The Argonaut Plan.

Well.......

More and more people question the larger work that I'm doing in Town and the State, so I figured I'd post something for people to look at that explains a bit more about what I'm working on. (no, Real Estate is not my ENTIRE life) Please read, and if you'd like to know more, check out more posts on my personal Blog. You can also check our the professional Blogs too.....

(The Following was from a State "sustainability" Awards application)

Thanks.

Maui

1. Describe how sustainability is incorporated into the mission, goals and work ethic of your organization.

Look Closer

Hood River Oregon, is, by many estimates, a small town exploding at the seams. On the surface, it’s a town headed down the well trodden path of a tourism based economy, oft a cycle driven boom-bust economy most appropriately typified by Hawaii’s roller coaster economy.
But look closer, and you’ll see something interesting happening; a beautiful, wonderful formula for long term success passing by the window of opportunity.
Capturing a nascent trend, and lining up all the elements in this moment to create the foundation for long term viability is the goal of the company that my partner and I began back in 1998.
What we noticed in 1998 was that many of the people coming to our restaurant in Hood River were not coming to see or even be “windsurfers” or “sports town” people. We noticed that there was a subtle longing in each of our customers, athlete or not, that drew them here.
It was a longing to be connected to other people around them. The friendly nod in the street, the helpful stranger, that “small town” quality of life, was becoming, an economic kernel that we could build new business around.
But only if that small town feel were alive and healthy. Quickly we began to draw up what was truly Hood River’s strength, and almost immediately, we determined that it was Hood River’s relationship with agriculture that provided the key. The small town atmosphere was almost purely derivative of the agricultural ethic. The long term success of a town like Hood River is based, almost entirely upon the success of our region’s agriculture. Not entirely for it’s output, but rather, its ethos.
Further research lead us to the realization that many of these farmers were practicing, often using cutting edge techniques and commitment, the art of sustainability. Back in 2000 it wasn’t called sustainability, and many of them don’t use that word today. It was called self-reliance, or husbandry, or stewardship, but it resembled what many people consider today to be sustainability.
This lead us to researching slow food, stewardship based programs, biomimicry, new urbanism and a host of elements that could lead us in our formation of what we then felt would be an exciting growth opportunity.
As the pieces began to lay out in front of us, we saw that the affecting change in this microcosm would require not only one initiative, but a wide range of activity that could begin the conversation of how we move towards long term sustainability. We roughly grouped these initiatives into two categories: Food and Agriculture issues, and Growth Management issues. Using Eco-Trust’s “Conservation Economy” model, we generated the following businesses, all with the mission of defining defending and developing Hood River for it’s long term place in the conservation economy.


Food Issues:

The Sixth Street Bistro
Founded in 1991, the Sixth Street Bistro became “Green Smart” certified in 1998. (Green Smart was a business certification program promoted by an OSU RARE Volunteer in Hood River) Our conversion, however, lead us to revise the way we received our products, the amount of packaging we would accept, and altered who our suppliers were. These issues were detailed in an article published by the Chefs Collaborative, and included later in this packet.
We recycle all food scraps from kitchen production, (where appropriate) and have a very high recycle and reuse percentage. Our oil is rendered in a Bio fuel co-op that we helped found, and burned in one of our partner’s automobiles. We have personally lead to the support and founding of not less than 6 family farms, whom we use as suppliers. The Sixth Street created our area’s interest in the local food shed.

Celilo Restaurant
Our success at the Sixth Street Bistro lead us to the construction of Hood River’s first “Leed Compliant” building, one of the first major investments in Hood River’s Downtown in over 30 years. (As part of a Nisei project, please see below) We built Celilo as the anchor tenant in this building. Celilo is a restaurant that focuses on Sustainability at every turn, holistic, financial and otherwise. We concentrate on local, resource responsible food production, and “Honor the Distance” when our food is not obtainable within our food shed. Our interior was built using reclaimed materials and is LEED Compliant. We pre-heat our dishwasher water behind our cooking line so that we do not have to use chlorine on our rinse cycle, an item that would immediately impact our food supply.

Oregon Growers and Shippers
We also started Oregon Growers and Shippers, as a method of “branding” the Hood River valley. Our product is sourced from family farms, and packaged using minimal processing. We promote these farms and the “excellence of place” in all our marketing. In 2005 OGS was named a finalist in the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade’s “Best New Product Line” and “Outstanding Preserve” Award.
Our products are sold nationwide, and bring the story of Hood River, and responsible value added production to the nation.

The Farmer’s Conservation Alliance
We were honored to be the group that incubated the FCA, one of Oregon’s most promising not-for-profits. While still in start up mode, the FCA is a company that installs a revolutionary fish screen, a device that can divert water for irrigation without harming fish. This patented technology is the “holy grail” of responsible water diversion, and creates the promise of truly green hydroelectricity.
Even more promising, the FCA has been formed using the latest thinking in socially responsible investing, taking the revenue stream from the screen sales, and investing it back into Rural economies to develop more responsible technologies that provide financial benefit, as well as ecological and social benefit.


Growth Issues

Nisei
Created to stop Hood River’s early infatuation with sprawl, Nisei is a new-urbanist development company. Nisei has developed three projects, each pushing new ground in Hood River. We built two sets of town homes to demonstrate that effective infill could be interesting and of high quality. We built these eight homes to what would today be considered similar to “earth advantage” quality, including drought resistant landscaping, semi-permeable driveways, efficient “pre built” customs homes, and other resource efficient materials.
Our most recent project was the New Yasui building, which was built to qualify for LEED Silver status. This building was named after a prominent Asian family that was displaced during World War Two, and built on the site of an old gas station in Downtown Hood River. When we began, it was the first new building on Oak Street, Hood River’s main street, in over 30 years.

Copper West Properties
Founded as the selling arm to Nisei, Copper West has now grown into a thriving Real Estate sales company. An unintended side effect of our work, was dealing with the number of inbound residents to Hood River. Copper West works to bring these new residents to town, acting as a trusted negotiator. While initially created as simply a sales company, we have learned that our Real Estate work is an important first point of contact for new residents of Hood River. Tying our customers into the community is a much more personal effort than just a list of school board members, etc. Making these personal connections is an important service differentiator for our company, one that we are proud of. Our offices are all LEED compliant, and we use empty desk space in our office to incubate other not for profits that align with our goals. Currently we offer space to the local representative of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, and the Gorge Grown Food Network.

Hood River Energy Partners
Now defunct, Hood River Energy Partners (HREP) was created to bring Hood River into the 21st century with regards to energy security. Founded as a lunch group, HREP strategized on early adoption and research ideas that ultimately lead to “The Navigator” a publication mailed to every home in Hood River County helping all residents understand the importance of energy conservation, and connecting them with tips and resources that saved them money.
Today, the spirit of HREP lives on in Hood River County’s Renewable Energy plan, a plan for Hood River to generate its own energy from renewable resources as a source of both energy self sufficiency, and County government revenue. This initiative migrated from HREP to the County Government through Maui Meyer’s involvement with Hood River County as a County Commissioner.