Cassidy Quinn Brettler Interviews Green America Green Business Network Director and Green Festival Co-Producer, Denise Hamler via Jack Olmstead – Seattle Pi Blog
Posts Tagged workshops
City of Chicago Announces 50% off Savings Through the 2011 Chicago Sustainable Backyard Program
May 5
CHICAGO, IL – May 3, 2011 The City of Chicago has launched the 2011 Chicago Sustainable Backyard Program to provide information and incentives to city residents to promote more environmentally-friendly landscapes in their front, side and backyards.
This summer, the Department of Environment is making rebate forms available to Chicago residents for up to 50% off their next local purchase of:
TREES (up to $100 back)
NATIVE PLANTS (up to $60 back)
COMPOST BINS (up to $50 back)
RAIN BARRELS (up to $40 back)
The Department of Environment will also be hosting a series of Sustainable Backyard Workshops to present the basics of installing a rain barrel, setting up a compost bin, planting a tree, planting a native garden and more.
Rebate amounts were allocated based on the value of the ecosystem services provided by each product. Ecosystem services are the benefits from healthy ecosystems, including greenhouse gas reduction, stormwater management, improved air quality, and improved human health. For each tree we plant, it is estimated that we receive services valued at roughly $1,200 over the life of that tree. All of these environmentally-friendly products are worth the investment and the City wants to help by reducing the costs through this rebate program.
“We want to help Chicago residents create sustainable landscapes that clean the air, reduce flooding, provide habitat for native wildlife, and combat climate change,”
commented Commissioner Suzanne Malec-McKenna. “By offering rebates, the City supports the growth of local markets for these sustainable products, while keeping them affordable to residents. Over time, we hope the demand generated by these incentives will help to increase the availability of these products across the City.”
Rebate forms will be made available at all Sustainable Backyard Workshops, participating garden centers and hardware stores, and on the City’s website at www.cityofchicago.org/rainbarrel. The full workshop schedule is available on the City’s website.
The Chicago Sustainable Backyard Program is coordinated by the Department of Environment in partnership with the Departments of Water Management and Streets and Sanitation, the Chicago Trees Initiative, and others. Funding for rebates comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Pollution Prevention Program and a USDA Forest Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grant.
The City website will be updated regularly with news about our Sustainable Backyard Program. Residents can be added to our contact list by sending an email to RainBarrel@cityofchicago.org or by calling 312.743.9283
San Francisco – October 8, 2010 Green Festival®, the nation’s largest sustainability event, returns to the San Francisco Concourse November 6-7. This year’s Green Festival theme is ‘Engagement,’ with exciting new ways to shop green, be inspired, get engaged and give back. Community members enjoy informative, insightful speakers, incomparable green shopping, cutting edge eco-innovations, great live music, fun and educational family activities, hands-on workshops, organic wine and beer and delicious, local vegetarian cuisine. Plus, our new admission options are geared to encourage everyone to get engaged in their community with immediate dividends from Green Festival.
Ten stages and pavilions give attendees the opportunity to engage with 125 local experts and nationally-renowned authors, actors, leaders, educators, farmers and visionaries. Exciting keynote speakers include Bill McKibben, Amy Goodman, Thom Hartmann, John Perkins, Dolores Huerta, Gil Friend, Karen Stewart, Howard Brown, Kirk Boyd, Starhawk, Penny Livingston, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Ari Derfel, Daniel Pinchbeck and many more.
Green Festival’s mission is to inspire and inform as many people as possible to help make our world more just and sustainable. New admission options allow people to invest in their local community while receiving immediate dividends from Green Festival. “Pay It Forward and Get it Back at Green Festival” invites community members to volunteer with or donate to local nonprofit organizations to receive complimentary admission to Green Festival. Also new this year, when an individual purchases any ticket to Green Festival, they receive “Green Bucks,” which can be used as currency at Green Festival in the green marketplace. Find out more about receiving free tickets or shopping money at http://greenfestivals.org.
“Green Festival has something for everyone,” says Green Festival Board Member and Green America Director, Denise Hamler. “Whether you go to shop, learn, try new organic foods or experience art and music, this event has it all, with the goal to motivate every person to think, participate and make more planet-friendly, sustainable choices in their every day lives.”
San Francisco Green Festival highlights include:
•Green Business Seminars at the Green Business Pavilion — the latest on financing for growth, marketing and new media, public policy and green trends, ethical sourcing and partnering for success.
•Green Lifestyle — practical tips for everyday life and innovations ranging from green products to green building and organic foods.
•Mother Earth News Fair Pavilion – workshops and ‘DIY’ presentations from the best loved topics of their magazine and fair, including urban chicken raising, cheese making at home, seed swap exchange and growing and using herbs.
•Fair Trade Pavilion — how fair-trading your home, workplace and community with coffee, home furnishings, chocolate, rice and textiles can make a world of difference.
•Better World Stage — critical issues and solutions in communities to effectively implement and support sustainable networks.
•Vegetarian Food Court — organic cuisine from local restaurants, organic beer and wine garden and fair trade organic coffee bar.
•Green Home and Energy Pavilion — demonstrations of practical skills for personal and household sustainability from solar energy to composting and green home improvements.
•Music – live music and spoken word.
•Eco Fashion Show — showcase of eco-conscious fashion designers, make-up artists and hairstylists. (Presented by HI-DEF Creations, Inc.)
•Annie’s Green Kids’ Zone — activities and storytelling for the whole family.
A project of Green America and Global Exchange, two leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to environmental and social justice for more than twenty-six years, Green Festival serves as a foundation to explore and build sustainable solutions to benefit communities and the environment, discover new environmentally-friendly products and practices and connect with likeminded individuals from all over the nation.
Green Festival demonstrates an unmatched commitment to reducing environmental impact by reusing, recycling or composting 95 percent or more of festival waste through the efforts of full-service green event management company Seven-Star Events.
Special thanks to: Made, Earthbound Farms, Park Merced, Nissan LEAF and KPFA.
To purchase tickets to Green Festival or for more information about new ways to get free tickets or shopping money, visit http://greenfestivals.org.
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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. From the greening of the 2007 International Live Earth events, to the 2008 Democratic National Convention events, to producing the nation’s largest consumer Green Festivals, Seven-Star has defined itself as the company for eR/sR event production. Seven-Star is the first event company to have won 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 85%. www.sevenstarevents.com