Green Festivals

Council’s Executive Committee, which I sit on, received a report outlining a strategy for reducing the environmental footprint of festivals and major events held on city lands, which arose from a formal inquiry I initiated last year after discussing some of the possibilities in this regard with festival and event organizers.

I’m very pleased that the committee gave unanimous direction to move ahead with the strategy and to report back annually on progress.

The strategy suggests acquiring a shared set of triple-sort waste bins to be deployed at major events, like the example to the right.

There are related opportunities to better manage the significant waste streams associated with these events. Currently festival waste is processed by commercial handlers (at substantial cost); and while some have invested in composting and recycling initatives, the balance still winds up in private landfills.

The city’s Waste Management Utility is in a position to see that all the waste streams are harvested for recycling, that the biodegradables are composted though our world-class industrial composter. In time the residual other waste products could be processed through the city’s forthcoming waste-to-energy biofuel facility. I am hopeful that event organizers and Waste Management can come to mutually beneficial arrangements to take advantage of our city’s superb residential waste handling infrastructure.

Longer term there is a push toward biodegradable serve ware (plates, cups, utensils as Heritage Festival did last year), and a reduction in use of supplies derived from non-renewable resources.

There is also work to be done to reduce the energy requirements and carbon footprint for these events through the use of more efficient lighting and renewable sources of energy (such as Folk Fest’s on-site solar).

The main idea is that each of the festivals is doing something, so if the city can coordinate best practices among them we can achieve efficiency and raise the bar. This work also sends the right message about our city’s environmental values to Edmontonians and visitors who attend our festivals and major events.