Organic Beer, You Say?

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

UPDATE: This event has been rescheduled for Friday February 12th!

Our friends over at The DC Green Connection are partnering with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Peak Organic Brewing Company to bring you a special networking event featuring organic beer. Tim Adams, co-owner of Peak Organic (brewed in Portland, Maine), will give a short overview about their brewing process and talk about what makes their product organic.

Along with copious amounts of frothy goodness, you will be able to mingle with current SAIS masters students and alumni and explore topics ranging from Copenhagen COP15 outcomes to the latest initiatives in carbon financing and market developments on alternative energy.

The details:
When: Friday, February 5. Doors open at 5:00 pm. A short program begins at 6:30 pm. Doors close at 9:00 pm.

Where: Johns Hopkins University SAIS – Nitze Building (1740 Massachusetts Ave NW, Paul H. Nitze Building, Kenney Auditorium)

RSVP: To http://www.meetup.com/The-DC-Green-Connection or email dcgreenconnection@gmail.com

Price: $10.00 DCGC Members* & Students, $15.00 Non-Members (Includes 2 beer tickets).
(Non-member fee includes 2010 membership discount).

Details: Please bring an official ID to show the guard in the lobby where you will also register for the event and pick up your drink tickets.

More Info: Contact organizers Samit Shah (281.723.8190) or Monika Thiele (206.790.1769)

Local Restaurants for Local Kids

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

Guest post by Andrea Northup

Support locally-owned restaurants, the sustainable local food economy, and DC-area kids by participating in the DC Farm to School Network’s Local Restaurants for Local Kids Fundraiser on Friday January 22.

Select area restaurants will be donating a portion of their proceeds to the DC Farm to School Network, which works to bring healthy, local produce into DC public school cafeterias.  By simply enjoying a delicious snack, cocktail, or dinner at one of the great participating restaurants, you will help to improve access to healthy, tasty, and local foods in area schools.

DC Farm to School Network volunteers will be available at the restaurants to answer questions or chat with you about our work. For volunteer opportunities, contact Lauren@dcgreens.org.

Participating restaurants include:

Busboys & Poets, 5th and K Street NW (Mt. Vernon Sq. Metro); 14th and V Street NW (U St. Metro); 4251 S. Campbell Ave,  Arlington, VA.

Coppi’s Organic (from 6pm-11pm), 1414 U Street NW (U St. Metro)

Eatonville, 2121 14th Street NW (U St. Metro)

Bar Pilar, 1833 14th Street NW (U St. Metro)

Farmers & Fishers (All day!), 3000 K Street NW (Georgetown Waterfront—Foggy Bottom Metro)

Clyde’s, 3236 M Street NW (Foggy Bottom Metro); 707 7th Street NW (Gallery Place Metro); 5441 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD (Friendship Heights Metro)

PS-7 (Lounge from 4pm-2am), 777 I Street NW (Gallery Place Metro)

Bread and Brew (5-8pm in bar), 1247 20th Street NW (Dupont Circle Metro)

Cafe Saint-Ex, 1847 14th Street NW (U St. Metro)

ris (Proceeds from seasonal cocktail and appetizers after 4:30pm), 2275 L Street NW (Foggy Bottom Metro)

Green Your Wedding

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

Guest post by Katie Martin of Eco-Beautiful Weddings

The first question we get from every bride that walks in our studio is: “How can I green my event?” They know it is our specialty and they know they want to go green.  However, they have found it difficult to find examples of how to make a wedding beautiful, fun, and interesting while keeping eco-friendly components.

The solution to greening your event is to make sure you work with the right vendors.  The wrong vendors are the ones that are simply in the wedding industry to make a buck.  Some wedding professionals are having a difficult time learning how to go green and it is up to you, the consumer, to educate them. Here are three questions to ask potential vendors:

1. Do they give back to the community or the environment?

2. Where are their supplies coming from?  For caterers, find out if their food is sourced locally. For florists, ask about where their flowers come from.  Remember, transportation is one of the major components of waste produced by a wedding.

3. Are they listening to you or greenwashing?  Be careful of those vendors that simply want you to sign on the dotted line. Ask your wedding professional if they have a green mission.  Also, if they keep trying to change the subject about eco-friendly practices, that’s a sign to keep walking.

Green Wedding Tips

  • Reduce the amount of out-of-town guests that will be traveling to your wedding.  Transportation is the biggest “eco-sin” when it comes to weddings.
  • Don’t serve red meat at your wedding.  Serve fish, chicken/fowl and/or vegetarian/vegan options instead. The amount of energy it takes to produce and digest red meat is staggering compared to the other options.
  • Choose décor and fashion items that come from renewable and free-trade and fair-wage resources.

Low-Impact Gift Ideas

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

This guest blog post was written by contributor Alison Drucker.

The greenest holiday gift of all is the one that doesn’t come in a box. Reduce the environmental impact of your holiday shopping this year with gifts that don’t require wasteful packaging, have not been shipped from China, and won’t add more clutter to your loved ones’ lives.

Try some of these non-material gift ideas – which can be experienced, consumed, and enjoyed with a lower environmental footprint.

For your significant other

Take your better half on a weekend getaway to a D.C. bed and breakfast. Also within a short drive or train ride into neighboring states are farms, wineries, ski areas, lakes, and other locations where romantic B&Bs abound. Look for environmentally-conscious lodging through the U.S. Green Building Council, ENERGY STAR, Virginia Green Lodging, or iStayGreen.

For a friend

Give your pal some tickets to a concert or sporting event – if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll be invited along. Check the schedules for local venues like the 9:30 Club and Black Cat, or get an open-ended gift certificate redeemable for any show at Wolf Trap. There are also still plenty of Caps and Wizards games left this season. If you don’t want to commit your friend to a specific date, an IOU always works. 

For your parents

Get Mom a gift certificate for a spa treatment, or treat the folks to a good meal out with a gift certificate to a local restaurant. For ideas, check out our list of local eco-friendly spas and restaurants, or search the LocalHarvest and Green Restaurant Association databases for establishments in other areas.

For the kids

Savings bonds have always been a common gift for kids, but Planting Empowerment puts a new twist on them with the Forest Savings Bond. $100 buys 5 ½ hardwood trees, which are planted on deforested tropical land to help restore it; when Planting Empowerment begins to sustainably harvest and sell the timber, your gift recipient will receive the returns from the investment. Or, adopt a species at the National Zoo – the donation supports animal care, medication, and equipment.

For your office Secret Santa

For a caffeine junkie, get a gift certificate to a local coffee shop like Java Green or a selection of organic teas from D.C.’s Teaism. An iTunes gift certificate can go a long way even if you only spend ten bucks; if you’re looking to spend a bit more, get an eMusic gift subscription of 60 song downloads for $30.

Totally stumped?

What do you get for the person who has everything? How about the absence of something – the greenhouse gas emissions from her holiday travels or a year of her life? You can buy carbon offsets from companies such as Native Energy, Terrapass, or Silver Spring-based Carbonfund. Your purchase supports renewable energy projects or methane capture and storage, helping to balance the environmental impacts of your gift recipient’s lifestyle.

Mayor’s Environmental Excellence Awards

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

Is your business or non-profit kicking some green you-know-what? Then perhaps you should consider applying for the 2010 Mayor’s Environmental Excellence Awards.

Now in it’s second year, the award recognizes winners in the following categories:

-Construction/Development
-Partner (Association or Nonprofit)
-Restaurant/Food Service
-Innovation in Green Products or Services
-Hotel
-Small Business (100 or fewer employees)
-Large Business (More than 100 employees)

The awards recognize environmental stewardship, innovative best practices, pollution prevention, and resource conservation.

Applications and instructions can be found online along with case studies about last year’s award winners including Poste and  The Fairmont Hotel.

The application deadline is January 29, 2010, and awards will be distributed in the spring. For more information, contact Mary Lynn Wilhere at the DDOE, (202) 535-1939, marylynn.wilhere@dc.gov.