Showing posts with label ceremony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ceremony. Show all posts

Green Inauguration of President Obama: "Faith in America's Future"

The public Presidential inauguration ceremony took place on Monday, January 21, and event organizers paid unprecedented attention to environmental sustainability. The official Inauguration Day was January 20th. However, as that date falls on a Sunday in 2013, the public swearing-in ceremony was held on Monday, January 21, 2013, at 11:30 a.m. ET, with the official event taking place at 11:55 a.m.

This year's official theme is "Faith in America's Future." One of the unique touches that define the unique quality of President Obama's inauguration are the efforts to make the event more environmentally sustainable.

The green elements of this year's inauguration include extensive recycling. According to the event's organizers there was no need for trash cans at the event. The festivities include a week of balls and galas honoring President Obama and Vice President Biden.

Inauguration events throughout Washington endeavored to be more green. Pritchard Sports and Entertainment Group, working with the inauguration’s event organizer, C3 Events, managed waste throughout Washington, DC. Waste was sorted, recycled and composted. This included everything from food scraps at cocktail parties to the waste generated by horses who travel along the parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The DC municipal government also built a stand for local leaders and 90 percent of the materials used will be recycled.

2013 Green Inaugural Ball

On January 20th, more than 1,200 guests celebrated the inauguration of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden and America’s green economy at the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball. The National Wildlife Federation hosted the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball at the venue known as the the Newseum.

This event brought together the broad environmental, conservation and clean tech community to celebrate the past four years and look forward to the future. The Green Ball brings together top leaders from the environmental, conservation, clean tech, renewable energy communities and business groups who advocate clean energy, efficiency, green technologies, the protection of America's natural heritage and green jobs.

This event is a celebration of the past four years of accomplishment on the environment, energy, and clean technology and a look forward to another four years of progress.

Green Elements of the Event
  • Compostable serving materials or reusable items such as glass and flatware
  • Catering recycled frying oil for use as biofuels,
  • Expired light bulbs were broken down in a Lampinator to separate mercury from glass and metals
  • All food scraps were composted to make soil that will be used by DC residents and urban farms.
© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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International Green Awards – Gala Ceremony and Dinner (Event)

International Green Awards – Gala Ceremony and Dinner will take place on November 20, 2012 6:30 pm - 11:30 pm, at Battersea Power Station in London, UK. The International Green Awards is a global platform for sustainability intelligence, innovation and leadership. This year, the awards are recognising the ‘most sustainable’ organisations across the globe, as exhibited by eight indicators of any holistic sustainability strategy.

The awards launched in 2006 to critical acclaim with the objective of recognising the best-in-class examples of sustainability communications and have gone from strength-to-strength since then. In 2009, the Awards introduced an ‘International’ category, encouraging applications from the world over. The response to this category was overwhelming and thus, in 2010, the Awards opened all categories to global participation and culminated with an international Grand Prix winner – China Environmental Protection Foundation in association with DDB-China.
The inaugural 'Lifetime Achievement  Award' was given to Sir David Attenborough for his lifelong commitment to biodiversity.

In 2011, the awards widened its remit to encompass 360° sustainability projects in business and introduced the 'Best Green International Celebrity Award', open to public voting for the first time, was won by Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen. Kenyan visionary Prof. Wangari Maathai was posthumously honoured with our 2nd Lifetime Achievement Award for establishing perhaps the greatest tree planting initiative - the Green Belt Movement. Global FMCG leader Unilever bagged the Green Grand Prix, by virtue of their ambitious 'Sustainable Living' plan.

In 2012, the awards are looking to recognise organisations that have exhibited leadership and innovation in their sustainability approach. This year, we are bringing together 7 years worth of expertise and experience to develop a sustainability review platform – Smarter Business.

The Smarter Business platform provides a standard scale of reference to benchmark sustainability performance. The platform objectively assesses an organisation’s sustainability strategy using 8 key indicators – energy, water, waste, resources, carbon, supply chain, transport and social. Participating organisations will receive feedback and analysis on their sustainability strategy and resulting impact on their financial bottom line.

For more information or to register click here.

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Goldman Environmental Prize Winners for 2012

The Goldman Environmental Foundation has announced the six recipients of the 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize. Now in its 23rd year, the Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded annually to grassroots environmental heroes from each of the world’s six inhabited continental regions (Africa, Asia, Europe, Island Nations, North America, and South America). It is the largest award for grassroots activism, with an individual cash prize of $150,000. The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989 by late San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals. The Prize recognizes achievements in forest protection, desert lake conservation, nickel mining opposition, pesticide regulation and fighting oil development in Arctic waters. This group of brave individuals work to protect the environment and their communities despite opposition and even threats to their personal health and safety. 2012 recipients come from Argentina, China, Kenya, Philippines, Russia, and the United States. This year’s winners are:

IKAL ANGELEI, Kenya Risking her life, Ikal Angelei is fighting the construction of the massive Gibe 3 Dam that would block access to water for indigenous communities around Lake Turkana.

MA JUN, China Ma Jun is working with corporations to clean up their practices with an online database and digital map that shows Chinese citizens which factories are violating environmental regulations in their country.

EVGENIA CHIRIKOVA, Russia Challenging rampant political corruption, Evgenia Chirikova is mobilizing her fellow Russian citizens to demand the rerouting of a highway that would bisect Khimki Forest, Moscow’s “green lungs.”

EDWIN GARIGUEZ, Philippines A Catholic priest, Father Edwin Gariguez is leading a grassroots movement against a large-scale nickel mine to protect Mindoro Island’s biodiversity and its indigenous people.

CAROLINE CANNON, USA Caroline Cannon is bringing the voice and perspective of her Inupiat community in Point Hope to the battle to keep Arctic waters safe from offshore oil and gas drilling.

SOFIA GATICA, Argentina A mother whose infant died as a result of pesticide poisoning, Sofía Gatica is organizing local women to stop indiscriminate spraying of toxic agrochemicals in neighboring soy fields.

For more information on the Goldman Prize click here.

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