Shop at Whole Foods Market on April 19th!

Join Top NYC Restaurants and Wineries for Annual Celebration

Earth Pledge Leads Several EnvironDesign9 Conference Events

Join Executive Chef Tony Liu for a Sustainable Cooking Class in April

Green Roofs Goes to Washington

Verdopolis: The Future Green City

Eco-Fashion Hits New York Fashion Week

Earth Pledge Releases Green Roofs: Ecological Design and Construction

New Affordable Housing/Green Roof Program Launched

New Orion Magazine Article on Earth Pledge Viridian Project

Special Focus: Print Responsibly Proves Reality of Sustainable Printing

Shop at Whole Foods Market on April 19th!

Earth Pledge and Whole Foods Market celebrate Earth Day everyday, especially in April. On Tuesday, April 19th 2005, 5% of all total sales at Whole Foods Market in the tri-state region will be contributed to Earth Pledge’s Farm to Table Initiative.

Buying local is the theme of 5% Earth Day. Enjoying wine and food grown, raised, or harvested sustainably and regionally provides great quality, boosts our economy, protects our farmland, enhances our local food systems, and keeps us–and our environment–healthy. By collaborating with Earth Pledge, Whole Foods Market has substantially increased its sales of local produce.

Join Top NYC Restaurants and Wineries for Annual Celebration

Join hosts Earth Pledge and the Long Island Wine Council at the 15th annual Windows on Long Island Wine, an evening of local wine and food tasting on Monday, April 25th.  Over 30 local vineyards will pour their premier wines, and top NYC restaurants including Spice Market, Bouley, Danube, Aquavit, Blue Hill, Felidia, Devi, Kittichai, Public, Tocqueville, and many more will serve their local specialties. This fundraising event, held at Capitale, a magnificently restored Beaux-Arts bank building in SoHo, supports local agriculture while letting guests sample wines from Long Island and delicious food from New York farm communities. VIP Preview tickets are $250 and include the Grand Tasting as well as library and private reserve wines from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.

Grand Tasting tickets are $125 ($150 at the door). The Grand Tasting will be from 7:00 to 9:30 pm.

Earth Pledge’s Executive Director, Leslie Hoffman, will be a keynote speaker for EnvironDesign9, a highly respected conference of environmental design leaders. In the keynote address, Hoffman, along with Robert Fox, Co-founder and Partner of Cook + Fox Architects, will discuss “Greening the New York City Skyscape.”Earth Pledge also will present two workshops at the conference:

• The Green Roofs Initiative is offering “Green Roofs for Design & Building Professionals,” a pre-conference workshop.
• The Waste=Fuel Initiative will lead a workshop on anaerobic digestion, “It’s Time to Re-Think Waste.”

EnvironDesign9 combines education with networking opportunities to explore how environmental stewardship is the creative and critical force driving contemporary design and product innovation. Other keynote speakers include Julia Butterfly Hill, Deirdre Imus, Dr. Lance Secretan, William McDonough, and Michael Braungart. The conference is in New York City April 20-23, 2005.

For more information and to register for EnvironDesign9, click here.

On April 12th, Tony Liu, executive chef at August will teach a class on his distinctive Italian cooking. He will prepare milk-cooked pork with polenta or veal blanquette truffled Basmati rice; salt cod salad with fennel, beets, and blood oranges; crab and celery remoulade; grilled chicories with salsa verde and balsamic vinegar; grilled calcots with romesco sauce; asparagus with sauce maltaise; and other dishes based on seasonal selections. Raised on the diverse ethnic cuisines of Honolulu, Hawaii, Tony Liu gained an early appreciation for fresh fish and seasonal produce that has influenced his career. Tony studied at the Culinary Institute of America and trained with some of New York’s best chefs at Lespinasse, Daniel, and Tabla. He worked in Spain at Restaurante Martin Berasategui and Lasarte, and returned to New York to study Italian cooking at one of the city’s best Italian restaurants. After working as a sous chef for two years at Mario Batali’s Babbo, Tony became executive chef at August, where he prepares classical dishes with the freshest and most seasonal ingredients.

Proceeds from this class will benefit the Earth Pledge Farm to Table Initiative. The class will be held at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) at 50 West 23rd St. from 6:00 to 10:00 pm. Tuition for the fundraiser class is $110. To register for the class, call the ICE Recreational Division at (212) 847-0770.

Green Roofs Goes to Washington

Earth Pledge is presenting the Viridian Project at the Third Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards, and Trade Show May 4-6, 2005. The conference is hosted by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and the Government of the District of Columbia. Colin Cheney, Green Roofs Initiative, will speak on the Policy and Program Development panel about Earth Pledge’s Viridian Project: Green Roofs on Affordable and Supportive Housing.

For more information and registration, go to www.greenroofs.org.

FutureFashion, a new Earth Pledge initiative, kicked off Verdopolis with a runway show of the latest eco-friendly fashions by top designers, such as Oscar de la Renta, Diane vonFurstenberg, Jeffrey Chow and Rogan. LeadersSummit, a three-day conference of panels, workshops and presentations, brought together business and government leaders, groundbreaking researchers, and innovative thinkers to discuss techniques and technologies that have shaped the urban environment and are leading our transition to sustainability. Franz Bosshard, President an d CEO of Bosch Siemens Home Appliances Corporation, Thomas Leppert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of The Turner Corporation, David Orr, Chair of Environmental Studies at Oberlin College, and Anna Tibaijuka, Under Secretary-General and Executive Director UN-HABITAT were a few of the speakers included at the summit.

FutureCity was the third component of Verdopolis. An interactive exhibition provided an artistic rendition of sustainable future urbanism using animation, video, and architecture. The installation was designed by MVMT with exhibits by Ammar Eloueini and a film on the supply chain of organic cotton from Loomstate, by Nicole Hahn.

Thank you to all of the sponsors of Verdopolis: Bosch, Barneys New York, Deutsche Bank, Ingeo, The Battery Park Authority, Joico, Shisheido, Steelcase Inc., Designtex, IDEO, M5, Print Responsibly, Ecco Domani, Whole Foods Market, City Bakery, Vermont Spirits, Absolut Vodka, NatureWorks LLC, and TransFair USA (Fair Trade).

During New York Fashion Week, Earth Pledge presented FutureFashion, a show of cutting edge eco-friendly fashions by 35 top designers. Renewable, reusable, non-polluting fabrics such as organic cotton and wool, bamboo, corn-based fibers, recycled fibers and biopolymers were designed into everything from couture to street wear by fashion darlings like Alvin Valley, As Four, Heatherette, Libertine, Project Alabama, Proenza Schouler and Derek Lam, as well as more established designers like Oscar de la Renta, Norma Kamali and Diane vonFurstenberg.

“I was shocked,” said Julie Gilhart, vice president and fashion director at Barneys to the The New York Times. “It was as interesting as anything we saw on the runways all week.”  Barneys New York showcased the one-of-a-kind creations in its Madison Avenue windows from February 15th through March 8th.

Earth Pledge’s FutureFashion is creating a buzz among the press and the fashion industry in Women’s Wear Daily, SOMA, Newsweek, and The New York Times SundayBusiness. Newsweek featured Jeffrey Chow’s FutureFashion runway design in an article entitled “Green and Still Chic,” which covered the broadening interest in eco-fashion by the fashion industry. Look for upcoming coverage in Flaunt and Angeleno magazines.

Click here to go to press clips on FutureFashion.

Earth Pledge’s newest publication, Green Roofs: Ecological Design and Construction, is now available. The book draws together in one volume the principles of ecological green roof designs that Earth Pledge has fostered - a tool to transform our urban environment into a natural system that can support and sustain communities. With hundreds of photographs, forty case studies of exemplary green roof projects—from Mexico City to Malmo, Sweden to Fukuoka, Japan to Dearborn, Michigan—provide inspiration and guidance for green roof development, as well as design details. Seven essays on green roofs in Berlin, Tokyo, London, Portland, Chicago, Toronto, and New York City are included. Additional essays detail the technical requirements, architectural history, and design possibilities of vegetated rooftops. Green Roofs: Ecological Design and Construction, a full-color hardcover book printed on recycled paper, retails for $39.95 and is available here or at fine booksellers.

Building upon years of success in facilitating green roof development in low- and moderate-income communities, Earth Pledge is pleased to announce the launch of a program to identify five supportive and affordable housing organizations to receive technical services on green roof projects. Supported through generous contributions by the Home Depot Foundation, Con Edison, and the Baldwin Foundation, Earth Pledge will offer in-kind technical services to five new partners selected through a competitive application process. Earth Pledge recently launched the program at an event in Manhattan featuring a panel of representatives from supportive housing developers that are successfully implementing green roofs in their communities with Earth Pledge’s support. Two green roofs supported by Viridian were completed in the summer of 2004. In 2005, four new projects are slated for construction in the Bronx and Manhattan with partners WSFSSH, Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, Abraham House, and Common Ground Community Developers. Over sixty representatives of housing developers, government agencies, and design firms interested in low- and moderate-income green roof development attended the launch event. To receive application materials, please email Colin Cheney at ccheney@earthpledge.org.

In its March/April 2005 issue, Orion Magazine features Earth Pledge’s project to bring the benefits of green roofs to low and moderate income urban communities. In November, writer Tina Kelley visited Earth Pledge’s two completed Viridian green roofs in Brooklyn and Harlem, speaking with residents of the facilities about the benefit of green roofs. As one resident of the Revella in Harlem puts it, “I get to go upstairs to my backyard.” The article highlights the benefits of green roofs for residents of supportive housing buildings in New York City, and details Earth Pledge’s ongoing program to work in these communities. To receive a free copy of the March/April issue featuring the green roof story, click here. Orion Magazine is the winner of the 2004 Utne Independent Press Award for General Excellence.

Earth Pledge has partnered with a reliable source for printing—a company whose mission and standards parallel that of Earth Pledge. As environmental advocates who are graphics professionals. Printing Responsibly is committed to dispelling the myth that sustainable/responsible printing practices are somehow inferior in quality or cost prohibitive in comparison to more traditional methods. Earth Pledge relies on Printing Responsibly for effective expertise in sustainable printing, and, not only does Printing Responsibly provide excellent service, but the quality of work is exceptional.

Printing Responsibly was founded by and for graphics industry professionals, whose ultimate goals are to maximize the quality and cost-efficiency of a print project, while minimizing the detrimental environmental impact—a general association with this industry.

"We want people to understand that choosing to do the right thing for the environment when printing will not yield any compromise in quality or impact of the finished product," says Steven Van Praagh, partner and co-founder of Printing Responsibly. Van Praagh has been a professional graphic designer and printing professional on both the client and manufacturer side for over 10 years.

"The efficacy of a printed campaign, whether it's for direct marketing, sales collateral or posters for a garage band should always be the most important aspect of the project," says Dan Morse, partner and co-founder, who has been an industry professional for over 15 years. "Printing Responsibly is first and foremost a great printing company that happens to offer only eco-friendly options."

Environmentally responsible printing options do not compromise quality, impact, or cost effectiveness and they are readily available. However, finding and utilizing such an option doesn’t always seem very accessible. Their mission is to make responsible printing easy and more accessible through education, promotion, and a print procurement system.