Kerville Folk Festival 2009 - Bring Your Own Cup!

How simple of an idea yet what a profound positive impact it has at major festivals across the US and globe - when event organizers and producers mandate that you bring and use your own cup! This eliminates literally thousands of plastic bottles and cups, and thousands of pounds of waste. Kerville Folk Festival has been doing this for years and was one of the first festivalss nationwide to adopt this new policy. At first, people complained because change is always hard. But once folks got used to it, it was easy. I carried my reusable cup around all weekend. I used it for water when I was thirsty, beer when I was thirsty and coffee when I needed to wake up in the morning after sleepless nights of great campfire music.  

Green Fern event produces 1 bag of trash!

Last weekend Green Fern Events helped produce an event for 150+ guests that resulted in only 1 bag of trash! If I remember correctly, the garbage bag wasn't even completely full. Kudos goes to Whole Foods Market Culinary Center for managing the food waste portion of the event and to the family for making smart yet sustainable purchasing decisions from day 1 of planning. In addition, there were only 2 bags of recyclables remaining post event- mainly plastic and glass. 

Many individuals have the misconception that an event is green based on the amount of materials recycled post event, or that they used eco-friendly products. But this is not true in its entirety. A truly sustainable event reduces first and recycles last. There is a reason why the 3 R's are listed in that particular order: 1-Reduce, 2-Reuse, 3-Recycle. If you reduce as much as possible initially, purchase or rent reusable items and recylce last...you are more likely to have less waste at the conclusion of your wedding, special or corporate event. Thus resulting in a truly GREEN event! Imagine the positive environmental impact this would have on earth if every 150 person event across the globe only produced 1 bag of trash. We have a long way to go. 

Community Supported Agriculture in Austin - Johnson's Backyard Garden

We just recently joined Austin's CSA - Johnson's Backyard Garden! Over the last 20 years "Community Supported Agriculture" has grown increasingly popular. It is a  great way to buy ultra-fresh local and seasonal vegetables and it helps support your local farmers. Each week we drive to one of the drop-off locations and stuff our reusable shopping bags with an entire box of the most beautiful and vibrant vegetables. We also opted to purchase a dozen eggs once a week which are fresh and delicious! The only problem we've occurred so far is eating all the vegetables. It's forced us to be more creative in preparing meals. Maybe we should start having veggie parties?