It’s Getting Haute in Here:

The Green Youth Movement Presents L.A. Fashion Week’s Eco Fashion Show

Nonprofit Greens the Runway to Raise Environmental Awareness

This season, green is the new black. Los Angeles-based nonprofit, the Green Youth Movement (GYM) will be presenting THE GREEN INITIATIVE: A Humanitarian Fashion Show at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 20, 2010 at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood, California. As part of Los Angeles Fashion Week, this highly anticipated event aims to celebrate sustainable living by showcasing collections from eco-friendly designers. THE GREEN INITIATVE is positioned to prove that fashion and sustainability can go hand-in-hand, and that eco-conscious alternatives can be just as “haute” on the runway.

Produced by The Gallery Los Angeles, THE GREEN INITIATIVE will feature collections from sustainable designers such as Emily Factor, Lizzie Parker and others. All designs are made in the United States, utilize sustainable materials and are responsibly produced – just the kind of environmentally sound solution that the Green Youth Movement advocates in its mission to promote sustainable living and green education amongst the younger generation.

“THE GREEN INITIATIVE is an opportunity to communicate the importance of living sustainably to the next generation of consuming adults,” says 17-year-old Ally Maize, Los Angeles’ resident “green teen” and founder of the Green Youth Movement. “We want people to reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink the choices they make every day in every aspect of their lives, including fashion.”

Proceeds from THE GREEN INITIATIVE will go to the Green Youth Movement’s conservation and reforestation initiatives, notably a tree-planting project in the Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area to offset the fashion show’s carbon footprint.

“Fashion is such a big part of youth culture and serves as an ideal means of raising global awareness of sustainable living,” adds Ally. “We hope THE GREEN INITIATIVE gets people excited about being green and making environmentally-conscious lifestyle choices.”

To join in on the glamour, purchase tickets for THE GREEN INITIATIVE at http://gymfashionshowtix.eventbrite.com.

For more information on the Green Youth Movement, please visit http://www.greenyouthmovement.org.

Release via TylerBarnettPR

Generosity Water’s 2nd Annual Night of Generosity with live music, drinks and fashion

Generosity Water is celebrating the 2nd Annual Night of Generosity at Mondrian LA’s SKYBAR on World Water Day, March 22, 2010. The event, hosted by E! Personality Jason Kennedy, recognizes World Water Day and Generosity Water’s efforts to end the clean water crisis.

WHEN: Monday, March 22, 2010 8pm-12am Media check-in: 7pm WHERE: SKYBAR Mondrian LA 8440 Sunset Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90069

WHO:

Host Jason Kennedy and event chairs Chyler Leigh and Nathan West joined by Adam Gregory, Ben Lyons, Catt Sadler, Chuy Bravo, Danielle Panabaker, Robert Buckley, Sal Masakala, Stephanie Pratt and Zach Abel with music by Quddus and special musical performances by Samantha Mollen and American Idol’s Elliott Yamin

 

This cannot miss event includes live music, stunning visual art displays from Generosity Water’s work in Africa, and a glamorous fashion show sponsored by the Couture House. Eco-friendly cocktails will be provided courtesy of VeeV. This year, Generosity Water will release “The Generosity Water CD Project,” a new CD featuring Queen Latifah, with all proceeds going towards helping people gain access to clean water in the coming years. Special musical performances by Samantha Mollen and American Idol’s Elliott Yamin will be featured, along with a spectacular runway show presenting fabulous California and international designers including Hollywood Million Denim, NCL Couture and others. Hair and makeup provided by Studio DNA Salon and Polaris Cosmetics. International magazine EXOTIC Adventure and Travel is contributing to the event as well, offering sponsorship packages that include advertising space and a generous donation to the charity.


MORE:

Generosity Water dedicates itself to ending the clean water crisis one community at a time. Through innovative awareness campaigns, strategic implementation and in depth accountability, Generosity Water hopes to inspire people to think globally and live generously. Their mission is to inspire people to use their gifts, talents, and resources to bring clean, safe drinking water to those without access to it. After just two years, the charity has 108 water projects in 16 countries around the world, providing over 43,000 people with access to clean drinking water. However, they are just getting started. Generosity Water’s goal is to build 1,500 wells by 2012.

Release via syndicate-la.com

Congratulations to Archibald England this weeks Climate Community Citizen of the Week!

Archibald is a student at The University of Chicago and participated in our recent Chicago Challenge. In the Challenge students were asked to comment on the proposition: Agree or Disagree: The United States should end ALL fossil fuel subsidies. The entire question can be found at Citizen of the Week Special Contest and was posted by another one of our winners Kyle Gracey who is a teaching assistant to Professor Sabina Shaikh (one of our founders and authors).

The following is the answer that Archibald submitted:

 Agree: Fossil fuels create negative externalities in production and consumption, with this cost coming in a range of forms, from greenhouse gases that exacerbate the problem of climate change to air pollution in urban areas that have health implications. Between 2002 and 2008, $72.5 billion was spent on fossil fuel subsidies, over double the $29 billion spent on renewable energy subsidies. Ending subsidies would allow the total cost of energy to the individual, and society as a whole, equate (or at least more closely reflect) to the actual price. It is established economic fact that by subsidizing fossil fuels more heavily, they become relatively cheaper as a source of energy than renewables. By banning all fossil fuel subsidies, the relative cost of renewable energy will decrease, increasing its consumption while not having the negative externalities associated with fossil fuels.

Yet, the environment is not the only concern that should be considered in this discussion. If we are to assume that the overall goal is to maximize the benefit to American (or world) society, then we must weigh fossil fuels' negative externalities against the benefits of cheaper electricity and the aid that provides to the economy as a whole, particularly manufacturing, as well as the benefits to the individual realized by lower energy bills. Fossil fuels are integral to the U.S. economy, forming 71% of the electricity production and 97% of the transport sector's consumption, and so the removal of subsidies would have a powerful impact on the U.S. economy. Yet, if the payments that account for fossil fuel subsidies were instead transferred to subsidizing renewable sources, then the economic consequences can be somewhat ameliorated, although there would most likely be an increase in costs in the transport sector (although arguably this would be a good thing as true cost would reflect price, and thus people would travel less and produce less emissions, for example).

Since the essence of this debate revolves around what makes most economic sense in the long term, we must consider the economic cost of inaction, with fossil fuel subsidies maintained. The U.S., as the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China, while also providing international leadership should factor the long-term economic cost of emissions from within the U.S., and from the world as a whole. By eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, the U.S. would both reduce national greenhouse gas emissions as consumption decreases, while also making political discussions on emission reduction agreements more likely. The potential economic cost in GDP terms, by 2100, is expected to be 3.6% if no action is taken against climate change (National Resources Defense Council). Thus in the context of long term horizons, the economic costs incurred by removing fossil fuel subsidies will likely be dwarfed by the long term costs of failure to act against climate change. Therefore, although the U.S. is currently navigating turbulent economic waters, and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies will apply economic costs across the U.S. economy as energy prices, transportation prices, etc increase, the short-term economic cost borne is a price worth paying to help steer the U.S. economy away from a more dramatic decline caused by the impact of climate change in the long-term.

To conclude, the impact of climate change in the long-term is huge 3.6% of GDP. Removing fossil fuel subsidies is a key step to reduce the impact of climate change, while also producing benefits in the form of lower health costs, greater energy independence, reduction of acid rain, etc. as consumption of energy from fossil fuels decrease. If we, as Americans, want to seek the least-cost solution to ensuring long-term economic growth in this nation, a repeal of fossil fuel subsidies is an important, and necessary step; who knows, it may even spur more international action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

We would like the thank all those who participated!

Learn more about Allisyn & Become part of the community & learn more by visiting The Climate Community. 

In my next few posts, I'll be walking you through how to build a profitable website that can be green as well as promote your green business, endeavor, networking group, or opportunity.

What we've found at my web development company is that many people who are thinking of creating a website realize that they first need to organize their own content, such as their products list or line item of services, their mission, vision, and values, their contact information, and their about page.

We've found that planning to create a website actually helps you plan out your own business model.

Recently, we've been utilizing Drupal as a content management system. There are five main reasons we recommend this tool:

1) There are hundreds of available, free modules that have been developed by the Drupal community for you to use

2) It is free and open source to download

3) There are many ways to make this web tools fit your particular needs, depending on what you are promoting or selling

4) The balance of power for your niche market will tip in your favor with a  the search engine optimization inherent in Drupal (do a search for "successful woman" or "green business women" and you'll find my two community sites)

5) There is a learning curve, but once you pass it, you are able to do unlimited options on your site

Examples of ways to integrate Drupal functionality into your site include: 

• Photo albums
  
• Calendar of Events with RSVP
  
• Announcements
  
• Member listings
  
• Trouble tickets
  
• Job board
  
• Private messaging
  
• Member-created groups around topical or industry areas
  
• Mapping through Google Maps, such as creating a map of available properties in an area, or creating a user map of local network members
  
•  Blogs
  
• Forums/discussion boards
  
• "Friendslists"
  
• Facebook-style "wall" functionality
  
• User points for participation
  
• Comments, reviews, and star ratings 
  
• E-commerce

and the list goes on.

If you are interested in some of the capacity of Drupal, I invite you to review my slideshow with some samples.

http://www.slideshare.net/monicadear/samples-of-drupal-functionality-sm

Consider what would be beneficial in developing a member community around your particular niche interest. For example, you could allow participation for free but users who want additional access to members-only items must pay an additional fee. Or, you may offer micropayments for access to some functionality: a user may have to purchase "credit" with you in order to participate in some section of the site.

The sky is the limit with this powerful tool.

Social Networking for Women in Business, 136 pages of tips on managing your social media.

Use discount code begreengirl to download the e-version for $5.99: all major credit cards accepted.


Monica S. Flores @monicadear is committed to educating, empowering, and connecting women in business. She is available for consulting on web development through 10K Webdesign. She believes in the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits.