Green Options

Nepal’s Chitwan Buffer Zone hosted more than 800 people for the “Women on Conservation” event to mark the occasion of Teej - a festival of Nepalese women.

The “Women on Conservation” event was kicked off by Surdevi Community Forest User Group President lighting the ceremonial candle.

This lively theatrical competition was held at the Surdevi Community Forest User Group Office on August 23, 2009 and presented by Partnership for Rhino Conservation and Friendship Chitwan. A total of seven groups from the Chitwan Buffer Zone and surrounding villages participated in the program with songs, poems, and stories about wildlife conservation.

For all of us, “Going Green” means something different. Whether it is just changing the light bulbs in your house or going completely off the grid, every little bit helps. But for some people, changing the world is a full time job, and a full time job requires a company car.

Or a bus. Enter the Solar Bus.

A couple of weeks ago we had the fortune of having the Green Festival in our Nations Capitol. A large green expo, featuring ways to green every aspect of your life, included big name speakers in the environmental movement.

My favorite part of the weekend? Tucked into a corner was Good Will Industries and D.C.’s own Goodwill Fashionista. For those of you who arn’t familiar with the Fasionista, she writes about how you can find amazing fashion right at your local Good Will shop. Finding gently used clothing and reusing is a concept that is nothing new to readers of this here blog.

What was even more great about the D.C. Fashionista being there, was she was teaching everyone how to make a market tote out of a t-shirt. Genius I say! T-shirts are definitely something Good Will always has in spades.

Diwali, India’s Festival Of Light, is the largest and most important holiday for the global Indian community. It is a time when the entire family gets together to participate in wellness traditions and festivities that hark back to the days of ancient India. Diwali is especially wonderful for kids.

For a number of years, St. Louis’ Earthways Center has held a celebration of energy efficiency and renewable energy on the last weekend of September.  Vendors showed their wares, non-profit groups passed out information, and the local electric company sold CFLs for a really low price. This year, that event has morphed into the Green Homes Renewable Energy Festival, which is co-sponsored by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. In addition to the usual displays and tours of the Center itself (a Victorian-era home in St. Louis’ Midtown which has been rehabbed into a green showpiece), visitors to this free event can enjoy:

Workshops and Presentations: Throughout the day on Saturday, Sept. 27, the festival will offer a range of workshops and presentations next door at Cardinal Ritter High School. According to the Festival’s website, “Workshops will cover a range of topics like solar and wind energy, home and vehicle efficiency, urban farming, composting, recycling, and more. Participants can attend multiple workshops for only $5.”

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

GreenWare cups resemble clear plastic cups but are made from a resin derived from corn called Natureworks® PLA (polylactic acid) resin. If you are a business, festival, music event, stadium or other venue selling drinks in cups, please consider these as a alternative to petroleum based plastic cups.

These cups are 100% compostable and environmentally sustainable as PLA resin is naturally recycled in the Earth.

Other environmental benefits include:
~ 20% - 50% fewer fossil resources used than with petroleum based resins.
~ No ground water contamination because the cups break down into natural lactic acid and metabolites which are recycled into the ground.

There are a plethora of Earth Day events happening in the Bay Area over the next two weekends. Check out this comprehensive listing for a celebration near you!

Marine Science Institute Earth Day Celebration: Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Marine Science Institute invites one and all to come celebrate the Earth, San Francisco Bay and all things marine science. The day is jam packed with activities for the entire family, including four 2-hour discovery voyages on San Francisco Bay aboard our 90 ft. research vessel the Robert G. Brownlee, a lunch-time performance by the Banana Slug String Band, shark feedings, interpretive tables, fish and shark touch tanks, juggling and vaudeville presentation, ocean crafts, canoe demonstrations, environmental info faire, plankton shows, traditional Pacific Islander dancing, and much, much more.
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
For more information visit our website at www.sfbaymsi.org, or contact Aaron Tinker at (650) 364-2760 x16 or by email aaron@sfbaymsi.org. Entrance is FREE, but there is a cost for the boat trips. Pre-registration via website for the Discovery Voyages is strongly recommended.

Gas 2.0 writer, Clayton B. Cornell, meets Mr. Biodiesel himself, Josh Tickell, at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Tickell is author of several books on biodiesel, including From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank and Biodiesel America.

Tickell was at Sundance screening his new film on biodiesel,

[...]

I’m here in a bitterly cold Park City, Utah, for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Current temperature outside is 5, and the night before last registered at a polar -10 degrees F.

But hey, I’m at Sundance.

For the next ten days I’ll be on the lookout for films and panels pertaining to biofuels or the planet. It looks like Josh Tickell, the well-known author of From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank (who’s primarily responsible [...]

Continued from Greening Your Groove.

The environmental movement has been rolling along fast this year, and rocking to boot. A green rhythm is beating in the heart of today’s music scene and music lovers young and old have their fingers on its pulse.

This summer, the SOS Live Earth Concert brought together musicians to stages around the world for one glorious day of music and festivities. The message: take personal action

[...]

This weekend at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in Washington, you can hear the likes of Bjork, The Arcade Fire, Manu Chao and the Beastie Boys. And if you listen closely, you might also hear the sigh of atmospheric relief as Carbon Harmony neutralizes the effects of all carbon dioxide emmissions resulting from this year’s Sasquatch!

You may remember from my previous post that the United States produced at least

[...]