Judy Wicks, proprietor of the White Dog Café and co-chair of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, was keynote speaker at Sustainable Hudson Valley’s second annual conference: Cool Communities/ Living Economies: Building the Creative, Green Economy.  Wicks, a leading strategist in "local first" economic cluster development focusing on independent, sustainable enterprise, spoke on her business model, philanthropy, and pioneering work with the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia. This energizing day brought together people working to build the creative, green economy: business people, local elected officials, county and state agency staff, environmental advocates, economic development professionals, researchers, educators and citizens. The conference program highlighted work underway around the region, along with outside expertise and inspiration. A companion Expo featured prominent green enterprises.

Held in Vanderlyn Hall at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge, the conference achieved a very low carbon footprint with the help of Synergis Zero-Waste Group.  After recycling and composting, the conference's direct waste consisted of one coffee cup lid, a candy wrapper... and a huge styrofoam cooler that had contained some luridly sweet and colorful donated cheesecakes.  We bought double offsets and had a good time. 

Friday evening, November 2 at 6 pm, conference participants and the green/creative community gathered for a reception at Tech City to open the exhibit "Green and Creative in the Hudson Valley," a project of SHV and Tech City Properties.  At this gathering, we honored ten key businesses that have led the way in this new economy, provided an update on the re-invention of Tech City, and introduced the regional Building Blocks Project aimed at supporting green technologies, local food and farms, and the creative sector through business-to-business marketing and collaboration.

Thanks to our generous sponsors:

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority www.nyserda.org

 Hudson Valley Clean Energy  www.hvce.com

The Nature Conservancy   www.tnc.org

The Chazen Companies   www.chazen.com

HydroLogic Solutions    www.stormchambers.com

Spectra Environmental  www.spectraenv.com

Alfandre Architecture   www.alfandre.com

Ashokan Architecture and Planning www.ashokanarchitecture.com

Home Energy Solutions    http://www.homeenergysolutionsny.com

Hudson Valley Regional Council   www.hvregionalcouncil.org

Chronogram    www.chronogram.com

RiverRock Health Spa  www.riverrockhealthspa.com

Ryan Insurance   www.ryaninsurance.com

Synergis-Zero Waste Group   www.synergisrecycles.com

Tech City Properties   www.techcityny.com