Perhaps it is Earth Day Approaching in April

Perhaps it is Spring arriving in a few days after a long winter but our ringing phones and full email inboxes are as welcome as daffodils at Thumbprint Endeavors!

Upcoming Places You’ll See Us!

Barret has become a regular at the First Monday events hosted by the Denver Metro USGBC at the downtown REI store. These presentations are informative and help him stay current on Green Building. They are great networking opportunities.  He will also be attending and helping out with the CO USGBC Rocky Mountain Green 2011 April 20-21 at the Marriott Denver Tech Center.

Linda will be very busy for the next few weeks with planning for Earth Day 2011 events and the Symposium on Sustainability in Health Care April 21st hosted by Wright State University, SOCHE and Heapy Engineering. She will also be presenting on LEED at the TMA Users Conference in mid-April in Tulsa OK. And on April 16th, Linda will be presenting on the Ohio Leave No Child Inside Collaboratives at the Environmental Education Council of Ohio (EECO) conference at Maumee Bay State Park on the shores of Lake Erie.

Some Food for Green Thought as Another Spring Arrives

As we hear the devastating natural disasters and the violent weather in the news and we look at the economic and political landscape surrounding us, perhaps it is time to reflect on where we are now.

There is much truth in the expression, “Think Globally, Act Locally”. Whether we are discussing food or building materials, the overall costs of transportation really point to the need to realize the global impacts of our purchases and the need to support our local economy and creating the kinds of sustainable communities that make us all feel we are a part of something worthwhile, that sense of belonging that makes us human. Well-known, rational, smart authors like Bill McKibben, Paul Hawken and Thomas Friedman have spent their literary careers explaining why it is time to really put our shoulder into it and make the needed changes happen.

Recently, another voice brought the message on another level, literally because she lends a female voice and perspective to the discussion, Helena Norberg-Hodge. She and her collaborators have produced two powerful works, “Happiness of Economics” and “Ancient Futures”.

“You are what you eat”, another expression that has been around for a while. Think about it – which would you rather picture yourself as a mass-produced super-sized pattie-melt consumer or a locally-produced healthy, fresh and you-know-where-it-came-from-and-how-it –was-grown consumer? If you haven’t already done so, check out “King Corn” and “Fresh”. They are eye-opening. City Bountiful shares a wealth of information about the ebb and flow of community gardening as well as the more tenacious and stable food production projects in urban environments.

We hope that everyone has can share the joy of gardening and consuming fresh produce from farmer’s markets this summer while supporting local communities.

It is critical that we begin thinking about these things and Acting on them — given that it is all about Green and Sustainable Life Choices!