Kathy Ging, M.A.,
G.R.I, a full-time Realtor for 21 years, can be contacted at
541-342-8461 (home offlce)
541-729-1444 (cell)
1-800-944-0130 (toll free)
Kathy Ging was the co-director of the First Annual Lane County Energy Round-Up
Public Forums I and II held 1/23 and 2/27/07 in Eugene, working with co-director
Pamela Driscoll and an all volunteer group and Lane County Commissioner Pete
Sorenson. Over 400 people attended the events.
The Energy Round-Up had eight sponsors: Climate Crisis Working Group, EWEB, EPUD,
Eugene Weekly, Helios Network, West Wind Forest Products, Oregon Department of
Energy, and the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild.
Kathy Ging has a Master's in English from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill and has lived in Oregon for 32 years. Originally from Pennsylvania
and later from San Francisco, she has studied and traveled extensively to become
acquainted with other cultures.
She has been a promoter of energy efficiency, eco-products for homes, gardens
and farms, ecological business practices and renewable energy sources for three
decades.
Kathy directed or co-coordinated 19 renewable energy events in Oregon including
the First Southern Oregon Energy Fair, Visions for Humanity, in Ashland, Rogue
Inventors Days, seven mini fairs, Oregon Energy Round-Up at the State Fair 1981-83
and Energy Independence Days in Eugene and Springfield.
She catalyzed the addition of Energy Park to the Oregon Country Fair in 1981
(formerly Oregon Energy Horizons). She has also provided financial assistance
to G.R.E.E.N. (Grassroots Renewable Energy Education Project) that has been making
videos of renewable energy events in recent years.
Kathy co-founded the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild, SW Oregon Chapter, in Eugene,
and helped to organize 70 of its educational events and spearheaded the movement
to green the Eugene library, the beginning of a gradual transition by the City
of Eugene to its current proactive stance toward green building practices for
public buildings.
She attended the first New Energy Movement conference in Portland, OR, the 1st
Solar Electric Power Summit in Salem, OR, and Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association
Solar Expo in Portland, OR, and a SEER gathering.
While doing post-graduate work at the University of Oregon, she initiated the
revised performance based personal income renewable energy tax credit in the
Oregon legislature in the late 80s after 85% of the solar businesses state and
nationwide had gone bankrupt because state and federal tax credits had sunset.
She helped to organize the statewide momentum to win its passage 22 to zip the
day before summer solstice in the second attempt to secure its implementation.
This tax credit for home owners and renters is still in effect and has been expanded
and revised in recent years. When passed, it was widely considered to be the best
renewable energy personal income tax credit in the country.
Kathy has been a member of several environmental and energy groups such as Solar
Oregon, American Solar Energy Society, Climate Solutions, Citizens Utility Board,
3Estrategies, OSPIRG, Co-Op America and the School Garden Project.
She was on the Technical Advisory Committee of Eugene Mayor's Sustainable Business
Initiative, on the Statewide Green Building Committee and a panelist at HOPES,
an EcoDesign and Arts Conference at the University of Oregon. In the
early 80s she was on the grant giving committee of the Federal Region X Small
Scale Appropriate Technology Small Grant Program.
In 1981, Kathy lobbied the EWEB board to assign staff time to research solar
electric power (PVs); EWEB did fund a part time position that year. She also
co-sponsored the first local all day photovoltaic seminar with former EWEB Commissioner
Jack Craig.
In December, 2006, Kathy testified to the EWEB Board that they should consider
researching the idea of becoming a distributed utility where power is produced
on rooftops, in yards and in neighborhoods (see Rocky Mountain Institute's book,
Small Is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources
the Right Size; SmallIsProfitable.org.)
In 1997, Kathy won the First Citizen Activist of the Year Award from Friends
of Eugene for exceptional community service and in the year 2000 she was chosen
as one of 15 socially responsible business persons featured in Co-op America's
yearly publication.
In the 70s she founded the Community Skills Bank and co-founded SUNERGI (Southern
Oregon New Energy Institute) and was later secretary of the statewide Oregon
Campaign for Public Power. She also worked on the Lane County political scene
to energize Emerald People's Utility District doing extensive
door-to-door work around the county and phone banking.
The above is only a partial list of her involvement in community organizations.
Kathy sells real estate for Player Real Estate, Inc., has worked as a Realtor
in Lane County for 21 years and is a promoter of Liberated Salad, Biodiversity
at the Table a year-round garden that grows especially well West of the Cascades,
to feed activists and others interested in local, seasonal and organic food production.
See LiberatedSalad.com or LawnBeGone.com The mix contains between 60 and 100 greens and ruby reds.
Liberated Salad promotion can be seen at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza, Food
for Lane County building and the Eugene Library where Kathy made monetary donations.
