Parkbandit
06-25-2008, 12:03 PM
Democratic officials revealed further details Monday on how they plan to use Denver's hosting of the party's national convention to showcase what they hope to package as their commitment to the environment.
The party wants to make its environmental message an example of the kind of leadership it would offer voters in the general elections, and it is springboarding off greening efforts in Denver and an emphasis on renewable energy such as solar and wind statewide.
Equating energy security with national security, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the convention's chairwoman, spoke Monday from the Pepsi Center — site of the convention, and newly committed to wind energy — to praise the greening initiatives, as well as to lend her support for initiatives surrounding the convention.
"It is an environmental issue and a health issue," Pelosi said. . . . It's not about P.R. It's about substance."
In a spring-green suit coat and dress, Leah Daughtry, the chief executive for the Democratic National Convention Committee, joined Pelosi to announce an effort to cut carbon emissions from the travel of the 6,000-plus delegates and alternates who will come to Denver for the big week, Aug. 25-28.
The DNCC is working with a company to offer bulk-rate carbon credits to offset emissions, Daughtry said. The delegations that reduce emissions the most will be honored convention week. Individual delegates can win special prizes.
In past conventions, going green meant focusing on recycling trash and reducing waste during convention week. Now DNCC officials have joined with Mayor Hickenlooper's Greenprint Denver team and environmentalists working with Denver's host committee to go green early.
Both the DNCC and the host committee hired directors to steer greener day-to-day operations.
The DNCC is using online booking for hotel stays to keep as much as 100,000 pages from being printed to build the bulky collections of brochures and forms of years past. Its fleet of official cars use flex fuels, though scientists dispute whether those fuels offer an overall reduction in the gases that trap the earth's heat.
DNCC employees don't have trash cans in their offices in order to keep them focused on recycling. They're asked not to print what can remain on the screen, and when they do print, it's on both sides of the page. They don't use disposable plastic water bottles at the office.
Hickenlooper's teams have held day-long workshops with hotel and restaurant managers on such things as water conservation and energy efficiency. The workshops are meant to instill practices that continue after the parties are over.
And when the convention does arrive, Hickenlooper promises recycling opportunities on every corner, local foods highlighted at restaurants, bikes and alternative transportation opportunities and overall "saturation" of greening education.
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_8844477
My favorite part: "The DNCC is working with a company to offer bulk-rate carbon credits to offset emissions, Daughtry said."
So.. 6000 people are flying in.. and all you have to do is pay a company a couple million dollars and BOOM, U R ECO-FRIENDLY!!
I so want to be that company.
The party wants to make its environmental message an example of the kind of leadership it would offer voters in the general elections, and it is springboarding off greening efforts in Denver and an emphasis on renewable energy such as solar and wind statewide.
Equating energy security with national security, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the convention's chairwoman, spoke Monday from the Pepsi Center — site of the convention, and newly committed to wind energy — to praise the greening initiatives, as well as to lend her support for initiatives surrounding the convention.
"It is an environmental issue and a health issue," Pelosi said. . . . It's not about P.R. It's about substance."
In a spring-green suit coat and dress, Leah Daughtry, the chief executive for the Democratic National Convention Committee, joined Pelosi to announce an effort to cut carbon emissions from the travel of the 6,000-plus delegates and alternates who will come to Denver for the big week, Aug. 25-28.
The DNCC is working with a company to offer bulk-rate carbon credits to offset emissions, Daughtry said. The delegations that reduce emissions the most will be honored convention week. Individual delegates can win special prizes.
In past conventions, going green meant focusing on recycling trash and reducing waste during convention week. Now DNCC officials have joined with Mayor Hickenlooper's Greenprint Denver team and environmentalists working with Denver's host committee to go green early.
Both the DNCC and the host committee hired directors to steer greener day-to-day operations.
The DNCC is using online booking for hotel stays to keep as much as 100,000 pages from being printed to build the bulky collections of brochures and forms of years past. Its fleet of official cars use flex fuels, though scientists dispute whether those fuels offer an overall reduction in the gases that trap the earth's heat.
DNCC employees don't have trash cans in their offices in order to keep them focused on recycling. They're asked not to print what can remain on the screen, and when they do print, it's on both sides of the page. They don't use disposable plastic water bottles at the office.
Hickenlooper's teams have held day-long workshops with hotel and restaurant managers on such things as water conservation and energy efficiency. The workshops are meant to instill practices that continue after the parties are over.
And when the convention does arrive, Hickenlooper promises recycling opportunities on every corner, local foods highlighted at restaurants, bikes and alternative transportation opportunities and overall "saturation" of greening education.
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_8844477
My favorite part: "The DNCC is working with a company to offer bulk-rate carbon credits to offset emissions, Daughtry said."
So.. 6000 people are flying in.. and all you have to do is pay a company a couple million dollars and BOOM, U R ECO-FRIENDLY!!
I so want to be that company.