In this instalment of our weekly posts relating to “green” conferences and festivals, we once again provide information on a sampling of these events from around the world.
Canada & USA
This year’s Art of Being Green Festival is moving to a larger venue to accommodate the crowds the festival has garnered in the past couple of years. The free 3-day event will take place July 10th through 12th at the Middleville Fairgrounds in Lanark Highlands, just 45 minutes west of Ottawa Ontario Canada. The festival showcases local, provincial and national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, engages the public on renewable energy issues, and explores the significance of adaptation in peoples’ everyday lives. There will be a large exhibit area, a vendor trade show, workshops, interactive displays, children’s programs, entertainment and locally grown food. More information on this event is available at www.artofbeinggreen.com
Being held at the same time as The Calgary Stampede, the Strengthening Stewardship Conference will take place from July 8th to 11th at the MacEwan Conference & Event Centre at the University of Calgary, in Calgary Alberta Canada. The conference is open to individuals, groups, industry, business, governments and non-government organizations. Held every three years since 2000, this is a national conference where people can meet to discuss emerging issues and solutions for strengthening stewardship. While focusing on plenary and concurrent sessions, the conference will feature poster presentations, exhibitions, networking opportunities, great entertainment and tours. Conference delegates will be part of creating a Road Map for future Stewardship investment in Canada. For more information or to register, please go to www.stewardship2009.ca
Biomass ’09 will take place on July 14th and 15 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. This Biomass Expo is geared to researchers, industry representatives, farmers, and government agency employees. Open to tradespeople only, this Expo is intended to provide attendees with information and tools to use in the ethanol and bio diesel industries, on such topics as trends and opportunities in utilizing biomass, financing biomass-related products, and biomass for heat and electricity. For more information or to register, please visit http://www.undeerc.org/biomass09/
The Second Annual Idaho Green Expo will take place on July 18th and 19th at the Boise Centre on the Grove. This family-friendly event is free, and showcases the lates in environmentally friendly products & services. The event is also intended to provide a wealth of information to help people lead healthier and more sustainable lives. Part of this initiative is a program dubbed Sustainable “U” which will cover how you can easily green your home, garden and office. For more information on the event, please visit http://www.idahogreenexpo.org
InterSolar North America is an international business to business trade show which will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. Tuesday, July 14th through Thursday, July 16th, companies from around the world who work to improve the global supply will be there to educate others about the advantages of solar energy and the energy supply of Earth. This event, dedicated to the solar energy sector is expected to draw an anticipated 400 exhibitors and 15,000 trade visitors. More information about the event can be found at http://www.intersolar.us/index.php?id=1&L=1
Asia and Pacific
On July 15th and 16th, the “Achieving the Green Dream” conference will be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, in Brisbane Queensland Australia. The conference will focus on helping individuals in the Green Building industry gain a practical knowledge about implementing sustainable design.
Geared to anyone involved in the design, implementation and ongoing management of Green Buildings, the conference is of particular interest to designers, architects building owners and/or operators, facility managers, service personnel and installers, mechanical services contractors, equipment suppliers, and systems designers.
While the conference provides an opportunity for networking with Green Building colleagues, there are specific sessions planned to discuss the following topics in detail:
• Communication from designer through to project manager, consultants, sub-contractors and commissioning agents;
• Implementing regulations;
• Integrated relationships between the design and the implementation of Green Buildings; and,
• Ensuring your desired building rating.
For more information on this conference, please visit http://www.airah.org.au
Ukraine will be the host country for the Peschanoe gathering from July 18th through 22nd. This international gathering, organized at an ecological summer campgrounds on the Crimean shore of the Black Sea, will bring together scientists, scholars and political activists for a four-day series of lectures, panels and round-tables devoted to the social and environmental dimensions of the global economic crisis as well as to various problems of theory, history and practice in the context of Left anti-totalitarian thought.
The lectures, seminars and round tables will be held with participation of historians, sociologists, economists, and ecologists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Switzerland, France, Britain, USA, and India, as well as activists of human rights and ecological organizations. The conference will continue the international dialogue initiated at previous meetings in Peschanoe in 2007 and 2008.
Proposed lectures, seminars and round table topics include:
• The Crash of 2008: Capitalism’s ‘Final’ Crisis?
• Global Climate Change: How far are we from catastrophe? What can be done to prevent it?
• The Concept of ‘limits to growth’ in the context of today’s world economic crises (discussion on the book by D. Meadows et al. Limits to Growth. The 30-Year Update)
• The present situation in the Caucasus and global civil society.
• Ukraine, Russia, Belarus: three examples of ecological-economic crisis at the post-Soviet space.
The working languages of the forum will be Ukrainian, Russian, English and French. Conference fee (for organizational expenses): 40 Euros. For more information, please visit http://www.praxiscenter.ru/about_us/english/
