Open Eco Center
From January 21, 2004
We will work worldwide with collaborative teams to encourage the formation of a Network of learning & training Eco Centers to develop as franchise operations that are self funding or profitable enterprises according to the purpose of the owners. These Centers may have various orientations that maximize the returns to the special knowledge and interests of the Eco Center? owners. For example, Eco Centers may incorporate fitness and recreational facilities that include spa, health and nutrition, stress reduction and personal and professional development programs. They may include conference and workshop space with flexible use of space to serve many activities that will produce income and profits and which are adapted to the local conditions and business opportunities.
The most advanced Internet tools will be acquired and developed to build a vast Open Source Community that will collaborate with the Eco Centers across our global Network. Distance learning, e-conferences, North-South collaborations, project websites and webcams, webcasts and virtual tours, discussion forums and a community website with dynamic content to which everyone can contribute by means of our Sola Roof Wiki. This collective effort will accelerate our work through the learning curve stages and permit the rapid diffusion of our methods and systems. This Network will include certified professional representatives as well as qualified volunteer enthusiasts who have the capacity to provide technical support and guidance to a multitude of projects and studies that are designed to test, prove and demonstrate that our methods are superior to conventional building construction and solar climate control methods (in each particular application and climate). This methodology will facilitate a large number of third party sponsored projects that will directly fund the development and construction of Demonstration Projects (Demo Projects?) and which may result in subsequent Social Enterprise Investment?.
The Eco Center? Network will rapidly prove that the Sola Roof building system can deliver value for money that cannot be matched by any other methods of building construction. Home owners, as soon as they are aware of the difference between a conventional residential investment and a Sola Roof investment, will universally opt for buying the Sola Roof home or residential project. Together, we will be capable of developing an Eco Living lifestyle that has all the advantages of modern living without the drawbacks.
Furthermore, the Eco Center? Network will facilitate our community of Net Workers? to become owners of Sola Roof homes and communities. We will get involved with community managers and planners, social workers and teachers to offer hands on training that will help these key people to move ahead on sustainable development agendas and enlist their active participation in our community. The Eco Center? Network will support Non Profit projects, and NG Os?; including collaboration with Habitat for Humanity and the development of emergency relief Eco Villages that can be rapidly deployed, to not only provide shelter, but to deliver comfort, energy, food, and water resources to dislocated communities.
The initiatives described above are intended to mobilize a Grass Roots movement to adopt the Sola Roof building systems by persons that become convinced that a personal change in lifestyle is urgently needed and is the best way to secure a better future for themselves, their children and future generations. It is critical that our Network will demonstrate convincingly that such an investment is financially attractive and will produce an improved standard of living for all. As more and more people have encounters with Sola Roof projects in commercial, recreational, tourism developments or by visiting Eco Centers and independent projects by our Pioneer members, or perhaps discover and learn about Eco Living through the Internet and other media then a very large demand for this lifestyle will develop. With this goal achieved it then is very important that we can respond to this broad based demand for Eco Living products.
The necessary manufacturing & supply can be rapidly organized by the Sola Roof Social Enterprise Network (Sse Net?) which is a distributed and cooperative association of businesses who are capable of the commercial supply of competitively priced, pre-engineered and prefabricated materials, components and equipment. The manufacturers and fabricators will supply to a global distribution network of design, build and service businesses, the large majority of which will be small and medium, independent construction contractors and architects. Sse Net? manufacturers will also sell goods and services directly to Sola Roof community members for DIY projects, where the massive volume of standardized materials purchased by the global community will assure access to the very best price and quality for each of our members. This open and flexible supply system will ensure that the Sola Roof home or residential projects can be competitively supplied around the globe.
The Sse Net? will collaborate with the Eco Center? Network to demonstrate that self reliant Eco Living is the only investment that is able produce returns that are so substantial as to be able to turn around the negative social and environmental trends and deliver an impact that is sufficient to reverse environmental damage and restore the planetary ecology. The value of food, water, and energy saved on air conditioning and other benefits is high enough to more than pay back the cost of any residential project in three to five years depending on the optimization of crops for commercial value. Or if this is not the goal then at least the residents have the sense of security that comes with the self reliant living in a Sola Roof home.
Compared to typical residential structures and neighborhoods, our garden homes and multi-residence villa and village designs provide more attractive, comfortable and beautiful spaces in which to live. Thus, government and societal goals for reduced consumption and pollution and CO 2 abatement can be achieved without a sense of sacrifice and without regulations to force people in the direction of the desired social and environmental goals. The work of the Sola Roof community will prove that Social Enterprise can produce positive economic development that actually builds environmental benefits over time and removes some of the restrictions that limit development and prosperity. The first and leading Eco Centers who are the founders of our global Eco Center? Network would be the catalysts that will trigger and support local initiatives to build a vast number and variety of Eco Center? projects and they will also provide support to pioneering projects built by individuals and groups within the rapidly expanding community of DIY enthusiasts.