The Visionary Dinner: FACT SHEET

Atlanta - February 2003

BACKGROUND
The inaugural Visionary Dinner, in 1999 hosted by Southface, served as a kick-off event for Southface’s annual Greenprints Conference. To promote its mission, Southface has continued to bring world-renowned visionary speakers to the Atlanta Visionary Dinner. The event has evolved into a gala for Southface, which further helps to advance the Southface mission of promoting sustainable homes, workplaces and communities through education, advocacy, research and technical assistance.

THE 2003 DINNER
Starting in 2003, the Visionary Dinner, Southface’s annual fundraising event, focuses on sustainability beyond the human need of building and shelter. The dinner combines a Slow Food, organic meal with sustainable Fetzer Wines to focus on the environmental impact of food, another crucial human need. Perpetuating the Dinner’s role as one that supports the Southface mission, the Dinner is scheduled the night prior to the annual conference as a way to encourage the implementation of sustainable ideas.

Speaker: Lester R. Brown Called “One of the world’s most influential thinkers” by The Washington Post, Brown will speak on the economic vitality, or Eco-Economy, of our region as it relates to the perception of resources such as water as an issue of public importance.

PAST YEARS
1999
Visionary Dinner Speaker: Paul Hawken Environmental author and co-founder of Smith and Hawken, he wrote Ecology of Commerce that articulated a self serving responsibility of private enterprise to reverse and ultimately restore the ecological balance of the earth’s natural systems. Hawken suggests the air we breath and water we use are free of charge when derived from nature. But cleaning them artificially would be so expensive, it would likely collapse the entire capitalist system.

2000
Visionary Dinner Speaker: Amory Lovins Lovins founded Rocky Mountain Institute, which fosters the efficient and restorative use of resources to create a more secure, prosperous, and life-sustaining world. Familiar with renewable energy, clean transportation, and green building technologies as they relate to business, Lovins co-authored Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution with Paul Hawken.

2001
Visionary Dinner Speaker: William McDonough McDonough, acclaimed for his creative building designs and ecologically intelligent architecture, was named a “Hero for the Planet” by Time Magazine for his insight that cities and buildings can be designed to mimic living systems and effectively eliminate pollution. His hopefully message indicated the future needs of our environment, economy and society become more balanced, a standard business practice called “eco-effectiveness” is possible.

2002
Visionary Dinner Speaker: Ray Suarez Renowned journalist Ray Suarez, who has twenty years of experience and works on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, spoke about the growth of Atlanta and other cities as it relates to his book The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration: 1966-1999. Suarez examined cities, neighborhoods, demographic trends and social networks, capturing a crucial chapter in the American experience.