Hi all!

Next week is National Bike to Work Week. And to celebrate the light touch bikers have on the environment, Green Drinks and Consider Biking are holding a bike hop next Thursday May 17. We will be starting at the Carabar (43 Parsons Ave.), where Chris Leurs from Simply Living will be talking about bike safety, then off to Surly Girl Saloon (1126 N. High St.) to learn about what is being done to make Columbus more bicycle friendly from Bernice Cage (MORPC) and Steven Tweedy (City of Columbus). The last hop is to Ruby Tuesday (1978 Summit St.) for live music from Flashing Clock, The Wells and The Floorwalkers. Biking parking will be available at each stop.

We understand that some people may need to find wheels for the hop, and others have extra bikes. If you have an extra bike or bikes to share, you can drop these off at Ruby Tuesday from 5-5:45 on Thursday. If you need one, it will be first come first serve.

Upcoming Events:
Wednesday, May 9th
Clean Air Fair in the Arena District
We are excited about this opportunity to educate downtown employees about the importance of clean air, clean energy, transportation choices, and respiratory health in central Ohio.

Green Fair
October 6th
This is kind of far off, but man you need to mark your calenders now, it’s going to be huge!

Let the Columbus Earth Day 2007:  A Year in a Day festivities begin!

When: Thursday, April 19th at 7:00 until 2:00
Where: Little Brothers, 1100 N High St
Why: Benefit concert for Earth Day 2007: A Year in a Day.


Admission is Free (with a suggested $2 donation). A portion of all Sierra Nevada beer sold that night will also help support the largest Earth Day event in Columbus in over a decade.

A Year in a Day

8 am – noon, Saturday, April 21, 2007

Visit: http://www.ayearinaday.org/

A morning filled with volunteer activities ranging from trash pick-up by our scenic rivers to planting trees to community beautification projects. The goal is get 500 people working for 4 hours each, equaling the time one person spends working in an entire year (A Year in A Day). Participants (volunteers and others) will then enjoy an afternoon of celebration, including:

*       Speakers, live music and entertainment
*       Kids Activities
*       Hands-on demonstrations and environmental education activities

        *       Informational booths for local environmental organizations and business

        *       A bike corral and a hybrid car drive-in

        *       Local and organic food and drink

The entire event will be zero waste to the landfill, and have countless other ‘green’ aspects. If you are interesting in volunteering at one the worksites or at the afternoon celebration, please complete the volunteer form and we will direct you to the volunteer opportunity that best fits your inclinations. See you on April 21.
Columbus Green Drinks, Simply Living and The Sierra Club are working with just about every area environmental group to put on Columbus’ largest ever Earth Day event.

Speaker: Andrew Mangan, Executive Director
Title: U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development (USBCSD)

Date & Time: Friday, March 30, 2007 – 12:30 to 1:30 PM
Location: Knowlton Auditorium (KSA 250)

The USBCSD, established in 1993, is part of a global network of 180
companies from 30 countries and 20 industrial sectors. Through
collaborative, real-world applications, the USBCSD has shown that
business success is linked to economic, social, and environmental
sustainability. One key approach is By-Product Synergy, in which
manufacturing facilities reduce pollution, save energy, and increase
profits by converting one facility’s wastes into another’s raw materials.

As an example, Dow Chemical applied this approach to a cluster of
facilities on the Gulf Coast, and identified the following potential
benefits: annual cost savings of $15 million; reduction in CO2
emissions by 108 million pounds per year; reduction in solid waste by
155 million pounds per year. Currently USBCSD is working with the
U.S. EPA to develop a series of regional By-Product Synergy programs
in Chicago, Detroit, Seattle and other major metropolitan areas nationwide.

This public lecture is sponsored by The Center for Resilience in the
College of Engineering, which is partnering with USBCSD, EPA, and the
Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio on technologies for By-Product Synergy.

Hello everyone!

First things first, March Green Drinks information:

What:  A networking and educational event for people who consider themselves any shade of “green”.
When: Thursday, February 15 6:00 ish – whenever (speakers usually start around 7:00 ish)
Where: Surly Girl Saloon (back room) ( http://www.surlygirlsaloon.com) – 1126 N. High St.
Who can come?: Anyone interested in meeting other environmentally conscious citizens and learning about local green events, businesses, and projects! 

Who will be speaking? :

Mike Van Meter owner of SmartRecycle.com, which is a Westerville based company specializing in cell phone and ink cartridge recycling. On that note, bring them if you have got them!  Please take a second to look read about their partnerships to benefit an array of different good causes around town.  ( http://www.smartrecycle.com/index.php) 

Joe Recchie, Developer of Jeffrey Place, which is a large, urban development project just east of Italian Village.  Please check out the decisions they have made to make this project sustainable.  (http://www.jeffreyplace.com/community/sustainability.cfm)

Andy Ladd, Environmental Specialist with Whole Foods,  will take the mic for a few to tell us about some events Whole Foods is doing the week of and on Earth Day.  Look forward to speeches, a recycling fair, a benefit concert (to help with our Earth Day event!), etc…way too much for us to relay on their behalf! (You may want to bring your planner to the event to get all of this stuff down)    (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/calendars/DUB.html )

Note:  To honor the  connection (in name only really) to the upcoming holiday -  feel free to wear green and bring some green food coloring for your drinks   Please don’t make a mess or be sensitive when we giggle at your green colored mouth. 

On to the rest…

GET INVOLVED WITH THE LARGEST EARTH DAY CELEBRATION C-BUS HAS SEEN  IN OVER A DECADE!  

Columbus Green Drinks and Simply Living are planning a huge Earth Day event.  The event will be held on the Saturday, April 21, the day before Earth Day Sunday, and consists of two parts.  First, working with environmental groups in and around Central Ohio including trash clean-up work on the Green Building Forum green house, planting trees, community gardening, community outreach and many others.  The goal of the morning is to elicit at least one person-year (2,000 hours or 500 volunteers working 4 hours each) of volunteer labor.  This goal of a years worth of work in one day has given this first annual event its name – Earth Day 2007: A Year in a Day.

The second component is a big, fat Earth Day celebration at Goodale Park complete with speakers, live music, informational booths, food and drink, and more!  

Want to have an informational booth at the afternoon event?  

Want to volunteer at a worksite in the morning?  

Want to help out setting up and tearing down the afternoon celebration?   

Have a project you need help with for that morning?

Have a hybrid or green friendly car you want to show off? 

Want to learn more about our fantastic sponsors and partners?  

Of course you do!  Check out our website to find contact information and forms to help you get involved in these ways and more!    http://www.ayearinaday.org

Two other things we wanted to mention now…

Saturday April 15-  Global Climate Change rally to take place in Columbus and cities all over the U.S..  Please find more information here:  http://events.stepitup2007.org/events/show/301  

Thursday April 19-  Save the date- working on a rockin fundraising event for “A Year in a Day”.  More details to follow! 

Of course there are more events and even more will pop up.    We will try our best to keep our Myspace calendar up to date.  We may also send out more than the usual one email per month. 

Hope to see you next Thursday!

Cheers,

Columbus Green Drinks Team 

Wednesday Feb. 28 @ 7:30 there is an open invitation to attend a benefit dinner at Pestos in the south campus gateway.  There will be plenty of good company and a percentage of every meal purchased will be donated to Students for Recycling!

Bring your friends and make some new ones wednesday at Pestos!

The Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA)

will be presenting a FREE screening of The Future of Food on

Thursday, March 1^st at 6:30 PM in room 103 of Kottman Hall.

Did You Know?

—The average food product travels between 1,500 and 2,000 miles before we eat it.

—Corporations have the power to patent life (this includes seed), despite our forefathers purposely excluding it from the Constitution.

—Monsanto (one of the world’s largest seed producer) has sued hundreds of small farmers throughout the US and Canada because Monsanto’s patented seed has appeared on their land (even if the seed appeared without the consent or knowledge of the farmer).

—Seed producers, in collaboration with the US government, have created a seed that becomes sterile after one growing season. If cross-breeding occurs between this Terminator Gene Seed and other local seed the communities could face insufficient seed production, leading to possible food shortages.

Following the movie, Noreen Warnock of The Greater Columbus Foodshed Project will speak about issues such as the importance of regional food system development. After, feel free to mingle with the Simply Living, The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association and other groups who will be tabling and providing information on locally sourced food.

There will be FREE FOOD

and refreshments provided by

The Clintonville Community Co-op

OTHER FILMS

There will be a series of lectures/films sponsored by the Social Responsibility Initiative in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Greater Columbus Foodshed Project of Simply Living:

-Nikki

Please join us next Thursday for our February Green Drinks event!

This month we will hear from the following:

Steve Goodwin with the Appalachia Ohio Alliance (www.appalachiaohioalliance.org)

Tim Pohler with the Highlands Nature Sanctuary  ( http://www.highlandssanctuary.org)

When: Thursday, February 15 6:00- 9:00 ish

What: Environmentally-conscious Central Ohioians enjoying drinks, good company and a chance to learn about local green groups and initiatives.

Who: Anyone interested in meeting other environmentally conscious citizens!

See you this coming Thursday!
-  The Columbus Green Drinks Team

More details to follow over the next couple months. 

This Thursday (Jan.18),  CampUShed will present its LEED certification proposal at Columbus Green Drinks held at Surley Girls Saloon at 6:30 pm.     This will be our first public presentation of our proposal so come to listen and talk to us about our plans, we want your opinion!!!

visit CampUSheds website at

www. campushed.osu.edu