Professor Alice Agogino, Mr. Daniel Wilson, and I will be teaching a freshman and sophomore seminar Engineering 39F entitled "Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability (CARES)" .

This seminar is on CARES (Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability) with application to the Pinoleville Pomo Nation.

CARES research has shown that living sustainably, having access to accurate environmental data, and having implementable solutions are of major concerns to consumers.

CARES seeks to help reduce climate change by being the first to close the loop of assessment, advisement and implementation of a more sustainable lifestyle.

This seminar will cover approaches to community assessment of renewable energy, with a focus on conservation, geothermal, microhydo-electric, solar photovoltaic, solar hot water heating, and wind energy.

We will also explore issues associate with creating a “green corridor” with electric vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area with connections to Northern California tribes. Related website: http://best.berkeley.edu/ and http://www.planetcares.org/. Enrollment is limited to ten students.

I was able to install the Black Cloud Air Quality Sensor at the Pinoleville Pomo Nation on Wednesday, July 21st 2010. 

The sensor records data on VOCs, CO2, Humidity, Vibration, Temperature, and Light.

You can check out the real time data here: http://www.blackcloud.org/alice/zurichtest_v2/

Figure 1: PPN Black Cloud Sensor in Adminstration Buliding             Figure 2: PPN Adminstration Buliding

More great news: CARES won the 2009-2010 Chancellor’s Award for Public Service!!!! The ceremony takes plave in Sibley Auditorium on Friday, April 30, 2010 at 4 pm  

SWEET!!!  CARES won a $75K seed CITRIS grant to start a CARES center at Berkeley to codesign & build green it & energy systems for Native Nations.

The center will be called Native American Community Assessment for Renewable Energy and Sustainability (Native CARES) and will include Native American partners such as the Pinoleville Pomo Nation, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Sandia National Laboratories.

Thanks to everyone that's supporting our efforts to helping  communities improve their overall level of sustainability and meet their triple bottom line requirements!

In March 2010, it will be two years since I started our partnership with the Pinoleville Pomo Nation (PPN).  In these past few years, CARES has been able to work with the PPN to co-design culturally inspired, sustainable housing for their members and secure funding to work development renewable energy power generation systems for their communities.

Currently, CARES has some office space in The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of
Society (CITRIS).

Now, we are trying to establish a more permanent relationship amongst the PPN, CARES, and UC Berkeley by seeking to create a center in CITRIS that uses the CARES model of (1) Assess, (2) Advise, (3) Implement, and (4) Live Sustainable.

This center will be called Native American Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and & Sustainability or NAtive CARES.  The center will focus on all aspects of sustainability that our tribal partners in Northern California are pursuing: green building, power generation, indoor air quality, water conservation, and economic business models.

I have been able to secure letters of support of the National Renewable Energy Lab , Sandia National Laboratories, and the Environmental Protection Agency to support this center as well.

I am really excited about our prospects for winning this CITRIS seed funding and I am looking forward to continuing the work that CARES has begun to improve the personal level of sustainability of all communities.

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