This week we highlighted the Malkis’ vision in founding Green Cities and Jerome Ringo’s focus on the human element of sustainability. Creative Loafing’s  Joshua Michael Poll reviews the latest Green Cities event and highlights the 1 MW Solar Electric System at the Orange County Convention Center and Orlando’s Mayor Buddy Dyer’s announcement of “Green Works Orlando”. Here’s a list of posts about Green Cities from this week, in case you missed them:

EcoFactory Interviews Apollo Alliance’s President Jerome Ringo

What is Sustainability? Interview with Georgia Malki

EcoFactory Interview with Joseph Malki

Green Cities in the news this week:

Creative Loafing Recaps Green Cities Florida

For me, this was a breath of fresh air. Often when in a green convention, you’re likely to meet a huge mass of straight-ticket voters who hold the party line no matter what. Joseph Malki seemed pleased to rock the boat a little in revealing that he was a self-proclaimed radical green Republican. It was startling for a minute, and then it made sense. In order for the green movement to stick, it needs to have firm supporters on both sides of the aisle. Joseph Malki could be that guy.

Joseph talked to us about the science of sustainability, and made the point that business and government aren’t cooperating on green initiatives in a meaningful way. Joseph argued that green was turned into an ideology by progressives, activists, and the political left. He cited numerous instances where green initiatives turned out to be disasters, namely biofuel and CFL life-cycle risk-assessment.

It all makes sense to me. Creating meaningful change with this momentum requires a scientific, codified approach if we want it to last longer than the current administration. Joseph Malki may represent the future generation of green conservatives, or even the green movement as a whole.

-by Nate Kharrl of ecofactory

In this interview from April 2, Kimberly Miller speaks with Joseph B. Malki, founder of the Green Cities conference.
Malki discusses sustainability, the birth of Green Cities and the importance of working across party lines.

[ Transcript coming soon ]

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Joseph B. Malki is the visionary founder of the new Green Cities™ event series and development platform. He is also the co-founder and a partner at Seven-Star, Inc. He has over twenty years of consulting and industry experience with primary disciplines in green marketing strategy, business development, and information technology. He is a military veteran, visionary marketer with a deep commitment to social and environmental responsibility.

Mr. Malki is a passionate speaker and a representative of the green conservative movement: supporting the science of sustainability and ecology into our nation’s educational and infrastructural development. Joseph was recently featured as a keynote speaker at the International Festival and Events Association in Australia. He is part of the original 1000 students trained by the honorable Al Gore at The Climate Project in presenting the scientific basis for climate change to lay audiences.

Joseph Malki’s background is in green event production, environmental activism, green construction, cooperatives, information technology and creative partnership development has steered his services to America’s top organizations. His consultancy clients have included the State of California, the City and County of San Francisco, Lowe McAdams Health Care, Alcone Marketing and Hample Stefanides, among others. For the last twelve years, he has developed synergistic opportunities between IT, marketing and event production industries for the environmental sector. In 2002, Mr. Malki served as the Director of Marketing for EventPro Strategies, developing projects for American Idol, US Army -NASCAR, General Mills, Turner Networks, and Loews Theaters. There he architected the largest model talent database in the US and went on to develop Seven-Star’s database, also noted as the largest green business to business database in the world.

[ Read Entire Bio ]