Local Financial Resources in Portland, Oregon

New Outlook Financial is a Portland, Oregon based investment advisory firm offering fee-only financial planning and investment advice for individuals, families and small business people, many of whom are interested in integrating their finances with their values. Unlike other financial advisors who sell products for commissions, we provide our clients with objective advice and guidance so they can be confident that the advice they are getting is in their best interest.

Format Solutions is a local business specializing in providing individuals with unprecedented control over their retirement assets and investment options.  If you’re frustrated with the lack of control, volatile performance, and ongoing expenses of your current investment portfolio, they can create a Limited Liability Company within your IRA that allows for full checkbook control of your retirement funds and a nearly limitless investment selection.

Mark Strauss of Leonard Adams Company: An independent insurance agent. Mark works with financially stable and preferred independent Northwest insurance companies such as: Oregon Mutual, Liberty Northwest, Mutual of Enumclaw, Safeco Insurance and National insurance companies such as: Chubb Insurance, Fireman’s Fund Insurance, One Beacon Insurance, Philadelphia Insurance, Travelers Insurance and many more. Mark has thought about the long-term implications of the businesses, homes and vehicles he insures. He’s dedicated to taking the time to spend a little extra money to reduce my environmental footprint as much as possible both in his personal and professional life because he believes that businesses need to be progressive and add environmental and social achievements to their measures of success.

More resources for local and socially responsible financial options

• Oregon Banks Local (for more information on local credit unions and community banks)
• Credit card options and reviews

This is a sampler to get you started. The River PDX strives to provide local and socially responsible resources that can help you align more aspects of your life with your values. If you’d like to know more about how investing in Portland real estate could fit into your long-term investment goals, we’d love the opportunity to explore that with you. Contact us to discuss how our real estate services could facilitate and enrich how you invest.

"Cully Grove will be a multi-generational group of individuals and families who enjoy sharing our lives with our community. We’re working to create an old-fashioned neighborhood in a new-fashioned way." -www.cullygrove.org

Fun + Farm (big gardens) + Spirited Community + High-Performance Homes = the new breed of urban cohousing. It’s Cully Grove. Located on about 2 acres on NE Going, Cully Grove nestles 16 homes and an abundance of common amenities. They’re taking reservations now, and it’s already over 50% reserved. The founding members will be at Rose’s Ice Cream (5011 NE 42nd Ave.) on Sunday, May 15th, 4:00-5:30. Stop by to check out their site plan and floor plans and get a feel for their vision. In the meantime, take a moment to check out their talented team of inspired community developers and designers.

Check it out, and if you need additional recommendations for contractors to perform the work, contact me.

1. CoreHaus new construction PassivHaus
2. Engstrom & Werlin Duplex Renovation
3. Doleman Strawbale Dwelling
4. Harpoon House
5. Woolsey Corner Affordable Cohousing

Wow! That was hard. I’m still unsure of my choices, as there are so many interesting ones this year. Some I’ve already visited or anticipate having the opportunity to visit down the road, so that helped take a few off my plate, but there are still some that might make the list come tour day. Tickets are available online.

If you’re unable to make the tour, but would like to tap into the local green building and sustainable design world, there will also be A FREE fun, family-friendly information fair with green vendors, demonstrations, food, drink and music. I will have a table there to share my business and answer questions. There are usually dozens of local businesses and non-profits present to share what they’ve been working on and how they can help as you assess how this impacts your home and fits into your life. Overall, it’s a great day to gain inspiration and insight into how others are making strides to create healthy, sustainable living situations and dwellings. If you attend the info fair, stop by to say, “HI!”

The info fair will be held at EcoHaus from 3pm to 7pm. EcoHaus is located at 819 Se Taylor St., Portland, OR 97214. If you’d like updates on events like this throughout the year, check out my facebook page or twitter feed. Or, just contact me directly. Enjoy.

This is huge public-private collaboration to close the streets for an extended car-free loop that connects multiple parks all day. It’s a dream to ride all day amongst friends and neighbors and new friends reveling in the open road and the variety of entertainment and activities that await you at each park. On some of the longer open stretches last year, I remember letting myself daydream that this is actually how the city always functions and feels. I think of it creating new urban planning muscle-memory for what’s normal. If it’s difficult to imagine a world with reduced reliance on automobiles, this is an opportunity to develop a vision for it. I know it’s a sunny Sunday daydream, but so were automobiles and highways at one time. Take a ride on one of these glorious Sunday Parkways, and you’ll see. . .and look out for a 6’8″ guy on an orange bike.

For schedules and route maps, visit the Sunday Parkways site.

For more information on the collaboration and how this is manifesting in other metro areas, check out the Sunday Parkways Blog. (Images by Anomalily)

At first mention of the topic, I think back to collaborative projects in school, and I immediately think of group efforts that illuminate the social dynamics and politics already playing out in adolescence. Not all members contribute equally; not all have the same skill set and drive; not all have the skills to make collaboration work to their advantage to result in and end product that couldn’t have otherwise been acheived. The skills for “synergizing” are unclear and widely untaught, so I am interested in seeing what people have to say about how this can play out in our adult lives as citizens, neighbors, and business people driving for a more vital sustainable future. Personally, I feel like I collaborate in many ways throughout the course of running my business, improving my practices, and as I engage in various creative efforts in the sustainable business world and real estate market. I’m excited to glean and integrate some new skills and communication techniques that can empower my collaborations to be more mutually beneficial, enjoyable, and powerful.

Here some of the leading questions and thoughts to preface the agenda, which will not actually be decided until the event, as per the Open Spaces format. From Portland Beyond 2020:

Collaboration for Sustainable Business

How can you put collaboration to work for environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable business? How can you use collaborative tools and processes to share and benefit from abundance?

When it comes to sustainability in business, there’s power in numbers. A coordinated group of people or businesses can make a greater impact than individuals acting alone. But in order for businesses to collaborate successfully, you must address several issues.

• What endeavors are best done collaboratively and how do you identify common goals?
• How can you find and join forces with fellow business leaders?
• How do you balance the goals, skills, and tasks among your collaborative partners?
• What are the decision-making and management options for collaborative enterprises?
• What are examples of successful collaborations in Portland and beyond?

Come to the 3rd Beyond 2020 Sustainability Unconference on May 6th to seek and offer answers to these questions.

• Present your ideas and needs, and offer your skills for collaborative projects.
• Share experiences with collaboration tools and processes.
• Develop skills for collaboration toward sustainable business.
• Discuss what you need and can offer for collaborative projects to create more sustainable business and the world.

Join us, May 6th, 5-8pm at KEEN Footwear (926 NW 13th Ave., Portland, OR 97209). For more details, check out Beyond 2020. Pass it on!

By joining your “neighbors” (other residents in your quadrant of Portland), local installers are able to offer incredible savings to add to the already aggressive incentive package through federal and state tax credits.

How it works (excerpt from the SE Uplift site):
- You and your neighbors all buy solar PV at once, allowing the contractor, Imagine Energy, to increase efficiency and buy the equipment at lower prices.  They pass those savings on to you for dramatically lower costs, especially after incentives.  The more people join in by the May 1st deadline, the lower the prices drop for all.

What to do:

1) Sign up by May 1st to let us know you’re interested in learning more.  Pricing for the project will be set on the 1st based on the number of people on the list.

2) Tell your friends:  Again, the more that join in, the better the deal gets.  Email tim@southeastuplift.org to get materials you can distribute to your friends and neighbors.

3) Attend a training session (free):  We’ll teach you all about the how solar PV works, how the pricing and incentives impact things, and what the process will be like.  You must attend one Basics of Going Solar with Solarize SE, and one topical session of your choice.  You can do both of these in one day, or split them up at your convenience (see schedule here).  Already know all about Solarize?  If you already know how the project works you can take our quiz instead of attending an information session.

4) Schedule a site assessment: Once you’ve been to the training and think Solarize is right for you, Imagine Energy solar experts will come evaluate your home and tell you what your options are.

5) Go Solar PV!  …Or Not….You’ll get a contract with a week of your site assessment. If solar PV wasn’t right for you, you can tap into community discounts on solar hot water or a Home Performance Energy Audit.

Growing the Choir: Engaging Business Leaders in Sustainability

Round 2 of Beyond 2020 is titled, “Growing the Choir: Engaging Business Leaders in Sustainability.” This participant-driven event is sponsored by Peter Korchnak and Renee Spears. I’ve registered and look forward to seeing what kind of synergies and dynamic outcomes can come from this Open Space format. Since this format relies on attendees for its content and scope, I’ll have more to tell after the event. I encourage you to consider it. As principles, ideas, and challenges of “sustainability” get echoed and bolstered in many vibrant pockets of town, this event seeks to find ways to spread the awareness and actions into new territories, hence the title, “Growing the Choir.”

Here are the starter questions that frame the discussions for this (un)conference.

• Who could we be talking to besides ourselves? What is the best way to engage business leaders who hold different values (for example, profit over planet)? How do people shift from a focus on narrowly defined self-interest to valuing community and environmental goals?
• What are the obstacles for adopting sustainability in business and how do we overcome them? How can we make sustainability more comprehensible, appealing, and inclusive? What immediate and long-term actions can we agree to take to grow the choir?

Come to the next Beyond 2020 to offer and seek answers to these questions.

Submit ideas for sessions, and join in on January 21st to lead your session.

Architecture 2030: The Road Before Us

Assembled by the Earth Advantage Institute, the Green Day Forum aims to bring together 100 thought leaders to discuss strategies for meeting the Architecture 2030 goals of establishing a carbon-neutral building industry. Topics range from Energy Performance Score implementation and incentives to current policy initiatives to funding sources to Passive House design and building standards. This is the short list. It’s an amazing agenda for the day. Former Secretary of State, Bill Bradbury, will be presenting among a host of other innovative thinkers in the architecture, construction, and renewable energy sectors of Oregon. I’ll be anxious to see the action items and strategies that come from this kind of assembly covering this much ground. Register here to participate.

The Green Day Forum will be held at the Earth Advantage Institute in Tigard, Oregon from 7:30am to 6:30pm on December 4th, 2009. The Earth Advantage National Center is located at 16280 SW Upper Boones Ferry Road Portland, OR 97224.