Greening Asha

Disclaimers

This presentation was thrown together in the last 10 minutes !

There are no stats, no figures, no numbers to back the slides

Your presenter is a birkenstock-wearing, organic granola-eating, hippie treehugger

Overview

• Why?• How?• Case Study: Geetanjali• Gotchas!• Q & A

Why?

These are NOT our reasons for going green:• It’s hip and trendy (green is the new black)• Everybody’s doing it• Paris Hilton thinks global warming is not

“hawt”

Why? (contd..)• Respect the rights of people. And the rights of the world we live in.

• Environmental justice and social justice usually go hand-in-hando High correlation between environmentally friendly practices and social

justice. Likewise between environmentally unfriendly practices and social injustice.

• Virtuous cycleo Eco-friendly & socially just practices communities that are empowered,

participative and more aware sustaining eco-friendly and socially just practices

o Eco-friendly products, healthier environment, healthier people, healthier local economies

• Imperative – we don’t have a choice• Asha is in a position to inspire/influence partner organizations

How?• Eco-friendly materials for events

– Tableware, food and drinks – Less is more. Encourage your attendees/audience to use less

resources• Eco-friendly choices for stationery

– Newsletters, envelopes, lesser printouts• Carpool for your meetings. Even better, take the bus • Publicize your efforts!• Green Auditing

– Evaluate all your activities through the green lens• Don’t be cowed down by obstacles!

– Hey, we were eco-friendly for several thousands of years and we survived

Case Study: Geetanjali

Background• Annual Tamil light music concert• 600+ audience• Dinner and snacks are served

The Problem• Terrible ecological footprint!– Every year, we would generate a HUGE quantity of

trash at the end of the event

Case Study: Geetanjali (contd..)

Possible Solution• Biodegradable dinnerware?• Compost food waste?

Problems with this solution• Eco-friendly dinnerware will not withstand hot,

runny desi food for several hours• Cost?• Will the audience accept this?• Where do we even begin?

Case Study: Geetanjali (contd..)

• “Eco-friendly dinnerware will not withstand hot, runny desi food for several hours”– We found tableware that actually worked

decently!

• “Cost?”– We spent just $300 more than we would have

with regular tableware

• Will the audience accept this– You bet! They loved it! (and yeah, some folks

missed the rich flavor of styrofoam seeping into their food)

• Where do we even begin?– Wealth of resources. Asha Seattle welcomes your

questions!