Off topic, enjoy your visit to Phoenix! I last was there seven long years ago and, from what I’ve heard, the place is unrecognizable – more sprawl, more smog. Take lots of pics!

No matter how they try to finesse it, it is greenwashing. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned idea of giving money because you believe in the cause and to do goodworks, instead of expecting good pr and seats on fancy Beverly Hills panels.

Let Starbucks make coffee and let more of the real experts, the grassroots experts doing the real work in their communities, on these panels.

And, the Green Party don’t take no stinkin corporate donations. We are corporate free, and therefore unbeholden, JOIN US!

“Sheila’s speech made it clear that environmental activism goes hand in hand with the desire to preserve our individual cultures. Environmental consciousness seems intrinsically linked to cultural diversity. With that in mind, how does Starbucks and Turner respond to those who say that large companies’ expansions are leading to a “mono-culture” world?”

I was psyched when the Q was read — though less psyched when Ben tactfully ignored the Q…

Anyway — I did enjoy Sheila’s talk — and I did mention Sheila in my first post about the event. But this post is by no means a blow-by-blow summary of everything that took place in the summit. I’m writing about the panel here, and even then, I pretty much only talk about what Ben said, when obviously, the other panelists didn’t just sit there in silence.

I hope it’s clear here that I’m focusing on the parts of the summit that I said I was going to focus on. In my first post about this event, I wondered out loud (or in type, I guess) how Starbucks got on the panel. Starbucks’ sponsorship wasn’t mentioned in the email I received about the event (which also didn’t mention Turner’s presence, making Starbucks’ inclusion even more curious), nor on the website — which is why I wondered about it. At the event itself, it was indeed — as you say — clear that Starbucks had sponsored Global Green’s efforts and the Summit itself. But unless one actually attended the event, it was difficult to figure that out.

Matt — I do like, by and large, what Global Green’s doing. I mean, with the low-income communities and the environment comment, I simply said I would’ve liked to have heard more about it IN THE PANEL, because the panel was introduced as being about that topic. This is by no means an indictment of Global Green’s work as a whole! I’m sure Global Green does great things in low-income communities — I’m saying I would’ve liked to have heard more about this important issue in the panel itself.

While we mentioned it briefly at the event, just before the symposium, we hosted a roundtable brainstorming discussion with a wide range of organizations from community, environmental, housing, public school, government agency, and corporate perspectives discussing how wee empower affordable housing groups, schools, and other low-income community constituencies to be part of solving global warming, and benefit from lower energy bills, etc. If you take a look at our website you’ll see a report we did on this topic, can can also learn more about the work we’re doing on affordable housing and schools in low-income neighborhoods.

As to the comments on why certain people were on the panel, I made it clear and was very transparent, as was were our materials, that Starbucks is a supporter of our work. Tom Leppert was an honoree at our dinner that evening, and was a sponsor as such. But both Starbucks and Turner are also leaders in the corporate world with renewabe energy, green building, and related solutions to global warming. At our dinner, we also honored Fran Pavley, and other leaders in different fields.

While your point the topic of low-income communities was not discussed enough by the panel (whether the impact upon them, which is siginficant, or the solutions) was well taken, you failed to mention Sheila Watt Cloutier’s speech. Did you miss it? She comes from a very low-income, indigenous community whose culture, way of life, and people are being devastated by climate change. I think you missed a big part of the presentation by not mentioning her speech or presence.