As I strolled through the Great Hall at Navy Pier a few weeks ago, trying out samples of raw carob cookies from Karyn’s, a raw/vegan restaurant here in Chicago, I thought that I had died and gone to green heaven.
Crowds of people were walking and riding their bikes to the biggest green celebration to hit my city every year, and I just could not get enough of the samples of vegan food, the representatives from green non-profits explaining what they do, and the friendly green business owners promoting their products.
Yet the Green Festival has its detractors. Some people say it is not green enough, others say that just the idea of a green trade show is hypocritical. After all, how can an event that burns fuel to promote the environment really be good for the Earth? Here are the five things about the Green Festival that I think are truly, remarkably green (and one issue that still needs a lot of work).
Take two professional women who are busy raising their families, a growing concern about the environment, and the need for a flexible business, and what do you get? Well, if you are Catherine Flanagan and Jane Holt, you launch a home energy auditing business called Green Homes.
Catherine, a lawyer, sought out a more flexible career after the birth of her fourth child. The she and her husband added an addition to her house, and she began to realize the impact that she could have helping others to make their homes as green as possible. “It was also important that we do something meaningful and challenging,” she said.
Living outside of the US for a while helped raise Jane’s awareness of the need to become more environmentally friendly. Jane has always hated waste, but while living in Mexico, Jane wrote a freelance story about garbage that really opened her eyes to how wasteful the American lifestyle can be. “As things became more Americanized, the amount of garbage became colossal,” she said.
Why did more than 300 people spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon inside the first LEED-certified house of worship in the United States last week? Most likely because they want to help pass on lovely spring days to their children and grandchildren.
In 2006, Evanston, IL, which hugs Chicago’s border to the south, and Lake Michigan to the east, signed the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement along with more than 800 US cities. Those cities who signed the agreement aim to lower carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2012.
In an effort to achieve carbon reduction to 1990 levels, more than 130 dedicated citizens formed nine task forces, and devised broad recommendations on how this progressive and diverse city, home to Northwestern University and a lively downtown, could reduce its carbon footprint. Last weekend, a broad coalition of citizens and city government workers unveiled a draft of the Evanston Climate Action Plan.
I have strong opinions, and I rarely suppress them (just ask my husband). During political campaigns, I show support for my candidates with buttons and yard signs. I have plastered my car with progressive bumper stickers. Before I have even started sipping wine at parties, I am already loudly proclaiming the beliefs I hold on important current issues. Lately, I have been taking my strongly-held opinions to the next step: I am becoming a green business proselytizer. Like a lot of people who become religious missionaries, I can not help it. I believe that I have found my calling.
My preaching, my free advice to business owners, my reaching out to people who never consider their carbon footprint–it all happens spontaneously. But it keeps happening, and it feels like the right thing to do. A few months ago, while shopping and talking to the owner of my two favorite women’s clothing boutiques here in Evanston, IL, where I live, I started explaining to Kelly how she could make her businesses greener. I gave her standard advice: install compact fluorescent lights, change to low-flow plumbing, get a more efficient heating and cooling system, recycle more. Even though I have no official training in how to green a business, the ideas popped into my head, and the conversation flowed naturally. As I presented the options to her, she listened.
Whole Foods Markets will stop using disposable plastic grocery bags on Earth Day, April 22, 2008. Banning plastic bags is undoubtedly good for the environment–is it also a boon for Whole Foods?
According to the Whole Foods Market website, Americans toss out about 100 billion plastic bags annually (we recycle a pitiful 0.6% of our plastic bags), crowding landfills with an energy-consuming product (it takes 430,000,000 gallons of crude oil to make the 100 billion bags) that lasts for at least 1,000 years. Whole Foods estimates that their action will save 100 million plastic bags in 2008, alone.
By drawing attention to their company policies that are good for the earth, Whole Foods also gets some good press. Was this part of their plan?
