Posts Tagged Global Exchange

Green Festival, the Largest, Longest-Running Green Consumer Event, Returns to the Javits Center North, April 19-21, 2013

The premier name in sustainability events will take place in LEED-certified North Pavilion of New York’s Javits Center; features national and local speakers, workshops, vendors and cultural programming.

nyc_overviewNEW YORK, NY – The nation’s largest and most trusted green living event will kick off its 12th year by bringing the New York City green community together at the Green Festival for the second time. Featured at the weekend-long show will be leaders in the environmental community, including speakers, entrepreneurs and activists as well as an organic beer and wine pavilion and a unique marketplace of more than 300 eco-friendly businesses, featuring the latest and greatest in sustainable products and services.

Held in the LEED-certified North Pavilion of the Jacob Javits Center, Green Festival is the only green event that screens exhibitors for their commitment to sustainability, ecological balance and social justice using co-producer, Green America’s green business standards.

Green Festival will launch its first New York City business-to-business (B2B) Green Trade Day on Friday, April 19, 2013 from 3-7 P.M. at Javits Center North. The afternoon will allow retail and wholesale buyers to conduct business with Green Festival exhibitors before they open its doors to consumers.

NYC Green Festival 2013 Program Highlights:

  • Ford Ride and Drive opportunities
  • Do-It-Yourself Workshops
  • Good Food Stage & cooking demos
  • Green Kid’s Zone
  • Green Jobs and Careers
  • Responsible Investing
  • Green Business Opportunities
  • Renewable Energy
  • Beer and Wine Pavilion
  • Organic Local Food
  • Community Action
  • Sierra Club Green Films
  • Youth Programs
  • Local musicians
  • Keynote speakers

WHERE:        Javits Center North: 655 West 34th Street, New York, NY, 10001

WHEN:           SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2013: 10:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M.

SUNDAY, APRIL 21 2013: 11:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.

B2B Green Trade Day – FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2013: 3:00-7:00 P.M.

TICKETS:      Free admission for anyone who rides his or her bike and parks with the bike valet.

$15- 25 for a full weekend pass. Tickets can be purchased online at www.greenfestivals.org  or at the show. All tickets provide access to exhibit floor, workshops, speakers and films.

To exhibit, please call (828) 333-9403 x300. For volunteer opportunities, visit greenfestivals.org/volunteer. 

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THE NATION’S CAPITAL WELCOMES THE EIGHTH ANNUAL GREEN FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 29 & 30

Social justice and environmental issues are key focus at the largest and longest running green consumer event with renowned authors, educators, and visionary leaders

The 8th Annual Washington DC Green Festival, Sept. 29-30 at the Washington Convention Center

Washington, D.C. (August 16, 2012) –  The eighth annual premier green living event, Green Festival, rolls into the nation’s capital September 29-30, 2012.  TheWalterE.WashingtonConvention Center will host eco-innovators, speakers, artists, community leaders and green businesses addressing environmental and social justice issues. It is the largest marketplace of conscious, fair-trade businesses and the place to get a head start on holiday shopping.

There are plenty of activities and workshops aimed at educating kids and families on making healthy lifestyle choices: highlights include a kids’ zone where youngsters can learn about easy and fun ways to be green, a Good Food Stage featuring delicious vegetarian cuisine, yoga classes and an organic beer and wine garden.

Keynote speakers include leading environmental, healthy lifestyle and social justice advocates: Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Elizabeth Kucinich, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine; political activist and author, Ralph Nader;  Dr. Benjamin Chavis, a noted civil rights leader;  Amy Goodman of Democracy NOW!; Laura Flanders of GRITtv; NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous; John Perkins; Greg Palast; and Medea Benjamin.

A joint venture between Green America and Global Exchange, Green Festival is a non-profit event that celebrates an 11 year milestone hosting over one million attendees in eight cities. Green Festival is the largest sustainability event and is the only event that screens exhibitors for their commitment to social justice and ecological balance using Green America’s Green Business Certification Standards.

FORD Motor and Green Festivals have partnered again to fund a $5,000 Community Green Grant at the Washington, DC Green Festival. Attendees can to vote for their favorite non-profit project at the FORD Community Green Grants Booth during show hours.

“We are excited to host the eighth annual Green Festival in the Nation’s Capital,” said Denise Hamler, Green Festival Director. “Green Festival is a celebration of what is working in our communities and about showing the healthy choices we can all make in our communities and in our lives that will make a difference – from the food we consume to the technology we use.”

At the center of Green Festival is the Green Marketplace, which features 300 green and socially responsible businesses/organizations, featuring the latest in sustainable products and services. Attendees will have the opportunity to browse everything from green, non-toxic home furnishings to eco-fashions, Fair Trade gifts, and children’s toys.

Attendees of all ages can learn at the hands-on DIY workshops and gain practical green tips to apply to everyday life. At the Green Business Pavilion attendees will experience what’s trending in green jobs and businesses.

Highlights include:

  • Ford Ride and Drive in all-electric and hybrid cars
  • Green Kids Zone
  • Eco-Fashion Showcase
  • Do-It-Yourself Workshops
  • Green Pet Stage and fashion show
  • Green Business Stage
  • Green Jobs and Careers
  • Green Investing
  • Renewable Energy
  • Beer and Wine Garden
  • Organic Local Food
  • Fair Trade Stage
  • Community Action Stage
  • Green Films
  • Live music
  • Bike Valet
  • Keynote speakers include: Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Elizabeth Kucinich,  Ralph Nader, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Amy Goodman, John Perkins, Greg Palast, Laura Flanders, Benjamin Todd Jealous and Medea Benjamin

Key partners and sponsors include: Ford Motor Company, Ford Community Green Grants, Earth Balance, New York Times, O’Organics, MOM’s Organic Market, SustainU, NAACP, Clif Bar and Yelp DC.

The 2012 Green Festival will be held at the WalterE.WashingtonConvention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place N.W.Hall B, Washington, DC, 20001. Doors open Saturday, September 29th 10 am – 7 pm and Sunday, September 30th 11 am-6 pm.

Tickets are $10 for a one day pass and $20 for a full weekend pass when purchased online at www.greenfestivals.org, or $15 and $25 at the door. (All tickets provide access to exhibit floor, all workshops/yoga classes, speakers and films.) Discounted admission at the door for seniors (over 65) and students with student ID. Free admission for anyone who rides a bike to the event and parks with the bike valet, youth under eighteen, union members, volunteers and Green America and Global Exchange members.

For more information, please visit www.GreenFestivals.org. To exhibit, please call: 828-333-9403 x 300.

For partnership information, visit www.greenfestivals.org/become-a-partner.

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About Green America

Green America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, providing the economic strategies, organizing power and practicing tools for businesses and individuals to address today’s social and environmental problems. Its Green Business Network is the largest national network of businesses screened for their social and environmental responsibility.

About Global Exchange

Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since its founding in 1988, Global Exchange has successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change.

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SOCIAL JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES TO BE KEY FOCUS AT SIXTH ANNUAL CHICAGO GREEN FESTIVAL, MAY 5 & 6

Navy Pier Sets the Stage for the Weekend-long Celebration of Eco and Social-Minded Lifestyles; Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. to Deliver Keynote Address at Show which Features 350 Exhibitors, Ford Ride-and-Drives of New Hybrid, an Eco-Fashion Show and Dozens of Speakers

Chicago Green Festival returns to Navy Pier May 5-6, 2012

Chicago, IL (March 26, 2012) – The sixth annual Green Festival sails into Navy Pier May 5 and 6, 2012, with social and environmental justice on the agenda. Keynote speaker Rev. Jesse L. Jackson will address the crowd on Saturday, May 5, after an introduction by Dr. Benjamin Chavis. At Green Festival, Reverend Jackson’s his impassioned voice will help raise awareness for key social causes integral to the Chicagoland community. Leaders in green lifestyle will also speak, including tween idol, Reed Alexander of iCarly, who will share his newly-launched healthy lifestyle website, KewlBites.com, a family-oriented site where parents and kids can learn how to eat more healthfully.

Leading environmental, healthy lifestyle and social justice advocates join the speaker line-up include Van Jones, who will launch his new book, Rebuild the Dream, a part memoir, part manifesto, which offers a powerful plan to renew the American Dream and critique of the Obama era. Additional speakers include, Laura Flanders, GRITtv; Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!; Jeffrey Smith; William Ayers; Bernadine Dohrn; Greg Palast and local leaders, including Naomi Davis of Blacks in Green; Bianca Alexander of Conscious Living TV and Karyn Calabrese.

“In our sixth year in Chicago, we are bringing together the biggest, brightest and strongest advocates for green lifestyles as well as environmental and social justice to create the most exciting Green Festival to date,” said Denise Hamler, Green Festival Director. “We are one big party with a purpose and this year, the purpose is to continue to raise awareness for making positive changes in our communities and our daily lives, from the food we eat to the technology we buy and the politics we support. We are delighted to celebrate solutions that work on the community level as well as provide platforms for enacting national and global solutions for making the world a more sustainable place.”

The weekend-long Green Festival event is expected to draw more than 30,000 people whose passion for green living and enthusiasm for learning new sustainability tools are matched by the exhibitors’ commitment to environmental sustainability, green living and social justice using Green America’s green business standards. Green Festival Chicago exhibitors bring the best, newest, most eco-friendly family products on the market from food to toys to clothing. The Good Food Stage invites participants to view cooking demos by leading local chefs and attendees can enjoy a snack from many of the vegan and vegetarian local food vendors then imbibe at the organic beer, mead and wine pavilion. The younger set can visit the dedicated kids’ area for learning about easy and fun ways to incorporate green at a young age, including arts and crafts using repurposed materials.

A joint project of Green America and Global Exchange, Green Festival is a non-profit event that celebrates an eleven-year milestone with over one million attendees in eight cities. Green Festival is the only national sustainability event that screens exhibitors for their commitment to social justice, sustainability and ecological balance using co-producer, Green America’s, green business standards.  In the center of Green Festival is a unique marketplace of 350 eco-friendly businesses, featuring the latest and greatest in sustainable products and services. FORD Motor and Green Festivals have partnered again to fund a $5,000 Community Green Grant at the Chicago Green Festival. Attendees will be able to vote for their favorite project at the FORD Community Green Grants Booth during show hours.

Additional highlights include:

  • Ford Ride and Drive opportunities
  • Do-It-Yourself Workshops
  • Green Kid’s Zone
  • Green Business Pavilion
  • Green Jobs and Careers
  • Green Investing
  • Renewable Energy
  • Beer, Mead and Wine Pavilion
  • Organic Local Food
  • Fair Trade Pavilion
  • Community Action Pavilion
  • Green Films
  • Youth Programs
  • Roving acoustic musicians
  • Bike Valet
  • Eco-Fashion Show produced by Bianca Alexander & Michael Alexander of Conscious Living TV
  • Keynote speakers include: Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., Van Jones, Reed Alexander, Laura Flanders, Naomi Davis, Bianca Alexander, Karyn Calabrese, Jeffrey Smith, Amy Goodman, William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and Greg Palast

The 2012 Green Festival will return to downtown Chicago’s Navy Pier, Hall A. Doors open Saturday, May 5, 2012 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 6, 2012 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Tickets are $15- 25 when purchased at the event door, discounts are given when purchased online in advance and there is reduced admission for seniors. Free admission for those who ride a bike to the event and park with the bike valet, as well as youth under eighteen and union members with valid identification, Green America and Global Exchange members, Sierra Club members with membership card and volunteers. For volunteer opportunities, visit greenfestivals.org/volunteer.

Key partners and sponsors include: Ford, Clif Bar, Earth Balance, Nature’s Path,Calvert,ManitobaHarvest, The New York Times Media, SustainU, Democracy Now and Repax.

For more information at Green Festival, please visit www.GreenFestivals.org. To exhibit: 828-333-9403 x 300. Apply to speak:  www.greenfestivals.org/apply-to-speak.   For partnerships:  www.greenfestivals.org/become-a-partner

 

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About Green America

Green America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, providing the economic strategies, organizing power and practicing tools for businesses and individuals to address today’s social and environmental problems. Its Green Business Network is the largest national network of businesses screened for their social and environmental responsibility.

 

About Global Exchange

Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since its founding in 1988, Global Exchange has successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change.

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NUEVA YORK DA LA BIENVENIDA AL MAYOR EVENTO DE CONSUMO RESPONSIBLE FESTIVAL DEL VERDE, 21 & 22 DE ABRIL

En su primera presentación en Nueva York, justo a tiempo para celebrar el día de la Tierra, el Festival del Verde auspiciará la presentación de 30 exhibidores; podrás manejar y andar en el nuevo modelo de automóvil híbrido de la marca Ford, asistir a una exposición sobre economía “verde” y escuchar a los oradores principales del evento Russell Simmons y Amy Goodman

Nueva York, NY (28 de febrero, 2012) – Los días 21 y 22 de abril, fin de semana del día de la Tierra, Nueva York se vestirá de verde celebrando el debut en La Gran Manzana del primer evento ecológico participativa de la nación, el “Festival del Verde.” El ala norte del centro de convenciones Javits, será el lugar de encuentro. El centro de convenciones acaba de recibir una certificación de “LEED” (liderazgo en energía y diseño ambiental). En el festival se darán cita cientos de innovadores ecológicos, oradores, el escritor Van Jones entre ellos, los empresarios Russell Simmons, Dylan Ratigan y Chris Yura y también la periodista y activista política Amy Goodman. Ford presentará su ultimo modelo de vehículo híbrido. Habrá una exposición de economía verde auspiciada por UrbanGoGreen, un pabellón dedicado al vino y la cerveza orgánica y la Gran Feria Verde que contará con la presencia de vendedores de todo el país, comida “vegan” y vegetariana “gourmet,” talleres innovadores y actividades culturales.

Un proyecto mancomunado de “Green America” y “Global Exchange,” El Festival del Verde es un evento sin fines de lucro que celebra su décimo aniversario con una audiencia superior al millón de participantes en las ocho ciudades participantes. Se espera que a la convención en Nueva York asistan más de 20.000 entusiastas seguidores de una forma “verde” de vida cuyo deseo de aprender nuevas técnicas encontrará respuesta en el compromiso de los exhibidores con el desarrollo sostenible y las normas de justicia social que promueve “Green America”.

“Describimos el Festival del Verde como una gran fiesta con un propósito” dice Denise Hamler, directora del Festival del Verde. “Venga usted a comprar, a aprender, o a disfrutar del arte y la música, aquí lo encontrará, El Festival del Verde tiene de todo; Este es el lugar perfecto para festejar lo que está funcionando ahora en nuestras comunidades y las soluciones para el desarrollo sostenible que concuerde con su estilo de vida. Esta experiencia, única en su estilo, celebra y destaca soluciones que funcionan a nivel local y también las soluciones de índole nacional y global.”

El Festival del Verde es el mayor evento de esta naturaleza en los EEUU, con más de 125 oradores locales y nacionales presentando oradores, talleres y un programa de actividades culturales. Los niños menores de 12 años pueden ir al pabellón de niños para jugar y aprender a crecer y ser personas “verdes,” responsables con el medio ambiente. La Gran Feria Verde presenta 300 organizaciones y negocios “verdes” que funcionan en una forma responsable con el medio ambiente. Los asistentes podrán encontrar desde muebles y accesorios sin químicos para el hogar hasta vestimenta ecológicamente correcta, regalos de “Fair Trade” (Trato Justo), juguetes para niños y mucho más.

Participantes de todos las edades podrán aprender en talleres de “hágalo usted mismo” (“do it yourself”) y adquirir conocimientos y técnicas “verdes” para aplicar en su vida diaria. Durante este fin de semana, los participantes podrán conectarse y ponerse al día en las oportunidades que existen en los trabajos “verdes” y negocios “verdes” en los pabellones de Negocios “Verdes” y UrbanGoGreen.

El sábado 21 de abril el Festival del Verde invita a una excursión ciclistica en el acueducto de “Old Croton” de las 12 del mediodía a las 3 de la tarde. Los participantes se congregarán en el Green Festival Bike Valet y se unirán a Matthew Malina de NYC H2O, experto del acueducto quien los guiará a través de la histórica construcción acuática de Nueva York en siete millas de ruta panorámica.  El acueducto es una obra maestra de ingeniería que provee diariamente 40 millones de galones de agua potable a una ciudad que ha visto epidemias y fuegos devastadores.

Otras actividades recomendadas:

  •  maneje y ande en un Ford
  •  Escenario de la buena comida con talleres culinarios con Pooja Mottl, Leslie Durso y Tanya Fields
  • Talleres de “hágalo usted mismo”
  • Zona verde para niños
  • Pabellón de negocios “verdes”
  • Trabajos y carreras “verdes”
  • Invirtiendo en “verde”
  • Energía renovable
  • Pabellón de vino y cerveza
  • Comida orgánica y local
  • Pabellón de “Trato Justo” (“Fair Trade”)
  • Pabellón de Acción Comunitaria
  • Películas “Verdes”
  • Programas para jóvenes
  • Músicos ambulantes
  • Oradores que incluye: Russell Simmons, Van Jones, Amy Goodman, Francis Moore Lappe, John Perkins, Katrina Van Den Heuvel, Dylan Ratigan

El Festival del Verde de la ciudad de Nueva York tendrá lugar los días 21 y 22 de abril del 2012. El sábado 21 las puertas abren a las 10 de la mañana y cierran a las 7 de la tarde. El domingo 22 el horario es de las 11 de la mañana a las 6 de la tarde. El Javitz Center está ubicado en el 655 Oeste de la Calle 34 en la ciudad de Nueva York.

Admisión gratis para los y las que vengan al evento en bicicleta y jóvenes menores de 18 años, mayores de 65, miembros de sindicatos, voluntarios y miembros de Green America y Global Exchange.

Socios claves y auspiciadores incluye: Ford, Clif Bar, Earth Balance, Nature’s Path, Calvert, Manitoba Harvest, The New York Times and Repax

Para mayor información sobre el Festival del Verde NYC, por favor visita a www.GreenFestivals.org Para exhibir: 828-333-9403 x.

Para convertirse en socio del Festival: www.greenfestivals.org/become-a-partner

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Green America

Green America es una organización nacional sin fines de lucro que desde el año 1982, que provee estrategias económicas y organizativas, métodos prácticos para lidiar con los problemas sociales y ambientales de hoy en día. Su red de negocios “verdes” es la mayor red nacional de negocios reconocidos por su responsabilidad social y ambiental.

Global Exchange

Global Exchange es una organización defensora con membrecía a los derechos humanos internacionales que promueve la justicia social, económica, y ambiental en todo el mundo. Desde 1988, Global Exchange ha exitosamente incrementado el conocimiento público sobre las causas reales de la injusticia y al mismo tiempo desarrollado una red internacional de asociaciones.

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NEW YORK CITY WELCOMES LARGEST GREEN CONSUMER EVENT, GREEN FESTIVAL, APRIL 21 & 22

The inaugural New York Green Festival launches April 21-22 at Javits Center North

In Its First New York Appearance and In Time to Celebrate Earth Day, Green Festival Will Showcase 300 Exhibitors, Offer Ford Ride-and-Drives of New Hybrid, Present a Green Economy Expo.

 Featuring:  Guest Speakers Russell Simmons, Dylan Ratigan and Amy Goodman

 

New York, NY (February 28, 2012) – Move over St. Patrick’s Day, Earth Day weekend will be awash with green in New York City as the nation’s premier eco-living event, Green Festival, makes its Big Apple debut April 21-22, 2012. The new LEED-certified Javits Center North Wing will host the event, which will feature hundreds of eco-innovators, guest speakers including author, Van Jones, entrepreneurs, Russell Simmons, Dylan Ratigan and Chris Yura, as well as activist, Amy Goodman, Ford’s latest hybrid vehicle, a Green Economy Expo sponsored through UrbanGoGreen, an organic beer and wine pavilion and the Green Marketplace featuring vendors from across the country, delicious gourmet vegan and vegetarian food, innovative workshops, and cultural programming.

A joint project of Green America and Global Exchange, Green Festival is a non-profit event that celebrates a ten-year milestone with over one million attendees in eight cities. The NYC event is expected to draw more than 20,000 people whose passion for green living and enthusiasm for learning new sustainability tools are matched by the exhibitors’ commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice using Green America’s green business standards.

“We affectionately refer to Green Festival as the largest party with a purpose,” said Denise Hamler, Green Festival Director “Whether you come to shop, learn, network or experience art and music, Green Festival has it all; it’s a great place to celebrate what’s working in our communities and find the sustainable solutions that fit your lifestyle. This unique experience celebrates positive solutions that work on the community level as well as national and global solutions.”

Green Festival is the largest sustainability event in the US with over 125 national and local speakers presenting keynotes, workshops, and cultural programming. The Green Kids Pavilion offers play and learning for the under 12 set who want to grow as green individuals. The Green Marketplace features 300 green and socially responsible businesses and organizations. Attendees browse everything from green, non-toxic home furnishings to eco-clothing to Fair Trade gifts, children’s toys and much more.

Attendees of all ages can learn at the hands-on DIY workshops and gain practical green tips to apply to everyday life. Networking opportunities throughout the weekend will allow attendees to experience what’s trending in green jobs and green businesses at the Green Business and Urban Go Green Pavilions.

On Saturday, April 21, Green Festival will host a bike tour of the Old Croton Aqueduct from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Participants will meet at the Green Festival Bike Valet and join aqueduct expert, Matthew Malina of NYC H2O, for a guided tour of NYC’s historic waterworks and a scenic seven-mile bike ride. The aqueduct is an incredible work of engineering that delivered 40 million gallons of clean drinking water daily to a city that hosted epidemics of disease and devastating fires.

Additional highlights include:

  • Ford Ride and Drive opportunities
  • Good Food Stage with hands-on cooking demos, featuring Pooja Mottl, Leslie Durso and Tanya Fields
  • Do-It-Yourself Workshops
  • Green Kid’s Zone
  • Fair Trade and Green Business
  • Green Jobs and Careers
  • Green Investing
  • Renewable Energy
  • Beer and Wine Garden
  • Organic Local Food
  • Community Action
  • Green Films
  • Youth Programs
  • Roving acoustic musicians
  • Keynote speakers include: Russell Simmons, Van Jones, Amy Goodman, Dylan Ratigan, Francis Moore Lappe, John Perkins, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Josh Silver, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, David DeGraw and more tba

New York City Green Festival will be held on April 21-22, 2012. Doors open Saturday, April 21, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.and Sunday, April 22, 2012 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Javits Center is located at 655 West 34th Street, New York, NY.

Free admission for anyone who rides a bike to the event and parks with the bike valet, youth under eighteen, adults over sixty five, union members, volunteers and Green America and Global Exchange members.

Key partners and sponsors include: Ford, Clif Bar, Earth Balance, Nature’s Path, Calvert, Manitoba Harvest, The New York Times and Repax.

 

For more information about Green Festival NYC, please visit www.GreenFestivals.org. To exhibit:

828-333-9403 x 300. Apply to speak:  www.greenfestivals.org/apply-to-speak.   For partnerships:  www.greenfestivals.org/become-a-partner

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About Green America

Green America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, providing the economic strategies, organizing power and practicing tools for businesses and individuals to address today’s social and environmental problems. Its Green Business Network is the largest national network of businesses screened for their social and environmental responsibility.

About Global Exchange

Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since its founding in 1988, Global Exchange has successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change.

About Seven-Star, Inc.
Seven-Star, Inc. is the nation’s premier green full-service event company focusing exclusively on green events. Since 1999, Seven-Star has provided turn-key green event services for environmentally responsible and socially respectful (eR/sR) festivals, trade and consumer expositions, conferences and concerts. Events include the greening of the 2007 International Live Earth events, 2008 Democratic National Convention events, and Green Festivals. Seven-Star is the first event company to win the EPA’s Gold Waste Wise Award for Excellence in recognition for their proprietary system of event waste diversion, which has consistently achieved greater than 92%.

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800,000 Americans Tell Senate: Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

WASHINGTON, DC, February 14, 2012 (ENS) – Over the last 24 hours, environmental and progressive groups flooded the Senate with more than 800,000 messages opposing TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

The 1,700-mile-long proposed pipeline would carry heavy bitumen oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The surge in activism came as Senate Republicans tried to add an amendment giving Congress authority to approve the pipeline to a bill intended to reauthorize transportation funding for the next six years.

Because the pipeline would cross an international border, a Presidential Permit is required stating that the project is in the national interest.

The Senate’s amendment to the transportation bill would reverse President Barack Obama’s January 18 decision to block the controversial project because it is not in the national interest.

In December, Congress passed and the President signed a bill to extend the payroll tax cut. Attached was an amendment requiring Obama to decide whether or not to approve the pipeline within 60 days. Saying more time was needed for a new route through Nebraska to be determined, Obama met the 60 day deadline by rejecting the pipeline.

More than 800,000 messages urging rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline are delivered to the U.S. Senate, February 14, 2012(Photo by 350.org)

Today, representatives from the coalition delivered the 800,000 messages directly to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.

The petition drive was organized by a group of over 30 organizations and businesses with the goal of sending the Senate half a million messages in under 24 hours.

The online drive quickly went viral, powered in part by blogs and online advertising, tweets from celebrities, including the founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, and attention from Stephen Colbert, who interviewed 350.org founder and petition organizer Bill McKibben on his Comedy Central TV show Monday night.

The online push inspired offline action as well, organizers said.

In Kentucky, over 2,000 people gathered at a rally opposing mountaintop removal mining picked up their cell phones and called Senator McConnell, urging him to stop pushing the pipeline.

In New York City, dozens of people visited Senator Charles Schumer’s office and got him on the record opposing the pipeline.

Petition deliveries also took place in Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, New Mexico, and elsewhere.

Fifteen of the nation’s top climate scientists also added their names to the effort by sending a personal letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives, urging the leadership of both parties to abandon the tar sands pipeline because of its potential damaging impact on the environment and climate.

“We are researchers at work on the science of climate change and allied fields,” the scientists wrote. “Last summer, we called on President Obama to block the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada’s tar sands. We were gratified to see that he did so, and since some in Congress are seeking to revive this plan, we wanted to restate the case against it.”

“The tar sands are a huge pool of carbon, one that it does not make sense to exploit. It takes a lot of energy and water to extract and refine this resource into useable fuel, and the mining is environmentally destructive,” the scientists explained. “Adding this on top of conventional fossil fuels will leave our children and grandchildren a climate system with consequences that are out of their control. It makes no sense to build a pipeline that would dramatically increase exploitation of this resource.”

“When other huge oil fields or coal mines were opened in the past, we knew much less about the damage that the carbon they contained would do to the earth’s climate and its oceans. Now that we do know,” the scientists urged, “it’s imperative that we move quickly to alternate forms of energy – and that we leave the tar sands in the ground.”

“We can say categorically that this pipeline is not in the nation’s, or the planet’s best interest,” wrote the group, which includes Dr. James Hansen of NASA, Dr. Michael Mann at Penn State, and Dr. Ralph Keeling at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California.

Many of the groups involved in the effort to collect signatures are pledging to keep up the fight against Keystone XL as long as Republicans continue to try and bring measures designed to resurrect the project.

CREDO Mobile phone company President Michael Kieschnick said, “The Senate should consider this one day of action as a warning. The American people are watching very closely whether the Senate represents Big Oil or the public health. If the Keystone XL pipeline is forced through, we will do much, much more until it is permanently blocked.”

Participating groups included: 350.org, Alliance for Climate Education, Avaaz, BOLD Nebraska, Brighter Planet, Center for Biological Diversity, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Climate Reality Project, Climate Solutions, CREDO, Democracy for America, Environmental Action, Energy Action Coalition, Environmental Defense, Frack Action/Water Defense, Friends of the Earth, FUSE, Global Exchange, Green America, Green for All, Indigenous Environmental Network, League of Conservation Voters, Labor Network for Sustainability, MoveOn.org Political Action, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oil Change International, Other 98%, Public Citizen, Patagonia, The North Face, Rainforest Action Network, Rebuild the Dream, Sierra Club, Solar Mosaic, Sojourners, Sungevity, Tar Sands Campaign, US Climate Action Network and Vote Solar.

Many of the groups involved in the effort to collect signatures are pledging to keep up the fight against Keystone XL as long as Republicans continue to try and bring measures designed to resurrect the project.

800,000 Americans Tell Senate: Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline via Environmental News Service

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Reality Tours – A Different Way of Travel

“One of the original innovators in responsible tourism, Global Exchange’s Reality Tours, runs customizable trips to over 40 locations around the world including many countries rarely visited by tourists such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Cuba, Palestine and North Korea. Global Exchange is a unique tourism provider because it is first and foremost an international human rights organization. By contextualizing the images often portrayed in the US media for its participants, Reality Tours is able to shine a light on US foreign policy, and the continuing ramifications of that policy over decades in a multitude of locations. Reality Tours promotes peace through citizen diplomacy, delegations which create personal engagements while traveling – real people and their personal stories, not just statistics.”

Reality Tours – A Different Way of Travel via Chelsea Souter – Triple Pundit

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The First Global Revolution Has Begun

“If you rely on the corporate media for your news, you may not be aware that this is the most significant revolutionary period in human history. Previous revolutions were national in scope: the revolutionaries sought control of a capital city in order to change the politics and economics of that nation. Now we are in the early stages of the first-ever global revolution. It is not about seizing power in capital cities; it is a values revolution that is demanding a transition from the current system where money values rule over the life cycle, to a new system where life values will rule over the money cycle.”

The First Global Revolution Has Begun via Kevin Danaher – Global ExchangeTriple Pundit

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GREEN FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY IN SAN FRANCISCO

CONTACT:
SAEGERMEDIAGROUP, Inc.
Katy Saeger
katy@saegermediagroup.com
310.935.3883

Green Festival celebrates 10 years in San Francisco November 12-13, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO - The nation’s premier green living event returns to San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center November 12-13, 2011. This year, Green Festival celebrates a ten-year milestone with over one million attendees in eight cities.

This unique experience celebrates positive solutions working in our communities.  It’s where people come to meet renowned authors, actors, visionaries and community leaders; shop with hundreds of green businesses; participate in DIY workshops; enjoy live music and local vegan and vegetarian cuisine; and join friends at the organic beer and wine garden.

San Francisco leaders are supporting the 10th anniversary.  According to Mayor Edwin M. Lee,   “I applaud Green Festival on its tenth anniversary of bringing together key environmental thought leaders and the best in green economy innovations.” Supervisor John Avalos of the Board of Supervisors commented, “We welcome Green Festival back to San Francisco, it’s a great event to bring your families.”

Ten stages and pavilions will host more than 125 inspirational and educational speakers, including Amy Goodman, Rev Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, John Perkins, Frances Moore Lappe, Laura Flanders, Mark Hertsgaard, Anuradha Mittal, Q’orianka Kilcher, John Robbins, Jeffrey Smith, and a special tribute to Wangari Maathai.

With the holiday season just around the corner, Green Festival is the perfect location to support local businesses all in one location.  The Green Marketplace profiles hundreds of green and socially responsible businesses and organizations. Attendees browse everything from green, non-toxic home furnishings to organic clothing to Fair Trade gifts, children’s toys and much more.

“By bringing together all the parts of the next economy—the green economy—the Green Festivals follow the core principle of Mother Nature: unity of diversity,” says Green Festival co-founder Kevin Danaher. “Instead of waiting for elites to reform the economy from the top down, we are constructing a new economic model from the grassroots up.”

“Whether you go to shop, learn, or experience art and music, Green Festival has it all, it’s a great place to celebrate what’s working in our communities and find the sustainable solutions that fit your lifestyle,” says Denise Hamler, Green Festival Director.

Green Festival offers something for the entire family. Peruse the latest in earth-friendly fashions. View socially and environmentally impactful film shorts at the Sierra Club Green Cinema. Learn by doing at hands-on DIY workshops and gain practical green tips you can apply to your everyday life. Empower your inner entrepreneur with Green Business Seminars and find your next green career at the Green Career Resource Center.

With special performances by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, Evelie Delino Sales Posch with the Spiral Dance Chorus and Band, Banana Slug String Band, Valerie Orth, David Young and DJ Sister Yasmin.

Check out the latest in all-electric and hybrid transportation at the Ford Pavilion and enjoy a test drive right at the Green Festival.  Join Ford in celebrating social and environmental innovation in the community and vote for the finalists who will win a $5,000 Ford Community Green Grant.

A joint project of Green America and Global Exchange, Green Festival is a non-profit 501c3 event to explore and build sustainable solutions for successful communities and a healthier environment.

Engage with Green Festivals online at www.GreenFestivals.org.

Connect with Green Festival on Facebook and Twitter @GreenFestival.

Sign up for the Green Festival Newsletter at www.greenfestivals.org/newsletter for program updates and giveaway opportunities.

Become a Green Festival volunteer and get free admission volunteer@greenfestivals.org.

Green Festival Partners make the event possible: Clif Bar, Ford Motor, Renewal by Anderson, Ben and Jerry’s, New York Times, O Organics/Bright Green, New Resource Bank, Earth Balance,  BRITA, Calvert, Consumer Reports, DotGreen, Essentia, Four Green Steps, Green Bash, Manitoba Harvest, Numi Tea, Zu-Kay, Book Publishing Company, and Democracy Now.

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About Green America

Green America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, providing the economic strategies, organizing power and practicing tools for businesses and individuals to address today’s social and environmental problems. Its Green Business Network is the largest national network of businesses screened for their social and environmental responsibility.  www.greenamericatoday.org

About Global Exchange

Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since its founding in 1988, Global Exchange has successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change. www.globalexchange.org

About Seven-Star, Inc.

Seven-Star, Inc. is the nation’s premier green full-service event company focusing exclusively on green events. Since 1999, Seven-Star has provided turn-key green event services for environmentally responsible and socially respectful (eR/sR) festivals, trade and consumer expositions, conferences and concerts. Events include the greening of the 2007 International Live Earth events, 2008 Democratic National Convention events, and Green Festivals. Seven-Star is the first event company to win the EPA’s Gold Waste Wise Award for Excellence in recognition for their proprietary system of event waste diversion, which has consistently achieved greater than 92%.www.sevenstarevents.com

San Francisco 2011 Green Festival Program Highlights:

  • Eco-Fashion Showcase
  • Sustainable Home and Garden Pavilion
  • Do-It-Yourself Workshops
  • Green Kids’ Zone
  • Green Business Pavilion
  • Green Jobs and Careers
  • Green Investing
  • Green Building Pavilion
  • Renewable Energy
  • Beer and Wine Pavilion
  • Organic Local Food
  • Ford Pavilion
  • Fair Trade Pavilion
  • Community Action Pavilion
  • Acoustic Music Café
  • Sierra Club Green Cinema
  • Youth Programs
  • Zero-waste Tour

San Francisco Green Festival

November 12-13

Saturday, 10 am – 7 pm

Sunday, 11 am – 6 pm

Concourse Exhibition Center

8th Street at Brannan, San Francisco

Pricing:

$10 all access weekendpass (online) with two gifts.

$10 day at the door

$15 weekend at the door

Green Festival Fan Package  – weekend pass for 2 — $48 (online) with gifts or $55 (at door)

Free Admission:
Youth under 18, seniors, union members, cyclists (with use of bike valet), volunteers and Green America and Global Exchange members.

Event contact: June Brashares

Event phone contact: 415-425-3733

Event email contact: june@greenfestivals.org

Second Event Contact: Bryan Ting

Second Event phone contact: 925-788-7797

Second Event email contact: bryan.ting@greenfestivals.org

Event category: green, family, festival, education, expo

Ongoing Event (y or n)  Y – annual event

Short Event Description:

Green Festival, the nation’s largest and most trusted green living event returns to San Francisco for its 10th year on November 12-13, 2011. This unique experience celebrates positive solutions working in our communities. Festivities include presentations by more than 125 renowned authors and inspiring visionaries, DIY workshops, cutting-edge films, enriching kid’s and youth activities, organic beer and wine, delicious organic vegan and vegetarian cuisine, music and art and an amazing marketplace of hundreds of green local and national businesses and organizations.

Shorter Event Description:

Green Festival, the nation’s largest, most trusted green living event returns to San Francisco for its 10th year on November 12-13, 2011.  Meet and hear renowned authors and  inspiring visionaries. Participate in DIY workshops. Enjoy films, fun kid’s activities, organic vegan & vegetarian cuisine, local beer & wine, music & art and a diverse marketplace of green businesses & organizations.

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Global Exchange Open House – October 6th, 6pm at the Global Exchange Office in San Francisco – FREE EVENT

OPEN  H O U S E
Thursday October 6th, 6pm
Global Exchange Office
2017 Mission St.
2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA  94110 (16th Mission St. Bart) (map)
Free event with Latin refreshments, specialty cocktails, games and prizes, prize drawing and music by
the Típica Cubana band, Los Soneros de Acero
RSVP on Facebook

Support Global Exchange
Buy Your Prize Drawing Tickets Today
Deadline for online purchases is end of day Wednesday Oct 5!

Come celebrate 23 years of activism and social change with Global Exchange!!!

Since our founding in 1988, we have been furthering the cause of peace and justice, incubating
innovative grassroots campaigns and building people-to-people ties.
Help support our work by purchasing your Prize Drawing Tickets Today.
(need not be present to win). $10/each or 6/$50.

This year’s prize drawing is better than ever! From dining with a co-founder to traveling abroad,
Global Exchange advances human rights and builds people-to-people ties, through our events and
campaigns.

This year we are also highlighting our Cuba Reality Tours, and hosting a prize drawing for
$1000 discount of off our Cuba Reality Tour (or another tour of your choosing). In 1989 we launched
our first Cuba RT, called “Cuba at a Crossroads.” Over the next 22 years we have continued to organize
trips that have become known as “the best New Year’s Eve party you’ll ever go to.”

This year’s December 27, 2011-January 5, 2012 trips are:

**when traveling to Cuba, some restrictions may apply

Also, great gifts and prizes Friend organizations— Anna BaltzerNational Organizer with the US
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Arab Cultural and Community Center,  Bi-Rite MarketCanaan
Fair Trade
City Lights BooksCIIS Public Programs & PerformancesHard FrenchMiddle East
Children’s Alliance
United States Palestinian Community NetworkSF MoMaW.S. Badger & Company
and more.

Plus special door prizes, including two full season passes to San Francisco’s Live Queer Theatre,
Rhinoceros Theatre, and two tickets to Ana Hurra, by playwright Valantina Abu Oqsa.

Enjoy refreshing specialty cocktails—Viva Cubana Mojito and a Tequila Green Economy, as well as wine
from Cline Cellars, Beer provided by Drink Me magazine and the Uptown. Delicious Cuban and Latin food
provided by Work of Art Catering and Rainbow Grocery Cooperative.

Open House Program:

6:00 Self-guided Office Tours
6:20 Welcome by GX founders
7:00 Greetings and Program Updates by GX staff
7:30 Music and Dancing
8:30 PRIZE DRAWING!!!

For more information, please contact event coordinator at: allison@globalexchange.org or 415.575.5543

Global Exchange would like to thank the following sponsors:

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