Green Scene

BY PHIL HAGEN

The Green Drinks Phenomenon

A recent Green Drinks event at Scottsdale’s Hotel Valley Ho. Photograph by Scott Sandler.

Little do the other McMullen’s Pub patrons know, while pints are being hoisted and voices slightly raised in the side room this Thursday night in Las Vegas, the Green Drinks club isn’t just another excuse for good ol’ Irish indulgence. It’s not that kind of green—though the presence of a representative from Celtic Energy might further blur the matter.

No, it’s the kind that Walter Michaels of Energy Saver Advisors is overheard telling attorney Robert Kim about:

“What’s the definition of green?” he asks.

“Yellow and blue mixed together?” Kim says.

“No, it’s Get Renewable Energy Efficiency Now,” Michaels says. “I’m getting that trademarked.”

Why does Kim care to meet the man who proclaims to know “more than anybody in Vegas about all things green”? Kim’s law firm has an Energy and Project Finance division, and so Green Drinks regular Don Woods, a consultant who specializes in government contracts, thought an introduction was in order. “He knows how to find money,” Woods tells Michaels, “and we know how to spend it!”

Like all Green Drinks chapters around the world—and there could be 500 by year’s end—the Vegas version is about offering a casual opportunity for connections. This particular incubator is run by architect Anne Johnson, AIA, and Michelle Millar, of the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ College of Hotel Administration, and after about 18 months they’ve grown their mailing list to 150.

That only a couple dozen have shown up on this night is mostly due to Las Vegas being on the fledgling end of a phenomenon that began 20 years ago in London. Green Drinks founder Edwin Datschefski says attendance varies quite a bit, from the intimate Vegas size to a record 1,800 at an Australian chapter event. “Five people at a meeting can make profound shifts in their lives or create a project that changes the world,” he says. “A thousand people may come to another Green Drinks, have a blast and make loads of new contacts and networking. It’s all good.”

There is “no common strand” for who or what drives the chapters, he says. Some Green Drinks are organized by companies, others by consultants, environmental nonprofits, city councils, designers or architects.

There are Green Drinks chapters throughout the West, including Denver and Albuquerque. The Phoenix Metro Chapter, one of America’s fastest-rising Green Drinks, got off the ground in 2005 just after Mick Dalrymple opened his eco-friendly building supply center, a.k.a. Green in Scottsdale, and thought a networking organization made sense, especially since he was also involved with the U.S. Green Building Council. His Green Drinks grew from a small gathering of architect types to hundreds of attendees ranging from Web site creators to insect exterminators. The chapter’s mailing list now contains 2,900 names.

It is all good, but it can be a bit much. “It’s gotten too successful,” says a.k.a. Green’s marketing manager, Christine Cassano, “so we’re turning the program over to the Phoenix Green Chamber of Commerce to give it a home where it can thrive. A nonprofit makes much more sense, and a chamber is all about networking.”

That transition became official in February with a Green Drinks party at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale. A solar power company was the event sponsor, the Arizona Wilderness Coalition was the nonprofit co-host. RSVPs were required, there was valet parking, and it cost $10 for non-chamber members to get in. So much for grassroots intimacy.

But Cassano, through a survey, found that most professionals prefer the larger events so they can “make that many more connections in a short amount of time.” On the other hand, they also liked the informal nature of Green Drinks—not a lot of official announcements over loudspeakers, etc.—so that characteristic remains. And the $10 cover charge weeds out some of the less-serious crowd.

There are a few basic rules, but all chapters, from Salt Lake City to Seoul, are otherwise free to find their own way. Some do it organically, some corporately. The most important thread is that real green ideas are getting exchanged regularly all over the planet, whether it’s an interior designer bumping into a sustainable product vendor, a solar CEO and a city councilman talking policy, or Cassano telling everyone about the printer who makes sustainable business cards.

The more relationships at the market level, the speedier the green revolution.

Which is why it was the Las Vegas chapter’s last night at McMullen’s Pub. In March, Green Drinks was moved to Wolfgang Puck’s café at the Springs Preserve. The new venue may not have been as much fun so close to St. Patrick’s Day, but it is part of a LEED-Platinum campus, and the café has Thursday-night concert series. Both factors are expected to boost attendance, along with the removal of what was a wee bit of an obstacle in Vegas: “Not everybody,” Johnson says, “was comfortable coming to a bar.”

To find a Green Drinks chapter in your state, visit www.greendrinks.org.