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!
Practicing sustainability within the workplace will always yield personal and private rewards, however, work can be even more rewarding when others notice your achievements and efforts as well.
One of the firm’s recent projects that stands out is their recent renovation to The Carriage House. This deteriorating barn got a new life with ASA’s green building techniques including recycled materials, geothermal heating/cooling as well as on site water reuse.
“Andrew Sidford Architects’ Carriage House Project has been profiled several times for its sustainable design, most recently in the North Shore Magazine. The project is indeed special – it reprogrammed (lets just say saved!) a decaying antique barn while employing innovative green building technologies,” says a spokesperson for the firm.
Photo Courtesy of Andrew M. Sidford Architects
Projects like this one as well as the long standing relationships Andrew Sidford Architects has with their 1% non-profit recipients are what make them such extraordinary members and such a vital part of the 1% network. Their continued support of 1% non-profits, Appalachian Mountain Club, Global Green Grants, Clean Air – Cool Planet, and Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) are what we here, at 1%, love to see. Keep up the good work!
Hey 1% Members and Nonprofits! Looking for a way to get your name out there in a creative and sustainable way?
In today’s crowded business market & social media whirlwind, it can be very difficult for a new business to get their name out in a creative & noticeable way. Add to that the desire to do so in an earth-friendly and sustainable manner, the challenge doubles. Eco-minded business owners may feel their options are very limited..
But they are not. 1% is proud to welcome Green Peak Promotions to our family of members. Green Peak Promotions is a woman owned business (soon to be WBENC certified) that focuses on creative and sustainable promotional products. They offer clients a combination of extensive industry knowledge, trusted international manufacturing and supplier relationships, and exceptional branding creativity.
The goal at Green Peak is to have the most comprehensive selection of sustainable promotional items available domestically and to offer low minimum, quick production, custom manufacturing overseas. This allows them to offer sustainable products on a custom basis that aren’t available in the US. Their overseas partners assist to produce products made from a wide selection of recycled materials including PET, ABS plastic, polypropylene, zinc, silicone, polyester and PVC. To offset their carbon footprint on the earth they will also be working with TerraPass to offer 100% carbon balanced shipping.
They offer a wide array of promotional products, ranging from apparel to candy, recycled and biodegradable products, while promoting sustainability from order placement to shipment.
Welcome to Green Peak Promotions! We are so excited and happy to have you in our ever-expanding 1% network!
It’s Tuesday, which means it’s already time to start looking ahead toward the weekend and make sure you have something fun planned! So do you have any big plans this weekend? And, have you ever been whale watching? Whether you have or have not, I would definitely recommend going! There is nothing quite like seeing a massive creature swimming so close to you! Read on to learn more about a great donation opportunity taking place with one of our newest members this weekend in British Columbia.
We are pleased to welcome Eagle Wing Tours to the 1% community – as our first whale watch touring company! Brett Soberg and his business partner, Don Stewart, founded Eagle Wing Tours in 2005 and incorporated a deep respect for the marine environment. They believe that by educating the public about whales and the wonders of the Salish Sea, they are able to inspire people to consider more environmentally-responsible choices in their everyday lives.
Eagle Wing Tours goes to great lengths to minimize the environmental impact of every aspect of its operations. They are Canada’s first and only carbon neutral whale watching company, offsetting all greenhouse gas emissions. Their clean Volvo diesel engines meet the strictest international standards and provide the lowest emission rating of any whale watching company in Victoria. The unique scarab and catamaran design of their three vessels incorporate the latest marine technology to reduce engine noise, minimizing underwater sound, wake and shoreline erosion.
This weekend, to celebrate Earth Day, Eagle Wing will donate $25 from every adult whale watching tour between Friday and Sunday to The Land Conservancy’s campaign to protect Brooks Point Park on South Pender Island. These waters are frequented by the southern resident killer whales and must be protected!
Environmental stewardship is at the heart of everything they do at Eagle Wing and their customers take pride in knowing that their tourism dollars are leaving a positive impact on the whales and the entire marine environment. Eagle Wing will continue working with the Victoria Foundation to administer its 1% for the Planet pledge to support local non-profit groups dedicated to the pursuit of sustainability and the environment. We want to extend a warm welcome to Eagle Wing Tours and wish we could get out to BC this weekend for one of your tours!
According to conventional wisdom and Jose Canseco, recycling is really awesome. Ever heard of it? In essence it turns otherwise waste materials into valuable resources. If you’re reading this blog you’ve probably heard of recycling, but what about upcycling? According to new member company Hipcycle, upcycling is “…the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.”
No one knows upcycling better than Hipcycle. Hipcycle’s mission is to provide a marketplace for upcycled products, where it’s easier for consumers to shop smarter and where manufacturers are empowered to find a new purpose for materials. They offer all kinds of upcycled products to consumers via its e-commerce site found here. In addtion to being “eco-friendly”, these goods are attractive, stylish, durable, and price-competitive with traditional alternatives, opening the upcycled marketplace up to the broadest potential market.
Hipcycle sees business as the most powerful driver of social and environmental change. Therefore, their involvement with 1% for the Planet was a natural organic extension of their mission, says Chief Hipcycler, Andrew Sell.
So, if you’re looking for something attractive, durable and envy making, look no further. Hipcycle has what you’re looking for!
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!
Imagine a place where there are no roads, and instead people travel by water. A place where bears and wolves roam the land, while killer and humpback whales swim around the sea. This place, the Great Bear Rainforest, is home to communities whose cultures stretch back many millennia on this coast. This intact temperate rainforest is punctuated by mountains and fjords, and strewn with hundreds of islands along the western coast of British Columbia. Today, ecotourism is one of the leading elements of the emerging conservation economy in the Great Bear Rainforest and 1% member Maple Leaf Adventures has been leading the way since the early 1990s.
Tour companies in the region, like Maple Leaf Adventures, take small groups of guests for multi-day trips by boat among the fjords and islands. Bear viewing and whale watching with expert guides are key features, as is walking the rainforest and learning about the area’s natural and cultural history. This area is so rich with wildlife because of all the work conservation organizations do. Conservation focused businesses and scientists have a symbiotic relationship, because conserved areas allow ecotourism to bloom. At the same time, conservation groups benefit when coastal businesses can generate incomes without clear-cut logging, mining or otherwise destroying the Great Bear Rainforest.
One of the most instrumental organizations in this effort is 1% recipient Raincoast Conservation Foundation, which has made some substantial scientific discoveries regarding the Great Bear Rainforest. They have done research on the salmon-eating, ocean-swimming wolves of the area, the abundance of marine mammals in its waters, the discovery of hundreds of salmon spawning streams, and much more. Raincoast scientists are willing to meet Maple Leaf guests in the field and take time to discuss their research. Maple Leaf (and many of their guests) donate money to support the scientific, education, and policy work Raincoast does, along with its advocacy work.
Connections, like the one between Maple Leaf and Raincoast, are very important to this region because they help protect the land from potentially detrimental projects. There is a proposal to run massive oil tankers through the treacherous waters of the Great Bear Rainforest to “more easily” transport tar sands oil from northern Alberta to Asia. It is essential to the region that this does not happen because of the high likelihood of an oil spill that could be much worse than even the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.
By signing up for a trip with Maple Leaf Adventures, you are helping Raincoast document what is at stake on this beautiful coast, educate the public, and evaluate and intervene in the process for this proposal! For every person who books selected* adventures from now until April 30th through 1% for the Planet, Maple Leaf will donate an additional $400 to Raincoast**! How can you say no to the possibility of seeing a bear in the Great Bear Rainforest or spectacular whales in Haida Gwaii?
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!
