June 11 marked another successful night of Green Drinks. You’ve heard about this ongoing event before: it’s equal parts social mingling, networking, and greening. Always hosted at one of Anne Arundel’s most beautiful and popular venues with great, friendly people in attendance, these Green Drinks events are pressure-free and quite enjoyable. The Green Drinks on Tuesday night had the same flavor as the traditional Green Drinks do–with food, interesting people, and a feeling of doing good for the Earth–but had a special twist thanks to the Maryland Green Registry Leadership Awards handed out to green leaders in the community. We’ve got the scoop on the night’s activities, awards, and inspiration to encourage greener activities in your life.
The first part of the night went as usual Green Drinks do: networking, green talk, etc. The fabulous Westin Annapolis Hotel hosted the event in their new ballroom. A station of cheeses, fruit, and crackers was set up along with a bar space, and white long tables filled with tall glasses of dip and colorful veggies. The Walking Sticks, a hot new local group, performed old hits like “Jolene” and entertained with other alternative, easygoing tunes. People from the Department of the Interior, photographers, local entrepreneurs, higher-ups in the city of Annapolis, and people like me, who just wanted to learn a thing or two about what new green things are happening around the state all filed in and mingled. 
The latter half of the night was dedicated to awarding green leaders in the community. The program that hands out these awards is the Maryland Green Registry, a program started by Governor O’Malley that recognizes green businesses and is in companion with another state program, Maryland Green Travel. In fact, The Westin was an appropriate place to host the green awards as the hotel is a member of Maryland Green Travel. As you would imagine, both of these programs encourage green business, though Maryland Green Travel is more specialized to encourage green hotel practices. You can peruse the following site to learn more about these programs: http://mde.maryland.gov/MarylandGreen/Pages/Home.aspx
I caught up with Director of Public Affairs at Coca-Cola, Curtis Etherly, who was there to accept a leadership award on behalf of Coca-Cola and to chat with others in the green community. At first, I was a bit shocked to see Coca-Cola as one of the seven recipients for leadership recognized by the Maryland Green Registry. Etherly must have expected my surprise: “People think, ‘Can Coca-Cola help people lead healthier lives?’ We think it can.” Etherly reminded me that Coca-Cola has water and tea products too, which certainly help bring caloric stability to a person’s diet. In terms of benefiting the Earth, Coca-Cola is functioning as a leader in the big corporation world by releasing new products, like coolers, that are HFC-free (HFC is no good for us or the Earth), recycling 98% of their manufacturing wastes, reducing electric bills by installing better-efficiency materials, and has even supplied outside companies with rain barrels to collect water. Etherly explained that multi-million dollar companies want to know how to be more sustainable in practices and that Coca-Cola is serving as a model to emulate. He also added that employing greener practices “is just the right thing to do.”
Aside from Coca-Cola, Goodwill Industries, Salisbury University, Oakland Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, La Prima Food Group, and Life Technologies received leadership awards. Goodwill was founded on the principle of helping others, but with their efforts to reduce energy usage, install more efficient materials, use less paper, and meet once a month to brainstorm more green ideas shows they are also passionate about helping the environment. The Goodwill in Rockville has played a part in reducing 3.6 billion pounds of goods that would normally go into a landfill by simply accepting those goods as donations.
Salisbury University has also revamped their green program by installing new plumbing to save eleven million gallons of water in just the course of a year. Other achievements at Salisbury include a food scrap and waste system from the food hall that’s given to local farmers for fertilizer, using Geothermal systems, and getting students involved in planting and gardening.
Oakland Nursing and Rehab Center has also jumped on the green bandwagon by encouraging employees to participate in an orientation about green practices, installing energy-efficient appliances and windows, and using plumbing that reduces water consumption.
La Prima Food Group specializes in catering the Earth-friendly way: from farm to table. By using 300,000 pounds of food from their own farm and local ones, La Prima has been able to also keep money in the local economy. More of their green attitude shines through their energy-efficient appliances and the value they place in recycling and composting.
At Life Technologies based out of Frederick, recycling is an integral part of business. The company has reduced close to 650,000 pounds of waste by recycling and reusing. Also by way of safer and greener recycling, Life Technologies has lessened hazardous waste that would otherwise be in a landfill somewhere.
Aside from the awards and green networking, there was plenty of info about living green on a small scale. For instance, you can save money and energy by unplugging your T.V. when not in use. According to a pamphlet published by www.energy.maryland.gov, this saves approximately $159.76 per year.
There is seemingly a stigma around the green community and who gets to participate in it. More often than not, it’s the small businesses that can invest in their passion for growing in green ways. However, what the Maryland Green Registry showcased is that big corporations, like Coca-Cola and Goodwill have green goals too. This is encouraging because the big companies with a larger reach can affect for the good of the Earth. As Lynne Forsman, one of the founders of Annapolis Green told me, “This is a biggie for us.” Forsman was talking about the combination of Green Drinks and the Maryland Green Registry, but I think this statement also speaks to something larger. It’s a big deal that companies can produce more than just soda and other goods; rather, companies can produce great products via safe, green practices. Talk about refreshing.
If you’d like to learn more about Green Drinks or attend the next one, head to www.annapolisgreen.com and look over the calendar. You’ll also find more ways to participate in going green.
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