🎄Wishing you a Green Christmas! 🎄

Dreaming of a Green Christmas!

A few years ago, I started a small coliving business. We have hosted over a 1,000 members and have planted hundreds of trees. Check out all the other sustainability initiatives that we have integrated into our community! I am thankful for our members and team for helping us make a difference however we can. Because of our guests, we have been able to plant a few hundred trees this year. 

We value making a social impact and our guests have helped us contribute in our own little way. We thank you for sharing your time with us this year and in helping us make a difference however we can. Check out some of the things we integrate into our community below.

We wish you a joyous, eco-friendly, holiday season! From our family to yours!

🌲TREES 🌲The Gift That Keeps on Giving!

My family and I have been planting trees in my grandparents farm in Barili, Cebu, Philippines since 2009. During the holidays, I would bring my daughter, siblings, friends and family to plant these trees with me and gift these trees to friends & family during the holidays (Merry Christmas, I gift you a tree that you should plant yourself - you're welcome!😂).

Truck full of trees

Plant them trees little ones! #learningexperience #notchildlabor

Are we here to have a picnic or are we here to plant trees? Bulhot little ones. 

"Planting Trees"

With my Lola Esperanza Garcia (my namesake) and my daughter, Ela

Isn't my Lola the cutest? My little one as well

Another tree we planted the year before

My Dad and daughter checking out the tree we planted a few years before. Look at how much it's grown.

Look how big one of the first trees we've planted has grown!

"Posing for photos make the trees grow faster"

We haven't spent Christmas in the Philippines for many years. This year, however, we will be spending Christmas in Cebu again and after Christmas day, we will be going back to the farm to plant more trees! I'm excited to go back with my family. It becomes a great bonding experience.

My business has also made a donation to plant 300 trees this year with One Tree Planted to represent every guest that has stayed with us this year.

Plant a free tree with my code by clicking on this link. They are great Christmas gifts!

Hello, Again, World

It’s been exactly 5 years since my last blog. I used to write about climate change activism and my journey in sustainability - but I since focused my life on building a family, my children, and building a small business. I felt as if I had nothing exciting to talk about. But I miss it! I miss sharing my thoughts and meanderings, I miss having a platform to express myself, I miss having a forum to discuss my passions and desires. I mentioned this recently to my best friend Nikki, and she said, “Just go for it! Who cares what everyone will read, just write for yourself.” And so here I am, again, world. 

My name is Esperanza Garcia. I am a mother of two amazing children, a beautiful 14 year-old girl, Ela, and a cute little 3-year old, we call Win. I run a small coliving business in the Bay Area. Other than my family, I love ART, food and travel, and I’m passionate about making a difference and building a better world for my children. Where this life will lead me and what I plan to do next, I do not know just yet, but here’s my journey. Who knows how often I will write, maybe it will be in another month, hopefully not another 5 years, but this makes me feel good to have a place of my own to share my journey and life on. 

This took me 2 minutes to write and publish - it wasn't that bad after all! 

Grid Alternatives Solar Install

I spent a weekend volunteering to install solar panels on low-income housing with Grid Alternatives. The panels we have installed will provide the family with green power and will lower their electricity bills. This gives the family additional money in their pockets for things like food and clothes for their kids and savings for college. 

By installing this 2-kW solar system in Saba Takleab's home were able to offset 64.32 tons of carbon, the equivalent of planting 1,512 trees. The solar panels will save the homeowners an estimated $20,842.00 over the system's lifetime. 

GRID Alternatives is planning to have 1000 women on rooftops this year as part of a national effort to bring more women into the solar industry and also support women already working in the field. You can learn more about our Women in Solar Initiative at www.gridalternatives.org/women.

Jeff (left), Grid Alternatives team leader with Saba Takleab (right), homeowner 

Honored to receive the Care2 Impact Award

Learned of Care2 when they wrote about my grandmother, Esperanza Garcia, in 2006. Last month at the Women in Green, I had the great honor to be awarded the Care 2 Impact award.  Past honorees of the Care2 Impact award have been Hunter Lovins, Alexandra Cousteau, and Dr. Sylvia A. Earle. 

When I had received a call last month from Care2 to inform me that they wanted to honor the Care2 Impact Award at Women in Green Forum to me. My immediate reaction was to tell Care2 that there were far more people who are more deserving than I, for this. In my speech I told their story. International Youth Council UN Major Group for Children and YouthInternational Youth Climate Movement Philippine Youth Climate MovementClimate Wise Women C-100- I honor this award to you. 

In the article that Care2 had written of my grandmother, Esperanza Garcia, in 2006, my grandmother had said: "When I was a little girl I asked my father why they called me Esperanza. And he said that Esperanza means hope, and that when I was born I was the hope of the family. So when I grew up I started using my name for that: I hoped to become a lawyer, to get married to a good and loving husband and to have beautiful children. And then I hoped to help improving the quality of life of all Filipinos." She says in her Care2 interview. She dreamed and dreamed and worked hard to make her dreams reality. I hope to do the same.

CSR Press Release

         

Esperanza Garcia To Be Honored With Care2 Impact Award at 5th Annual Women In Green Forum

Submitted by:Care2

Posted:Aug 25, 2014 – 11:06 AM EST

 

Los Angelas, CA, Aug. 25 /CSRwire/ - 

Esperanza Garcia To Be Honored With Care2 Impact Award at 5th Annual Women In Green Forum

 August 22, 2014

 Care2 will award the Care2 Impact Award to Esperanza Garcia August 26 at the 5th Annual Women in Green Forum. The Care2 Impact Award recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding impact in sustainability, human rights, animal welfare, women’s rights, and other issues that make the world a better place. 

"Care2 has been changing the world advocating for socially responsible causes, empowering others to lead a sustainable lifestyles, and helping to solve the climate change challenge. Our youth have proven to be constructive partners in building a climate change movement and empowering others in leading sustainable lives. With our work in the International Youth Climate Movement, I have seen a generation with an increasingly strong sense of social and environmental awareness. We are encouraging sustainable lifestyles, promoting the use of renewable energy sources, creating national climate change educational programs and campaigns, and building adaptive capacity and resilience. Youth are not the leaders of tomorrow. We are the leaders of today."

 “We’re honored to present Esperanza Garcia with the Care2 Environmental Impact Award for her impact on climate change and sustainable development” said Randy Paynter, founder and president of Care2. “Ms. Garcia shows the power every individual has to make a difference, which we celebrate daily on Care2.com."

At the young age of 27, Garcia has already made a significant impact on sustainable development and climate change education by launching three successful organizations. She is co-founder of the International Youth Council, which has provided educational resources and leadership opportunities to thousands of young global leaders. She developed and managed the International Youth Council, assisting more than 10,000 young global leaders supporting sustainable development projects. Finally, she is founder of the Philippine Youth Climate Movement, which educated and mobilized over 50,000 students by raising climate change awareness and environmental activism in Philippine schools.

Garcia worked as a consultant for South-South News, where she collaborated with key diplomatic UN officials in project development and organized high-level events with heads of states, first ladies, ambassadors, and other key public and private managers. She organized the Youth Assembly at the UN, the South-South awards during the General Assembly, Conference of Youth during the UN Climate Change Conference.

Garcia holds a Bachelor's degree in Interior Architecture & Design with a focus on sustainable design from the Academy of Art University. She's also an alum of Columbia University's innovative Sustainability Management graduate program. Garcia has acquired and fine-tuned valuable training and skills in financial management, environmental science, quantitative analysis, research and public policy.  

 ** About Care2 **

Care2 (www.Care2.com) is a community of 25 million standing together for good. A pioneer of online advocacy in 1998, Care2 petitions have helped individuals, animals and the environment at both the local and international levels. Care2 is a B Corporation, or social enterprise, using the power of business as a force for good.

** About The Women In Green Forum **

The Women In Green Forum, produced by Three Squares Inc., is the premier event for professionals from all aspects of the environmental industry to discuss the latest clean tech innovations, develop powerful professional networks, and build upon each other’s successes. The Forum is the largest international conference for women in environmental careers.

For more information on the Women in Green Forum and to view a complete agenda, please visit http://www.womeningreenforum.com.

For more information, please contact:

Marya Gomez Vice President, Products

Phone: 650-385-8850

For more from this organization:

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