Greening the People's Fair
People's Fair Joins with Whole Foods, other Denver festivals to "Green Up Denver"
Shop at any of the five Denver metro Whole Foods Market locations on Wednesday, April 24th and 5% of all net sales will go to the Green Up Denver initiative. All proceeds will benefit environmental initiatives at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Pride Fest Denver, CHUN Capitol Hill People’s Fair and Denver County Fair in 2013.
Green Up Denver’s mission is to provide standardized Green Team volunteer and vendor training, triple-stream waste management infrastructure and tools, third-party audited compostable and recyclable event supply order guides, triple-stream waste management service referrals, public environmental education and tiered Green Event standards and certification by the City and County of Denver for businesses, vendors, events and festivals in Denver.
People's Fair Endeavors to "Go Green"
 Turning a major festival into an environmentally sustainable event is not easy. With 250,000 fairgoers attending the People's Fair each year, it seems nearly impossible to get everyone on the same page with our greening efforts. In 2008, we began with an initial "back of house" recycling effort, asking all of our vendors to breakdown cardboard boxes and stack them behind their tents along with any other recyclable items. Our cleaning crew then went through the faigrounds numerous time during the weekend, collecting recyclable material and disposing it in a special designated dumpster, which was then taken for recycling by Waste Management. Additionally, we created an educational tent to try and educate our attendees as to why recycling is important, and how long it takes for various items (glass, plastic, etc.) to break down.
In 2009 we launched the People's Fair Green team, and stationed volunteers throughout the fairgrounds next to recycling receptacles for our attendees. These volunteers were trained in advance and were prepared to answer questions, educate and encourage our attendees to recycle eveything possible. We continued with the educational efforts as well, and created a "Green Non-profit Zone" where groups such as the Park Hill Bike Depot, eGo Car Share and others were able to promote their services to the community. We also specified additional dumpsters for recycling and continued to work with our cleaning crew to pick up recyclable items from the vendors. We encourage our artists to discontinue using plastic bags for their sales items, and we had a sponsor on-site giving out reusable shopping bags. We also began working more with our food vendors, and encouraged them to "be green" with an incentive program to recognize green food vendors. Lastly, we converted our printed material to recycled paper (posters, fliers, and People's Fair programs).
In 2010 we continued to build upon our earlier efforts and incorporate more volunteer support to help manage the greening program. We continued front- and back-of-house recycling, and everything listed above from previous years. We also banned styrofoam (sometimes used as a food vessel for providing food to attendees).
Our continued efforts in 2011 resulted in 4.17 tons of waste being recycled, rather than taken to a landfill! The People's Fair staff, Steering Committee, and Green Team are proud of the on-going success of the Green Program, and hope to partner with corporations and/or local businesses to make an even bigger impact at the People's Fair!
Turning a large event like ours into a sustainable festival requires a lot of help from our volunteers, as well as sponsorship dollars. If you are interested in sponsoring the People's Fair Green Team, please contact andreafurness@chundenver.org.
Information for our Food Vendors:
Earn Free Promotion for being GREEN!
Dear Food Vendors,
The CHUN Capitol Hill People’s Fair is counting on you to make this year’s fair a great success. You can do so by providing fairgoers with delicious foods, and by taking a few easy steps to minimize your environmental impacts. Events at Denver’s Civic Center Park generate a large amount of waste, and the People’s Fair staff is committed to minimizing the amount going into landfills. We ask that you support our efforts to be an environmentally sensitive event. PLEASE NOTE: You will not be allowed to use Styrofoam this year, whether or not you participate as a GREEN vendor—if you use a biodegradable foam it must state that on the container.
2011 People’s Fair Recycling Accomplishments
2011 was our most successful year yet for the progression of greening the People’s Fair. The total material collected for recycle weighed 4.17 tons!!! That is quite a lot of waste which will NOT take up space in the landfill, thanks to our hard-working Green Team Volunteers and our amazing festival attendees!
We are grateful for our wonderful group of volunteers comprising the People’s Fair Green Team, who helped educate the fairgoers as to what they could recycle, and helped work with our vendors on recycling as well as recognizing the efforts made by YOU! We expanded our greening efforts by continuing to provide the pick-up of back of the house recyclable materials such as broken down boxes, glass, recyclable plastics, and aluminum from our vendors. This effort was successful with most vendors taking advantage of the service and providing more recyclable material than in previous years. We will again be offering this service, but have decided to take further actions in making the People’s Fair an environmentally sustainable event.
GREEN Rewards
As you may have noticed in recent years, GREENING has become an extraordinary marketing tool for companies around the world. The People’s Fair recognizes this trend and would like to see our vendors enjoying its benefits while simultaneously helping sustain our environment.
We will continue to recognize our environmentally conscious food vendors for their extra efforts. All vendors who can meet four of the six requirements below will receive additional promotion at the fair for no additional cost. Vendors who can meet the following GREENING goals will receive an “Official People’s Fair GREEN Vendor” sign to display on their booth. Participants will also be highlighted with a “GREEN Vendor” logo placed next to their company name in the Official People’s Fair Program and on our large directional signs positioned at the main entrances of the fairgrounds. (See reverse side for examples).
All checked actions must be performed throughout the entire event. All signage must be returned to People’s Fair staff.
Please check the goals that you will be able to complete in 2012:
- No Styrofoam * (This material never decomposes!)
- Use Local Produce (Help reduce the carbon footprint due to shipping food)
- No individual condiment packets (This action can cut waste and costs!)
- Biodegradable dish and cutlery (See suppliers on back)
- Eco friendly cleaning supplies (You can make your own for less)
- Use 100% Recycled paper napkins
- Use reusable table cloth or cover (Not plastic)
* This requirement is mandatory for participation
Green Team
This year the People’s Fair will again assemble a GREEN Team to assist in all recycling efforts. Members of this team will visit vendors to answer questions, provide assistance, and oversee and analyze the overall recycling efforts on the fairgrounds.
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