Green Drinks: Coming To Your City
Green Thinkers Unite & Enjoy A Frosty Beverage
With summer just around the corner, it seems like the perfect time to get together over an ice-cold margarita and discuss environmental issues.
Green Drinkers Unite
An organization created to raise environmental awareness, Green Drinks is now popping up in cities worldwide.
Founded in 2007 in the UK, Green Drinks groups are now active in 342 cities throughout the world.
“We have a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. Come along and you'll be made welcome,” reads the introduction on the website. “Just say, ‘are you green?’ and we will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there.”
“It's a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organising network.”
Green Is In The Air
It seems these days people will use any excuse to talk about green issues, such as using organic fertilizer in the garden, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by driving less or reducing home heating bills by using insulation techniques. House building, coffee shops and grocery stores have all started ‘Going Green’ by using different methods. Today, you can’t walk into any grocery store without being offered a permanent grocery bag to use instead of the plastic ones that end up in our streams and oceans.
It seems everyone is on the green bandwagon, so it was only a matter of time before an ingenious group of friends paired green discussions with a frosty beverage.
Green Drinks groups have most recently been spotted in Lyon, France, as well as in the United States cities of Middletown, Santa Fe, Greenville and Everett. Some groups represent whole regions, as is the mode with the Delmarva Peninsula Green Drinks group, which will be holding an event in April.
It’s not just green-drinking eco-conscious residents getting involved in the group, local environmental organizations are also jumping onboard as a way of cross-promoting their activities with those of the Green Drinks group.
On the Delmarva Peninsula, the scientists of the Center for the Inland Bays, have joined with Green
Drinks to help raise awareness and educate residents about green activities and events. Their event will be held at the famous Dogfish Head Craft Brewery restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
In a press release from Sally Boswell, outreach coordinator for the Center, she wrote, “Green Drinks Delmarva is the perfect opportunity for local folks to meet with representatives from area nonprofits, government and the business sector to discuss what we can do together as a community to address environmental issues.”
Boswell said pairing groups of similar interests helps everyone involved. “Sharing green tips, learning more about local resources and green alternatives, and sharing our passion for the environment (and a good drink) promises to be good for the soul. Developing and strengthening a network of green friends who do their best to adopt green practices promises to be good for Delmarva,” Boswell said.
The Green Drinks organizers could not agree more, stating that the events are open to even the greenest green resident.
“These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. It's a force for the good and we'd like to help it spread to other cities,” reads the website. “Contact your local node to get the latest info about coming along.”
