The importance of locally grown & organic foods and socially responsible investing is the topic of our next York River Group meeting. Join us Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. for “Greening Your Money” with the following speakers:

Bev Sell, of Five Points Farm Market in Norfolk, will speak about the importance of supporting locally grown and organic foods, both for our personal health and the need to protect our farmlands. She will emphasize the hope that future farmers will be encouraged to provide this service to an increasingly interested public.

Andy Merchant and William Reyes, of Merrill Lynch investment corporation, specializing in environmentally sustainable investments, will present a power point on how we can invest in trusted, green companies and projects, and why we should consider this type of investment.

We’re meeting at Sandy Bottom Nature Park, 1255 Big Bethel Road, Hampton, VA 23666. For more info, contact Tyla Matteson, Chair, York River Group, (H) 804-275-6476, (C) 804-240-9246, tmatteson1@mindspring.com; or Tom Ellis, Vice Chair, tiellis@gmail.com, (H) 757-722-9785

Last year, Virginia Beach was the first “Virginia Green Destination”. To be certified “Virginia Green”, tourism partners such as hotels, restaurants, events and attractions must meet specified water conservation, energy conservation and recycling standards. They must also minimize the use of styrofoam/disposables. Today the City announced that the Virginia Beach hospitality industry “took that challenge to the next level, exceeding a goal to certify 100 new hospitality businesses”.

Per their press release: “The Virginia Beach hospitality industry exceeded its goal to certify 100 businesses with the Virginia Green program – including hotels, restaurants, events and attractions. Currently, more than 115 Virginia Beach businesses are Virginia Green certified, including 42 percent of Virginia Beach hotel rooms. Virginia Green awards green certification to businesses that take steps to reduce harmful environmental effects”.

What is Virginia Green?

Clean water, clean air, and abundant wildlife are what make our mountains, streams, and beaches so appealing to our tourists. Visitors to Virginia care about the environment and so does our tourism industry! This is the main premise behind Virginia Green. It is a network of tourism-related organizations and programs that are committed to protecting the environment while promoting responsible tourism.

Click here to learn more about the Virginia Green program.

While they had signed onto ICLEI several years ago, the City of Norfolk finally made their commitment to curbing carbon emissions official, pledging as a three-some tag team along with Tacoma, Washington and Kitakyushu, Japan.

The Joint Declaration reads as follows:

“In 1959, when our Cities entered into sister-city partnerships, most industrial nations - including the U.S. and Japan - were experiencing rapid economic development that brought great prosperity to both nations. At the same time, it also brought a new problem: environmental pollution. This era was also a time of overcoming this new situation.

50 years have passed since then and we now face a new problem, climate change, which affects everyone and in turn, everyone helps to cause. To overcome this problem, we need to change our culture/values and make continued efforts over a long period of time.

In response to this problem, our Cities will cross national barriers to work together to create low-carbon societies while observing the following points in order to appeal our efforts to the rest of the world.

- Each City will carry out activities adapted to their region and achieve a role leading their region toward the realization of a low-carbon society.
- On top of the cultural exchange we have accomplished thus far, we will further deepen our partnership through the exchange of information and opinions regarding climate change.
- The three Cities will work together to transmit information globally regarding each City’s efforts toward the realization of a low-carbon society.”

(Photo above found here within VML’s Town & City magazine.)

Norfolk Environmental Commission celebrates 30 years of keeping Norfolk beautiful with a gala event on Saturday, November 14th from 6 to 10 pm at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. Proceeds from the event support an environmental scholarship for local students.

From their website:

Part of the NEC’s mission is to lead residents toward environmental stewardship. As such, this local environmental organization has brought together local government agencies, businesses, residents and environmental stewards to study and implement environmental stewardship throughout Norfolk for the past 30 years.

The work of the NEC over the 30 years is evident throughout Norfolk. Some of the accomplishments include:

* A cleaner city. Norfolk had a score of 1.46 on the 2009 National Litter Index, which means virtually no litter throughout the City as a whole.
* 627,000 volunteers from our community have contributed 931,000 hours of work participating in litter cleanups, wetland restoration, electronics recycling, environmental education and neighborhood beautification projects.
* 8,223 litter cleanups resulting in the collection and proper disposal of over seven million pounds of litter.
* 263,000 tons of residential waste collected for recycling.
* More than 243,000 students taught basic environmental stewardship principles.

More info on the event on the flip… Read the rest of this entry »

Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, November 4th @ 7:30 at the Naro Extended Cinema in Norfolk for a crucially important documentary regarding overfishing and the effects it has on our fisheries and coastal communities.

Please join us at the Naro Cinemas (located in the Ghent section of Norfolk)  for No Impact Man tomorrow night, Wednesday, October 28th @ 7:30. http://narocinema.com/

Join us for a special Sierra Club phone bank night on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 from 6:00-9:00pm.

We’ll socialize for a bit over some wine and cheese, then hit the phones for Joe Bouchard!

Delegate Joe Bouchard is depending on us to turn out our targeted list of voters. These are not base voters that Joe is already counting on. Instead, these are folks who may think local, non-Federal elections are not important, but have been identified from their past activities as being likely responsive to our “Environmental Majority” message supporting our Sierra Club endorsed candidate, Joe Bouchard. It’s an easy sell, believe me!

Personal contact will be critical with these voters. Without it, our environmental hero Joe Bouchard, will likely lose!

WHEN: Tues., Oct. 20, 6:00-9:00pm

WHERE: Bouchard campaign HQ, 3rd floor of the BB&T Bank building, corner of Witchduck Road

and Cleveland Street, just about ½ mile from I-264.

Please RSVP as soon as possible so that we can have lists ready for you on Tuesday evening. Also, let us know if you can bring a laptop and/or a cellphone to use.

Reply to eileen.levandoski@sierraclub.org or call me at 757-277-8537 to RSVP today!

(Click on image to enlarge).

Yesterday, on day #46 of the devastating oil spill that continues to dump oil into Australian seas, the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter released images of that spill plotted off Virginia’s coast.*

The images were commissioned from SkyTruth who used NASA and other government generated satellite images to depict the Australian oil spill that as of September 3 has grown to almost 9,900 square miles – larger than the square mile size of Vermont. The simple overlay of the Australian spill originating at a hypothetical well in the Lease Area 220 shows an oil spill of this size reaching Virginia Beach, Virginia’s Eastern Shore and the northern Outer Banks.

Images available here:
http://hrsierraclub.org/VASkyTruth.jpg
http://hrsierraclub.org/VASkyTruth1.jpg
http://hrsierraclub.org/VASkyTruth2.jpg
http://virginia.sierraclub.org/onespill.html

“Supporters of offshore drilling have been saying there is no risk of a spill in Virginia waters with modern drilling technology. What is happening in Australia right now with a new rig built in 2007 proves that claim wrong,” added Besa. “Plotted off Virginia’s coast, the Australian oil spill should give Virginia great pause” said Glen Besa, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter Director. “All it takes is one spill to virtually shutdown Virginia’s coastal economy, both tourism and fisheries, for years. Oil is still disrupting the natural environment in Prince William Sound 20 years after the Exxon Valdez spill.”

Read the rest of this entry »

We welcome all members and non-members to join us on Monday as we welcome Andrew Bargy, Owner of Seven Cities Rickshaws discussing rickshaws and the environment in Hampton Roads and Susan French, Extension Agent, Agriculture and Natural Resources Horticulture, Virginia Tech discussing Conservation in Belize.

To be exact, 280,083 individuals and over 400 scientists and organizations have submitted public comments to DOI’s Mineral Management Service on the proposed 2010-2015 5-Year Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program. Today is the deadline for those comments. Click here to submit them to MMS via Sierra Club’s site TODAY!