Green Drinks
How to save the earth, one cocktail at a time
By Kate Hawthorne, Northern Colorado Business Report, 11/25/2007
FORT COLLINS - It could be any business after-hours gathering. Professionals arrive from their offices, slap on their nametags and grab a drink and some snacks. They meet and greet, and the networking begins.
But this is a group unlike any other in Northern Colorado. This is the monthly session of Green Drinks, a loose affiliation of individuals who share an interest in doing business in an environmentally responsible manner.
Lara Williams, founder of The Green Team Real Estate in Fort Collins, is the motivating force behind the local Green Drinks chapter. It's an idea she picked up while she was working for a broker in San Francisco.
"It's a great way to meet potential clients who are interested in buying greener homes," she said. But it's more than just trolling for referrals.
"The idea is to bring together green-minded people for a social and educational event," Williams explained. "We have architects, real estate people, engineers, students, just a diverse group of people who are concerned about environmental issues but don't mind having some fun."
Fort Collins Green Drinks meets at a different venue on the fourth Wednesday of every month - even during the first game of the World Series - and usually opens with a short educational program. Sometimes, the venue is the program.
In September, Green Drinks met at the Burr Oak office complex in Fort Collins, where tenants John Dengler, architect, gave a tour and Bruce Hendee of BHA Design, Landscape Architects, talked about the green techniques used in the LEED-certified building before breaking out the beer and appetizers, sponsored by green cleaner Porter Industries of Loveland.
"A few months ago, Betsy Markey (Democratic candidate for the Fourth District Congressional seat) addressed the group," Williams said, and the October event at CooperSmith's Pub and Brewing was sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chronicle.
Williams and her Green Team partner Chance Parker have been organizing Green Drinks get-togethers since January with a core group spreading the word by passing along personal invitations. Attendance has skyrocketed since September, when they set up a booth at the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins to collect names for the mailing list. She estimates that each meeting now attracts between 90 and 130 people.
The ebb and flow of attendees is an important part of the creative energy of the group, for brainstorming from the perspective of different disciplines.
Going mainstream
According to the Web site of Green Drinks International - www.greendrinks.org - the popularity of the movement has taken off worldwide in the last year. Started in London pubs in 1989, Green Drinks chapters have been organized in Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo as well as in 43 other states and 31 countries, for a total of 292 cities around the world. More than half of the chapters has been founded within the last 18 months.
Green Drinks founder Paul Scott sees that as one more bit of evidence that green issues are becoming mainstream, and Williams, a certified eco-broker, agrees.
"We've seen a change over the last year," she said. "Last year, we were still explaining what we meant by 'green' buildings. This year, we had people stopping by the booth at the Sustainable Living Fair with specific requests, looking for specific projects. And there are more options available now, too."
While some of those options include new construction such as the New Urbanist Old Town North, where Merten Homes is building a dozen custom homes out of straw bales, Williams works with her clients to make any home more energy-efficient, through a growing network of remodeling contractors.
"We're seeing more clients who have decided that they want to live within biking or walking distance of work, and they want to make an existing home as green as they can," she said.
The first step Williams recommends is an energy audit that generates a report that lists retrofits in order of priority, so homeowners can work on projects as they can afford them.
"Sometimes it doesn't take a major remodel," she points out. "There are so many little things you can do to have a significant impact for less than $1,000, and with the downturn in new construction, there's no dearth of qualified people you can work with."
There's no dearth of real estate professionals earning the eco-broker designation, either. More than a dozen are working in Northern Colorado, after completing an online course of study offered by Evergreen-based EcoBroker.com.
One of the missions of the EcoBroker organization is to "improve the quality of buildings while reducing their impact on our natural resources and enivronment," according to the Web site.