Fantastic community engagement with local greening initiatives yesterday at Shelby Farms Park’s “Down To Earth” Earth Day Celebration! Everyone was there, from our biggest corporations to our most organic organizations–all with great work to share about local greening. Did you take part in the event? Were any of the initiatives or organizations new to you? In honor of Earth Day and yesterday’s fabulous event, please share your excitement: which local greening initiatives inspire you most, and why?
Several years ago, going to Earth Day every April meant seeing familiar faces, folks you run into at Cooper Young Festival in the fall and again next Earth Day.
The last two or three years, something has happened. The familiar faces are there but now new folks are showing up from all over the cultural spectrum. You see a table from County Government telling visitors about its public-private partnered Sustainability Initiative. The utility company gives away free bookmarks you plant to grow wildflowers
near a private vendor who offers home energy audits and energy-efficient building tips. The Green Jobs person from BioWorks stands across from the Clean Memphis table and the perennial Sierra Club volunteers are next to… the folks from the Memphis Farmers Market!
Where were the aging hippies and angry environmentalists that non-attendees expect to be dominating the displays?
Instead here are positive, engaging supporters of practical solutions and beyond shovel-ready products and services — an expo of multi-colored “green prosperity”.
What did I discover at Shelby Farms’ Earth Day? I think I experienced the glass half full, a shared sense of pragmatic optimism. I think I saw the beginning of a Green Renewal, even if it exists one Earth Day at a time!
I was also excited to see the inclusive nature of the event- greening is such a shared interest! Some of my personal favorite organizations are Grow Memphis and their community gardens, and Project Green Fork certifying local restaurants that employ sustainable practices.
I was also happy to see a new biodegradable cup, recycled motor oil, a green electrical company and eco-friendly lawn care. It grows simpler every day in the Memphis area to green our individual and collective lives. I look forward to seeing how much further ahead we’ll be by next year’s Earth Day celebration!
In today’s Memphis Flyer there was a great story about the Sow to Grow program which teaches inmates how to grow and manage a garden.
Want an easy, inexpensive, “I’m not a famous starlet who can afford the latest, schnazzy electrical car” to be green? Drink Memphis’ Finest! Our artesian-well sourced water is the best. Mind you – this is coming from a recovering, full-on bottled water addict who just could not live without my Volvic, Evian, or Crystal Geyser. I’ve lived in seven cities and six states, and I’ve never tasted local water that’s better. Besides…of course, it will keep those “evil plastic bottles’ out of our landfills. Drink up folks!
On Sunday, the new Target at Poplar and 240 bagged up your purchases in one of their reusable bags vs the standard paper or plastic. What a fantastic way for a major retailer to celebrate Earth Day.
Using these bags is much better for the environment, and besides that, they hold more stuff and do not break under pressure! Its a win-win!
If you ever needed proof for Memphis tipping green, then look no further than the 2007 Greening Greater Memphis meeting that was held at the Memphis Botanical Gardens that February.
The room was packed with over one thousand green and outdoor recreational enthusiasts who were eager to hear about the rails to trails project. Mayor Herenton showed up that night and pledged $20 million towards the project!
And now you see community gardens popping up all over the place. The Flyer last week dedicated an entire edition to all the grass-roots greening efforts. The CA featured the Winchester Farmer’s market today which continues to grow and thrive. Numerous Downtown Farmer’s Market Vendors sold out last weekend.
Leah Wells is working hard at Bioworks to replicate the Oakland Green Jobs study so that we can try and figure out how all this green buzz will translate into much needed jobs.
Hey and our family bought hens last week so we can have our own private stock of fresh eggs!
We still have a long ways to go in the green movement as it’s not quite clear what long term jobs will come out of the fervor or how we can once again make small farms self- sustaining entities. I suspect a Federal Sustainable Farming Institution similar to the National Institute for Health will need to be established and make grants available for cities looking to re-grow smaller farms that utilize sustainable farming practices.
Still, it’s heartening to see that the green movement is bringing us one step closer to living a sustainable lifestyle that existed only perhaps less than one hundred years ago. Yet what’s more exciting to me is that Memphians are getting involved and realizing that they can actively change their city. They are realizing their role as community leaders is critical to the future health of their city. It took the Sustainable Shelby team almost 6 months to wade through the hundreds of suggestions that they received last year. I can’t wait to see the final Sustainable Shelby Document that will be show-cased with official launch of their website.
I almost forgot to mention our curbside recycling program! The last time we were out of town visiting my mom, we helped her with her recycling- that meant separating and then delivering. It made me realize just how easy it is for us to recycle at home, especially since we can include office paper, junk mail, and cardboard in the weekly curbside pickup. To clarify what the city will or won’t pick up, visit:
http://www.cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=666
I love the social entrepreneurship and mission of Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop — making green transport available for all.
Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop opened its doors in the basement of First Congregational United Church of Christ at 1000 South Cooper St. in June of 2002 with a dangerously simple vision: we intended to save the world, one bike at a time. That summer, we built a shop where people could rehabilitate and recycle bicycles, and we dedicated ourselves to providing all Memphians—particularly the working poor of Memphis—with bicycles that function well. Check out this link to their work: http://revolutionsmemphis.wordpress.com/about/
The Orpheum Theatre has really worked hard in the past year to up our Green Initiatives. We have recycled over 2,000 pounds of paper–crazy to think we use to just throw that away. We have also recycled over 39 pounds of aluminum cans which have been donated to the Humane Society. You can check out our other green initiatives on our blog http://www.mainandbeale.blogspot.com Go Green Memphis.