On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Pacific Grove, Applied Solar Energy’s Oliver Boekbinder, lanky and scruffy, chats with a visitor about solar batteries. His co-worker Nora Carlton, neat and compact with red-framed glasses, taps away at a laptop, occasionally jumping up to radiate passion about passive solar heating.

This is the Green Spot, a collaboration between Applied Solar and two local environmental groups. Only a few months old, the quirky little property is evolving into a vortex for all things local and green.

The story began last fall, when Applied Solar co-owner Tony Tersol was scouting for an office space/green resource center in Pacific Grove. He just happened to notice a run-down property on the corner of Forest and Pine avenues, with a few peculiar features. A paved driveway looped around a small building – testament to the property’s last use as a drive-through bank – and the windows were pocked with bullet holes after roughly a decade of neglect. Weeds sprouted from the unpaved areas.

Surfrider Foundation’s Monterey chapter, an ocean activist group Tersol now chairs, was looking for a headquarters. And Sustainable Pacific Grove, for which he served on the steering committee, was scoping for a meeting and gardening space. Where passersby might see neighborhood blight, Tersol saw an opportunity.

Applied Solar and Surfrider worked out a rent-sharing deal, and Sustainable PG agreed to spruce up the outside. The three groups began moving in last winter with a shared goal: to make the Green Spot an eco-activist gathering place, a community resource center, and a model for sustainable ideas.

“When this possibility came into being, we jumped at the chance,” Surfrider’s Ximena Waissbluth says.

For the past several months, the three groups have been working to render the neglected little spot green. The one-room building’s 650 square feet are rather drab at first glance, but it’s a work in progress. Applied Solar employees have hung photos of local photovoltaic installations along one wall. Sustainable PG’s Joy Colangelo painted waves, stars and a jellyfish over the bullet holes in the window.

That the furniture is second hand is intentional – and not just because money is limited. The three groups share a philosophy of re-using, recycling and increasing efficiency.

Outside, Colangelo and two other Sustainable PG members have planted a demonstration garden. A dozen sapling fruit trees line the wall of the neighboring bike shop. In the center island, heads of cabbage unfold purple and green. Along the sidewalk, tiny leaves of spearmint, lemon thyme, sage and chives poke through straw mulch.

A rectangular net collects fog and funnels it into a big barrel at the corner of Forest and Pine. On the roof of the storage shed, three 55-gallon barrels catch enough rain to water all of the plants.

“In a small lot,” Colangelo says, “it’s amazing how much you can grow and how much water you can catch.”

Applied Solar staff members hope to enclose the roofed area where bank customers once idled their cars with glass and use it to exhibit energy- and water-saving technologies. “We want to display as many environmentally friendly ideas as possible,” Boekbinder says.

Another idea is a “library” of donated old bikes painted white with green spots, which locals could borrow to ride around town, Colangelo says.

But the G-Spot’s future is uncertain. A “For Sale” sign looms over the fog collector, threatening to kill the project. “We’re in a tenuous position in that someone could buy it,” Tersol says. “It’s a gamble, but we’re putting a lot of work into it in hopes that it won’t sell right away.”

Landowner Greg Beardsley confirms that he’s trying to sell the two-lot commercial property, along with two adjacent ones, for a total of $1.6 million. But limited water availability may mean the tenants can stay. “I doubt if something is going to be built there soon because of the water,” he says. “[New owners] would more than likely keep them.”

The three groups will unveil the Green Spot at the Good Old Days celebration. Fifteen booths, displays and demos will show locals how to shrink their eco-footprints by planting trees, building compost bins, installing solar-energy systems, setting up cisterns, cleaning green, curbing trash and auditing home energy use.

Ultimately, the G-Spot’s enthusiasts envision the space as a magnet for eco-oriented meetings, potlucks and live music – a place for the community to experiment in shades of green.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GREEN SPOT AT SUSTAINABLEPG.ORG/G-SPOT/GS-INTRO.PHP.