good at what and how but not why. So, it is time for us to begin saying why we are working for a sustainable Novato.
Expanding our membership base is of highest priority. We need more people participating with us and it is the base for our funding.
I want the board to begin mentoring at least one person to replace them. I have a fabulous board of directors. They are intelligent, committed and focused in action. We recently expanded our Board to include the previous Mayor of Novato Jim LeLand and the Director of Modernization at the Marin Community College District V-Anne Chernock. David Dixon, recently joined us also, bringing our total to 10. They join our current Board members, Marie Chan, VP for Environmental Health Initiative, Marla Fields, VP Sustainable Communities, Donn Davey, VP Resource Efficiency Initiative, Ed Mainland, Treasurer and Marin Clean Energy, Annan Paterson Membership. We need hundreds more just like them. What they know and how they work needs to be passed on and expanded in the community. We have hundreds of people on our mailing list, but we need our members to become more engaged. That is our goal for this next year.
I want us to have fun and enjoy the good work we do. If we are happy then it will be infectious to everyone we encounter. Most importantly we won’t burn out. We are in this for the long term. I want the organization to know that this is our legacy.
How close is Marin County to zero waste?
Novato has a zero waste plan, but it's only partially implemented. We have come a long way in making recycling easier. A few years ago they shifted from segregated recycling to single stream and the amount of recycling greatly increased. The county and all the municipalities are all moving in that direction. Primarily because the local landfill is almost full. Once it is closed then our garbage will have to be shipped many miles to dispose of it. We have a lot more work to do in this area.
What will it take?
It will take the political will. Most citizens don’t care as long as it gets taken care of at a reasonable cost. It will be cheaper to go to Zero Waste than to ship it away.
A friend of mine, Carrie Bachelder, has been working for years to create a reuse facility and has just opened The Away Station, in Fairfax. This has been one of the missing ingredients for LEED certification, construction site waste reduction.
It will take an education program for consumers and manufacturers to learn how to reduce waste by choosing packaging that is minimal and doesn’t end up in the landfills.
Conversations are underway now with the landfill operators to compost green waste instead of using it for cover. This will reduce future methane production.
What are the underlying values and principles at Sustainable Novato?
We envision a healthy eco-system integrated with economic vitality and social equity for all residents. We have been bringing this into existence by designing and producing educational events and community forums presenting the sustainable perspective. We encourage sustainable policies and practices in planning efforts in Novato, i.e. green building codes, green business programs and reduction of environmental pollutants. We also support localization of business. A local economy is more vital and provides more security in these uncertain times. Each dollar spent locally circulates seven times throughout the economy before leaving. When we shop chain stores it immediately leaves. One million dollars spent locally is like having seven million dollars of value in the economy. Shopping chain stores it is just one million dollars of value.
Here is a game everyone can play. When you are in a group of people ask them if they would all like to leave richer than they came. Of course everyone will. Take a $100 bill and turn to the first person and ask them what they will give you for the $100. Make the exchange, and they turn to the next person and do the same, until it goes all the way around to you again and you make the last exchange. Then take the $100 and put it back in your pocket. If there were 20 people in the room, you just created $2000 of value in just a few minutes. You created something more also and that is the personal interaction and exchange that will be more memorable. This is a demonstration of a local economy. Now ask if they want to see how a non-local economy works. If it is a yes then ask someone in the group if they have a $100 bill, approach them and tell them what you will give them in return for it. Once you are in agreement take the $100 and stick it in your pocket and walk away. The usual reaction is hey wait a minute that’s my $100. This makes the point and its fun.
Many folks are denying that global warming is a real problem? How do you deal with this?
The problem with climate change is that it is invisible and is happening over a long period of time, so it doesn’t appear imminent for most people, given everything else that is happening. So it is easy to ignore. We are looking at ways we can make it more visible. I think art is one way we can do that. If any of your readers have any ideas on this please share.
Since we are not a flawed species but one that is just mistaken, operating on old unexamined assumptions, we have the ability to change and to learn new more adaptive ways of being. Re-examining the assumptions that we live by will give us access to change.
Denial is part of the fear. I just ask them do they notice any changes in the weather or in nature. If they do then I say, “Whether it is caused by man or it’s a natural phenomenon, there are things we can do to mitigate it”. I ask them do they agree, if I get a yes, then I ask, “What do you think we could do.” If it is a no, then I ask them given the state of the world today, what would be the right thing to do?
I always try to find some issue they are interested in and talk about that. I keep looking for their commitment and encourage them to volunteer or support that. If everybody does at least one thing in his or her community then everything will get done.
Sustainable Novato’s main focus has been to get the City of Novato to join the Marin Clean Energy program. To date we have not been successful in doing this. We will be re-looking at our strategy. The Marin Board of Supervisors just guaranteed funding for the next few months to get MCE to the delivery stage. MCE finalized a service delivery contract with Shell Oil company to supply clean renewable energy. The only thing in the way of our success is PG&E.
PG&E has taken a page out of Karl Rove’s be nasty play book and is pushing the Bush era culture of fear onto MCE, the local government agencies and the California Public Utilities Commission. They are making threats and refusing to deliver the power that is contracted by MCE, even though the Community Choice Aggregation law states that they have to deliver the power. They are also suing MCE to slow them down and cost them money to defend themselves in court, so they can get a new law passed that will make it virtually impossible to build local power companies.
They have also funded an initiative to change the law so that it requires two thirds vote from the people to set up a local power authority. This is called, “Citizens Right to Vote Act.” Again a Karl Rove ploy, say one thing but mean another. If California passes this then we are stuck with an antiquated and bankrupt power company that has no real commitment to renewable clean energy.
The new Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections has emboldened them.
I think Jack Capitalism and Eli Sustainability are headed for a blowout, down and dirty fistfight in the months ahead? Your thoughts at ring side?
Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network says, “There is no commerce on a dead planet.” Conservation is a more accessible term for capitalist, because they understand that you have to live off of your interest not your capital.
We also talk about a thriving economy, which is beyond sustainability, because for an economy to thrive it has to have gone beyond sustainability.
I think we have to totally reframe the sustainability conversation for different audiences. My personal goal as president of Sustainable Novato is to shift from big systemic issues to smaller more graspable concepts. I’ve proposed to the board that we create a “Healthy Novato Campaign.” All of the issues, environmental toxins, water, food, clean air, zero waste, green buildings can be reframed as a community health issue.
It just makes good business sense to be green these days and if a business is not sustainable by definition it will not survive.
Water or land or population or safe energy. Which arena is the next real BIG issue and why?
Water in California is always the limiting factor. As climate change progresses it will be a bigger challenge. We depend on the slow melting of the snow pack in the Sierras to supply us water throughout the dry summer months. If it melts too fast then we will lose our most reliable source of water. We have been in drought condition for the past few years, so we are vulnerable.
Safe clean energy is coming into its own, naturally. We are already at peak oil and we see that in the prices at the pump. This in itself will drive renewable energy as the energy of choice.
Is nuclear power back on the front burner in CA/ USA, as the Obama stated?
The big engineering companies will always push for Nuclear Power. It is a cash cow for them to build. Since John Perkins exposed large international infrastructure projects as ways of indenturing developing countries these companies will need to find someone else to keep feeding them. So there will be a lot of money lobbying for nuclear and clean coal (oxymoron).
In addition to opposing it we need to mobilize our resources and build clean renewable power companies. If every resident in Marin, would just calculate their ecological footprint to determine the cost to offset their impact and then put that money into a loan fund to be used to build the infrastructure, we could raise $30,000,000 dollars a year. Over 10 years we would have $300,000,000 invested in generating our own power. That is energy security and everybody owns it.
The antidote to nuclear power is imagination and creativity.
What does the Marin Community Foundation contribute?
MCF has shifted the way it is working in the community over the past few years. One of its main focuses is environmental sustainability. They funded our community educational programs. I heard recently that they have created a grant fund to put solar on all the schools in Marin. They have a huge commitment to creating Marin to be sustainable.
How successful were your 2009 – 10 Initiatives?
We worked on a two year plan to design and produce community forums. We conducted 13 forums on; Creating Sustainable Communities, Environmental Toxins and Human Health, Rethinking Waste, Green Schools, Marin Clean Energy, Green Building, Climate Change and the effects on the local watershed, Transportation and Local Economies.
We advocated for residential and commercial green building ordinances, which were passed. We successfully set up green school programs throughout the district and got all toxic cleaning supplies replaced with non-toxic alternatives. Working with the county we were able to improve the Integrated Pest Management program.
We have changed the economic landscape for Novato green business opportunities. Our work has served to increase interest in and the market for green building products, green building materials, solar installations, healthy personal care products, reusable and recyclable materials and non-toxic pesticides. Check us out on our website!
Is not the sustainability movement a cry for the next level of human consciousness?
Yes, we can't solve the problems with the same level of consciousness that created them. The biggest crisis is a crisis of imagination. What limits our imagination is fear.
I think the sustainability movement is a cry for reconnection, reconnection to self, nature and each other. There is no consciousness alone. We only expand and evolve in relationship with each other. One of my favorite sayings is “The greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century was the nuclear family”. Before World War ll, we all lived in extended families and smaller communities. Humans are pack animals and need the closeness of each other to thrive.
By being reconnected we alleviate our fear thus opening us to re-imagine a future that is sustainable and thriving.
How do you define evolution in 2010 on out?
Well we are at a very definitive time in our existence. For the first time we have the ability to design the future we want instead of constantly adapting to the changes. To evolve we must first wake up. We have to wake up to the impact we have on our life support system. We have to wake up to the belief that we each make a difference and we have to wake up see that we have to work together to make the changes that are necessary to survive.
Future evolution is social evolution. Together we are a genius. Every challenge facing us has a doable solution, what is missing is the will to do them.
Connections –
Larry Tackett, President
Sustainable Novato
Larrydean at sustainablenovato dot com
Larrydeantackett at gmail dot com
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