The following is a release from Asheville’s first annual, free Global Transformation Festival: Emerging Solutions for the Shift to a Sustainable World, featuring a keynote address by Bill McKibben:

The Global Transformation Festival is a day of celebration, featuring actions people can do NOW to plant seeds and lay the foundation for a sustainable world. This event will take place Saturday, October 15, 2011 at Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community near Asheville.

A quiet transformation is rapidly expanding world-wide as many thousands of organizations, individuals and small businesses are not waiting any longer, but are actively creating positive solutions in their communities - and Asheville is no exception.

The Global Transformation Festival offers a special opportunity to meet and share ideas and experiences with local activists, teachers, green entrepreneurs, scientists, and sustainable organizations. It is a day for celebrating the many sustainable ways we can improve our lives and communities: organic growing, permaculture, renewable energy, energy-efficient homes, community collaboration, low-carbon living, land conservation, clean air and water, biodiversity, and much more. It also promises to be a day of fun, healthy food and great music!

A variety of local organizations will be participating in this event including: Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute, Land of Sky Regional Council, ECO, Equinox Environmental, Riverlink, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), Sundance Power, WNC Green Building Council and many others.

Bill McKibben will be giving the keynote address via Skype. He is the author of a dozen environmental books and founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time called him “the planet's best green journalist” and the Boston Globe said he was “probably the country's most important environmentalist.”

Classes, workshops and discussion forums are planned for the entire day including:

1. Climate science and the impacts to the earth
2. Breakthroughs/ inventions in renewable clean energy (solar, wind, microhydro, electric cars, battery technology, etc.)
3. Living closer to the earth and conserving our natural resources (growing our own food organically, using permaculture, conserving our water, biodiversity/habitat protection)
4. Local sustainability (what our neighbors are doing and what we can do)
5. Activism as art and play (for kids of all ages)
6. Powerful new communication technology and tools (for sharing ideas, connecting and empowering each other around the globe)
7. Amplifying our personal energy levels and evolving a new planetary consciousness (healing arts, yoga, energy practices and self-care)

The goal of the festival is to empower people to get involved in building a sustainable future NOW and to make new friends and connections in the process!

WHAT: THE GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION FESTIVAL:
Emerging Solutions for the Shift to a Sustainable World

WHEN: Saturday, October, 15, 2011

WHERE: Laughing Waters Retreat Center at Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community near Asheville

COST: FREE – All donations go to support local sustainability projects and organizations.

CO-SPONSORS – Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, ECO, Equinox Environmental, Riverlink, Sundance Power, and WNC Green Building Council.

SOME OTHER PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS - Canary Coalition, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, Dogwood Alliance, Diane Almond - natural beekeeping, Land of Sky Regional Council, Riverlink, Useful Plants Nursery, Vandemusser Design, True Nature Fair and Organic Growers School.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: www.LaughingWatersNC.com

EVENT ORGANIZER: Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Community is creating a model of a sustainable community to demonstrate ways we can all live in harmony with the environment. Visit www.HickoryNutForest.com . Volunteers, teachers and organizations are still welcome to become part of this growing day.