October 8-12, 2014
Held each October in the midst of the largest intact ecosystem in the Lower 48, SHIFT is an annual festival that celebrates the intersection of conservation with Nature, Culture and Adventure. The 2014 SHIFT Festival, which runs from October 8-12, includes speakers such as Barry Lopez, Dr. Marion Nestle, Ed Zahniser, Luther Propst, Auden Schendler and Asher Jay, as well as multiple programmatic pathways.
America’s first sustainable food festival activates the renowned bars, restaurants and foodists of Jackson Hole as we celebrate the interface of food, sustainability, health and place, connect people to the sources of their food, and strengthen our local food system.
The SHIFT Summit convenes leaders from GEMS who are working to preserve and sustain the natural capital of their communities. The Summit is built around the 50 winners of the 2014 SHIFT Sustainability Awards. The awards, which were decided by our SHIFT Partners, recognize the most effective, innovative sustainability initiatives currently underway in North American GEMS.
Conservation lies at the core of Jackson Hole’s environment, economy and character. Over the past 140 years, the region has been the epicenter of some of North America’s seminal conservation efforts, including the formation of Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, the drafting of the Wilderness Act, and the expansion of Grand Teton National Park to its current boundaries.
Throughout North America, some of our most beautiful and well-known communities—places like Bar Harbor, Moab, Sayulita and Hanalei—enjoy a similar relationship between economy, character and natural capital. We call such communities GEMS: Gateways to Environments of Major Significance. Each of these GEMS shares a fundamental reality: over the long term, they can be no healthier than the environments in which they reside.
These GEMS share another trait: they attract both millions of visitors each year and influential part-time residents. When they serve as models of sustainability, they have a unique opportunity to influence the behavior of their guests. By fostering sustainability in North American GEMS, SHIFT seeks to promote them as beacons of possibility—and, by extension, to affect the world they influence.