Living Green Expo: A Green Event

The Living Green Expo is an opportunity for Minnesota citizens to experience green living. During the planning stages of the Living Green Expo (LGE), every effort was made to reduce solid waste, water, and energy use. After conservation efforts, the remaining resource use was offset by contributions to projects that reduce carbon emissions, restore resources or support sustainable development.

• Less waste. Waste was greatly reduced at the event through aggressive recycling and food composting, thanks to Coolidge Trucking and Recycling, the event's St. Paul-based recycling partner. The 2007 LGE, with an estimated 22,000 attendees, produced only about 235 pounds of trash on site, with 95 percent of discards diverted from disposal.
  
  
• Electricity and transportation. Resource Recovery Technologies, Dem-Con Companies, and The Purman Group purchased renewable energy credits on behalf of the LGE for carbon emitted by personal vehicles traveling to the event and the 2,000 kWh used by the event hall. Renewable energy and energy efficiency projects were supported by donations to NativeEnergy and Carbonfund.org. Metro Transit also provided Go Greener passes, which allow a free bus ride to the event. Metro Transit offset the emissions from the light rail trains on May 3-4 by purchasing renewable energy credits from Xcel Energy's Windsource program.
  
  
• Paper and trees. Expo organizers used 100% post-consumer recycled paper for posters and programs. In addition, Tree Trust donated 29 trees that will help offset paper resource use. Five of these large trees were planted on the Minnesota State Fair grounds. Vendors have been encouraged to reduce their distribution of paper.
  
  
• Food waste. All food waste was captured and, through a donation by Resource Recovery Technologies, processed at a compost facility. The Purman Group also made a donation to All Seasons Food Rescue, a local organization working to provide safe nutritious food for human consumption to those in need, while helping to reduce food waste in Minnesota.
  
  
• Water use. To recognize water used at this event, a donation was made by Dem-Con Companies to the WaterShed Partners, a coalition of organizations in the Twin Cities area that, through collaborative educational outreach, teaches residents how to care for area waters.
  
  
• Rethinking vinyl banners. No vinyl banners were created for this event. Instead of vinyl (which has a host of pollution issues associated with it), the Expo used recyclable Tyvek plastic, recycled polyethylene fabric, recycled-content plastic board, and paper.
  

Find out more

Use these online tools to estimate and offset the environmental impact of your green meetings.

• Links to online calculators of environmental impacts: www.nextstep.state.mn.us/res_detail.cfm?id=1189
• Carbon Footprint Calculator to determine carbon dioxide emissions from home energy consumption and transportation by car and plane, and to purchase wind generation capacity to offset these emissions.
• Climate Change Calculator to estimate the number of trees needed to be planted to compensate for carbon dioxide generated by transportation, energy use, waste generation, and other activities.
• How much paper can be made from a tree? provides conversions to estimate the number of trees consumed by paper use.