Recently in Sustainability Category
Developed in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Alliance will work to accelerate implementation of programs supporting the 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) resolution calling for green schools for all children within a generation.
“As mayors, we know all too well that schools are the heart of our communities, as they represent the promise we make to our children and future generations, a promise of learning and of opportunity,” said Mayor Diaz, President of the US Conference of Mayors. “With this alliance, we are coming together and reconfirming our promise to the health and learning of our children, and ensuring that future generations are mindful of the importance of protecting our environment.”
"I’ve seen the enormous impact mayors have when they unite around a common goal," said Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle, who launched the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in 2005, which advances the goals of the Kyoto Protocol and now boasts nearly 900 mayor signatories. "This new coalition of mayors will shine the light on the countless opportunities to make our schools greener, our students and teachers healthier and our communities stronger."
“As first responders to the needs of their communities, mayors are the vanguard of sustainable development in our country,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair of USGBC, “and USGBC wants to do all we can to support them, especially in this critically important initiative. “We have Green School Advocacy Committees in 80 local USGBC chapters throughout the country, and we are putting them at the mayors’ disposal to advance opportunities, programs and initiatives that champion green school causes and help them publicly celebrate their successes.”
Together with Mayor Diaz and Mayor Nickels, Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco, Cal; Mayor Will Wynn, Austin, Texas; Mayor Sheila Dixon, Baltimore, Md., Mayor Frank Cownie, Des Moines, Iowa; and Mayor George Heartwell, Grand Rapids, Mich.; have put forth a call to mayors around the country to join this important effort to support green schools for all children.
“This new Alliance dovetails perfectly with Baltimore’s new Sustainability agenda,” said Mayor Sheila Dixon. “It also will provide more ways to support our ongoing efforts to promote the health and well-being of our students as we improve the energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of our school facilities.”
Mayors across the country are leading efforts to deliver the benefits of green schools to their communities. For example, EcoMedia is working with mayors in Miami and San Francisco to leverage innovative public‐private partnerships that create new opportunities for green school projects.
Other Alliance initiatives will work to:
- Develop and create public‐private partnerships with a local business to allow schools to plant a green roof, install a solar garden or start a recycling program.
- Help school districts green their existing facilities through the Clinton Climate Initiative’s K‐12 Retrofit Program.
- Encourage state legislatures to create policies and incentives for green school improvements.
- Engage in a national dialogue about green schools, green jobs and green infrastructure.
Planet Green and Discovery media
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Discovery Studios
Discovery Studios is the recently-created division of Discovery Communications charged with developing and producing original series, specials, theatrical documentaries and short form content for Discovery’s television networks. Based in Burbank, CA, the West Coast production and development activities for Discovery Studios. Projects now under her supervision include programs for TLC, Travel Channel, Planet Green, Discovery Health Channel and others. About Discovery StudiosDiscovery Studios is devoted to the creation of original television series and specials, theatrical films and short-form content within Discovery Communications, the number-one nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers in over 170 countries.Through TV and digital media, Discovery's 100-plus worldwide networks include Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, The Science Channel, Discovery Health and Discovery HD Theater. Discovery Communications is owned by Discovery Holding Co. (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB), Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, Discovery's founder and chairman. For more information about Discovery Communciations visit www.discoverycommunications.com. For more information about Planet Green visit planetgreen.discovery.com For more information about SUBMISSIONS visit submissions.discovery.com |
Discovery is introducing Planet Green, a cable brand promoted as the first 24-hour channel dedicated to eco-friendly living. The 24-hour eco-oriented lifestyle network will launch with 50 million cable homes. It is the highest-profile cable channel introduction of the year, and an equally risky one. By wrapping itself in the planet, Discovery is betting that “eco-tainment” will appeal to viewers.
The channel’s programming is studded with celebrities such as
- Chef Emeril Lagasse hosting a cooking show featuring organic and locally grown foods, and "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier living a green life.
- "Greensburg," a 13-episode documentary series, follows the story of a small Kansas community coming together after being hit by a 5-rated tornado in May 2007. The series is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, along with Craig Piligian's Pilgrim Films & Television.
- "Hollywood Green," a weekly entertainment magazine, will showcase earth-conscious celebrities.
- "G Word," a daily series hosted by two news correspondents
- "Wrecklamation," billed as recycling on steroids.
The channel has almost all original programming — partly because there was not an available vault of entertaining environmental programming to tap into. Part of their challenge has been educating the production community that may have had certain expectations of what green content is.
Planet Green's Target Audiences
Planet Green will speak to people who want to understand green living and to those who truly want to make a difference by providing tools and information to meet the critical challenge of protecting our environment. Planet Green's platforms include leading eco-lifestyle website TreeHugger.com and the recently launched solutions-oriented PlanetGreen.com.Discovery is also launching Discovery Education Green, a K-12 service that hosts dynamic media content correlated to state standards. Discovery Education Green will help teachers integrate Green lessons into their curriculum and empowers students to make more environmentally conscious decisions.
Planet Green's Promotion
Timed to the switch from Discovery Home to Planet Green, Discovery marketers are conducting “Random Acts of Greenness.” At the Indianapolis 500 last month, they handed out T-shirts and beach balls to consumers who exemplified green living, and sponsored the cleanup day after the race. The giveaways will continue in New York, Milwaukee; Washington; and San Diego, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.On launch day, Wednesday, June 11, 2008. Mr. Zaslav will throw out the first pitch in Washington, and the stadium’s JumboTron will count down to the channel’s 6 p.m. debut. Also that day, all the Discovery cable networks will show green logos.
The New York Post is going green on Wednesday, too: the newspaper will turn its flag green that day and feature advertisements for the channel all week. The newspaper will also give away 250 bicycles with Planet Green branding.
“This is a new genre,” Ms. O’Neill said. “People don’t have any set expectations of what green media is, and we’re defining it — as really funny, engaging, entertaining and definitely credible.”
Planet Green: planetgreen.discovery.com
Discovery Studios: www.discoverystudios.com
MARYLAND
1 Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Tel: +1 (240) 662-2000
LOS ANGELES
2600 West Olive Avenue
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Burbank, CA 91505
Tel: +1 (818) 333-5255
than all 4-year colleges combined.
Van Jones helps kids in trouble get out of trouble and into jobs. Helping mothers find alternatives for their kids in prison. Jones got burned out when he confronted all the problems in the community. Facing the culture shock between Oakland and Marin County also brought healing that showed him that green jobs and a green economy could be strong enough to lift people out of poverty and improve community and health at the same time -- these new workers could retrofit the nation!
Jones saw these new workers as the rescuers of their nation -- reallocate the money from prisons to green jobs. Practical, applied, in the real world.
with Van Jones. Watch video.
Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities New publication outlines strategies for developing green-collar job initiatives and pathways out of poverty at the local level. Co-authored by Green For All, this report describes a 4-step approach for local initiatives and highlights a dozen great efforts already underway around the country.
Green For All, in partnership with the Apollo Alliance, Center for American Progress, and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, recently released this guide to help cities across America develop strategies to spur the creation of green-collar jobs and opportunity in their communities.
The new guide, Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities: Building Pathways out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy, is a first-of-its-kind publication that addresses the demand for this information and outlines a strategic framework in which local policymakers and advocates can develop a green-collar job initiative that responds to the realities of their local economies and communities.
“Our green future will be invented at the local level,” said Van Jones, founder and president of Green For All. “This report offers those leaders some of the best thinking and models currently available for building green-collar jobs and the training pipelines necessary for city residents to fill those jobs and claim the promise of living wage careers.”
The guide encourages cities to take a four-step approach.
- First, set a baseline to start from. Identify your environmental and economic goals, and assess local and regional opportunities for achieving those goals.
- Second, develop a green economic development plan. Enact policies and programs to drive investment into targeted green economic activity and increase demand for local green-collar workers.
- Third, ready your workforce. Prepare your green-collar workforce by building green-collar job training partnerships to identify and meet workforce training needs, and by creating green pathways out of poverty that focus on recruitment, job readiness, job training, and job placement for low-income residents.
- And fourth, build on your successes. Leverage your program’s success to build political support for new and bolder policies and initiatives.
Green For All
414 13th St, Suite 600
Oakland, CA 94612
510-663-6500
http://www.greenforall.org/
Ray Anderson, citizen and corporate leader, has come face to face with his role in today's industrial role in unsustainable business shares his thought process and his solutions in this excerpt from "The Corporation".
This is an inspiring look at business's role, and the paradigm shift that is needed to be responsible for the world we leave for our children and the millions of species who are part of this delicate biosphere of life.
The book Ray Anderson credits with opening his eyes to the free-fall to earth that is better known as "business as usual" is "The Ecology of Commerce" by Paul Hawkins.
He calls for a paradigm shift of how we view business. That we look at how we are plundering our natural resources and natural processes and leaving a mess for our grandchildren. And we need to create a new revolution -- moving beyond the industrial revolution to a new revolution. One that could be called a "productivity revolution" or a "sustainability revolution."
