GreenMark Public Relations®, Inc.

Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, Sept. 23

Things are set to get a little more wild in Chicago as the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park welcomes acclaimed garden expert and author Rick Darke. Co-sponsored by the Winnetka Garden Club, his presentation, “All Things Wild and Sustainable in the New Global Garden,” takes place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 23 in the Millennium Park Room on the fifth floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.

Darke, from Landenberg, Pa., will draw on his unique perspective and expansive background in landscape ethics, photography and contextual design. He will share his thoughts on creating and enjoying gardens as dynamic as they are livable and ecological. In his multi-media presentation, Darke will show examples of authentic, re-vegetative habitats-as-gardens, including notable progressive parks in Germany.

The Lurie Garden is an appropriate place for a discussion on global gardens and the creativity that results from a fusion of local elements and international talent: its four-season, sustainable design is based on an international competition, with a lead landscape architect from Seattle and a perennial planting designer from The Netherlands.

The Lurie Garden is located at the southeast corner of Millennium Park, near the corner of Columbus Drive and Monroe Street. Millennium Park is easily reached by CTA and adjacent public parking is available. It is universally accessible to patrons with disabilities. For more information, visit www.millenniumpark.org.

Visit www.luriegarden.org for more information about the Lurie Garden, including programming, seasonal highlights, plant features and design elements. For more information about Darke’s lecture, and to register, call 312-744-0078. For more information about Darke, visit www.rickdarke.com.

So many of our clients and contacts (including the owners of Uncommon Ground - a truly unique rooftop farm on Chicago’s north side) are represented in this week’s (July 20, 2009) Crain’s Chicago Business green focus issue by Steve Hendershot, who said he knew he could complete the assignment by one phone call to GreenMark PR. The full section is online at the Chicago Business Web site.

GreenMark Public Relations, Inc. won a Silver Trumpet Award for Marketing for “Experiencing the Power of Plants” at the 2009 Golden Trumpet Awards, hosted by the Publicity Club of Chicago. The Publicity Club of Chicago’s Golden Trumpet Awards are the most prestigious awards program in the Midwest honoring distinguished individual achievement of public relations and communications. These coveted awards are presented for excellence in planning, creativity and execution.

GreenMark PR’s Sue Markgraf was a co-chair of this year’s event and can be seen in this video, produced by Dave Smolensky, Publicity Club of Chicago board member and COO of Resolute Consulting, and his team. The event was held Thursday, May 14 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, Ill. The 2009 event celebrates the 50th anniversary of the award.

Happy Earth Day from GreenMark PR! 

On March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm, GreenMark PR will join citizens, businesses, government officials, schools and major landmarks from all corners of the world in a call for global action on climate change by going dark for one hour. From Amman to Warsaw, the skylines of 74 cities in 62 countries will be turning off their non-essential lighting in what will be the largest climate event in history. Participating cities include Auckland, Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Helinski, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Manila, Mexico City, Miami, Moscow, Nashville, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Tel Aviv and Toronto. Hosted by the World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour will seek to reach more than a billion people across a thousand cities.

GreenMark PR participated in Earth Hour 2008 and watched Chicago, one of the flagship cities, turn off the Sears Tower and the rest of its iconic skyline. Other major icons around the world went dark as well, including the Sydney Opera House, Bangkok’s Wat Arun Buddhist temple, the Coliseum in Rome, Stockholm’s Royal Castle, London’s City Hall, New York’s Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Corporations showed their support, with the Coca-Cola billboard in Times Square going dark and Google turning its homepage black for an entire day in tribute.

See photos from the 2008 Earth Hour.

Watch the Earth Hour 2009 video.

For more information about Earth Hour, visit their web site.

GreenMark Public Relations calls for President Barack Obama and the White House horticulture staff to celebrate its first spring at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with the planting of a significant organic vegetable garden that would not only supply food to its residents and visitors, but would support local food pantries and the development of a nationwide Locavore movement. We agree this would help reduce our nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and unsustainable agricultural practices, feed our families more cost-effectively with nutritious food and reduce obesity and disease, while helping educate a younger generation on the merits of caring for the earth and its resources.

Chicago-area based GreenMark Public Relations™ welcomes integrated marketing specialist Beth Burdin to its client services team. As marketing communications senior associate, she will contribute to the expansion of GreenMark’s integrated service offerings

Burdin has 20 years of marketing experience, most recently as the owner/manager of Marketing Works Unlimited. She will be responsible for marketing strategy and implementation for GreenMark’s environmentally-conscious clients, and will assist in new business growth.

As a green collar media relations firm, GreenMark Public Relations is dedicated to the true champions of green. The firm exclusively serves clients making a difference in the fight to protect and preserve the environment and conserve natural resources.

“Beth brings time-tested marketing experience to GreenMark Public Relations. Her understanding of environmental and sustainable issues will uniquely contribute to our clients’ initiatives,” said Sue Markgraf, president and co-founder. “Her skills complement GreenMark’s media relations services, as well as those we offer through our Web development and sponsorship marketing partners.”