The Right Thing to Do: Greening Indiana's Festivals

Photo courtesy www.resourceful-1.com

Every Labor Day weekend, Plymouth is ground zero for one of Indiana’s largest festivals. The annual Marshall County Blueberry Festival draws a half million people, and like other communities of similar size, the county depends on the explosion of revenue generated by the visitors. Non-profit organizations line up to hawk blueberry sundaes, blueberry doughnuts, blueberry milkshakes, and countless other blueberry concoctions; craft booths display their wares; the carnival rides keep teenagers shrieking well into the night; and local and national acts entertain on three stages.

In 2008, for the first time, the Blueberry Festival offered on-site recycling for the thousands of bottles and cans sold at the event. After a positive response by the public, the Blueberry Festival board has strengthened its commitment to shrinking the event’s environmental footprint for 2009. Festivals and fairs provide diversion and a necessary boost to the local economy, but they also create tons of waste, whether it is food, tableware or packaging materials. Extra traffic pumps carbon dioxide into the air. Energy use skyrockets as vendors, entertainment venues and midways plug into the local grid.

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The Marshall County Blueberry Festival’s eco-friendly efforts are part of a growing trend to make festivals more sustainable. Across the country more patrons want to see events generate less waste and use less energy, according to the Icarus Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on sustaining a climate-friendly tourism industry.More than 80 percent of the people surveyed were aware of increased amounts of carbon dioxide generated by festivals and felt the noise, waste and traffic had a negative impact on the environment. Forty-eight percent said that they would even pay more to attend greener events.

THINK DIFFERENTLY

Nearly half a million visitors fill Plymouth’s Centennial Park every Labor Day weekend for the Marshall County Blueberry Festival. © Courtesy Marshall County Blueberry Festival

Greening a festival means doing what it takes to minimize the event’s impact on the environment. That boils down to handling trash and reducing energy use, said green event planner Ken Withrow in Valparaiso.

Offering recycling is a first step. Festival goers will sort their own trash if recycling and trash receptacles are sideby- side, conveniently located and numerous. Withrow suggests recruiting volunteers to help monitor the receptacles and pull out misplaced items as needed.

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Inc., has been providing recycling bins for festivals throughout Marion County for several years. KIB loans the bins to festival coordinators and provides metal Dumpsters for really large events, said Tammy Stevens, KIB’s recycling manager for nearly three years.

KIB has about 200 bins, which allow for recycling plastic and metal drink containers. It is up to the festival coordinators to take the bins for recycling operations to one of the city’s 28 dropoff points, she said. Getting festivals and other events to cooperate has not been difficult. So far, more than 20 events have reserved bins for 2009, the number served in all of 2008. “People do it because it’s the right thing to do,” she said.

POWER DOWN

Violinist and recording artist Cathy Morris performs at the Indy Jazz Fest, where Keep Indianapolis Beautiful helps the organizers recyle bottles and cans. © Carl Wheeler/Morris Studios

It takes electricity to light up a festival. Biodiesel and solar generators are good alternatives to the grid, says Withrow. Staging most festival entertainment during the day would take advantage of sunlight and reduce the need for extra lighting.

Another problem is smog-producing CO2 emissions. If the festival grounds are accessible by walking or by bicycle, patrons can be encouraged to leave cars at home.Multiple and visible bicycle racks would also encourage alternate transportation. At the Blueberry Festival, tractors fueled by biodiesel pull trams that carry patrons to and from the distant parking lots.

A DEEPER GREEN

Some festivals are looking beyond recycling and conserving energy toward becoming zero-waste events. Zero-waste means just that — everything used at the festival is either recyclable or compostable, from glass bottles and aluminum cans to plant-based plates, cups and cutlery made from biopolymers polylactic acid, or PLA, a non-foodgrade corn starch.

Stacy Lambright, now based in Fort Wayne, formerly was Solid Waste Education Coordinator of Boulder County, Colo., where she helped the Boulder County Fair take the first steps to becoming a zero-waste event. A key component of that effort was education— for the vendors, the volunteers, the service providers (such as the sanitation crew), and the patrons. “You have to present the idea to everyone,” she says. “They have to be on board for it to be successful.”

Zero waste is doable in Boulder County, Lambright says, because a strong recycling and composting infrastructure is in place. It takes cooperation among such entities as waste management companies, solid waste districts, waste water treatment plants and community composting facilities. Indiana, she points out, has not yet developed the infrastructure to make zero-waste events viable in many parts of the state.

SUPPORTING GREEN FESTIVALS

Students from Culver Military Academy present the flag at the Blueberry Festival in Marshall County. © Marianne Peters

Communities can make their festivals greener, and festivals can, in turn, make for greener communities.

In West Lafayette, a group of community volunteers started the West Lafayette Go Greener Commission. Chairwoman Diane Damico says strong community involvement makes all the INDIANA FESTIVALS Continued from page 11 difference as they try to develop a new green-event policy in her city.

“A subcommittee of citizens is working together to create a baseline for all events, similar to LEED standards,” she says. “Events will earn points by going above and beyond in reducing energy use. We will be recycling all glass, cans, plastic and cardboard, and we are also encouraging people to take alternative transportation to events.We will also require each event to give our organization booth space, both as an educational site and a base for volunteers.”

Connie Holzwart, festival coordinator for theMarshall County Blueberry Festival, is expecting vendors, patrons and local participants to get behind the 2009 “Blue Goes Green” campaign. “TheMarshall County Blueberry Festival belongs to our community, was created for the enjoyment of our community and is for the benefit of our community,” she says. “It is then, in essence, the responsibility of the community to do its part by using the recycling receptacles and to encourage others as well. Reducing the amount of waste sent to our local landfills benefits everyone.”

Festivals can be prime opportunities to educate people about environmental stewardship and resources in their communities. Booths sponsored by the local SolidWasteManagement District or Department of Natural Resources provide fun and interesting ways to demonstrate recycling, composting, vegetable gardening, home energy-efficiency or other aspects of green living. Signs that point to that festival’s efforts help visitors see sustainability in action. Vendors who sell reusable tote bags, stainless steel water bottles, rain barrels or other sustainable lifestyle items also educate the public, as well as provide ways to help patrons take sustainable habits home with them. Local community activists also can set up booths to encourage involvement in green initiatives in their community.

The ultimate goal of greening a festival is to make sustainability business as usual. The Blueberry Festival is headed in that direction. Organizers plan to keep greening the festival year-by-year. “

The 2008 festival was a learning experience,” says festival coordinator Holzwart. “Improvements this year include having as many recycling receptacles as we can. A local company is donating blue 55-gallon plastic barrels to be used for cans and plastic bottles. We have also appointed a recycling coordinator to oversee the operation this year, and this will help immensely.”

“I think people will get involved,” she says. “It’s just the right thing to do.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Bring your own refillable water bottle.
• Bring your own shopping bags.
• If there's a place for visitor comments, write a note asking festival organizers to go green next year. Or talk to a local official while you're there.
• Patronize vendors who specialize in quality handmade crafts, not cheap,imported goods that represent a lot of packaging and shipping. Shop local vendors whenever possible.
• Ride your bicycle or walk to the festival if you can; take public transportation, or carpool with friends.
• Volunteer to help your local festival or fair go green.

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