Environment

Learn how to create a beautiful perennial garden and landscape by using drought-tolerant native Texas plants. Lunch and a roundtable open Q&A session. $45/nonmember, $40/member. Pre-registration required.

Green Mountain Energy, who donated BRIT’s rooftop solar panels in 2011, will provide an educational overview of solar energy applications for your home. Learn how uses the sun's energy can offer utility cost savings and help the environment. Pre-registration required.

Introduction to Aquaponics: Learn how to grow natural, organic, chemical-free produce twice as fast and at four times the density without the dirt.

Dr. Fouad Jaber, Texas A&M Agrilife, will talk about water again--this time letting us know how to make potable water from well or rainwater. This will follow up his excellent program on water we had last year. Hosted by the Dallas Alternative Energy Group.

Networking and educational group for advocates and professionals interested in sustainability. The meeting is cancelled for February.

Hosted by Environment Texas. Learn how to pick a campaign strategy, goals, and tactics, and how to recruit and train volunteers. Contact: Jennifer@greencorps.org or 818-203-7625.

Environment Texas is hosting a press conference to promote solar energy development in Texas. Speakers include: Jennifer Rubiello, Environment Texas; Anna Clark, Interfaith Power and Light; Michael Gorton, Principal Solar; Aaron Harville, concerned father with asthmatic family, local musician; and Jim Duncan, North Texas Renewable Energy Incorporated. Check out the solar panels, write a solar valentine, grab a snack. Families and children welcome. Contact: Jennifer@greencorps.org or 818-203-7625.

Free one-day event. Choose from among five tracks of sessions: 1) Healthy Living; 2) Urban Agriculture; 3) Resource and Energy Efficiency; 4) Smart Cities; 5) Green Careers and Jobs. Keynote speaker: Joel Salatin, a third-generation alternative farmer whose family's farm, Polyface, Inc. has been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, Gourmet and in radio, television and print media. Exhibitors will also be on hand to share their green products and services.

Did you know heat beneath the earth's surface can generate electricity and heat our homes and businesses? Maria Richards, coordinator of the Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory, will discuss this resource that could provide pollution-free heat for homes and businesses and
in some areas of our state steam for generating electricity. Hosted by the North Texas Renewable Energy Group. Free.

Two-day workshop teaches participants Full-Spectrum Color Theory to connect interior and exterior environments. Includes walks through the gardens to observe color in nature. Bring photos from home or specific issues you would like to address during class exercises. Day one Feb. 23. Day two: March 2. Classes are broken in three sessions per day. Pay by session or all day $175-$185.