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SELECTED GREEN GROUCH MEDIA STORIES(Search Google for Newest)
Click Here to See Mayors Participating Click Here For Story Ideas/Angles |
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| Media Outlet | Date | Link to Story | |||
| CKNW Radio Interview (Vancouver) | March 20/2011 | The World Today (Weekend) With Sean Leslie | |||
| Edmonton Sun | April 12, 2011 | Edmonton Sun | |||
| Red Deer Advocate | March 23/2011 | Red Deer Advocate (enlarge screen and grab scoll bar fast, or it disappears!) | |||
| City of Red Deer Website | March 24, 2011 | City of Red Deer | |||
| Red Deer Express | March 23, 2011 | Red Deer Express | |||
| CJBK FM 1290 Radio Interview (London) | April 19, 2011 | CJBK FM 1290 Radio | |||
| CKLW AM 800 Radio Interview (Windsor) | April 5, 2011 | CKLW AM 800 Radio | |||
| 100.7 FM The River Radio Interview (Red Deer, Alberta) | April 22, 2011 | 100.7 The River Radio | |||
| 95.7 Radio Interview (Halifax) | April 6, 2011 | 95.7 Radio (Part of a 3 city interview with Tom Young - mp3 not available) | |||
| 88.9 Radio Interview (St. John) | April 6, 2011 | 88.9 Radio (Part of a 3 city interview with Tom Young - mp3 not available) | |||
| 91.9 Radio Interview (Moncton) | April 6, 2011 | 91.9 Radio (Part of a 3 city interview with Tom Young - mp3 not available) | |||
| Grande Prairie Herald Tribune | March, 2011 (exact date unknown) | Grande Prairie Herald Tribune | |||
| Heather Gilbertson, Red Deer Journalist (blog) | March 23, April 4, 2011 | Heather Gilbertson (blog) | |||
| Daily Community News | April 5, 2011 | Daily Community News | |||
| City of Grande Prairie Website | April 1, 2011 | City of Grande Prairie | |||
| Q99 Radio Website (Grande Prairie) | April 1, 2011 | Q99 Radio | |||
| Red Deer Advocate | February 9, 2011 | Red Deer Advocate (enlarge screen and grab scoll bar fast, or it disappears!) | |||
| Canada Newswire | April 20, 2010 | Canada Newswire | |||
| CBC Calgary (TV) | April 22, 2010 | Story is no longer posted on their website | |||
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GREEN GROUCH STORY IDEAS/ANGLES
Contact us at 403-246-5472 click here to send us an email | |||||
| Story Idea/Angle | Story Idea/Angle Expanded | ||||
| IN GENERAL | The GREEN GROUCH website is growing very rapidly, and is starting to get support from politicians. While the general public seems unaware of how bad the state of the planet has become, politicians know all too well that the situation is, indeed, becoming dire. The GREEN GROUCH website is perfectly poised to act as a CATALYST for change. | ||||
| GET YOUR CITY INVOLVED! |
A FANTASTIC story angle for this fifty-city challenge is to become the champion of it for your city. We recommend that you contact your Mayor and ask them if they plan to formally get your city involved. If not, why not? Do they think it's not a good idea to help reduce the 20 BILLION
paper cups
that go into landfill each year in North America? Do they not want their citizens to have FUN while starting to incorporate earth-friendly habits?
Maybe they don't have as much political courage as Mayors
Bill Given & Morris Flewwelling?
You might want to consider encouraging your readers/listeners/viewers to call or email the Mayor's office to let the Mayor know that the public (ie, VOTERS) want your City to be involved. The GREEN GROUCH thanks those of you that help champion this project, as your actions will have an INCREDIBLE positive impact towards creating a better environment for us all! | ||||
| TRACK YOUR CITY'S PROGRESS | A good ongoing angle for this challenge is to track your city's progress. Take note of how many points your city has each Monday morning. The new weekly checklist begins on Monday, so that's a good time to start tracking how many points your city is earning. It's also a good way to keep your audience distracted from the Monday blahs! The more people your city has participating in the challenge, the faster the points accumulate, and the more interesting it is to watch the results. You can make the challenge interesting for your audience by noting how many points they've accumulated from the week before, and how quickly the points are accumulating with more people participating. Just look at Red Deer and Grande Prairie, Alberta. Both cities are gaining points quickly now, as both have LOTS of people participating. We haven't had time to write in a system to track each city's progress yet, but it's on our growing list of features to write into the system! | ||||
| LETTER TO 50 MAYORS |
We have sent the following letter (by email) to the Mayors of the fifty largest cities in Canada, specifically the ones included in this challenge. The only (temporary) exception is the Mayors of cities in Quebec. We will have the letter translated into French and sent to them as soon as possible. See below, the text of the letter received by each Mayor.
Dear Mayor Gregor Robertson: I'm writing to let you know about a fifty-city eco challenge being hosted by the GREEN GROUCH website: www.greengrouch.com As the leader of your city, you are responsible to encourage your citizens to be more environmentally conscious. The GREEN GROUCH fifty-city challenge was designed to help you in this task! So far, two City Mayors have taken great personal risk by passing motions in their respective Councils to support this initiative. Specifically, Mayor Bill Given of Grande Prairie has publicly challenged Mayor Stephen Mandel of Edmonton, Mayor Naheed Nenshi of Calgary, Mayor Morris Flewwelling of Red Deer and Mayor Rajko Dodic of Lethbridge to try and better Grande Prairie in “eco points.” Mayor Flewwelling formally accepted the challenge and the media in both cities have been buzzing about it! We’re asking you to consider supporting this initiative as well by making a challenge of your own to the Mayor(s) of your choice. By supporting this Canada-wide project, you will demonstrate that the environment is a priority to your administration and you will help instill a sense of civic pride in your citizens. Both Red Deer and Grande Prairie are getting into this challenge in a big way and we’re proud to say that we’ve made being green FUN! We have already conducted many media interviews about the GREEN GROUCH fifty city challenge and we will be doing many more. Furthermore, we will post the names of the Mayors that support this project on our website in the order that they do so. Please notify us as soon as you’ve issued a challenge to another Mayor or group of Mayors and/or passed a motion in your Council to participate. We look forward to being a partner with you in reducing waste and pollution! |
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| LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS |
With an initiative like this, it really only becomes a success if cities are willing to participate. But the problem with many politicians is that they won't support something unless they see others doing it first. So, the problem becomes, how do you get the initial support?
We were very lucky with the GREEN GROUCH project in that Mayor Bill Given of Grande Prairie is a true leader! We didn't have to contact him to beg and plead for his support. In fact, we were simply notified one day that Grande Prairie City Council had passed a motion to support this initiative 100%. Let me back up a little bit. on January 10, 2011, Michelle Gairdner of Grande Prairie logged into the site and started referring several people to it. She then took it to the Grande Prairie environmental committee. They passed a motion to take it to the full City Council. On January 24, 2011, the Grande Prairie City Council passed a motion that they would challenge the Mayors of Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and Lethbridge. This all happened when the site was virtually unheard of. In other words, they didn't just try to find a moving train and hop on it. They pushed the train and helped get it moving! Over the next while, Canadians are going to get a very good idea of which Mayors are true leaders and which ones are followers. Will your Mayor sit and wait to see what OTHERS think before they decide to get involved with this initiative, or will they judge it on the merits of what it stands for and the potential it has to change behavior? The GREEN GROUCH has incredible potential to act as a CATALYST for change! Whereas politicians have been unable to change behavior over several years, Red Deer and Grande Prairie are getting into this challenge in a big way and they are making changes. Between them, they're heading towards THIRTY THOUSAND eco points Bill Given of Grande Prairie spotted a tool that would be useful, and he's backed it 100% - no questions asked, no waiting around to see what other Mayors think. I cannot commend him enough! Not to be forgotten is Mayor Morris Flewwelling of Red Deer. He was the FIRST Mayor to respond to the challenge from Bill Given. He also didn't worry about looking around to see if other Mayors think it's a good idea. We're posting a list of the Mayors that support this project in the order that they do so. Very soon, we will see which Mayors are true leaders, and which ones are followers. Make sure you take note of where your Mayor falls on the list (if they even have the courage to put themselves on it), and make sure you REMEMBER when it comes to the next election! |
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| WE'VE MADE BEING GREEN FUN! | Residents of Red Deer and Grande Prairie are getting into the Green Grouch Challenge in a big way. Having a visual chart to see how well they compare to each other makes being green fun! | ||||
| ALBERTA GOES GREEN | The Province of Alberta has received a lot of bad publicity for our environmental record lately. The more Alberta City Mayors that sign on to the GREEN GROUCH fifty city challenge, the better it makes us look to the rest of Canada and, perhaps, the world! | ||||
| GRANDE PRAIRIE MAYOR ISSUES CHALLENGE | Mayor Bill Given was the FIRST Mayor in Canada to really support and endorse the GREEN GROUCH challenge in a big way. He issued a challenge to Mayor Stephen Mandel of Edmonton, Mayor Naheed Nenshi of Calgary, Mayor Morris Flewwelling of Red Deer and Mayor Rajko Dodic of Lethbridge. Grande Prairie City Council passed a formal motion to issue the challenge, and a letter was sent out to the four other Mayors. Media wanting a FANTASTIC story should contact Mayor Bill Given! | ||||
| RED DEER RESPONDS TO CHALLENGE | Red Deer was the first city to respond to the challenge from Mayor Bill Given of Grande Prairie. Mayor Morris Flewwelling deserves much leadership credit, along with Mayor Bill Given. After all, there isn’t much of a challenge unless somebody responds to it! On April 1, 2011 Mayor Flewwelling sent Red Deer City Councillor Dianne Wyntjes to Grande Prairie to formally accept their GREEN GROUCH challenge. | ||||
| SOME MAYORS HAVE NOT JOINED | Some City Mayors have not signed on to support the GREEN GROUCH challenge. In an era when we are CONSTANTLY bombarded with doom and gloom scenarios of how bad the environment is, you have to question why any Mayor would not fully endorse this initiative. If you are in a city where the Mayor has not endorsed this fifty city challenge, a very good story angle is why haven’t they supported it? Do they think it’s not a good idea to get people having fun while starting to adopt more earth-friendly habits? Call the Mayor of your city and request an interview! | ||||
| PEOPLE NOT MAKING EFFORT | Look around next time you’re at a coffee shop and see how many people you spot carrying their own reusable cup. It is rare that you actually spot anyone. With all the media over the last several years about the environment, why aren’t people making changes? The GREEN GROUCH challenge is making it fun, and those participating ARE making changes! | ||||
| SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE! | The earth’s population is rapidly approaching SEVEN BILLION. Ask yourself if we can really continue on with our present lifestyle with SEVEN BILLION people on the planet. The earth's population almost DOUBLED in 50 years (from 1960 - 2010). Yet, People are NOT making changes in their lifestyle to reduce waste. The planet desperately needs something to help people change their habits. The GREEN GROUCH website is the perfect CATALYST for change! | ||||
| 20 BILLION PAPER CUPS USED IN NORTH AMERICA IN 2010 |
In 2010, according to the paper industry, North Americans used more than 20 BILLION paper cups! Try calculating how many per day that is. You'll find the numbers are too large for your calculator (you have to use 20 million, divide by 365 and then multiply by 1000).
To produce these cups, 7.5 million trees had to be cut down. Most people aren't aware that, due to health regulations, paper cups can't be made using much recycled material. Therefore, most paper cups are made of at least 90% virgin pulp (if not more). Furthermore, because of the polyethelyne coating on them (to stop coffee from leaking out), they're also not easily recyclable. So each year we're hacking down 7.5 million trees so we can drink one cup of coffee at a time, and we're sending 20 BILLION cups to clog up our landfills. Think about it! |
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| ALL EYES ARE ON VANCOUVER |
Mayor Gregor Robertson has declared that Vancouver will be the
greenest city on earth
by 2020, and has set out a
ten point plan
to achieve this goal. However, being the green capital of the world is more than just a Mayor proclaiming it so. The truest measure of how green a city is lies in the
actions of its citizens.
Case in point: Mayor Bill Given of Grande Prairie and Mayor Morris Flewwelling of Red Deer have demonstrated incredible leadership in being the first two Canadian Mayors to endorse the GREEN GROUCH fifty city challenge. Both took the matter to their respective City Councils and passed a motion to publicly compete. Incredibly, between the two cities, they've racked up over twenty thousand environmental points, all generated by the PEOPLE of these two cities. The Mayors led the way, but it's the actions of the PEOPLE that will show who is the greenest in the land. Meanwhile, we're anxiously waiting for Vancouver to actually DEMONSTRATE how green it is, instead of the Mayor simply talking about it. For a FANTASTIC earth day story, why not contact Gregor Robertson's office at 604-873-7621 and inquire if he plans on formally passing a motion in Council to get involved in a challenge with other B.C. cities - like forward thinking Mayors Bill Given and Morris Flewwelling did! By the way, the GREEN GROUCH couldn't help taking a playful shot at Mayor Gregor Robertson during a recent (March 20, 2011) radio interview on CKNW with Sean Leslie! |
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| SOCIAL NETWORKING FEATURE | We’re in the process of developing a social networking feature for the GREEN GROUCH website. It will allow users to contact anybody that they’ve referred to the GREEN GROUCH website. It’s social networking for a better planet! | ||||
| PLANNING FOR WORLDWIDE GROWTH | Although relatively new, the GREEN GROUCH website is growing extremely fast, and is well positioned to assist politicians worldwide in getting people to adopt more earth-friendly habits. A quick scan at the lineup in your local coffee shop will confirm that almost nobody has started to make even the simplest changes in their lifestyle (like bringing a reusable cup). The GREEN GROUCH hopes we will get widespread support from the media to help us act as a CATALYST for change. The more media support we get, the more politicians will want to formally bring their city into our fifty city challenge. | ||||
| GREEN GROUCH MADE IN CANADA | The GREEN GROUCH originated in Canada! We hope that Canadians will show a lot of support to this project. Success in Canada means we will have the opportunity to take our message to the world. We sincerely hope the GREEN GROUCH doesn't have to wait until the rest of the world discovers him before Canadians do! | ||||
| WORLD’S FIRST ECO-CELEBRITY | In order to draw more attention to the environment and get people to start making small changes, the world needs an “eco-celebrity.” We’re hoping that the GREEN GROUCH will become the world’s first environmental superstar! We appreciate any and all support we receive from the media. | ||||
| GREEN GROUCH IS SIMPLE | The GREEN GROUCH fifty city environmental challenge was designed to be SIMPLE. It takes LESS THAN ONE MINUTE to complete the weekly checklist (including logging in). We know people are busy, so our system was designed to be FAST! All we ask of members is to complete the weekly checklist (even if no items were completed) and get TWO other people to join. If everybody does that, Canada will quickly become a model for the world to follow! Our philosophy is that it's better to have 99% of people doing SIMPLE things instead of 1% of eco keeners doing everything. | ||||
| Mayors That Have Responded to an Invitation to Participate | |||||
| Response Order | Date | Mayor | City | ||
| 1 | January 24, 2011 | Bill Given | Grande Prairie, Alberta | ||
| 2 | March 21, 2011 | Morris Flewwelling | Red Deer, Alberta | ||
| Challenges Issued/Responses From Challenged Mayors | |||||
| Challenging Mayor | Details | Mayor/City | Response | ||
| Bill Given, Grande Prairie | Challenge issued to Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge | Morris Flewwelling, Red Deer | Accepted | ||
| Bill Given, Grande Prairie | Challenge issued to Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge | Stephen Mandel, Edmonton | No Response | ||
| Bill Given, Grande Prairie | Challenge issued to Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge | Naheed Nenshi, Calgary | Declined | ||
| Bill Given, Grande Prairie | Challenge issued to Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge | Rajko Dodic, Lethbridge | Declined | ||