Jacqui Dixon, Green Drinks
Globally Green Drinks started in London and has been regularly running since 1989. It is now a global movement represented in 100 countries. It is an informal networking opportunity for the environmental and sustainability sector — a Platform to share ideas and feel inspired and confident with local people.
Jacqui had been to Green Drinks in London and saw the benefits. When she moved to Hong Kong, Jacqui realised that there were limited opportunities to network around green issues. She started Green Drinks in Hong Kong in Nov 2006 with a friend, Kate Trumbell. It has been operating ever since Monthly, on every second Wed.
There is a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. It’s a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organising network.
Jacqui endeavours to team seek out bright ideas to share with the group. All speakers have topics relevant to sustainability. Speakers’ topics raise awareness and spur people to explore the topic further. These events are straightforward and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. Green Drinks is giving people a resource and an opportunity to come together. It is a great intro for people to get a base understanding of some “green” issues.
Jacqui is also keen on encouraging participation from local Hong Kong people (Cantonese speakers). Although in Hong Kong there are mainly English speakers, so it is a challenge to cross into the non-English speaking community.
Jacqui’s vision for the future is that all humans are capable of transcending the issues that we have created. We can and will get over our cultural/political barriers/issues to come up with the solutions that are needed in this world. There is so much potential amongst individuals particularly when they come together that potential can be maximised.
Contact: http://www.greendrinks.org/
Jacqui Dixon: jdixon@csr-asia.com
