All Green Drinks follow the Green Drinks Code. Read it to see how Green Drinks works and then apply to set up in your town or city.

1. Green Drinks are Open

• Green Drinks is mostly for people working on environmental issues, but anyone can come -- people from environment groups, business, government, academia and as individuals. The spirit of green drinks is that anyone can come, and this makes for the interesting interactions. There is no 'us and them'. Ensure that everyone is welcome. Green Drinks is inclusive and not exclusive.

• Organizers and all attendees actively welcome newcomers and introduce them to others in the group.

• All attendees commit to meeting new people at every session and not just sticking with people they already know.

2. Green Drinks are Freeform

• There is generally no agenda or theme, Green Drinkers mingle and share insights and provoke and exasperate and inspire and delight each other. There are moments of serendipity and a lot of 'oh, you if are interested in X then I must introduce you to that person over there who knows all about it' ... All kinds of people come to Green Drinks and this is what makes for the interesting interactions.

3. Green Drinks are Regular

• Usually monthly.

• Most organizers find a fixed date in the month is easiest to manage, at the same venue and something like the second Tuesday in the month. Fridays and Thursdays tend to be busy for most people, so Tue or Wed is best.

• The predictability of time and place is one of the keys to a good Green Drinks.

4. Green Drinks are Simple to Organize

• Usually held in a convenient, central location that is free. Have a sign or a person assigned to welcoming new people.

• A private space is the best choice in the end. However, booking a private room usually means the organizer has to incur cost or risk of not enough people turning up to cover the cost of the room. Instead most Green Drinks have an arrangement something like: "If I bring along 15 / 40 / 100 people on a normally quiet night can we have a space to ourselves somewhere?"

5. Green Drinks are Self-promoting

• People who come to Green Drinks each invite others along by word of mouth, who in turn themselves invite others, etc. Start with maybe 10 keen people you already know, and get them to each invite 5 others the first time.

• Facebook, BlueSky and LinkedIn groups are very popular with Green Drinks organizers, allowing for people to join the group and also to set up individual events with RSVPs and so on.

• Meetup and evite are dedicated events platforms, but they do cost money and are less popular.

• You can also set up an email list for invites and use something like MailChimp to send out reminders. Email invites mean that people can forward the invite to friends easily. This is the core for exponential growth. Send out a reminder the week before to everyone.

• You'll need a page to link to in order to be listed on greendrinks.org. That could be a Facebook group page, or you can set up a simple website using services such as Google Sites http://sites.new/, NeoCities https://neocities.org/, LinkTree https://linktr.ee, zeffy.com or Webador https://www.webador.co.uk

• Don't forget the offline world exists too -- post ads on billboards or paper magazines or in the lobbies of local organizations or other gathering points.

6. Green Drinks are Local

• Cities or towns or suburbs.

• 45 minutes' travel time apart from each other.

• Avoid date clashes and being in the same week as neighboring Green Drinks. Check the website for your nearest Green Drinks and talk to the organizers; they will be happy to hear from you.

• Counties or areas or bioregions are allowed only if rural (less than 200 people per square mile) and rotating between several towns. If you are sticking to one town as the venue then the Green Drinks would be named after that town. There are successful Green Drinks in towns as small as 18,000 population.

• Many Green Drinks start with a dozen people and then grow to be a regular size -- 30 people is the most common size with 70 for larger cities.

7. Green Drinks are Agenda Free

• Green Drinks is not a channel to circulate announcements or news about environmental issues. Green Drinkers are already deluged with information from thousands of other sources. Green Drinks is a place to go to get away from all that.

• It's OK to have speakers for 20-30 mins or so or to have a theme for the evening to help stimulate discussion, but the bulk of the evening should be freeform and random.

• Some groups like Harrow in London, England have a 60 second newsflash round - this is an opportunity for everyone to share a minute's news from any environmental activities they are involved in.

• The host venue itself creates some slant inevitably but must be gracious and open; independent venues such as bars or restaurants are preferred.

• Green Drinks as an entity will never endorse or have a position or stance on an environmental topic.

• There will be no non-Green Drinks-related content or messages or appeals or ads circulated to the city organizers or appearing on the greendrinks.org website.

8. Green Drinks are Decentralized

• Each city does its own thing.

• There is no central mailing list of attendees.

• There is no central logo or branding as each city has its own logo and style to adapt to each location

9. Green Drinks are Non Profit

• Organizers mostly use free resources and volunteers and donate their own time.

• A charge at the door is OK if it is necessary to cover costs; per event only, no membership fee. The charge should not be too high so that it prevents anyone from being able to come, so some concessions for eg students and unwaged is a good idea.

• Mostly free to attend, each participant pays for their own drinks and food.

• Incorporation as LLC or Ltd company is OK for larger groups.

• Event sponsors and venue hosts OK as long as freedom of discussion is not compromised.

10. Green Drinks are Run Responsibly

• Organizers and participants work to create a safe, non threatening environment for all and drink responsibly.

• Organizers niche and collaborate with other Green Drinks in their area.

• Organizers keep their link on on www.greendrinks.org up-to-date.

• Organizers don't sell their email lists to advertisers.

11. Green Drinks are Fun

• There is a very informal vibe and overall light feel.

• There are lots of benefits to green drinks; they are hard to quantify, but when you have seen people come and make new links and learn and argue and set up new schemes and get new jobs etc., it is a good feeling.

12. Start A Green Drinks in Your City

• Check that your new Green Drinks can comply with this Code and then email listings [at] greendrinks.org with your city, state (if in USA), country and URL link to apply to have a listing on www.greendrinks.org. By applying you agree to run your Green Drinks in accordance with The Green Drinks Code.