Greening Asha. Disclaimers This presentation was thrown together in the last 10 minutes ! There...
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Transcript of Greening Asha. Disclaimers This presentation was thrown together in the last 10 minutes ! There...
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!