California Green Schools Summit and Exposition

California is setting the pace for a green schools revolution that reflects the state’s commitment to preserving natural resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Being held this week at the Pasadena Convention Center, The 2009 Green California Schools Summit will bring together leaders in this movement to share green strategies, eco-friendly practices, and results from green school programs.

Keynote speakers include Alec Loorz, the Founder of Kids vs. Global Warming and Bharat Patel, a LEED(R) accredited professional and the Director of Sustainability for URS. Alec, the featured speaker on Thursday, December 10 at 9 am, is a high school sophomore at El Camino High School in Ventura, California; perhaps you remember Alec’s video titled “iMatter” posted here a few months ago. Alec created Kids vs Global Warming to educate youth about the science of global warming, and empower them to take action.  A powerful and inspirational speaker, Alec has led workshops, given presentations, been keynote speaker and served on panels with PhDs, experts and professionals. He has addressed diverse audiences from school children to college students, green builders, and environmental activists to politicians and UN delegates, urging adult leaders to integrate the voices of youth into their climate change discussions and the youth, themselves, to raise their voices. Alec has also been trained by Al Gore to give the official Inconvenient Truth slide shows, and is currently the youngest trained presenter.

The 2009 Green California Schools Summit will also include hundreds of exhibitors displaying innovative eco-friendly products and services that can help schools or businesses attain their green goals, and attain long-term savings. While some of the Summit seminars and workshops do cost money to attend, the general public can attend exhibits and keynotes for free.  The educational seminars will offer in-depth training on a variety of essential green topics intended to help schools create energy efficient and sustainable educational facilities.

Last week, I met one of these green exhibitors at the Los Angeles Auto Show — Scott Hutcheon, president of NaturExhibits (www.naturexhibits.com) — and was very excited to learn about his environmentally friendly “living walls” which can be used to replace or supplement traditional print media at trade shows with live plants. His company can mimic logos and company branding by creating entire walls with living plant material, using a design medium that also leaves behind nearly zero waste when the show is over: simply take them down and plant them in the yard, or even use them to create your own green rooftop! “We provide exhibitors like Yokohama the ability to replicate company logos in 3D using lush, oxygen-producing plants,” says Scott. “It’s a perfect way to attract a crowd with something that looks spectacular, is living, recyclable, and leaves almost no waste.” In addition to the 90-foot edible lettuce wall Scott grew for the Yokohama booth, NaturExhibits also created a living wall and entryway for last year’s West Coast Green Convention in San Jose, which served as a backdrop for such keynote speakers as Al Gore.

I’m looking forward to attending the Summit on Friday and sharing what I learn there with eCyclegroup readers. I’ll keep you posted!

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