A Highly Diverting Festival
Working our way to a BIG Zero!
Our amazing crew of staff and volunteers work hard to make Green Festival sustainable. As we work toward a truly zero waste event, our diversion percentage has climbed over the last ten years, culminating in a 99.3% diversion at our Seattle Festival in Spring, 2011, where only 80 pounds went to a landfill.
Our 2011 Fall San Francisco Green Festival achieved a 94% diversion rate.
Since Green Festival's inception, thanks to our amazing crew of dedicated volunteers working hard with staff:
- Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been diverted from landfills:
- Plastics, aluminum, glass, mixed paper and cardboard, electronic waste, foil-lined wrappers
- (recycled by Tetracycle), bottle caps (recycled by Aveda) compost and greywater.
- Thousands of pounds of fresh, rich, organic soil has been produced, composted by local agencies.
- Many valuable resources, like metal and wood, have been recovered and hundreds of pounds of left-over food from the Festival has been donated local rescue organizations and/or volunteers.
- Thousands of attendees have been educated about eco-product alternatives, composting and landfill diversion.
If this is your first visit to a Green Festival, here's what you need to know to help us on to our goal of a zero-waste event:
- Resource Recovery Centers are placed throughout the event floor, each station staffed with a trained volunteer to answer your greening questions.
- All food vendors and samplers use ONLY biodegradable/compostable foodwares and utensils - every plate, fork, spoon, knife, cup, bowl, napkin, coffee stirrer and sample cup will be composted with food scraps.
- All signs are either part of the permanent collection, printed on renewable forest byproducts using water-based inks, or they are recycled or donated.
- More than 350 volunteers work to ensure high-quality green standards. Like our friend above, they get into it! [picture of volunteer in blue hanging off dumpster]
- We offset all green-house gas emissions including freight and travel.
- We work closely with our exhibitors to help them be as green as possible.
What you can do at Green Festival to help:
- Bring your own water bottle, plate and utensils.
- Bring old cell phones, batteries and e-waste to recycle.
- Compost all foodware at the event at a Resource Recovery Station.
- Take only the handouts you'll read and recycle them.
- Ride your bike! Take the bus! Get $5 off admission.
- Spread the message – sustainable living is possible!
- Be sure to thank our volunteers.
- Gotta drive? Carpool!
Seven-Star, Inc. has partnered with Green Festival since its inception, and is America’s largest organization of green event experts.