Design 21: Social Design Network

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sarah Butsch (t) 646-330-4829; (f) 212-680-3107 e-mail: nycgreendrinks@gmail.com website: www.greendrinks.org

Green Drinks NYC Networks at "The Park"

NEW YORK – Oct. 14, 2008 – Green Drinks NYC presents its monthly environmental networking event at "The Park" on Tuesday, Oct. 14th from 6-10pm. These monthly events provide a platform for environmental enthusiasts to build lasting partnerships and friendships, to connect with employers and employees, and to develop and exchange ideas. All events are open to the public.

This month's event is sponsored by McGraw-Hill Professional and features the Book Launch of Seth Leitman's Build Your Own Electric Vehicle, Second Edition. The first 100 people to show up will either receive hard copies or e-book editions.

The new, updated edition of Build Your Own Electric Vehicle contains everything that made the first edition so popular while adding all the technological advances and new parts that are readily available on the market today. Seth Leitman is president and managing member of the ETS Energy Store, LCC, which sells organic, natural, and sustainable products for business and home use. Previously, Leitman worked for the New York State Power Authority and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, where he helped develop, market, and manage electric and hybrid vehicle programs serving New York State and the New York metropolitan area.

At 8pm, hear from Seth Leitman, followed...

"Sustainability" is a word whose term so many of us use, yet its definition is often vague or controversial. Environmental economist and television producer Pamela Peeters hosted the third annual "Sustainable Planet” ™ film festival on July 19th at the Chelsea Art Museum, offering clarity to a group of interested New Yorkers; a local program with a global message.

Now in its third year, Sustainable Planet promotes sustainable development by bringing together filmmakers with for-profit and non-profit organizations to watch movies and discuss sustainable solutions. Titles screened came from India, Belgium, the USA, France, Haiti, Lebanon, Germany, Australia, and Brazil and showcased community building efforts and/or environmental care practices.

Sometimes, the best way to learn about a topic is through an overview of such a topic, which is pertinent in every industry. The showcase highlighted different perspectives and provoked thought among its viewers and expert visitors. Panel discussions ranged from "Sustainable Urban Lifestyle Solutions" to "Art and Education" and "Heritage for a Sustainable Future." Panelists featured included Alberto Gonzalez of Gusto Organics, Margaret Lydecker of Green Drinks, and Dr. Robert Kirkbride of Parsons The NEW School for Design, to name a few.

Hats off to Peeters for posing tough questions to a highly reputed selection of industry leaders in New York!

About the festival “Sustainable Planet”™is a film festival that promotes sustaina...

This is the neatest idea I've seen in a long time! I do hope it gets implemented in NYC... - Marissa

Human-Powered River Gymnasiums for New York

Mitchell Joachim & Douglas Joachim

The motion starved environments we live in are the antithesis of our being. Perhaps the most primal of all human function is locomotion. We need to move more!

Our concept encapsulates a new typology for the contemporary urban gym. It is intended to challenge our innate proprioceptive and multi-planer locomotive abilities while synchronously altering the surroundings. The River Gym will fulfill one of the major contemporary fitness goals of “functional training”. This training protocol will exploit the inherent disequilibrium of floatation devices. Often the average urbanite exercising at the gym performs controlled repetitive single plane movements using industrial fitness equipment. All of this energy is summarily dissipated and ultimately exhausted for the sake of a single individual’s wellbeing. Other potentials exist to harness this vast human expenditure of caloric energy. Why not have the simple transfer of this workout vigor supply New York with needed supplemental transport and amenities? How can we extend and capitalize on this untapped group potential? Into what form will this new kind of gym evolve?

By continuing to provide vital health amenities, the River Gym can leave the realm of the glass box and become a useful multi-planar kinetic space. Envision your gy...

NY de Volunteer Institutional Relations Department July 9, 2008

NYC Kids Explore Japanese Culture Explore Japanese Culture: An After-School Program Sponsored by Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees

NY de Volunteer, a non-profit organization, held a very successful program called “Explore Japanese Culture: An After-School Program” recognized by the City of New York at six recreational centers located around Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx from September 2007 to June 2008.

The objective of this program is to offer children in the local communities of New York an experience of other cultures and expand their expand their horizons in an effort to foster a new generation of global citizens. The program met weekly for two-hour sessions in the evening, gathering almost 50 children between the ages of six and thirteen and immersing them in a multifaceted experience of Japanese lifestyle and culture, including Japanese language, games, food, martial arts, tea ceremony, and dance. Furthermore, we invited Americans with experience living in Japan as guest speakers and potential role models for the children.

Today, in a world where diversity education is required more than ever, this type of hands-on cultural program is a first – even for New York City. The children learned about Japan - a faraway country which they knew little or nothing about - learned to look at the world with different eyes, and developed a curiosity for unfamiliar traditions. On the final day of thi...

Open Green Map on a Roll!

The enthusiasm is building as the Open Green Map project goes into full-scale production. Already a finalist in the NetSquared Challenge and presented at Beyond Broadcasting and Where 2.0 conferences, this inclusive, participatory social mapping website will put thousands of hopeful green sites from around the world on the map! Open Green Map will also share the public's insights, images and impacts about each of these significant places.

Mixing social networking, familiar Google Map technology and Green Map’s award-winning iconography, Open Green Map will create a common platform for Green Mapmakers, Green Map users, and a global public that is becoming more and more adept at living green. Users of OGM will be able to select the themes they are most interested in, and explore the world from a fresh vantage point. They will also have quick access to the unique 'traditional' Green Maps published locally in each city, town or region.

We believe that every community has resources to help individuals build healthier, greener communities together. But up until now, too many people lack the awareness and access they need to find and connect with those resources. Open Green Map will energize the booming green innovation, ‘go local’, regeneration and ecotourism movements with social networking and interactive mapping, empowering widespread participation in critical local environment, climate and equity issues worldwide.

This season, a dozen ded...

NEW YORK – July 8, 2008 – Green Drinks NYC presents its "Summer Garden Party" at Tavern on the Green's garden in Central Park on Tuesday, July 8th from 6-10pm. All are welcome.

The professional environmental networking event is one of the few monthly events in New York City that provides a platform for developing and exchanging ideas, connecting employers and employees, promoting green products and services, and forming lasting partnerships and friendships.

Wear your greenest summer attire to compliment the light jazz at Tavern on the Green's majestic, lantern-laden garden overlooking Central Park. Attendees will include architects, lawyers, journalists, designers, health specialists, financiers, consultants, and many more professionals.

David Bach, # 1 New York Times bestselling author of "Go Green, Live Rich" and "The Automatic Millionaire," commented, "Any business that wants to reach 'green connectors' would be wise to join this community, its changing the world and having fun at the same time."

ABOUT – In over 350 cities worldwide, Green Drinks is a monthly networking organization for individuals committed to uniting the environmental community. Green Drinks NYC hosts events on the second Tuesday of each month at various venues in Manhattan, often providing local and organic food and beverages.

On June 10th, 2008, many came out for the monthly networking event at Solar One's outdoor venue on the East River. Sponsors included Sustainlane, New York League of ...

By ClimateBiz Staff, ClimateBiz

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Companies such as Nike, Google, Anheuser-Busch and Levi Strauss have taken strides in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and communicating those efforts in ways that are transparent to consumers, according to the second Climate Counts Company Scorecard released today.

The Scorecard, available in a pocket-sized shopping guide, gives consumers the ability to make purchasing decisions based on whether companies are walking the walk to battle climate change. The report found that 84 percent of companies improved their climate-related efforts since the first scorecard was released last June, but the food services sector scored the lowest average.

“Business is being pushed by consumers to do their part to solve the climate crisis,” said Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm and Climate Counts chair. “The Scorecard allows consumers to make good climate decisions in their everyday purchases, and it’s having an impact.”

Climate Counts is a nonprofit that created the scorecard using input from business and climate experts. (Full disclosure: GreenBiz Executive Editor Joel Makower is a Climate Counts board member.) It used 22 criteria to ranks companies on four benchmarks: whether they measure their carbon footprint, efforts to reduce it, support or opposition to climate-related legislation and communication with the public on their actions. It also ranks companies according to sector: apparel, beverages, consumer shipping, ...

Check out Loving Day's big event!

Quoted from Inhabitat:

We love our design competitions here at Inhabitat, and today we are partnering with The New School Sustainable Design Review (SDR) in NYC, to help judge a student design competition for the much loved NY skincare company Kiehls. This year’s New School SDR design competition is being organized in partnership with Kiehl’s - the old-world apothecary founded in New York’s East Village neighborhood. In this post (below) you will see all of the competing sustainable designs of the 2008 student finalists, and want to hear YOUR feedback on which projects you find to be the most compelling and worthy of the competition’s grand prize award of $2,500!

We really want to hear your thoughts, so please comment, and VOTE HERE >

I couldn't resist! The item below is quoted from Ecorazzi:

Just in time for Earth Day, Barbie from Mattel is introducing a “BCause Collection” of limited-edition accessories for girls. The tote bags and other items are made from leftover fabric and trimmings from other Barbie® doll fashions and products which would otherwise be discarded. From the release,

“Sold exclusively at Toys“R”Us stores in the Barbie® toy aisle, the Barbie™ BCause collection includes handbags, coin purses, hats, tote bags, pillows, diaries and more, each featuring its own unique variations and kitschy patchwork details. ‘Barbie is always a reflection of current cultural trends and issues, and girls are increasingly aware of making a green statement,‘ said Richard Dickson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Media and Entertainment, Worldwide, Mattel Brands. ‘Barbie BCause is for eco-conscious girls who believe that being environmentally-friendly is the right thing to do, and we are thrilled to give extra meaning and extra style to what was once just extra Barbie doll fabric.‘”

It’s great to see Mattel using the leftovers from its manufacturing for additional products — but it would be even cooler if the Barbie BCause line actually did anything for the environment besides landfill diversion. How about 10% of all proceeds going to an environmental charity?

Barbie is a chic girl. I think she’s be into it.