Green, Sustainable and Teaching One Family At A Time

Calling All Green Citizens 10/12/09

The following is an inspiring note that I received from a very good friend about his family when he learned that I was raising awareness around, Green, CSR and Sustainability. It's so great to hear about everyone's efforts, and, most impressive to hear when it's happening at home, school and the greater community.

Great to hear back from you, and I applaud TheGreenBoriin! I'm glad to know you are championing this cause. We are very much into Green too. We are raising our kids in a certified Green household http://getgreencolumbus.com/ where we have two large recycling bins for all plastic, glass, metal and other recyclables that is picked up each week with our garbage. We take all of our paper to a bin at our elementary school (about a brown grocery bag a week) and the school receives money for recycling. For the five of us we try to only have one bag of garbage per week. We use canvas bags at the grocery instead of plastic bags. My wife and I are both Scout leaders so we try to practice environmental stewardship and "Leave No Trace" with the kids we come in contact with. We ride bikes allot and selected our house in an area that might be a throwback to the 1950s. We can walk/bike to five parks, the library, schools, Dairy Queen, village green where there are summer concerts, and a large grocery store. Our kids are growing up with alternative means of transportation (walk/bike/city bus) versus the usual suburban mode of take the car for all occasions. We use a Bosch dishwasher that uses less water than most DW (I think). We have the front loading washer & dryer; we are considering putting solar panels on our roof.
I applaud your efforts with the meeting/convention industry. I was at a conference at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Vegas in 2007 and remember being saddened by the thought of how much waste must go through Las Vegas every day with all of the plastic water bottles, laundry, wasted food, etc.
Please let me know if we can participate or get involved further. Especially at the kid level, that can have a generational impact. Our oldest son is almost a Life Scout and the second will start Cub Scouts next April, so any teaching I can do from Kindergarten to High School kids would be good.

My answer to all of you who are teaching and leading by example, KEEP IT UP! There is nothing better than "being the change", having fun with it and making it a natural part of everyday activities. I think the longest lasting impression we can make on our youth is by sharing with them simple healthy seasonal meals and the understanding of gardening.

Here are a couple of fantastic website's for kids of all ages.

http://littlelocavores.blogspot.com/
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/locavore.htm

Share with the kids how the President and the First Lady are making great efforts to lead by example with having the white house retrofitted to meet LEED Certification, and, the White House has an organic kitchen garden.

http://www.renewable-energy-news.info/president-barack-obama-leed-certification-white-house/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/20/spring-gardening/

Be Well, Behave and Be Green

Kim is on the Board of Directors for the Financial and Insurance Conference Planners association (FICP) where he is Vice President of Education. He volunteers on the, CIC's APEX/ASTM Green Meetings Events Panel. He is currently an Event Marketing Specialist with Guardian Investor Services LLC, NY, NY. Kim received the award of Greenest Meeting Planner of 2009 at the Green Travel Summit in March 2009.