Environmental Education

A major achievement of The Forest Foundation was the creation and operation of Green Tracks, a Green Jobs Training Program that was formed from the Black Brown Green Alliance and funded in part by donors of Durham Economic Resource Center (DERC). With the help of many community partners, small business owners and community development trainers, The Forest Foundation has helped over 100 participants since 2009 in workplace and lifestyle sustainability principles.

For the past 18 years The Forest Foundation has brought together a coalition of environmental nonprofits and businesses to create the Green Booth at the NC State Fair. Volunteers from contributing organizations and staff have engaged with tens of thousands of North Carolina’s citizens’ each year, sharing information about biodiversity conservation, environmental protection, and growing the green economy. For a more intimate look at our State Fair work, check out our video.

TFF has co-promoted and conducted ecotours to various places of natural history and beauty and runs tours as well as training at the GOAL Site in east Durham. Tours of our the GOAL Site that houses a biodiesel processing and distribution facility as well as other sustainable technology demonstration projects by students and other interested groups are available upon request. Recently, students in a sustainable business at Durham Tech came to learn about our site.

Ecotours are available from The Forest Foundation in partnership with Greenway Transit.

Environmental educators from The Forest Foundation regularly attend local and national conferences and workshops to share the story of our community-based waste-to-fuel-to-transportation model. Shoot us an email if you’d like us to come share with you!

Green Business Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship

A major achievement of The Forest Foundation was the creation of our Green Jobs training program, called Green Tracks, in 2012, in partnership with Durham Economic Resource Center with Wells Fargo funding, and support from numerous other community businesses and organizations. The training system was a product of the Black, Brown Green Alliance that meet for 2 years to address the challenges of social justice and growing the green economy. The purpose was to design a low cost, leg up to chronically under employed and exoffender populations on all things “green.”

Quarterly classes have been conducted in the morning with field trips in the afternoon to various exemplary businesses and organizations in the community, such as: Duke Smart Home, Orange Recycling, Buildsense, Full Circle Building Supply, Scrap Exchange, The Reuse Warehouse, and local community gardens. Uniquely, classes have been taught over 2 weeks by local businessmen and community leaders. Eight modules include:

Ecosystem thinking and basic env. economics,

Green entrepreneurship,

Recycling,

Green building,

Energy efficiency,

Solar,

Alternative transportation and

Healthful living.

With the support of many friends, The Forest Foundation has helped to train 100’s community members in workplace sustainability principles and basic sustainable livelihoods.