Greendrinks.org: not just… green drinks!

No, we are not talking about the recipe for a healthy smoothy but about an informal organization present worldwide that meets once a month  in different cities to talk about environmental issues. The meetings are open to everybody, even if the majority of people would normally have a background in the environmental field, they are generally simple and unstructured and are a great occasion to meet people, get new contacts and develop new ideas.

The organization started in 1989 in a London’s pub where Edwin Datschefski, who worked in the green design field, met with a couple of colleagues in front of a drink. From this initial get-together came the idea of setting up regular meetings and eventually the concept expanded to become Green Drinks International as it is known today.

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Datschefski created a website in 2001 and the organization has since exploded to a worldwide phenomenon. Today more than 600 cities have their own Green Drinks meeting group. Each city has its own organizers who arrange meetings in bars and restaurants (often with organic or vegetarian food), exchange information via email, and facilitate discussions.

According to its creator’s words, Green drinks stems from a “biological” concept: It’s “Distributed — there is no central organization, each city organizer can do what they like and maintains their own list of members.

 Viral — member-get-member is the basic principle — a simple concept spread by word of mouth. 

Adaptive — each Green Drinks city has its own logo and traits, the ones that work best for its location — some are a little formal, some rather random, some have speakers to break the ice (like in Scandinavia and some US cities), most are just freeform”.

If you are committed to living green and interested in environmental issues, if talking and exchanging ideas about the environment with like-minded people who can speak freely (as the organization is not externally funded), could be beneficial to our planet, why not give it a go and maybe set up a group in your own city if it’s not already there?

For a good starting point and to get more information, check out the organization’s website: www.greendrinks.org