Paul Robbins: International Green Guru

It was fun... Last night, local enviro-activists and luminaries gathered at the Barr Mansion to roast, pay tribute to and raise funds for Paul Robbins.

Robbins enjoys some unusual local fame. Best known as City Hall's favorite ankle-biter, he's also  creator/editor/publisher of The Austin Environmental Directory and probably the world's only unpaid environmentalist to have a "district cooling plant" named after him.

Robbins began his work in the mid-70s as part of Austin's legendary Tuesday Night Lemonade Club, a group credited with catalyzing the local movement for greener governance. Recently retired Austin Energy General Manager and former city councilman, Roger Duncan, credits him with originating many of the energy efficiency program ideas that later lifted Roger to international green-guru status. The two began their work together in the lemonade club.

Roger's roast highlights -- (paraphrased)

"Paul, I've been waiting years for this moment... People have often told me I was an unusually patient man, and asked me how I got that way -- you may be the best teacher of patience there is... (irony intended)... I'm reminded of Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar ... when Ceasar says, 'Who is that man? He is lean, he reads too much. Make him fat...'"

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The Austin Environmental Directory is now in its 7th edition. The magazine is a "yellow pages" of local environmental issues and solutions, written and funded mostly by Paul, but revered and referred to by thousands. There are about 40,000 copies available at businesses around town, or you can see it here and download the sections via pdf you wish to read.

Here's to Paul Robbins and all of Austin!

Photo by Jana Birchum, Austin Chronicle.