March 2009
OPAL - New OPC developer club online facilities
Opal is an online tool that facilitates "action learning" through helping communities of practitioners to share expertise, pose difficult questions and come up with helpful answers.
The Developer Club area on OPAL is visible only to staff from endorsed One Planet Developers. There is a library of SAPs and Guidance Notes for each principle and the beginnings of a rich resource on subjects such as marketing homes, outreach tools, member experiences of low impact construction materials.
There is a simple 3 page OPAL User Guide - download the PDF file here.
OPAL is pretty user friendly, but if you prefer to go through the join up process with help from someone who is already familiar with it, please arrange for a session with either Nicole or Tom at BioRegional. (see contact details below)
Once you are in, you might be interested in checking out:
- The One Brighton community website.
- Outcomes from BioRegional's one planet living outreach programme in Sutton schools. There are three documents on OPAL showing the introductory letter, a report on the 10 schools that took part and an appendix with detailed feedback.
- Embodied carbon analysis comparing One Brighton's green concrete with a ground breaking recycled content of 70% with the conventional alternative.
- One Planet Living in the Garden - leaflet produced by B&Q
Please post your own material on there - specifications, method statements, marketing material. Ask questions, post comments, share lessons. This is a dedicated private area for you, your staff and your fellow One Planet pioneers.
OPAL is being led by Nicole Lazarus and Tom Chance who can be reached at nicole.lazarus@bioregional.com or tom.chance@bioregional.com. Or you can phone Nicole on 0044 20 8404 4267 or Tom on 0044 20 8404 4884. If you have any trouble at all getting access to the private Developer Club area, then please do get in touch.