Envirovents Green Events
Blogging about green events around the world!Archive for Uncategorized
Greensumption
Now this isn’t an event, but from time to time Envirovents wants to notify the public of something great we found. A friend sent this over and I think it’s a great piece of work.
Check out Greensumption on Youtube.
It’s a cleverly made piece that sums up what Envirovents thinks about a lot of green business. We all need to be more aware of what we are doing, especially when we believe we are telling everyone we’re being more environmentally friendly by simply buying a Prius. A Prius will move us slowly in the right direction, but very slowly. I’m actually amazed when people try to argue with me that their Prius is better than my car. Not only did I buy mine used, but it still gets about 38mpg highway, sometimes as much as 42mpg! I’m looking to sell my car soon, giving public transportation a shot. I hardly drive my car anyway because it’s faster and easier to take the train. The fact that we all need to own our own vehicles is pretty ridiculous. It’’s the urbanization that created it. If we really need to, we should be driving around in very small vehicles the size of golf carts, which can be loaded onto other transport to take us to another city, then roam around in those. Unfortunately that doesn’t make enough money or feed the ego, so we’re lead to believe that bigger and better is the way to go.
Netsquared Conference 2008
Last week there was an event of a different color than green. The 2008 Netsquared Conference at the Cisco campus, brought together social entrepreneurs from all over the United States for a “mashup challenge.” The projects ranged from political, to humanitarian, to environmental, to a combination thereof. The challenge, was a peer voting for the best “mashup” internet project. A mashup is any project which combines, aggregates, or builds upon pre-existing services across the internet. An example, which won 2nd place, was from KnowMore.org. They built an extension into the Firefox internet browser which allows you to see loads of information about the companies you are browsing from search engines to the company’s own website!
When you visit a company’s website, an uninstrusive notification window pops up to let you know their ratings and a link to see more information. Also, when searching on google, little icons will pop up next to the searches, which include color-coded ratings. The ratings are for corporate responsibility, environmental impact, business practices, and much more. This project is a “mashup” because of their integration with search engines and browsers which already exist. They didn’t re-invent the wheel, but instead made it that much better.
There are several other organizations building similar projects, namely another project at Netsquared, Greenerone.com. They provide green ratings for products while you shop. You can compare products and see their energy saving or green specs as you browse. I guarantee you will see a lot more of these rating systems in the very near future. I have seen more than a handful popping up around the internet.
The event itself brought together speakers from organizations like Wikipedia, a live internet feed with Second Life, and a “hack room” for those that need programming help from fellow innovators.
The future of the internet revolves around the concepts brought to Netsquared, as many of you may notice the applications and widgets that are being built into websites and software to make them much more powerful. A great example of this, is a winner from last year’s Netsquared Conference, call Freecycle. If you’re green minded, you’ve defintely heard of them, and Netsquared gave them the funding and publicity needed to make them into the giant they are now.
I can honestly say that this event was the best event I have ever been to. The energy of the event and the people involved, were some of the most passionate, caring, innovative, and collaborative people I have ever met.
Please make sure to stop by the top 21 projects and the other projects listed and support them in any way you can. These projects are running on very small budgets and mostly volunteers. These non-profit organizations survive on donations and grants, so every bit helps.
Envirovents Is Up and Running!
Envirovents is now up and running and open for all to see.
For everyone who has been helping in the beta testing, thank you for your support. Those waiting around for the go ahead to write about our website, you may now write away. We’ll be doing a “2nd launch” when all the kinks are worked out, just like any new piece of work.
Right now, we are confident our working model is loaded with great features and content, so please browse around on the site and check out the video walk through on the homepage. You’ll soon see how powerful it really is. Click on any event, as well as the “tools” section, to see the full concept we have created.
2008 Green Apple Festival
The 2008 Green Apple Festival is looking for non-profit organizations and Green businesses to apply for a booth space for the free Earth Day concerts across America. The concert is free, the booth spaces are not. The Green Apple Festival presented by Chase and the Earth Day Network will be happening on April 18-20th, 2008 will be a weekend of music and environmental awareness that will take place at eight different cities including New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, Miami, Denver, Dallas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. More info about the festival can be found at http://www.greenapplefestival.com. It should be an interesting event.
THE 2008 GREEN APPLE FESTIVAL
- Is one of the largest Earth Day gatherings in U.S. history
- Presents eight, simultaneous events at landmark parks across the country on April 20, 2008
- Is located in parks, rather than concrete venues, chosen with eco-considerations such as easy foot/bike access and public transportation
- Will “green” over 150 music venues over Earth Day Weekend in each Green Apple city
- Is produced in partnership with Earth Day Network, founders of the original “Earth Day” in 1970
- Kicks off a Green Schools pilot program in three Green Apple cities
More info about booth spaces here
This blog was reposted with permission from our good friends over at GenExe.com
A Very Green Music Festival, With Action
Now here’s an event that needs some much needed attention. The first annual Rothbury Music Festival will be one of the biggest music festivals in the country, but also might be one of the greenest. They are making the claim that they will produce close to no waste! Recycling, compostables, carbon offsets, and clean energy. The “green tickets” will include carbon offsets, which is a new trend popping up in music festivals and many other events wishing to go green.
The festival, commenses on July 3-6, 2008 at Double JJ Ranch and Golf Resort in Rothebury, Michigan. It is expected to draw a crowd of around 40,000 people.
The festival’s goal is to provide “a sustainable music festival to celebrate music, art, and action.”
The Music, which will draw quite a crown, contains 70 bands and headlines big name bands like John Mayer, The Dave Mathews Band, Widespread Panic, 311, Snoop Dogg, and a slew of others from all types of genres.
The Action, will be a “think tank” which will “address the topic of finding Energy Independence.” The goal is to educate and empower people through open dialog, about the impact of their decisions and in business and their everyday lives. Presentations, discussions, workshops, film screening, and audience Q&A will provide the education they want to bring to the people.
Sure they’re enticing people with a great music and and a fun festival of art and music, but check out their website for full details about why this festival will make an impact. It is well thought out, is bringing a wealth of knowledge, and an approach to problem solving that people will see a lot more of in the future.
