Any question you have about the environment — the best eco-clothing line or whether climate change is a hoax — David Pascal and company will try to answer it, as part of their Copenhagen Café, a two-week long environmental salon in downtown San Francisco that will parallel the U.N. climate talks underway in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Perched by the glass storefront of the warmly lit reMake Lounge, Pascal welcomes in curious holiday shoppers visiting the high-end Crocker Galleria mall on Sutter and Montgomery streets to chat about the environment and attend their roster of events.
“There is so much information about the environment, people don’t know where to start — we want to give them a place to start,” said Pascal, president of the San Francisco Carbon Collaborative, a new environmental nonprofit behind the Copenhagen Café. Pascal was also, until a few days ago, employed by the city of San Francisco as an advocate for clean technology and green businesses. He said he left the position, which he held for two years, because of the city’s budget cuts.
The Café opened its doors Dec. 7 as world leaders gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, to begin their much-anticipated negotiations for a new agreement to limit carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. Hopes that the U.S. and other developed countries will commit to emissions reductions were buoyed recently when President Obama announced that he would attend the meeting’s final day, Dec. 18.
Volunteers at the Copenhagen Café follow such developments closely and each morning produce a quick-and-dirty update of statements coming from the talks. Hanging out on black fuzzy couches around low coffee tables stacked with environmental reads, the volunteers scan their laptop computers and project onto a large screen at the back of the arty lounge live Twitter feeds from reporters and delegates tweeting the negotiations.
A community art space, The reMake Lounge regularly hosts exhibitions and do-it-yourself classes and shares the gallery with Green Zebra Environmental Action Center, which produces coupon books promoting sustainable businesses. The current installation covering the walls features pieces that turn trash into sculpture, jewelry and wall art and has proved useful for luring in passersby. Shoppers peer quizzically at the window displays and then pop in to ask what’s going on, Pascal said.
The eye-catching art and prime holiday shopping location appealed to Pascal as an opportunity to reach a new audience. “Or else we’d just be talking to ourselves again,” he said. The San Francisco Carbon Collaborative launched as a nonprofit in September with an aim to promote climate change policy and green businesses through public programs, among other outlets. The Copenhagen Café is its first initiative.
In an effort to attract both the unsuspecting shopper and seasoned environmentalist, they’re hosting daily coffee talks — 10-minute presentations about various aspects of climate change — and a nightly two-hour panel, covering topics such as forests, environmental justice and clean technology.
Panels have discussed using forests to store carbon dioxide and a new venture that hopes to be the Kiva of land conservation. By allowing the public to donate small amounts of money online to private nature reserves, the new organization EcoReserve aims to protect threatened forests. Other upcoming talks include a look at green technology development and transfer and sustainable urban development.
The two weeks will conclude by trying to answer the biggest environmental question of all: What can we do about these problems? A handful of local environmental groups will give brief presentations on how to participate in their work.
