Women's Conference on Sustainability THIS WEEKEND!

I wish I was going to be in town for this event. The Equipoise Fund and The Nature Conservancy, the first-ever Women's Conference on Sustainability is happening right here in Jackson starting Friday night, May 2. The conference features keynote addresses by Melinda Karmaer, founding director of Women's Earth Alliance, and Wyoming First Lady Nancy Freudenthal.

I was particularly impressed by what Jen Simon of the Nature Conservancy Greater Yellowstone program said about the need for this kind of conference:

"Women seem to be talking about conservation and sustainability in a very different way than men. It seems to be tied to everyday decisions they make: where to eat, what to buy, how to spend their money, how to raise their children.

"In particular, I looked at women like Wangari Maathai of the Green Belt Movement and Melinda Kramer and noticed their projects don’t just address the environment; they address all facets of people in the community.

"These projects include economic empowerment and social justice as a necessary component of a sustainable future. And that's a particularly inspiring idea: that you could use conservation to remedy a whole host of systemic issues.

"The other unique factor is the increasing ability of women to make financial decisions. And because women approach conservation differently than men, such decisions will become an increasingly important driver in whether and how sustainable products are distributed and developed in the coming years."

For more info and to register, go to The Nature Conservancy page here.

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