The South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) began the film festival in 2003 with the goal to show environmentally focused films that not only informed audiences, but also inspired and motivated viewers to take action. Every year the California-based festival hits the road with a selection of short films, providing the opportunity for organizations all around the country to host a festival, show a selection of films, and inspire a local audience.
The festival also played host to a celebration. The film selection was inspired by the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, a passage that made a significant impact on the regulation of water quality. To commemorate the anniversary, the festival featured 10 award-winning and water-inspired short films. Among the chosen films were The Craziest Idea, One Plastic Beach, andSeasons: Winter, which we highly recommend checking out. You could really feel the emotion in the room as everyone watched the awe-inspiring films together.
We were thrilled by the member and partner support the festival received in the days leading up to the event. The 1% FTP Network was in action, as members and partners came together to celebrate the Clean Water Act while creating an engaging and fun environment for the general public to learn more about VNRC, the beneficiary of this year’s event.
Thanks to everyone who participated and to those who attended – we hope you had as much fun as we did! If you’re interested in learning more about the Wild & Scenic Film Festival and want to find out when they’re headed to your neck of the woods, check out the schedule HERE.
Power Plant is a unique gathering bringing together sustainable business leaders, social entrepreneurs, eco-adventurers, green artists and media activists for socializing and learning about great ideas. The event takes place every few months at different venues around the city, offering an innovative and casual approach to networking with the aim of celebrating success, sharing ideas and knowledge, creating strategic partnerships and promoting the growth of Vancouver’s green economy.
This first-time “Special Edition” of Power Plant was focused exclusively on 1% for the Planet, a global movement of more than 1,000 member companies in 45 countries that donate one percent of annual sales directly to approved environmental organizations worldwide. Representatives from 1% for the Planet were on hand to mix and mingle with the sold-out crowd of 185 people, Power Plant’s largest event to date.
After an hour of purposeful connecting in the foyer (while snacking on delicious appetizers and sipping local wine and beer), the group moved into the theatre’s auditorium, where Melody Badgett, Senior Vice President of 1% for the Planet, kicked off the presentations by giving a high energy overview of the benefits businesses gain from joining 1% for the Planet.
Each presenter followed the Power Plant format, giving a three-minute and 20 second presentation accompanied by 10 slides appearing on screen for exactly 20 seconds each, lending a snappy tone to the presentation portion of the evening.
Other speakers included:
-Devon Page, Executive Director of Ecojustice, a charity made up of some of Canada’s leading lawyers and scientists who work to fulfill their mission of using the law and to protect and restore Canada’s environment. Devon talked about Ecojustice’s conservation work, funded in part by 1% for the Planet member Mountain Equipment Co-op, consisting of law suits representing animals such as the caribou and the orca, fighting against the federal government for not following their own regulations around species protection.
-Monica Pearson, a biologist who discussed her work conserving Oregon spotted frog habitats in the Fraser Valley through the BC Conservation Foundation, a non-profit supported by 1% for the Planet member Frogbox. She pointed out that 67 animal species in the Fraser Valley are currently under threat of extinction, and how the work she and her colleagues are doing in riparian restoration is making a difference in stopping that momentum.
-Michael Ableman, an acclaimed farmer, author and founder of SOLEfood Farm, who spoke about this innovative social enterprise that provides urban agriculture employment and training opportunities for Vancouver’s inner-city residents.
-Kris Holm, a mountain unicyclist, who spoke about what inspired him to make his business the first Canadian company, and internationally the first cycling brand, to become a member of 1% for the Planet. Kris is also a 1% for the Planet Ambassador.
Sponsors of the event included prominent members of the 1% for the Planet in Canada: Mountain Equipment Co-op, Salt Spring Coffee,Nature’s Path/EnviroKidz, and Frogbox. Each sponsor had an information table for attendees to visit during the networking portion of the evening, highlighting the work of the nonprofit organizations they partner with and support through their 1% for the Planet commitment.
MEC’s table hosted information from Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society about their joint Dare to be Deep campaign, calling for 12 new marine protected areas. Salt Spring Coffee’s table was dedicated to the work of LOCO BC, an alliance of local companies working to strengthen communities, grow the local economy and build strong, sustainable businesses.
In 2013, Junxion will continue its work with 1% for the Planet to expand the breadth and depth of its network in Canada, bringing more organizations into this strong and growing movement.
This past weekend, Waitsfield, VT community members helped build sandbag barriers and secure plywood to window frames in preparation for Hurricane Sandy. While Vermont was lucky this time, our hearts go out to hard hit communities along the East Coast.
We’ve heard from many of our business members who want to use their 1% contributions to assist recovery efforts—and we’re here to help you connect with groups making a difference.
Until we can get a comprehensive list of organizations doing work on the ground, we encourage you to support our partners working to reduce the chance of storms like Sandy happening in the first place. Climate change is a reality that must be taken seriously.
Please consider donating to the following organizations, and if you know of others that can use our help, let us know!
350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis (350.org/mission). 350.org is known for pulling together massive groups of people worldwide who want to fight against the fossil fuel industry- our largest carbon emitters. By solving the climate crisis, they are lowering the likelihood of storms like Sandy occurring as frequently. Along with asking for your support, they are asking Big Oil, Coal and Gas to help pay for the damage they have created.
Another organization that is doing great Sandy-related work is Climate Central, based in Princeton, NJ. Climate Central conducts scientific research on climate change and informs the public of key findings (climatecentral.org/about). Climate Central is not an advocacy organization; they are conveying the scientific facts so citizens and policymakers can work to stabilize the climate and/or prepare for the impacts it will have on us.
Please keep in mind that while you cannot count donations to unapproved organizations toward your 1% contribution, organizations like the Red Cross can always use your help during times like this. As news comes in we will be in touch via our Facebook and Twitter pages to share other ways you can help!
It’s no secret that unlabeled-GMO foods are everywhere. But how did these organisms become so prevalent in our fields and on our dinner tables? Have they been tested, and just how dangerous are they? And how is it, that even after the disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear power is still seen as the energy source of the future?
These questions are on everyone’s mind, leading us to wonder whether we have all become human guinea pigs. In the kind of world where even farmers are afraid of the chemicals they use on their fields, director Jean-Paul Jaud takes a politically engaged and activist stance with TOUS COBAYES?(in English, All of us guinea-pigs now?).
He is joined by actor and theatre director Philippe Torreton who has lent his voice as narrator. With a deep conviction that movies should play an active role in protecting our ecosystem and our planet, Jaud dares to denounce the status quo and advocate new solutions. Through stunning footage, powerful interviews and an explosive conclusion, TOUS COBAYES?, sheds new light on the dangers of GMOs and nuclear power. It’s bound to spur lively debate.
One of our largest French members, Lea Nature, donates a portion of their contribution each year to a number or organizations who oppose GMOs and nuclear energy. Together with help from Lea Nature and many other groups, these organizations have created TOUS COBAYES?.
This movie is being launched in Montreal on the nights of October 18th and 21st. We hope that you are able to attend and if so, please share your thought with us! The labeling of GMOs is an important issue around the world these days and we want to hear what your views are!
Our dedicated followers may remember our series of posts about the Ecotrust Sundown Concert Series last summer; well, even though we aren’t sponsoring the series this year our members have still been highly involved. LiFT Label Bobby Bonaparte recaps, “Portland 1% for the Planet members, Ecotrust,Patagonia & LiFT Label, kicked off Sundown at Ecotrust 2012 concert series with a flash mob fashion show and a band try out. When opening band AU finished their set, Bobby Bonaparte and Anthony Villella of LiFT Label took the stage to hold open auditions for local band Typhoon. The crowd was stoked about the dancing and everyone was looking fly the audition turned into a fashion show. Silvania, El Karti and Sticks & Stones joined for an epic fashion show that emphasized local and organic apparel.”
It’s great to see that our members are continuing to collaborate in the Portland area and are so eager to share their 1% for the Planet commitments with the community! Bobby says, “It was a great time to have the 1% for the Planet members working together the make the show a success!”
Thanks again, Portland members! If you want to see a video of the fashion show you can view it here.
What a day! As promised, 1% for the Planet participated in and sponsored a Climate Impacts Day event in our hometown of Waitsfield, VT, this past Saturday afternoon. The event was successful, informative, and fun! Booths where people talked about their local businesses or their non-profit organization, a panel of community members whose homes or businesses were damaged by flooding that occurred during Tropical Storm Irene last August, and speeches from Senator Bernie Sanders, Bill McKibben and an array of other local organizations, all echoed the importance of working to curb climate change.
Photo Courtesy of Katie Costello
The event culminated in the formation of a human dot in a large field, where a couple hundred people in attendance all joined hands and gathered around a giant canvas dot that said “Vermont, USA Connects the Dots.” A small heli-cam flew overhead and took pictures of the crowd’s formation. Our event’s picture was then added to thousands at 350.org, all screaming the same thing, climate change is directly connected to extreme weather!
Photo courtesy of 350 Vermont
I’d like to thank everyone, on behalf of 1%, who helped put this event together and everyone else all around the world who took part in helping the growth of the climate change movement. If you’d like to see photos of the event check them out on our Facebook or Pinterest pages!
As Danny mentioned in his previous post, this Saturday is 350.org’s Climate Impacts Day all over the world! Here in Vermont, not only will people be taking part in this event, but they will also be celebrating Green Up Day. Annually, on the first Saturday in May, people from all corners of Vermont will flood into roadside ditches, lake shores and fields with a mission of picking up trash, planting trees and keeping the state beautiful! Here in Waitsfield, just outside our office doors, Hurricane Irene did quite a number on our community. All of us at 1% for the Planet we will be helping green up our community and then later in the day joining people from 350.org to “connect the dots between climate change and extreme weather.” We hope to see some of you there, or if you are from out of town, find an event in your area!
Continuing with this theme of connecting the dots, I challenge you to connect the dots between the following businesses around the world….
I’m sure that by now you have guessed that these are April’s 40 new 1% members! Welcome to our network, and I wish you all a very happy Green Up Day and hope you all find a way to get involved with cleaning up your local natural landscape!
Are you looking for some weekend fun? This Saturday, May 5th, 1% for the Planet will be participating in 350.org’s Climate Impacts Day and we want you to participate too! Climate Impacts Day is a day to draw attention to and connect the dots between climate change and the extreme weather that the world has faced in recent years. There will be thousands of events around the world, click here to find one in your area. We are challenging all of our members to be involved in some way, by spreading the word, organizing an event, or attending one.
Photo courtesy of 350.org
Each event will feature different techniques of getting our message out. The gathering in our hometown, Waitsfield, VT, will feature a rally and speeches from Bill McKibben, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Governor Peter Shumlin. 1% is proud to sponsor such a great event and we hope that everyone within our network (and anyone else!) will have the opportunity to show up and help the world connect the dots!
If you’re a member or non-profit partner and have photos or stories from the event please feel free to upload them to our Facebook page, Twitter, or Pinterest afterward!
We are excited to introduce ioby, an innovative non-profit partner, to the 1% community! ioby – the opposite of NIMBY – was created to get people who want to do something meaningful for the environment involved with local projects. Read on to learn more about a great opportunity to support ioby!
ioby’s crowdsourcing platform exemplifies the local connection that we encourage all of our community to take part in! ioby.org combines the tools of social media with citizen philanthropy to power environmental action in urban centers. Since their founding, they have seen the successful completion of nearly 150 community-driven, neighbor-funded projects in NYC’s five boroughs. Their web platform is a groundbreaking tool for change and has been written up recently in Fast Company, Outside Magazine, Wall Street Journal and Mother Nature News.
On ioby, anyone with a good idea for change in their neighborhood can post their community gardening, bicycling, park or waterfront project online to collect tax-deductible donations, connect with local volunteers and share ideas in the likeminded community. On average, micro-donors contribute $35 to projects and live within 2 miles of the project site.
ioby is growing. This Earth Day, April 22, ioby is running a dollar-for-dollar match campaign for all donations to projects, in increments up to $22. There are currently 97 (and counting!) live projects on ioby, where organizations are fundraising for all kinds of local environmental projects, from open streets to park festivals to urban farms in vacant lots. This past Valentine’s Day, ioby ran a Neighborhood Love match campaign and raised $42,000 in matched micro-donations in 24 hours, these funds helped fully fund more than a dozen great projects.
ioby is looking for a business partner to help sponsor their Earth Day match, and they hope to work with a company who cares about the same mission, who loves the planet and its people and wants to help catalyze thousands of citizen projects in cities across the country. Ioby is seeking sponsors who can contribute $5,000-$20,000 to this campaign. Businesses that helped sponsor their Valentine’s Day match received a huge amount of publicity because of the almost 350,000 followers of ioby’s social media networks!
If you’re a business member and still looking for non-profits to give your 1% to, partnering with ioby would be a great way to support a broad range of projects that make a huge difference, and to get some great visibility too! Drop Erin (ED at ioby, erin@ioby.org) a line for more information about being a cosponsor.
We are excited to welcome ioby to the 1% Team and wish them a very happy (early) Earth Day!
Although I do not share an extreme interest in cycling with many of my co-workers at 1%, Cycle The Sierra sounds like a great event and even I would consider doing it! As you make your summer plans, you should consider taking part in 1% member event Cycle The Sierra from June 23rd to the 27th. It sounds like an awesome trip and surely should not be missed by all of you adventurers out there!
Cycle The Sierra is an annual cycling event that takes place in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California. This fully supported, five-day journey takes riders on a 300-mile loop through breathtaking country, beneath granite peaks, through evergreen forests and to alpine hot springs. The ride meanders through iconic locations like Lake Tahoe and the area where gold was discovered starting the California Gold Rush, over the 4th highest bridge in the US, and through numerous unique and historical communities along the way.
Each day cyclists will ride around 70 mountain miles for one of our non-profit partners like, 1% for the Planet, the League to Save Lake Tahoe, the American River Conservancy and SYRCL. At night, everyone will camp together under the stars. Camps will feature delicious food, live music, a beer and wine garden, massage therapists, bike mechanics and other cyclists letting loose on vacation from all over the United States. If you like truly beautiful mountain scenery, good food and live music, relaxing with a cold beer after a great ride, spending time with old friends and meeting new, Cycle The Sierra is an event you don’t want to miss! Space is limited, so visit their webpage to register today!
