Author: Melanie McMahan
GreenWorks Buffalo Niagara is hosting another professional green business networking event on Thursday December 29th at The Mahoney at the Fairmont. Green Drinks is a business casual mixer for those who are a part of Buffalo’s green and sustainable business network.
Our Green Drinks Holiday Parties are usually the jolliest events of the year. Everyone is happy its year end and for the last 8 years, energy policy has been favorable to renewables, energy code has stepped up a level, making green building design and construction more of a standard than optional.
However, now we seem to be on the precipice of a dramatic shift in the other direction.
It looks like there will be turbulent times ahead for the environment. The president elect appointed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a well-known climate change skeptic to run the Environmental Protection Agency. The future administration chose Rick Perry, former Texas Governor, as a cabinet pick for Energy. Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobile, is going to be our Secretary of State and intends to remove sanctions to allow a $500 billion deal with Russia for offshore oil drilling there. All in all, it feels like we’re in some bizarre nightmare.
Sorry to be such a downer but the last 5 weeks have been really tough on us ‘green blooded’ types. It’s been hard for me to find joy and hope this holiday season with all of the tragic things happening here and abroad. But instead of complaining, or quietly sulking at home, we’re going to do something about it!
At Green Drinks this month we have a suggested donation of $5 to send the proceeds to one environmental organization and one organization helping refugees in Aleppo.
We’ve been asking our members for their picks, and have decided proceeds from the event will go to The Sierra Club and also the Syrian American Medical Society or SAMS.
We believe that collective action and putting our money where our heart is makes us stronger together.
So come to Green Drinks, have some food and drinks, and commiserate with us. We’re not giving up on all the progress we’ve made.
We promise, the event will be a lot more fun than my write up. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Melanie McMahan
Green Drinks Holiday Party
Thursday December 29th 2016
5:30 – 7:30 PM
The Mahoney at the Fairmont
199 Scott Street Buffalo, NY 14204
To RSVP for the event, please email Melanie at mmcmahan@cirelectric.com to reserve a first free drink ticket. These are on a first come first serve basis. If you don’t show up in the first 30 minutes of the event, we will give unclaimed drink tickets to anyone on the waiting list.