Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition Leads as First Great Lakes Green Event
Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition Leads as First Great Lakes Green Event
CLEVELAND, OHIO (October 12, 2023) – The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers (GSGP) today launched a new regional initiative, Great Lakes Green Events, in Cleveland. The initiative encourages destination stewardship and environmentally beneficial practices for conferences and other events in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence region. Host organizations are encouraged to adopt practices like reducing food waste and eliminating single-use plastic bottles at their events. Great Lakes Green Events organizers also support tree planting projects in the local community.
Today marked the first official Great Lakes Green Event—the 2023 Great Lakes Conference hosted by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.
“We are thrilled that the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition wanted to hold the first Great Lakes Green Event,” said David Naftzger, executive director of GSGP. “With its members’ passion for restoring and protecting the environment, it is fitting that the Coalition serve in this role and be a model for other Great Lakes Green Events.”
“We all have a part to play in creating a more sustainable world, and the Coalition is proud to be doing our part by participating in the Great Lakes Green Events initiative,” said Laura Rubin, executive director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.
Tree planting is also a major part of the initiative due to the multiple environmental benefits of trees, such as storing carbon, absorbing stormwater, and improving the health of streams and lakes, as well as public health benefits like reducing urban heat effects, providing shade, and improving local air quality. A tree planting ceremony with Governor DeWine and other dignitaries is planned for tomorrow (Friday, October 13) at 2:45 p.m. at Cleveland’s Great Lakes Science Center, in partnership with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and the Cleveland Trees Coalition. GSGP holds its Leadership Summit—a Great Lakes Green Event--from October 13-15 in Cleveland and the ceremony will take place immediately following GSGP’s press conference featuring participating Governors and Premiers.
About the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition
The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is a coalition of local, state, and regional advocates working together to establish Great Lakes restoration and protection as a national conservation priority. Since its inception in 2004, the Coalition has successfully secured a strong Great Lakes restoration plan and more than $3.5 billion in federal funds to clean up toxic pollution that poses a threat to people and wildlife, reduce polluted runoff that causes harmful algal blooms that poison drinking water, stop invasive species that harm fish and wildlife and outdoor recreation, and reverse habitat destruction that harms the environment and hurts the economy.
About Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers (GSGP)
GSGP unites the eight US Governors and 2 Canadian Premiers from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec and Wisconsin. The Governors and Premiers work as equal partners to grow the region’s $6 trillion economy and protect the world’s largest system of surface fresh water.
Visit the Great Lakes Green Events website for more information on the initiative.
