Thank You San Francisco!

22 November 2011

Ten years ago, Green Festival began, with around 13,000 participants, 50 speakers, 125 exhibitors and a handful of special events. Last weekend in San Francisco, over 30,000 Green Festival participants ate, drank, danced, DIY’d, networked and explored their way to cleaner, greener and more sustainable education resources, job opportunities and personal lifestyles. Green Festival celebrated 10 years, 32 festivals and 1 million attendees as the largest, most established and trusted sustainability event in the nation with a continuing commitment to keep celebrating solutions, sharing ideas and bringing green-minded individuals together to tackle our world’s most pressing environmental and social issues.

Thanks to Green America, Global Exchange, the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center, and every attendee, volunteer, exhibitor, partner and nonprofit ally whose efforts made the 10th Anniversary San Francisco Green Festival an incredible weekend! Enjoy “The Green Festival Experience” from attendee Abe Heisler and media partner, TrimTab Media:

Thanks to all Green Festival exhibitors for showcasing your green and socially responsible businesses. Green Festival is extremely lucky to have such an innovative, diverse, environmentally-responsible and socially-just marketplace. Your continued presence at Green Festival is our greatest priority in maintaining and expanding the green economy. The Green Marketplace was hustling and bustling throughout the weekend as participants enjoyed an amazing variety of local, regional and national green and sustainable businesses. Participants were thrilled to sample vegan and vegetarian snacks, tasty beverages and rich Fair Trade coffee and chocolates. Business was booming in the Green Marketplace with an abundance of eco-fashion, organic body products, kids’ items, non-toxic cleaning products, sustainable home and garden items, green services, education and career opportunities, green transportation and more! Visit the Green Festival Youtube page for interviews with awesome exhibitors!

Here, Check out EcoVeganGal’s “Eco-Vegan Highlights” profiling her favorite exhibitors:

Digital Reporter and Seattle Pi Blogger Jack Olmsted was on hand to capture great interviews with speakers, exhibitors and Green Festival’s own Kevin Danaher.

More than 50 organizations submitted their local, actionable green ideas for this year’s San Francisco Ford Community Green Grant! Over 1,400 attendees voted in the Ford Pavilion, and on Sunday, Ford and Green Festival were thrilled to award the final $5,000 Community Green Grant of 2011 to Collective Roots! Collective Roots is about sowing the seeds of change, hope, and renewal - one garden at a time. The mission of Collective Roots is to educate and engage youth and communities in food system change through sustainable programs that impact health, education, and the environment.

Collective Roots will be using their grant to support their Home Gardener Network, a program to help people establish their own backyard gardens for personal use and to be able to sell surplus food at local markets. Check out video of the 2011 San Francisco Green Grant Award (via DigitalReporter):

Special thanks goes out to all of the volunteers whose dedication and spirit are the backbone of every Green Festival and upon which, every successful event depends. You are all extraordinary individuals and your commitment is an inspiration to the global community. Due to the diligent efforts of the volunteer Green Festival Green Team, participants were educated about different aspects of waste diversion, culminating in an in-depth tour of our greening operations on Sunday (see Earth911’s coverage of our waste diversion practices).

Thank you so much to everyone who participated this weekend and shared their wonderful experiences through Facebook and Twitter as well as those who followed along and supported Green Festival from across the country. Our motto of “sustainable economy, ecological balance and social justice” maintains positive power across the globe with your incredible support. See you in NYC April 21-22, 2012 at Javits Center North, and stay tuned as we announce the rest of our 2012 festival dates!