Environmental Summit in Dallas

Lakehill Preparatory School is hosting its first annual Environmental Summit on February 23. Founded in 1971,Lakehill is a private K through 12, fully accredited college preparatory school in east Dallas. Last September the school opened The Alice and Erle Nye Family Environmental Science Center, a LEED Silver certified building. The new center backs up to 43 acres of Dallas flood plain and will allow students to study plants and wildlife, build trails and explore nature.

"The Alice and Erle Nye Family Environmental Science Center is truly an amazing facility and the Environmental Summit is a wonderful opportunity to share this resource with small business owners and members of the east Dallas community," Roger Perry, Lakehill Headmaster, said. "We want to help bring people together to exchange information and learn from each other."

The first event, "Going Green with Your Business" is geared towards small business owners. Sponsored by Lakewood Women in Business and Park Cities Women in Business, the summit features three speakers including EcoTuesday's own Anna Clark!  Anna is president of EarthPeople a consulting and communications firm that help companies bolster their brands through profitable green strategies. Her book, Green, American Style will be released in April. Anna will speak on " Ten Reasons to Green your Small Business and Five Ways to Do It."

Donna Bender and Susan Morrow will speak on "Looking at Your Business through Green-Colored Glasses." The Donna Bender Company specializes in creatively building brand awareness and establishing a public image for both individuals and corporations. Susan Morrow APR of Marketing Symphony has more than 25 years of experience in public relations and communications management.

Tom Kemper will speak on "Profitability through Sustainability." Kemper is the founder and President of Dolphin Blue, a business built on principles of environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Dolphin Blue has been providing post-consumer recycled products to customers since 1994.

"The reality is that every single thing we do every day has an impact on the planet -- good or bad," Gigi Ekstrom, Marketing Director of Lakehill, said. "The good news is that as individuals, we have the power to control most of our choices and, therefore, the impact we create. "Green" is literally everywhere these days. With so many messages, it is easy to get overwhelmed - and that sometimes results in choosing to do nothing. This symposium is designed to help local businesses and community members understand the big picture and to help them set smaller, achievable goals while giving them the tools to reach these goals. We want to make it easier for them to make a positive impact. There are so many wonderful resources in our community. We want to help people make these connections."

What a thrill it was for Karen and me looking around the room last Tuesday during Dallas' first ever EcoTuesday event.  A mixture of entrepreneurs, executives, neighbors and all-around eco-enthusiasts, our group numbering over 30 people happily networked, talked and laughed the evening away at Times Ten Cellars.  Trading stories while swapping business cards, we opened wtih introductions and closed with new friendships. 

After five years of studying sustainability and how best to address the critical issues of our time, I've reached a singular conclusion.  The best way for any of us to change the world is to devote ourselves to bettering a little piece of it.  But in 2005, trying to pinpoint my piece proved more challenging than expected.  Was it may neighborhood? Was it my friends?  Was it my school or was it my church?  No, it turned out to be none of the above.

That little piece of the world I needed to change was me.  Only after addressing that did everything else fall into place.  Since embarking on this journey, I've made green friends, started a green business, built a green home and written a green book.  But one thing was still missing: a way to bring it all together.  Enter EcoTuesday.  Now I'm taking the most important step of all: forging a green community.

Having done volunteer work in one capacity or another since college, I've always found myself contributing the same skills.  Call it volunteer coordinator, newcomer's committee, welcome wagon, you name it.  While the title would vary, my role remained the same: the "hostess with the mostest."  Today I'm thrilled that I get to channel this natural inclination for connecting people into a community where (finally) my interests converge: green business, entrepreneurship, PR, networking, speaking, and of course socializing.

Fortunately for Karen and me, building communities in the 21st century is easier than ever before.  With EcoTuesday, we have an instant set of tools to pull people together.  I'm excited to have the means to introduce my friends and a place to mingle on a monthly basis.  I'm already imagining the synergy when I introduce the alternative energy consultant and the geothermal entrepreneur to the green builder.  This is just one of the many chains I look forward to creating amongst like minds.

Still, for others, creating community is more difficult than it used to be.  As the slackened economy forces businesses to fold, many are faced with searching for new jobs.  Others have grown weary of the grind and are looking for more meaningful work.    With such circumstances, more people are seeking a point of entry to a green career path.  I'm gratified to use EcoTuesday as a way to introduce such people to green business owners and sustainable companies in the area. 

If we each use our EcoTuesday membership to make new friends and connect with others like us, and we continue to connect on a national level, together we can form one of the large sustainability-oriented communities in America.  That's a "little piece" of the world with the capacity to ignite sweeping change.