In this issue:

1. Earth Day 2000: Swift River, Jamaica
The launch of a new Greenstar Village Center; free music, artwork for download

2. New Premium Partners
A powerful group of new organizations joins with Greenstar for ecommerce

3. Ambassadors, new Executive Strengthen the Greenstar Team
New business and solar energy advisors

4. Greenstar Explorers Program Launched
A simple, fascinating way to participate in the Greenstar worldwide adventure

Earth Day in Jamaica

In 184 countries around the world, millions of people attending thousands of events marked their re-commitment to protecting the earth and its resources -- resources which include the whole human family, in our vast, varied, interdependent Web.

Earth Day is a Premium Partner of Greenstar. And we marked the occasion with the launch of a new Greenstar Village Center in Swift River, Jamaica. Far from the protected resorts and gorgeous tourist beaches of this lush Caribbean island, the people of Swift River live much as they have for four hundred years, since the days of slavery.

A team of Greenstar people was there for a week before Earth Day, high in the remote Blue Mountains in the eastern section of Jamaica, working with the people to bring you an authentic, rare voice: music, artwork, photography, virtual panoramas -- from a tradition that is rich in language, wisdom and history.

You can see some initial samples of their work, recorded over the last few days, right here:

More new material, in addition to the four songs, a piece of recorded poetry, twenty photographs and three pieces of original artwork in today's preview, will be placed soon on our website. The selection is rich, the voices magnetic, the feeling of connection to the earth is clear. If you want to be kept up-to-date, subscribe to the free Greenstar Newsletter.

An Earth Day Festival was held in Swift River, in which the people came together to learn and celebrate, with live music, free food, fruit and tree plantings, painting of village buildings, and the installation of a new solar oven. Greenstar has supplied a powerful new computer to the village, and shortly, a large solar panel array will arrive to supply power to the community center.

This project has been organized in co-operation with a local group, the Swift River Re-Development Association, which seeks to bring advances in health, education, employment, energy and basic services to Swift River while maintaining its precious, original character. Soon, digital products will be for sale on the Web; income from sales of these products will be used to jumpstart local development projects. Under the guidance of local organizers Jackie Stuart and Pauline Stuart, Swift River will discover its connection with the world.

This new material adds to the beauty of the digital culture products already available from Greenstar's first Solar-Powered Village Center, in the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank. Traditional Bedouin music is available here:

And artwork from the village of Al-Kaabneh is available here:

New Premium Partners

There are many organizations around the world which share common objectives with Greenstar, and we hear from so many of them, wanting us to help them with their projects, offering to help Greenstar with its work.

We sought a simple, original way to achieve a flexible, profitable relationship with these groups, and so developed the Premium Partners program, which allows any qualifying organization to receive a commission of 8% on sales of Greenstar products, and creates a special spotlight for these organizations on our website.

There are now 23 qualified Premium Partners; eight of them have joined in the past few weeks. You can find out about the Premium Partner program, and if your organization might be qualified to join, right here:

The new Premium Partners are:

Cabrini Connections "It Takes a Village To Raise a Child." Cabrini Connections is dedicated to helping build the village. Cabrini Connections provides an organized framework that empowers and encourages adult volunteers to give their time, effort, ideas and advocacy in seeking life-changing solutions for children living in educationally and economically disadvantaged environments

Community Power Community Power Corporation provides renewable energy products and services that improve the social and economic condition of people in unelectrified communities. CPC has developed a new, commercially sustainable model for generating and selling energy products and services to rural and isolated communities.

Corporate Community Investment Service (CorCom) CorCom brokers allliances between the operational arm of businesses and nonprofits for joint ventures. With nonprofit partners, businesses can decrease the risks of entry into a new market, attract trained workers, get products into remote and rural areas, increase worker productivity and build good will through community investments. Nonprofits can tap into the financial expertise of business and its financial resources.

Environmental Volunteers Environmental Volunteers teaches children of all ages to love nature and learning! The organization's mission is to promote understanding of, and responsibility for, the environment through hands-on science education.

InterConnection InterConnection is a non-profit group that donates websites, computers and provides internet training to organizations dedicated to benefiting the local community or environment in developing countries.

Legacy International Legacy creates environments where people can address personal, community, and global needs while developing skills and effective responses to change. The organization helps communities address diversity training, community development, youth education, cross-cultural competency, professional retraining, and the environment.

Sustainable Business SB.com provides a wide complement of services necessary to support the sustainable business community on the Internet (information, employment, business services) and to assist in its integration into mainstream society. A free newsletter provides advance alerts on developments in energy, ecology, new business, finance, innovative products and services, and social action.

Visual Arts League Visual Arts League gathers global creative energies and gives them focus. Through the VALWEB site we are setting up a framework to come together to create, experiment, and nurture ideas. Today, artists are challenged to join with the world community in creating a hothouse environment which nurtures creativity. How do we bring art off the walls and pedestals and put it to work?

You can see a completue directory of all Greenstar Premium Partners at:

New Greenstar Ambassadors, Executive

Greenstar has built a stellar group of Ambassadors, who advise the company on our energy, health, education, environment and ecommerce strategies worldwide.

Two new internationally-respected people have become Ambassadors in recent weeks; they are:

Mary Buffett, bestselling author of Buffettology, advisor on investment strategies, expert on business and finance; music and arts distribution.

Peter Varadi, founder of Solarex, the largest solar power manufacturer, and of PV GAP: solar power manufacturing, supply, deployment and quality control

We are also very proud to announce that a new senior executive has joined Greenstar, full-time, to help propel our worldwide strategies:

Charles Gay is one of the founders of Greenstar and President of ASE Americas, the leading solar technology company in the US. Charlie's vast experience in photovoltaics, and in operations in developing countries, will be a vital key to Greenstar's success.

Greenstar Explorers

Greenstar plans to install 300 Solar-Powered Ecommerce Centers in developing countries around the world, over the next five years.

We are looking for a few special people who can work now on small, specific projects. These people will begin by demonstrating their skills through a brief volunteer assignment, doing about 16 hours of work on their own computers and Internet connections, working with Greenstar staff on the phone and email over a three-week period.

People who do well on this initial assignment may then be given paid work at $15-20 per hour, undertaking short 2-3 week assignments in their spare time, and will be asked to bring another person into the Explorers program, to replace them in the Explorers pool.

To read more, and apply to be a Greenstar Explorer, click here:

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