About Us - Public Speaking

Click here to see my Calendar of Events for future speaking engagements.

   
All of the following presentations are available to be given again. Please contact me if you'd like a talk or workshop held at your event or office.
Sustainable Principles for Land Development

I regularly present an overview of sustainable land development practices. The ins and outs of best management practices are described with an in-depth look at how non-structural (i.e. good planning, conservation) and structural (i.e. good engineering, mitigation) practices can reduce environmental impacts and support community health and well-being.

This is a presentation that I've given at design firms, non-profits, and public settings. Talking about his stuff is my passion, that's why I turned educating folks into a business. You too, could witness this fantastic overview for the low, low price of free, if you would only email me and schedule at time for me to come to your office (and also arrange for a computer and projector)!

Presenting at the Oregon Environmental Council's Stormwater Solutions event in Grants Pass, OR.

Downloads

Download a pdf of this presentation

AND Go to the Additional Resources Page for strategies, additional resources, costs and benefits

Here's a summary of the talk.

Raingardens Workshop
This is an 8-hour workshop on the design, construction and cost estimating of raingardens that Derek Godwin of OSU Extension Service and Oregon SEA Grant invited me to teach with him at SPROut's first (annual) Soak It Up: Phytoremediation Conference. Practical hands-on learning is blended with technical presentations for experienced gardeners and land development professionals. Topics include raingarden definition, function, and importance; calculating impervious area; site assessment; infiltration testing; raingarden sizing considerations from models or rules of thumb; rainfall events; site constraint considerations & construction processes; cost estimating; and appropriate plant species. Click here for handouts.
Pervious Surfaces for Homeowners

In association with Portland Community College, the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District invited me to do a presentation on pervious pavements as part of their educational series "Rain Gardens and More". Special attention was given to considerations for their target audience, homeowners in the East Multnomah area. This could be tailored for professionals or generalized for a larger audience if you'd like.

Download a pdf of this presentation

Metro's Pervious Surfaces Seminar
Presented an introduction on appropriate applications of pervious pavements, site preparation, and touched on cost implications at two of Metro's Green from the Ground Up events on the east and west sides of the Portland region in 2007. Click here to see the pdf. I could easily expand this to be a workshop with detailed information about site consideration, modeling concepts, water quality impacts, etc.
Getting Green Built Right
Presented with Rob Fowler of Fortis Construction at Cascadia Region Green Building Council's Engineering Green Conference on contractor communication so that low impact designs are built to be true low impact solutions. (You should hire Rob for your next construction project; he really knows what he's talking about and he's easy to work with.)
Past Speaking Engagements (see Calendar of Events for future speaking engagements)

Maria has been invited to present at a number of offices and events including:

11-10-09 Willamette Green Industry Seminar, Silverton, OR (Oregon Garden) - Developing with GREEN in Mind
10-16-09 Earth Advantage - Sustainable Homes Professional. I was part of teaching Module 5m titled Health and Resources: Impacts on the Built Environment
09-16-09 EWRG & APWA Present the Sustainable Stormwater Symposium, Sustainable Land Development Resources for Design & Deliverables
07-23-09 Mahlum Architects Brownbag, Portland, OR on Site Master Planning
07-16-09 PCC Summer Sustainability Institute, Portland, OR, Sustainable Principles for Educators
07-06-09 Rogue Community College Summer Institute on Sustainability, White City, OR Sustainable Principles for Educators
05-14-09 EMSWCD's Raingardens and More (An Introduction to Pervious Pavements for Homeowners),
Portland, OR. Click here to see the presentation.
05-01-09 OEC's Stormwater Solutions Workshop, Grant's Pass, OR
04-30-09 OEC's Stormwater Solutions Workshop, Eugene, OR
04-25-09 Tour: Vegetated Facilities for Stormwater Management for OSU's LA 459/559 class, Portland, OR
04-02-09 Citizen Participation Organization, CPO-4B Bull Mountain/Tigard
04-01-09 SPROut Soak It Up Raingardens workshop, Silverton, OR with others
03-25-09 Tualitin Riverkeepers, Tigard, OR
03-07-09 Willamette Eco-Summit, Portland, OR (on green business operations and changing the culture in your office)
Click here for some related resources I put together just for the talk.

01-11-2009 Sustainable Building Advisor, Bend (They came to Portland for 2 days worth of talks and tours. I also gave a tour of the Headwaters project.)
10-28-2008 SERA Architects
10-27-2008 Roundstone Properties
10-16-2008 Portland State University, Arch 367U "Toward a Sustainable Architecture" (taught by Adjunct Professor Logan Cravens)
10-02-2008 Metro ENACT Sustainability Committee
09-09-2008 SOLV
08-07-2008 Metro Green from the Ground Up In-house on LID with others
08-06-2008 Mahlum Architects, Portland
07-28-2008 Brightworks
04-15-2008 Carleton Hart Architecture
03-18-2008 MIG, Portland
03-05-2008 Metro Green from the Ground Up Pervious Surface Seminar with others
01-28-2008 Metro Green from the Ground Up Pervious Surface Seminar with others

Other offices that I can remember presenting to through the years before I started tracking the exact date include:
LRS Architects
SOLV (as an advanced training session for Stream Team Captains in the Team Up for Watershed Health program)
Waterleaf Architecture

 
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