THE GREEN FESTIVAL READER
Fresh Ideas from Agents of Change

Edited by Kevin Danaher and Alisa Gravitz

The next president can chart a sustainable economic course for the nation. The Green Festival Reader presents the most compelling insights to turn that opportunity into reality. It offers the best information to emerge from the five annual green festivals organized by Global Exchange and Co-op America and attended by more than 100,000 people each year.

The Green Festival Reader answers the most urgent questions in today’s environmental movement.

• Why going green is not an elitist activity
• How we all can become “ecopreneurs”
• How exposing corporate criminals and environmental degradation can avert the planet’s destruction
• How sustainable economic uses of natural resources can help lift people out of poverty

The green leaders offering their vision and hope for the future include

• Bill McKibben
• Van Jones
• Hunter Lovins
• Frances Moore Lappé

Business as usual isn’t good enough any more—going green is the only way to ensure that we keep doing business.

“The next few decades will be marked by massive innovations as we desperately try to deal with the crises generated by our present economic model,” writes Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK. “This book, and the movement it describes, will give you ample fodder for rethinking our present predicament and playing a more active role in the global awakening.”

Editors Kevin Danaher and Alisa Gravitz note in their introduction, “As Yankee catcher Yogi Berra once said, ‘When you come to a fork in the road, take it.’ The human race is now at a fork in the road.” It’s time to turn away from an economy that destroys the planet and denies human rights. It’s time to create a green economy that meets the needs of humans without destroying other species.

About the Editors:

Described by the New York Times as the “Paul Revere of globalization’s woes,” Kevin Danaher is co-founder of Global Exchange in San Francisco.

Through her work at Co-op America, Alisa Gravitz has helped hundreds of socially responsible businesses emerge and thrive. She is also a nationally recognized leader in the social investment industry.

About the Green Festival:
The Green Festival is the largest sustainability event in the world and is a joint project of Global Exchange and Co-op America. It is held in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and Chicago.

The Green Festival Reader is available in bookstores nationwide.

Paperback, $15.95; ISBN: 978-0-9794822-8-1; page count: 192

Every movement needs its manifesto. As the organizing body of the largest eco-everything exhibition in the country, it’s fitting that the folks who bring us Green Festivals should be the ones to take on the task. Their Reader, a collection of more than a dozen essays from the pens of prominent voices in what is fast becoming the movement of the beginning of the 21st century, includes a refreshing 50-50 mix of criticisms of the old and solutions for the future. Highlights include Dennis Kucinich’s call for a Green New Deal, based on the principles of sustainability, including a GWA — a Green Works Administration, which would create millions of new green jobs, an idea echoed by Marie Kerpan, author of Balance: The Ultimate Challenge of the 21st Century, in her essay “Green Careers: The New Frontier.” David Korten and Ralph Nader articulate the dark side of corporate control and advocate for Earth-thinking over Empire-thinking (Korten) and the abolition of state-chartered corporations (Nader). And the list goes on. As a new administration and the hope of a fresh perspective takes hold, one hopes the Green Festival Reader will find its way into the hands of the folks who need to read it most.

— E.L.

A pervasive theme in these talks is the emergent green economy. In addition to exposing the environmental degradation and social injustice that accompany traditional business models, the speakers envision a sustainable economy that uses resources wisely and lifts people out of poverty. They invite readers to become “ecopreneurs,” to create green worker cooperatives, to green their homes, and to shop and invest with the planet’s health in mind. Going green is not an elitist activity, they maintain. Rather, it’s the only way we can keep doing business—not just business as usual.

Contributors:
Ben Cohen * Omar Freilla * Ross Gelbspan * David Johnston * Van Jones * Marie Kerpan * David Korten * Dennis Kucinich * Frances Moore Lappé * Hunter Lovins * Bill McKibben * Ralph Nader * Jerome Ringo * Tracy Fernandez Rysavy

Kevin Danaher is cofounder of Global Exchange and executive coproducer of the Green Festivals. His many previous books include Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots.
 
 
 
 
 
Alisa Gravitz is executive director of Co-op America, which has helped hundreds of socially responsible businesses thrive. The executive co-producer of the Green Festivals, she is also a nationally recognized leader in the social investment industry.