Artocracy.org Makes 1% for the Planet Donation to Ecotrust of Portland, Oregon

Artocracy has chosen Ecotrust of Portland, Oregon to be the recipient of this years 1% For the Planet donation. Last year Megan Murphy, the founder of Artocracy, decided that Artocracy needed to join One Percent for the Planet. Founded by Yvon Chouinard, environmental activist and founder of Patagonia, Inc., and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies. One Percent is an alliance of businesses committed to leveraging their resources to create a healthier planet.

Spokane, WA (PRWEB) March 23, 2006 -- Artocracy has chosen Ecotrust of Portland, Oregon to be the recipient of this years 1% For the Planet donation. Last year Megan Murphy, the founder of Artocracy, decided that Artocracy needed to join One Percent for the Planet. Founded by Yvon Chouinard, environmental activist and founder of Patagonia, Inc., and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies. One Percent is an alliance of businesses committed to leveraging their resources to create a healthier planet.

Members of 1% For the Planet recognize their responsibility to and dependence on a healthy environment and donate at least one percent of their annual net revenues to environmental organizations worldwide.The alliance aims to prove that taking environmental responsibility is good for business. The decision to join is based on giving artists an opportunity to donate outside of the art world. This gives the artists a voice and makes a difference through the sale of their artwork. The decision to give the money this year to Ecotrust is because of their work and leadership in conservation economics, the idea that we can all prosper while sustaining the planet, something that Artocracy aspires to. Ecotrust has set a bar for organizations to do the right thing for people and the planet, their work is invaluable.

Artocracy is funded through the sale of Megan Murphy’s paintings and drawings available at PDX Contemporary Art in Portland, Oregon and Ochi in Sun Valley, Idaho. She thinks of Artocracy as a way to have artists and art lovers support the arts through living with art. As Artocracy grows and becomes profitable, (it still has a ways to go) the artists will vote on where the 1% money goes each year, thus giving them a global environmental voice.

Ecotrust was created in 1991 by a small group of diverse people who sought to bring some of the good ideas emerging around sustainability back to the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest. They set out to characterize this region and articulate a more enduring strategy for its prosperity. These efforts are predicated on the notion, gaining an ever-wider currency, that economic and ecological systems are mutually interdependent. To this relationship Ecotrust and others have sought to add a third "e" -- social equity -- to ensure that economic development awards benefits to all the region's citizens. Economy, ecology, and equity: the triple bottom line.

Five integrated program areas define and guide Ecotrust’s efforts to build Salmon Nation: Native Programs, Fisheries, Forestry, Food and Farms, and Citizenship. Artocracy’s donation is on behalf of the artists of Artocracy to help Ecotrust in their work making the world be a better place.

If you would like to get involved with Artocracy please visit,
http://www.artocracy.org. For more information on Ecotrust, please visit, http://www.ecotrust.org. For information about One Percent for the Planet, please visit, http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org.

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