About Green Festival NYC
Green Festival is the largest and oldest sustainability event in the United States. It is a collaboration between Green America and Global Exchange.
The Green Festival celebrated its 11th year this past Earth Day weekend, but it was the first time the event was in New York City.
Held at the Jacob Javits Center on April 21 and 22, the Green Festival was a great way to spend Earth Day weekend for all ages. There was a kids zone with a fun art bus, there was a green jobs booth, lots of organic and yummy food to taste and sample, cooking demonstrations, a chance to check out Ford’s eco cars and more.
Green Festival NYC Highlights
This years Green Festival NYC included keynote speakers and panelists including Russell Simmons, John Perkins, Amy Goodman, Van Jones, Alex Jamieson, Marisa Miller Wolfson and Victoria Moran among others.
Some of the speaking engagements covered on the main stage included topics such as: the power of plants, the dangers of GMO’s, the state of the green economy in NYC, residential energy efficiency, green training and certification, upgrading to green, the state of fair trade and how to create sustainable communities.
Ford Motors had 3 of its eco-friendly automobiles at the show – the Ford Fiesta, Fordt Electric and Ford C-Max Energi. There were neat displays explaining the sustainability and eco-ness of the cars and what they’re made of. Like door panels made from wheat straw, armrest panels made from soy, armrest panels made from corn.
No Green Festival is complete without samples. Some of the delicious green-friendly food I sampled included:
Famous Brad’s Kale Chips – “Naked” was my favorite flavor.
Blessing’s Kale Krunch was delightful as well – with a variety of kale chip flavors I’d not seen before – like her chocolate kale chips – sounds weird, but trust me they’re tasty!
Mary’s Gone Crackers – chock full of seeds of all kinds and super crunchy.
Kopali Chocolates – yummy chocolate covered banana and mulberries.
Hail Merry treats.
Daiya Cheeses – vegan and soy-free and made from tapioca and/or arrowroot flours.
RESOURCES:
There were great ideas to help you start living greener, cleaner and more sustainable.
Recycling can get tricky when it comes to large electronics and things that don’t easily fit into recycle bin categories. Did you know that only 11% of all mobile devices get recycled. Guzu.com is a company that will pay you for your used electronics – from iphones to playstations to laptops. And Guzu will plant a tree for every order placed through their website.
Ready to ditch the plastic water bottle? This Hydros Filtering Water Bottle has a water filter bottle that is a great way to replace plastic.
A Green Festival panel which included Jeffrey Smith, Alex Jamieson, Victoria Moran, Bart Polenza, Marisa Miller Wolfson and Tara Stiles discuss in this video how our diet effects our planet: