The Dallas Green Zine

If your family is vegan and you’d like to meet with others for occasional potlucks in North Texas, this is the place.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NTXVeganFams/

From one member, Nichole Fausey-Khosraviani:

We’re vegan families living and thriving in North Texas. We’ll have monthly potlucks the second Sunday of every month at someone’s pet-free home or a park or other low-allergy location. All the families here have children who will be in attendance at the potlucks. Vegetarians are welcome, but only discussion of vegan topics is allowed on the board, and only vegan foods and drinks at our functions. In other words, we won’t be discussing vegetarian recipes, though we may be discussing how to convert a vegetarian recipe into a vegan one.

It doesn’t matter the reason why you became vegan… could be for health, the environment, or animals rights/welfare… our commonality is that we’re all vegans (or are striving to be) and we all have kids.

The Audubon Society through three local chapters–Dallas, Prairie and Timbers (Collin County), and Fort Worth—all offer field trips around North Texas as well as interesting seminars at their monthly meetings. If you join the Audubon Society, regardless of which chapter you join, you can participate in the activities of any of these chapters.

Recent field/current trips include Hagerman Wildlife Refuge, Herman Baker Park, Pickens Lake, Lake Tawakoni State Park, Lake Texoma, Caddo National Grasslands, Arbor Hills Preserve, Spring Creek Preserve, White Rock Lake & Old Fish Hatchery, and Foster Park (Ft. Worth).

Additionally Prairie and Timbers provides birding classes at the Heard Museum, and both the Dallas and Ft. Worth chapters have online forums.

Sustainable Dallas is an organization that is building a network of businesses and institutions working to develop and implement sustainable practices throughout our Dallas/Fort Worth region.

Benefits for members include:

• Participation in all membership meetings, workshops, field trips and networking events
• Access to SD newsletters & updates, teleconferences, webinars, public web site directory listing, referrals and discounts
• Access to the members-only part of our web site, including collaboration tools such as online forums, shared documents, calendars, workgroups, lists and project information
• You have a voice in the planning of our programs - topics for speakers, workshops, field trips and events
• You are featured on our website and in selected public relations activities
• You may display the “Member of Sustainable Dallas” logo on your company website & promotional material

Depending on the level of involvement, there are different member types. For more information, see: Become a Member.

And even if you’re not interested in participating, check out the resource, news, and upcoming events sections at the Sustainable Dallas website. The Resources page has lots of interesting references for sustainability consulting firms, business networks, corporations leading the way, sustainability curriculum, magazines, and recommend reading.

The Energy Efficient Green Building Institute (EEGBI) is a partnership between Cedar Valley College, part of the Dallas County Community College District, and the U.S. Department of Energy, Building America Program. They offer Continuing Education courses and a degree program.

EEGBI provides curriculum for fields such as Energy Star Raters, LEED Raters, Zero Energy Building Consultants, Built Green Verifiers, Building Performance Specialists, Energy Code Enforcement Officials, Building Envelope Thermographers, Certified Mold Inspectors, CHEERS Raters, and Residential Energy Technicians. [Ed. note: And who were those short-sighted idiots who said said that environmental concerns cause the loss of jobs?]

The Vegetarian Network of Dallas promotes the understanding and respect of vegetarianism and the vegetarian lifestyle. This group was founded just this year by Margaret Morin and Julia McCloud. It’s a great way to learn about the health benefits, and the ethical and environmental considerations of practicing vegetarianism. There is also great concern about the ethical treatment of animals.

As a member you can learn about issues affecting the treatment of animals, the production of food, and the vegetarian lifestyle–and find out what you can do to make things better.

Also, every third Sunday, there is a group lunch at Veggie Garden Restaurant in Richardson. There are also potluck dinners at members’ homes.

Even if you’re not a vegetarian, but you’re wanting to move in that direction, this is a great group to become involved in.

What is Meetup.com? Meetup.com creates an online space where you can post your profile, participate in online discussion, and then meet with people in person to participate in weekly or monthly groups events. (Interests range from outdoor  enthusiasts to fiction writers to movie goers to political affiliations to musicians… and more.) Just go to meetup.com and run a search with your zip code to find out more.

There are 4 green Meetup groups that meet regularly in the DFW metroplex. 

• North Texas Environmental Meetup
• Dallas Alternative Energy Meetup
• The Northwest Earth Institute Meetup 
• Dallas Solar Installations Meetup

Through the Dallas Alternative Energy Meetup, you can meet other local individuals interested in exploring all forms of Alternative Energy. Discuss ways to preserve the world’s resources and protect the environment.

Dallas Alternative Energy meetup on a tour of the experimental Walmart 

The North Texas Environmental Meetup provides and opportunity to meet once a month with other like-minded environmentally-conscious people to discuss environmental issues both on a global and local level, as well as promote and learn about activities in the metroplex.

The North Texas Environmental group at Snappy Salads

The Northwest Earth Institute in Dallas Meetup was recently started in an effort to help people attending the NWEI book discussions continue to keep in touch after the completion of a discussion. However, you do not need to have attended an NWEI book discussion to join this meetup. This is the most informal of the meetups as there is no agenda. Everyone simply meets for conversation and to have a good time.

The Dallas Solar Installations Meetup is designed for people who want to meet regularly to learn more about solar energy. Darius Tarsio of Helios Electric is a solar energy specialist who organizes these meetings and can help answer such questions as: Are you a good solar candidate? What determines labor costs? What are free solar systems? Can I design a new home for solar?