JuntoVenture Article
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Justin Link, PR Director
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SAN JOSE, CA. – Look out world, here’s an environmental organization with the ambition and ideas to make a real impact. JuntoVenture is a non-profit organization with a positive approach to business and life combined. Sustainability is not only about improving our natural environment, but improving all environments as a whole. JuntoVenture provides a pro-active approach to business and lifestyle changes which address our environment, recreation, business, finances, lifestyle, and health. Entrepreneurs and media gurus have teamed up to create entertaning and easy solutions and to educate others about sustainability though digital media and networking.
“We are about networking people, grassroot organizations, and businesses together to develop exciting, innovative, and of course greener solutions through media” says JJ Yoshihara, Executive Director and Founder of JuntoVenture. The term Junto was a group created by Benjamin Franklin in 1727 in which he gathered a group of diverse professionals in the hopes of developing innovative solutions to the problems facing society at the time. That is exactly what JuntoVenture is all about, joining individuals and businesses to come up with creative solutions to integrate life and nature into a sustainable future.
JuntoVenture’s approach is all about action. There is a lot of talk and ideas, but a common trend seems to be the ability to take action. There is a lot of action being taken in writing letters, petitions, and protests. Those methods work, and are sometimes all people can provide in their busy lives. Unfortunately, focusing on what is in front of us everyday is often overlooked. JuntoVenture wants to put the information at people’s fingertips, give them choices, provide an outlet for change, and create a model to follow rather than trying to fight against the current model. There are millions of people in the world and all it takes is creative ideas and a path to follow.
How did the ideas and the adventure come about? Well, JuntoVenture started as the Excursion Club at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), an outdoor adventure club of college students who participate in outdoor activities and sports. The club grew from a handful of students into a network of approximately 4,000 paid members. From the huge success, JJ continued on to expand the network to Universities across California, Oregon, and Washington.
During the club’s expansion, weekend backpacking retreats presented pro-active strategies for sustainability to its members, which in turn they used to inspire fellow schoolmates. The strategies focused around outdoor recreation while maintaining sustainability and the environment they utilize. JJ often says “to get people to care about the outdoors, you have to get them into the outdoors.” Just recently, the Excursion Club became carbon-neutral by using membership fees to purchase carbon offset credits for their advetures. Last year they offset over 60 tons of carbon dioxide.
In the fall of 2006, JuntoVenture established an outdoor environmental network through a university tour, called “The Change Your Way Tour”. The purpose of the tour was to spread environmental awareness by getting people into the outdoors. Upon completion of the tour, JJ was certain that he would need to create a better model of environmental stewardship before furthering the organization.
In the months to follow it became evident to create a large environmental influence would require utilizing a more efficient vehicle. The Excursion Club’s Directors’ helped transform JuntoVenture to use mass media as their preferred mode of travel.
JJ Yoshihara and Lacy Skidmore, co-founder of JuntoVenture, created an easy to follow model for living a sustainable life. After much success, they decided to take their ideas and stories on the road. What resulted was an expedition attempt of four travelers that ventured from Death Valley, California to Alaska and back, all while utilizing the most sustainable products feasible. The journey followed sustainability guidelines on what they could eat, wear, use, and do. Prior to the trip they located hundreds of eco-friendly products and secured 55 product donors and 5 sponsors to equip the journey. The trip did have its challenges, but the team received enormous support and direction from local farmers, rangers, natives, and others. Along their journey they learned many important lessons about sustainable living and travel.
The lessons and JuntoVenture ideals lead to an idea for a collaborative environment for exchanging ideas. The “Think Green Live Green Challenge” jump-started the concept with a video challenge to create a community of dialog about the challenges of eco-friendly living. Along with the challenge, a web-based series will drive JuntoVenture’s initial plan, to create an interactive outlet for idea exchange, put information at people’s fingertips, and create an easy and fun model for people to follow.
For more information about JuntoVenture projects, visit www.juntoventure.org.
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