USGBC-Georgia Chapter partners with Atlanta Dogwood Festival and Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta to encourage Sustainability

This April of 2011, the U.S. Green Building Council-Georgia Chapter [USGBC-Georgia] and the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta will once again partner to help the Atlanta Dogwood Festival (ADF) achieve significant benchmarks in sustainability.

The Atlanta Dogwood Festival is one of the largest juried art festivals in the United States and will be celebrating its 75th Anniversary this Spring. Attracting over 200,000 visitors each year to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta, the Festival has an enormous footprint. Rebekah Jones, CEO of TRRU Production Services [the Operations Company for the Festival] approached USGBC-Georgia in 2010 to determine how they could adopt sustainability into the festival model.

The 2010 efforts won ADF a Gold Award for 'Green Element' from the Southeastern Festival & Events Association (SFEA) and a Bronze Award for 'Environmental Program' from the International Festival & Events Association (IFEA).  The sustainability program in 2010 increased the Festival's landfill diversion from 25% (2009) to over 43% in 2010.  Over 1.5 tons of clean compost was sent to Greenco Commercial Composting, 10.5 tons of recycling was sent to SP Recycling Company, and over 100 gallons of food vendor grease was turned into 55 gallons of bio-diesel by Perfect Circle Renewable Energy.

In the Eco-Village, festival-goers were able to visit over 20 booths to learn about Home Energy Audits, Weatherization for Residential & Commercial Buildings, USGBC & LEED, Solar Hot Water Heaters, Rainwater Harvesting, Low-flow toilets, Permeable Pavers, Green Cleaning Products, Organic & Urban Gardening, Mother's and Others for Clean Air, Atlanta Recycles, and more!  Several of the manufacturers said they received more inquiries and work-creating leads from this event than any industry trade show or consumer event they'd attended in the past.

Special Thanks to our 2010 Eco-Village Vendors:

Atlanta Recycles, Cablik Enterprises, Complete Construction Services, Complete Water Services, Enviroclean USA, Farmer D Organics, Georgia Contracting Services, Green It! Eco Solutions, Lafarge Building Materials, LJ&S Products, Mothers & Others for Clean Air, and the Perfect Solution.

To learn about or participate in the 2011 Dogwood Festival Eco-Village, 2011_EcoVillage_Master.pdf

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