Exposing Diverse Audiences to Green - Mos Def, Backed By 30-Piece Orchestra, to Headline FREE Green Music Festival in S.F.

Are you a green maven who loves your work finds it hard to put it all down and go out and have some fun? Well, here's an opportunity to do both - and if you're a Bay Area green business, there's also a unique marketing opportunity for you here (see the bottom of this post)...

On Saturday, October 18^th, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-nominated actor and Grammy-nominated artist, Mos Def, will be joined by the full 30-piece Realistic Orchestra and very special guests – headlining the first annual Band Shell Music Summit, in Golden Gate Park’s (S.F.) Band Shell Music Concourse.

Mos Def’s performance will cap a FREE day-long sustainability-themed music festival – presented by Meadowlands Entertainment Group and Conservation Value Institute – that by including artists from multiple musical and cultural backgrounds, aims to connect diverse audiences with green solutions. Also in the line up are Mingus Amungus w/Special Guest Arab Summit, Bayonics featuring Zion I, Josh Jones Latin Jazz Ensemble Featuring Jesus Diaz and John Santos, Dmitri Matheny Quartet, and much more.

The Summit will celebrate the San Francisco cultural icons located to each side of The Concourse – the California Academy of Sciences (just re-opened as the world’s first ever LEED Platinum-rated museum) and the De Young Museum. It aims to leverage the uniting, inspiring power of music and culture to foster awareness of the environmental, economic and quality of life benefits that the city’s diverse communities can achieve by participating in the burgeoning clean energy and energy efficiency revolution.

Special guest speaker, Cooler, Inc. founder, Michel Gelobter, will be on hand to inject the audience with inspiration on how climate change and clean energy solutions are also job-creating and poverty solutions. Gelobter recently led Redefining Progress in designing the world’s most aggressive climate legislation (signed into California law in August of 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger), has been a Congressional Black Caucus Fellow with the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee; and serves on the Advisory Board of Vice-President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.

Reaching a Diverse Audience with Green Messaging
As a conservation scientist with close ties to the music industry, I have been working for several years now on projects such as the Green Apple Festival and the ROTHBURY Think Tank, which leverage the viral power of music to connect the masses with green living, business and policy solutions. The Band Shell Music Summit – deliberately targeting audiences that include not only music fans of multiple genres and backgrounds, but also museum visitors – has me particularly excited. It’s rare that I have the opportunity to help expose such a diverse audience to the promise offered by the sustainability revolution - that ‘going green’ is not just about solving climate change and other ‘environmental’ problems, but is a path that will positively transform our (imploding) economy away from dependence on dirty oil and fossil fuels, and in doing so will revolutionize our public health, national security, and quality of life.

For inner city and other low-income communities, efficient, clean technologies offer particularly promising benefits. It’s with these folks that the hundreds if not thousands of dollars in savings on energy bills that efficient technologies provide can make a really significant difference in how much money people have left to spend (or save) after the bills are paid.

Mini EcoVillage to Feature Green Solutions
To promote the poverty-fighting potential of green technologies, PG & E will be on hand to give out 3,000 efficient CFL bulbs. In addition, we’ve secured a solar trailer from SolaRover to provide power for our vendors, and will feature such green living and business solutions as solar power installers, sales of electric scooters and bicycles, a clean vehicle exhibit (including fuel cell and plug-in hybrid prototypes), organic and hemp clothing and natural jewelry boutiques, and perhaps even an installer of residential wind power – perfect for windy San Francisco.

On the non-profit side, HeadCount will be on hand to register fans to vote (the California Voter registration deadline is Monday 10/20, be sure to register to vote!), and multiple environmental non-profits will be on hand to educate festivalgoers in green living, business, and policy solutions. Festival partner, Blue Bear School of Music, will also be on hand, promoting their mission of providing superior quality and affordable music education to aspiring musicians of all ages and skill levels – check out their benefit with Mos Def and friends on Sunday night 10/19 at Ruby Skye!

Come one, come all and please join us in what promises to be a festive day of FREE music and green solutions, with wine and beer to be served in a special beverage gardens. And of course, spread the word! If you’d like to enjoy the festival with an exclusive VIP package, click here for details…

Market Your Green Products & Services - Boothing Opportunities Still Available
If your green business or non-profit would like to have a booth at the Band Shell Music Summit, stop by our “Talk to Us” page, where our booth sales contact information is provided – we’d love for you to join us, and help connect the crowd with products and services who's sustainable production, use and re-use potential reduces , waste and habitat destruction! But be quick, as booth spaces are limited and getting close to selling out.

Come Visit Us at North Beach Jazz Festival This Weekend!

Do you like a combination of sustainability, booty-shakin' jazz/funk, and ice cold beer/cocktails on a sunny day in San Francisco? Stop by the North Beach Jazz Festival this Saturday and Sunday in Washington Square Park in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood (click here for a map)! Conservation Value Institute (CVI) is honored to be the festival's non-profit partner for the third year running - a partnership that is sure to provide more green benefits for the festival and neighborhood moving forward now that challenges to the festival's existence have hopefully been put behind us.

When you get to the park, look for CVI's 'Ask a Sustainability Expert' Information Table. We'll have a few tip sheets on how to reap the benefits of greening your home and business, Green Zebra Coupon Books, organic cotton t-shirts for sale, and of course some cool green prizes to raffle off and give away !

Join us in spreading the word on how the rising energy independence revolution will revitalize America and the world!

High Sierra Music Festival, Local Farmers Partner to Reduce Waste, Save Money

Note: Here is a short press release about a project that I am proud to have both organized and been a part of. - JLG

Compost Effort Keeps Over 2 Tons of Fruit and Vegetable Waste Out of Landfill, Provides Farmers With Free Feed and Fertilizer

Quincy, CA (July 20, 2007) -- High Sierra Music Festival , which took place July 5-8 at Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy, today announced the final results of their pilot composting program. The festival partnered with local area farmers to keep organic scrap by-products created by its food vendors out of the landfill.

In total, approximately 850 gallons of fruit and vegetable waste were kept out of the landfill by the composting team. The team included festival officials, along with conservation biologist, Jon Gelbard of Conservation Value, Bob Hollis of the California Resource Recovery Association, farmers Noel Carlson and Jim Holst of the Quincy Grange, Regional Grange Deputy, Ken Donnell, and Nick Aster of The Triple Pundit.

After setting up clearly marked compost bins behind the festival’s food courts, Gelbard informed food vendors of where to dispose of their surplus organic materials (meats excluded – to avoid attracting bears to the farmer’s compost pile). Gelbard, Hollis and Aster then monitored bin levels to see how quickly they were filling up.

Once the bins were close to being full, the team would contact farmers Carlson and Donnell to let them know the team was “on” for their pre-arranged evening pick-up. Upon arriving at the festival, Carlson’s blue truck was escorted to the pick-up site, where the group and festival officials used a fork lift to retrieve the bins and dump the contents into the back of the truck. From there, Carlson transported the mixture of mostly fruit and vegetable materials back to her Quincy-area farm, where it was mixed into the operation’s compost pile. The bounty of resulting compost – whose production saved the festival money on waste disposal – will help improve pasture for the Carlson’s locally-grown Icelandic lamb and wool, marketed under the Holst Station label.

The festival also introduced the use of biodegradable food utensils this year, and hopes to expand the program to all vendors for 2008.

“It’s a wonderful relationship we’ve seeded this year”, said Debbie Crockett of High Sierra Music Festival. “We are deeply grateful for the support of these Quincy area farmers, and look forward to exploring ways to grow this relationship in 2008.”

“This is yet another example of how business and land management practices that are good for the environment can also benefit local farms and communities. We started with organic waste that the festival would have had to pay to send to the landfill. But instead, we worked together to cut these disposal costs, and turn this waste into both free feed for farm animals and free compost that is being used to help restore a farm’s topsoil from historic mining damage.” said conservation biologist, Jon Gelbard of Conservation Value.

"The Grange is thrilled to be involved with this composting program and the High Sierra Music Festival. This composting program fits perfectly with the California Grange's goal of "Helping Farmers, Protecting Consumers™", and is a perfect example of thinking globally, acting locally,” said Regional Grange Deputy, Ken Donnell.

“All of the folks helping with the festival were great to work with! I’m looking forward to meeting up with them again in 2008. For an event of this size, the organization and logistics were fantastic. Our Icelandic sheep and American Guinea hogs thank High Sierra too—they dug for buried treasures in the compost pile and were totally in love with the oranges and cabbages,” said farmer Noel Carlson.

“This was a great project to demonstrate sustainable community practices, which is part of the mission of the Quincy Grange”, said farmer and Quincy Grange member, Jim Holst.

“It’s great that the High Sierra Music Festival took the initiative to implement a composting program this year. I hope that other groups who use the Plumas County Fairgrounds will follow this example. It was wonderful working with the local members of the Quincy Grange in support of sustainable farming,” said recycling expert, Bob Hollis

The festival looks forward to exploring ways to expand the operation in 2008, including by providing recycling bins for bio-degradable food utensils and possibly by providing compost bins for all festival goers.

About High Sierra Music Festival (www.highsierramusic.com): High Sierra Music has been producing world-class music festivals since 1991. An independent production company based in Berkeley, CA, the organization was founded with the first High Sierra Music Festival, its cornerstone event that takes place every July 4th weekend in Northern California, and remains committed to its grassroots origins by drawing support from its loyal community of patrons, staff, volunteers and non-corporate sponsors.

Press Contacts

High Sierra Music Festival (www.highsierramusic.com): Debbie Crocket 510-420-1529 debbie@highsierramusic.com

Conservation Value (www.ConservationValue.org): Jonathan Gelbard, Ph.D. 510-898-4895 jon@conservationvalue.org

California Resource Recovery Association (www.crra.com): Bob Hollis, (916) 717-8108 rhollis@carnegiepartners.com

Holst Station Farm (www.holststation.com): Noel Carlson & Jim Holst (530) 283-2414 noel_carlson@hotmail.com

California State Grange – (www.californiagrange.org): Ken Donnell, Deputy for Region 6 of the California State Grange: kdd@frontiernet.net
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