A Greener Bluegrass Festival

Planet Bluegrass is keenly aware of the pristine environments that serve as the backyard to the festival music performed each year on the Telluride and Lyons stages. Preserving these places is a responsibility that all of us have come to accept as paramount to the continued success of Planet Bluegrass.

Beginning in 2002, Planet Bluegrass made a concerted effort towards reducing the waste produced at our events. We took a comprehensive look at festival impacts and discovered that simply recycling wasn’t all that effective or efficient, especially in Telluride where recyclables have to be trucked 200 miles away.

Thanks to meetings with visionary companies like New Belgium Brewing, we decided to implement a festival-wide composting program, working with a local composter who’s farm was located only 16 miles from the festival site. That led us to research compostable materials such as corn resin cups, plates and utensils that would literally turn back into food once in the soil. These items are now becoming widely used, and offer us an earth-friendly option as compared with plastics and other harmful waste.

We also committed to offsetting our carbon emissions as a company, mainly from our use of electricity and gas, by purchasing wind power. In 2004, we became a 100% wind-powered company. (More below...) We now offer organic shirts at our events to reduce pesticide use as well as information on the importance of organic food choices to help our environment.

Finally, in an effort to reduce the approximately 93,000,000,000 plastic water bottles that end up in our landfills each year, we offered festivarians the first biodegradable plastic water bottle ever produced at Telluride in 2004 to much excitement.

After two years, and the participation and enthusiastic response from like-minded companies New Belgium Brewing, Whole Foods Markets, NatureWorks, PLA, White Wave Foods, Biota Spring Water, as well as our vendors and festivarians, we’ve been able to significantly reduce the garbage ending up in the landfills at all our festivals.

In Telluride, in 2003, we hauled 387 yards of trash and 257 yards of recycling and compost, which equates to 40% of refuse being diverted from a landfill. This past year, we hauled only 248 yards of trash and 239 yards of recyclables and compost, which means that almost 50% of refuse was diverted from landfills.

We see you, the Festivarians, as an enormous resource in finding new ways to enhance the sustainability of all of our festivals. Please email us [email protected] to continue the dialogue!

What Can You Do?

Planet Bluegrass aspires to create a festival experience that is heavy on the music  but treads lightly on the environment. The success of our efforts depends on all of us. There are a lot of simple ways we can all reduce our impact on Telluride’s fragile ecosystem. We’ve already decreased our landfill waste by 50% in just two years!

• "Between the renewable energy use and the composting of corn-based utensils, I felt like last year's festival was not only music-tastic, but also eco-lightful."
  - Alexis Speros, Morrison, NC
  REUSE. Bring reusable items such as to-go coffee cups, nalgene water bottles and plastic glasses for beverages. At the KOTO beer booth, bring your vintage plastic beer cups and save on the cup fee.
• REUSE. Bring your own personal eating utensils.
• REUSE. Bring your own grocery bag when you buy groceries and festival goodies.
• REUSE. Bring home your beer cup(s) as they will last for years. If you can’t, please dispose of them only in the specially marked containers at the KOTO beer booth and customs gate or give to someone who will enjoy them.
• CARPOOL. Not only will you reduce fossil fuel emissions, you will save money and have more fun too! Using biodiesel when possible and high mileage hybrids help too.
• BICYCLE. Zero emissions, great exercise, and the perfect way to get around the town of Telluride and take jaunts into the mountains. And find out about New Belgium Brewing’s Team Wonderbike Campaign at the festival.
• PACK IT OUT. Take your recycling home when you leave the valley so that we can reduce the number of truck trips to carry recycling to facilities in Grand Junction, 200 miles away.
• REDUCE. If you’re staying in a hotel or condo, let them know that you don’t need to have your towels and sheets washed daily.
• FESTIVAL WASTE STATION. Use the compost, recycling and waste bins in the festival and campgrounds. Please ask a volunteer if you’re not sure what goes where, so compost and recycling is not contaminated.
• GREENTOWN. Visit Greentown in the back of the Festival grounds to learn more about alternatives to waste as usual and meet festival partners who are working towards the zero waste and carbon neutral ideals.
• SHARE YOUR IDEAS. Use survey cards or the suggestions drop box in Greentown to share your ideas on sustainable living.
• SPREAD THE WORD. Take what you’ve learned back to your communities.

Planet Bluegrass Produces Wind Powered Festivals

In 1999, festival sponsor New Belgium Brewery pioneered using wind as a revolutionary way to power their brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. Following their vision, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival has again chosen to use wind power to offset the impact of our electric, diesel and gas used to power the stages and lights in Telluride for the fourth year in a row! In addition, for the third straight year, Planet Bluegrass is using wind power for our offices in Lyons, CO and for every concert event we do.

This year we are taking the initiative to offset all the carbon dioxide emissions created by our artists’ travel to and from the festival by purchasing wind power credits. We’re pleased to join festival performers like Bonnie Raitt and Barenaked Ladies who have already been offsetting their tour emissions as well.

Do you know where the lions share of pollution gets created at this event? From festivarians traveling to and from Telluride. We’ve estimated that most of our audience who drive or fly could offset their travel emissions by purchasing between $5 to $10 worth of wind energy.

This year, Telluride Bluegrass Festival sponsors Clif Bar and Renewable Choice Energy are teaming up at the festival to offer “Cool Tags” – a way for every attendee to offset their own travel emissions and even their home electricity use! We’ll have representatives in Greentown during the festival to answer questions and show you how choosing wind energy instead of fossil fuels prevents thousands of tons of CO2 pollution each year

What’s really exciting is to see how wind power has grown over the last few years worldwide. Wind power capacity has increased 25% just in the last year, and after lagging behind Europe for years, North America is now leading in new wind production. Read on to learn the basics about how wind power works, and please help us by supporting clean alternative energy in your community. Planet Bluegrass is proud to be a part of this movement and we have taken on the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of our festivals and sharing our mission with our festivarians. Purchasing wind power to offset 100% of the carbon emissions from this year’s festivals is a key component of our efforts.

How It Works:

It’s actually impossible to pipe wind power directly to the festival.  Planet Bluegrass drains electricity from the national power grid and uses the same mix of energy as everybody else.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a choice. Planet Bluegrass is purchasing renewable energy credits from wind farms around the country to offset 100% of the projected electricity use of the festival. These projections are based on electricity usage from the prior year.

So by purchasing energy credits, Planet Bluegrass ensures that the electricity we use from the grid gets replaced back to the grid with wind power – which makes the energy mix cleaner for everyone.

The good news is that wind power is now the fastest growing source of energy in the world. The bad news is that only about 2% of our electricity currently comes from clean sources like wind power. With all the amazing promise that wind power has for the future, it is going to take the actions of caring and conscious individuals and communities to lead the transition to clean, renewable energy. Understanding what’s at stake and how wind power works are the first steps.

Wind Power FAQ

Why is conventional electricity generation harmful?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) electricity production is the largest industrial air polluter in our nation. Emissions from fossil fuel power plants are responsible for one-third of our nation's nitrogen oxide emissions -- the leading cause of smog, one-third of carbon dioxide emissions -- the leading cause of global warming, and two-thirds of sulfur dioxide emissions -- the leading cause of acid rain. Nationally, 98% of our electricity is generated from non-renewable sources. Among these sources, the worst environmental offender is coal, which accounts for over half of our country’s total energy usage. The burning of coal and other fossil fuels emits harmful toxins into the air that cause many respiratory diseases and other ailments.

Why is wind power so beneficial?

• it saves our natural resources
• it creates no air pollution
• it doesn't create any other bad by-products like nuclear waste
• it’s a great source of supplemental income for farmers and ranchers
• it doesn't cost very much more now, and creates a clean, non-confrontational energy future for the planet.

How many states have wind farms?

There are already wind farms in 30 states!

Why does wind power cost more?

The "fuel" is free, but there is still a lot of investment to be made in building wind farm capacity across the U.S. - which makes the current price for wind a bit more expensive than continuing to burn fossil fuels in plants that were built and paid for long ago. Our investment in wind energy credits ensures a cheap, clean, inexhaustible source of energy now, and for future generations.

Is there enough wind power potential for it to be a realistic source of electricity?

We have enough wind potential in North Dakota, Kansas and Texas alone to produce enough electricity for the entire U.S.

Don't wind turbines kill a lot of birds?

Once in a while, a bird hits a wind turbine - but new technology allows for longer blades that turn more slowly and there is now more sensitivity to placing turbines outside migratory paths. The Audubon society estimates that 2.2 birds died for each wind turbine last year, as compared to over 800 million birds killed by collisions with other man-made items like windows, wind shields and power lines.

Can I sign up for wind power?

Yes! You can sign-up for wind power from a variety of sources. We use Renewable Choice Energy - www.renewablechoice.com