Past Work

In the first decade of Fruit Tree Tour, the program directly impacted 40,000 students, transformed over 100 urban schools and community centers into abundant orchards,  and planted over 3,000 Fruit Trees.   Fruit Tree Tour is a 20-city, 70-day tour that plants over 1000 fruit trees at urban schools and community centers from Los Angeles to Sacramento. Traveling in veggie oil-powered caravan, 27-earth educators from Common Vision taught students about earth stewardship, cooperation, and connecting with their environment through a daylong program that includes tree planting, drumming, performance, and earth-conscious hip-hop.  > Learn more

In a fire devastated mountain range, Common Vision brought together volunteers from across California to plant 1000 trees in the Mendocino National Forest… in one day! 60 miles West of Chico, we replanted 4 acres with red fir, white fir, and sugar pine seedlings.  The experience of caring for our public forests and the future was deeply moving to the reforestation participants. The experience was so positive for both the Common visionaries and the Forest Service that Vicki Stoll, Partnership Coordinator for the Forest Service, urged the Common Vision staff to work towards inviting groups of urban youth to a planting project in 2009! > Read more & see the slide show

In a rare collaboration between an international humanitarian saint, the world’s foremost permaculture designer, and two dynamic tree-planting organizations, Common Vision was honored to run a "Permaculture and Reforestation" course. In this 3-day course, Common Vision helped GreenFriends to launch a sustainably designed reforestation project at the MA Center, the headquarters for Mata Amritanandamayi’s (Amma’s) charitable and spiritual activities in the US.  Geoff Lawton, a permaculture teacher who has taught side by side with Bill Mollison, has grown food forests in the desert with hardly any irrigation, and has led sustainable design projects for governments, NGOs, and companies in 27 different countries taught how to catch millions of gallons of rainwater in the landscape, plant thousands of trees in resilient ecosystems, and install food forests in Northern California.  > View Slide Show

In June of 2006, Common Vision worked in South Central Los Angeles to train mechanics, community members, and local youth how to convert diesel engines to run on Straight Vegetable Oil. The ten-day training program covered converting engines, maintaining vehicles, and processing fuel.   Working with local non-profit Community Services Unlimited, Common Vision converted a Dodge truck and a 1971 Gillig school bus to run on straight vegetable oil. The bus serves as the primary vehicle for a South Central based mobile organic farmer's market.

In 2003 and 2004, Common Vision ran an Ecological Design course through Pomona College.   Students from Pomona, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges came aboard the Common Vision bus for a Permaculture Design Certification Course.  For the remainder of the college semester, the students worked with a San Antonio Continuation High School class 5-days-a-week to develop a garden-based ecology and design class.  The high school students made compost, built and prepared garden beds, brewed biodiesel, constructed a cob bench, and grew vegetables and fruit trees.  Both college and high school students received credit towards graduation. 

In January 2004, Common Vision ran the world’s first veggie-oil-powered mobile permaculture design course PDC.  Eight students from Pomona College, a media team, and two permaculture design teachers lived aboard The Lioness.  For 11 days, students learned the 72-hour Permaculture Design Curriculum at exemplary sites across Southern California.  The course included sites and teachers that could best facilitate projects and demonstrations to illustrate different aspects of the PDC curriculum.

In the Winter and Spring of 2002-03 , Common Vision ran its first PDC, permaculture design course. Twelve students from three colleges around Claremont, CA joined Common Vision for 7 weekend intensives.  Students experienced numerous sites and teachers across Southern CA and Mexico that highlight different aspects of sustainable design.  The PDC was a part of a college course that Common Vision ran through Pomona College.   Students in the course developed and facilitated permaculture- /garden-based cirriculum with a local continuation high school as part of their design projects. 

In 2002, Common Vision traveled across America, teaching community workshops on how to brew Biodiesel from recycled vegetable oil and create local biodiesel Co-ops.  The tour reached 15 major cities including Los Angeles, Pheonix, Detroit, and New York City.  With a volunteer crew of 10 and a mobile Biodiesel refinery, Common Vision brewed over 1500 gallons of Biodiesel fueling the entire 7,000+ mile journey. The 2002 Biodiesel Education Tour taught thousands of people about making biodiesel, the necessity of reducing fossil fuel consumption, and successfully left several local biodiesel Co-ops in its wake.  > Learn more.