Have you ever dreamt about becoming a wildlife filmmaker? Traversing the world’s most beautiful natural places to capture magnificent flora and fauna on film? In many ways, these things describe the lives of the leaders of Elevate Destinations’ upcoming Nature Filmmaking Expeditions. Jeff Morales is an award winning, National Geographic filmmaker whose current project has him traveling to the other side of the world to film salt water crocodiles. Colin Bates is a biologist whose other hats include photographer, videographer and polar expedition guide (he’s in Antarctica as we speak).
These two amazing guides will be taking travelers on an experience they will never forget, if only because of the amazing footage each traveler will learn to shoot while they’re there. Aspiring filmmakers (no experience necessary!) will have insider access to national parks in Panama and Kenya. The Panama trip departs in May, and Kenya will be in August. Travelers will learn shooting, editing and story telling techniques in an intimate atmosphere, all in the midst of incredible scenery.
Are you going to follow your dreams to Panama and Kenya?
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within:Is there a better way that you can think of to educate the world about the beauty of nature than filming? Have you really ever dreamt of being the next David Attenborough? What other trip can you go on an bring home every single memory capture with such precise footage?
Join The Global Fund for Women (GFW) on an incredible journey to parts of the ancient Silk Road in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Since 1994, GFW has supported women’s groups in these two countries with nearly $700,000 in grants. Travelers will see, first-hand, how these grantees persistently work to adapt their environments to women’s needs and bring change to their communities. Like other countries in the region, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been shaped by a long history of transcontinental trade, occupation and regime changes. Travelers will engage with women’s rights organizations there working in some of the most challenging political, economic, and social conditions and witness the transformations these women have achieved. In addition to meeting with their grantee partners, guests will experience the famous Central Asian hospitality and take a peek into the endless beauty of a region that has left many in awe and others in love.
In November 2009, GFW took an amazing group of travelers to India to experience a different culture than this but with similar goals in mind. Watch traveler Lisa Bottom’s video of her trip and read about her experience here.
Book now to experience this amazing journey with GFW!
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: Have you ever had the opportunity to interact on this level with a woman from another country? What could you share with these women and take away in return? Are there other projects that support women that you would recommend to GFW?
The 2009 Africa Water Week was held in Johannesburg late in the year and was hosted by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) and the Government of South Africa. The conference started with a film that caught quite a bit of attention: children dying in droves due to poor sanitation. In Africa, according to UNICEF, access to water supply and sanitation was estimated to be 64% and 38% respectively compared to the world averages of 87% and 62% in 2006.
Photo Courtesy of AMCOW
Ms. Buyelwa Patience Sonjica, South Africa’s Minister of Water and Environment (and the new president of AMCOW) countered this introduction by suggesting we paint a more balanced picture by including what has been achieved, not only highlighting what remains outstanding. Although Africa is off-track to reach the Millennium Development Goals, the rallying cry of the week became “sprint to the finish,” encouraging participants that one last enduring link between water security and economic growth is undisputed. Sonjica also touched upon the governance and the need not only of solidarity and cooperation across nations and continents, but also the wish that African nations seek indigenous solutions.
Trevor Manuel, perhaps the most inspiring speaker of the week, helped to capture some of the Zeitgeist with his eloquent exposition on the nature of the problem, and some measure of the types of solutions required - not least the need to get the finance ministers on board. He opened with a saying from Mark Twain, ‘whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting over’ and eloquently questioned not only who is responsible for water provision but also for infrastructure upkeep. He pointed out that in South Africa there are instances of dams brimming with water, but the surrounding communities lacking access. The poor will not remain trapped in rural poverty on unproductive and dry land, as unplanned urbanization remains a challenge for sanitation infrastructure provision. Health studies and environmental contamination reveal the consequences of lacking inadequate sanitation. Manuel further questioned whether water is a right or a privilege, and who gets to decide?
Photo Courtesy of Belinda Fleischmann
The 1,500 participants who spent the rest of the time at Water Week milling around between charged discussions on financing, transboundary issues, climate change and sanitation brought a greater level of seriousness to tackling many of the pressing water issues.
Elevate Destinations is proud to announce a trip dedicated to all of this: Water 2010. Further details to come on the Responsive Travel Blog!
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: Who does get to decide on water issues? Should utilities be public or private entities? Once infrastructure and rights issues are in place and adequately prioritized, are governments sufficiently equipped to introduce measures to manage this finite and diminishing resource? Are there transboundary treaties and do riparian countries cooperate? Can polluters be adequately fined? And what about the issue of precipitation?
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, romance is in the air. If you are engaged or planning on getting married in the future and in the Boston area this Sunday (February 14th) for the annual lover’s holiday, we invite you to swing by the Elegantly Green Wedding Showcase to say hi to the Elevate Destinations team and check out a variety of green wedding/honeymoon tips for your future!
Photo Courtesy of Elegantly Green Wedding Showcase
This is the first annual Elegantly Green Wedding Showcase and every wedding necessity from eco-friendly invitations to organic food will be on display for lovers to be.
Elevate Destinations will be there helping couples plan an eco-friendly way to celebrate their marriages and to allow each and everyone to have the honeymoon of their dreams. We look forward to seeing you there and Happy Valentine’s Day!
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: Would you consider greening your wedding and honeymoon? If you have impending nuptials what would it take to make your day eco-friendly? Would you consider giving back on your honeymoon or destination wedding through service?
As millions of dollars pour in for emergency first response to Haiti’s humanitarian disaster, caused by the massive earthquake, please consider a second response donation to rebuild Haiti. Your donation will provide resources to grassroots groups throughout Haiti and create an enduring impact once the initial wave of giving has waned.
Photos Courtesy of the New York Times
The earthquake and its 20+ aftershocks have pounded Haiti and destroyed many of the sustainable development projects run by grassroots groups that are partnering with the Lambi Fund of Haiti. Here are the Lambi Fund’s plans for helping communities recover:
The Lambi Fund of Haiti is not a first responder, but a second responder, meaning Lambi Fund will be there to help Haiti rebuild long after the relief service providers leave.
Help members of peasant groups get food and essentials for their families to re-establish their lives.
Help Lambi Fund field staff replace their belongings (food, clothing, furniture) that were lost in the quake. The sooner we help them get back on their feet, the sooner they can help peasant communities rebuild.
Recapitalize micro-credit funds run by peasant organizations so that people can replenish and continue their small businesses.
Rebuild grain mills, sugar cane mills and other economic development community enterprises lost in the earthquake. These buildings are the centers of communities’ economic livelihoods.
Repair rainwater cisterns so people will have a supply of safe drinking water.
The earthquakes have devastated communities that were already marginalized by poverty and economic inequities. Your donation will help re-build and strengthen what works in Haiti - peasant led development projects that help entire communities become environmentally and economically sustainable.
Lambi Fund of Haiti is a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization and your contribution is tax deductible under all applicable laws. Lambi Fund earned the highest rating from Charity Navigator, indication fiscal responsibility and accountability.
Thank you again for your support as we work together to re-build and strengthen the peasant communities of Haiti.
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: Have you donated to help relief efforts and to rebuild communities in Haiti? What other organizations have efforts like this to help once first response teams have moved out? Do you know of any other resources and ways to help these devastated communities?
After a short break, the Responsive Travel Blog is back! Happy New Year to all of the responsive travelers out there. 2010 is the year of the Tiger in Chinese astrology and promises to be a fierce and spectacular adventure!
The new year brings the ‘new consumer’. The Wall Street Journal says that the ‘new consumer’ has gone from a spendthrift to a penny pincher that is more concerned with social responsibility. This ‘new consumer’ and Elevate Destinations are the feature of Conde Nast Traveler’s recent Truth Travel post.
If you are taking to the skies in your new year, be sure to check out United Airlines’ Hemispheres Magazine with a feature on Elevate Destinations’ up and coming Fair Trade Chocolate Tour in Belize.
What better way to ring in a new decade than connecting with communities across the globe in a socially and environmentally responsive way. Wishing all of you a wonderful new year and we hope that you will consider responsive travel in this new decade!!!
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: What ways are you going to amp up your responsive travel in the new year or new decade? Are there areas in your travel that could be more responsive? What areas of the globe are you going to contribute to this year?
Last week FIFA (the International Football (soccer to Americans!) Federation) released more tickets to the World Cup Soccer Tournament this coming June in South Africa. In correlation with this release, Elevate Destinations is offering a number of customized community tours to complement travelers’ experience at the South Africa World Cup. Such touring will introduce travelers to some of the issues and challenges prevalent in South African communities as well as introduce innovative non-profit organizations
seeking to make a positive impact. Tours can be organized for a minimum of 1 or 2 days or longer. Enhance your World Cup experience by giving back to communities that will be there long after World Cup events are over.
Photo Courtesy of Sports Trust
Elevate Destinations will be partnering with some great organizations to make this possible:
The Sports Trust was established in September 1995 as a joint venture between the private and public sectors – all with a shared goal of providing opportunities to play sport to all South Africans, at all levels, across all sporting codes. Since its inception, The Sports Trust has sponsored more than 200 projects throughout South Africa. The Sports Trust has mounted a campaign to distribute 20,000 soccer shoes before the World Cup, to disadvantaged children who cannot participate in the sport for lack of footwear.
Founded by Cedza Dlamini, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, The Ubuntu Institute is a non-profit organization in South Africa looking at the role of culture, heritage and indigenous knowledge systems in achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa.
The mission of Uthando South Africa is to provide a platform and infrastructure to raise funds from individuals, groups and organizations who have an interest in the region. The money generated supports a broad range of grass roots, community based, sustainable, innovative and empowerment projects with substantial and enduring value to the most destitute and marginalized communities in South Africa.
For more information on the World Cup Community Tours contact info@elevatedestinations.com.
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: What would it look like if events as famous as the world cup all involved a giving back aspect to them? Would you consider partaking in a service opportunity if you were headed to watch the most famous soccer tournament in the world? What would it be like if the World Cup went green?
The holiday season the world is turning to green and responsive gifts to give to their colleagues and loved ones. Everywhere you go you notice people giving to charity in another’s name or giving gifts that give back to communities around the world. We thought we’d share some of our favorite eco/responsive holiday gift ideas below to encourage you to spread the holiday cheer!
Photo Courtesy of World of Good
An eco-friendly, responsive vacation: Are you traveling this holiday season? Elevate Destinations offers customized, private and family tours to all corners of the globe. Each trip is eco-friendly and gives back to the place that you visit.
A tree: Treenex sells eco-friendly holiday cards and plants a tree that your giftee can follow from the day it’s planted in their honor.
Empowerment for girls: Donate $5 to 5 for Fairness and send out a unique holiday card to honor of the special girl in your life. Each holiday card sent allows the receiver to vote in the voice of fairness for women!
Jewelery, clothing, housewares, or electronics: World of Good sells all of these things and they are ethically sourced, fair trade, and eco-friendly.
A GlobalGiving Gift Card: GlobalGiving Gift Cards let you give the gift of giving and the recipient gets to choose where to donate the money and who it is helping.
Photo Courtesy of GlobalGiving
Click here for more great green gift ideas for this holiday season, including SIGG Bottles from GetNGreen!
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: Would you consider giving a gift that would support a community in need somewhere in the world? Will you add any of these green/responsive gifts to your holiday list this year? What are some other gift ideas that you have that give back to places that we visit?
In addition to the building initiatives we spoke about in Part II of the Most Sustainable Buildings episode, another contender for greenest building is the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan with its recently announced eco-renovations. Taipei 101 seeks to be the tallest green building in the world. To achieve this accomplishment, $1.8 million will be spent in energy efficiency upgrades and other green renovations, with an expected savings of $20 million annually.
Photo Courtesy of Inhabit.com
These buildings address the needs of people working in these buildings in cities across the world. However, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Program, in many cities, especially in developing countries, slum dwellers make up more than 50% of the population. In these areas, many of the features that would satisfy the criteria of the greenest building are being met.
If we take the green building definition above literally, a shack may be the greenest building of all. Often “off-the-grid”, and made with reclaimed materials like corrugated aluminum and old wood, the house of a slum dweller leaves perhaps the smallest carbon footprint of any home anywhere. Obviously, this analysis overlooks the most important defining factors of any building, one most of us take for granted everyday - the requirement of a real sustainable settlement to provide adequate shelter, and provide a home and community that is safe, has access to safe drinking water, food, appropriate infrastructure and opportunities to earn a living and obtain health care.
Photo Courtesy of the Shaster Foundation
Is it possible to achieve these requirements while leaving a small footprint on Earth? Organizations like the Shaster Foundation in South Africa are trying and succeeding. Their Indlovu Project in Monwabisi Park, an informal settlement on the outskirts of Cape Town uses an innovative system developed specifically for the upgrading of squatter camps. Shaster Foundation uses sandbags and eco-beams, among other green systems to build the clinic, soup kitchen, youth centre, training centre, organic food gardens, public laundry facility, guest house and tourist centre to create a community that addresses the environmental, social and economic factors of sustainability.
The status of greenest building is not as important as the sum of the innovations and initiatives that together allow us to reach the end goal, a sustainable place for all of us to live.
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: Do you make sure to stay in green buildings when you travel? What are your criteria for other green aspects of your life? Would you consider downgrading in size and amenities to live more sustainably?
Green building has moved into mainstream design and construction in a major way, especially in the United States, England, India, Germany and Australia, to name a few nations with significant green building initiatives. But which of these or other countries can claim to be home to the greenest building in the world?
Photo Courtesy of Jetsongreen.com
Green building is widely defined as a building that is energy, water and other resource - efficient in its construction and use, that is healthy for its inhabitants and which causes little to no negative site disturbance.
To find out what others think, I googled “greenest building” and, as expected, many lists come up naming major commercial buildings with interesting features, like the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Agriculture building in Doha, Qatar designed by Aesthetics Architects GO Group. Dubbed “the cactus building,” the facade mimics the skin of the cactus, one of the hardiest plants of the desert, with hundreds of exterior smart shades that open and close depending on the strength of the sun, making it appropriate for the arid, hot climate of Doha. This sort of design is representative of the concept of bio-mimicry, taking inspiration from nature to solve human problems sustainably. As such, the building is able to efficiently address energy and thermal comfort issues that arise in buildings located in desert climates. Designs this innovative, that incorporate technology based in nature, are a positive component of new commercial green buildings.
Photo Courtesy of Jetsongreen.com
In addition to new construction initiatives, many examples of buildings that are being upgraded to meet green standards are candidates for greenest building status. The reuse of a building’s existing structure avoids the use of tons of building materials and energy that go into new construction. Existing building stock also needs to be addressed in order to have an impact on carbon emissions, energy, land use and other sustainability issues in a meaningful way. According to Architecture 2030 existing buildings in the United States currently consume over 40% of our energy. Retrofitting these buildings to green standards is equally important, if not more so, than constructing new green buildings.
Photo Courtesy of Architecture 2030
In the next Episode of the Green Design Mini Series we will discuss other famous green buildings throughout the world and further characteristics of what makes a building green.
Awakening the Responsive Traveler Within: What do you think is the greenest building in the world? What are your personal criteria for a green building? Do you live in one or would you?
