October is C-r-a-z-y- State Fair (10th Year), Green Festival and much, much more!
Thursday, October 26th, 2006 (Events, Local Area)
Whew, October was nuts! Mary Katherine headed to DC for the Green Festival (our third year), and Marc held down the NC State Fair Booth - for TFF’s tenth year! Larry’s Beans, a local fair trade coffee roaster, hosted the annual international Cooperative Coffee Conference at its facility in Raleigh. Marc took on the role of chauffer and ran the BioBus as a part of the Green Transportation services program of the Foundation and Carolina Biodiesel, driving 30 or so conference participants. They all loved it and the bus was photographed like a rock star! As well, Marc surprised everyone when he showed up to speak at the Conference (“weren’t you the one…?”), delivering a well-appreciated talk on “greening” their coffee businesses and how to increase the impact of coffee as a vehicle for sustainable development.
TFF also exhibited this month during Octoberfest at Duke, Durham Food Co-ops’ first Eco-Fair and during a VW Beetle rodeo (interesting crowd). Marc also served as a panelist on career development at the “Hindsight is 20/20” program at the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Annual Alumni Council meeting. Members of TFF attended the Michael Shuman Lecture at the Nasher Museum where the author spoke on his book, The Smallmart Revolution (highly recommended), and on starting local chapters of BALLE, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies(see www.livingeconomies.org). Marc attended the Student International Discussion Group monthly meeting and introduced the students to FOW and TFF’s work. We also attended the 75th Anniversary of the Duke Forest and the grand opening of Piedmont Biofuels Industrial plant. Mk and Marcjumped right in on the table selling merchandize (can’t seem to get away from it!).
New products that TFF featured at the State Fair and other booths included: recycled juice box bags from the Kilus Foundation in the Philippines. Sales of these really hip handbags and accessories support their urban neighborhood revitalization and beautification projects. The Foundation also sold, for the first time, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which correlated well with NC Conservation Network’s petition to clean up smokestacks from mercury emissions. One bulb not only conserves energy, but reduces mercury and CO2 emissions (close to 1.5 tons of CO2) over the life of the bulb. This is a constructive way to save money and the environment! If each American used one, we would not have to build another power plant for 20 years.
While at the Fair, Marc also did a stint at the Clean Cities booth, where they had alternative fuel vehicles on display. He spoke with interested folks about biodiesel and the Green Transportation project. There seems to be a lot of excitement around alternative fuels. One gentleman with an engineering degree from NC State had just been laid off from a big Fortune 500 company and was looking for work. He was really interested in green vehicles, so we agreed to follow up about his partnering with us.
Sales and donations from our projects and booths supported: The Duke University Primate Center, NC Conservation Network, women’s groups, indigenous communities and a host of other great causes and projects. Petition projects have included: mercury reduction, renewable energy and energy conservation portfolio and election reform. Support for the State Fair booth included: Larry’s Beans, Ten Thousand Villages and NCCONNET.
Ouch, who set up that schedule?! “Thank you’s” go to Michiel Dorn, Melissa Teen, Abbie Emory, Anne Everitt, Elizabeth Peel, Lily Elkins and Veronica and Nicole from NCCONNET for helping cover some of those Fair hours.