This week’s Green Scene column in Crain’s Chicago Business: Planning for an even greener Lollapalooza



Lollapalooza’s 20th anniversary concert event in Chicago’s Grant Park this weekend will be the greenest one ever, with a raft of local green businesses getting in on the action. 

Greenbacks will flow during the three-day festival to local vendors with booths at the concert’s “Green Street,” local food growers at a pop-up farmers market, and even composting sent to Land & Lakes, a food waste composting center on the city’s South Side.

The event organizer is including local eco-conscious businesses and directing the carbon-offset benefits it will buy this year to a designated “climate action reserve” project in Michigan, according to Emily Stengel, event services manager at C3 Presents, the Austin, Texas-based firm producing the event. C3 Presents buys carbon credits that support clean-energy projects to offset the amount of carbon dioxide emissions planners estimate are associated with putting on the event, and even more than that this year, she says.

Aside from the eight-stage extravaganza and 100-plus big- and small-name bands that draw the massive crowds each year, the event includes a “Green Street” section on the grounds where vendors with a proven commitment to the environment are invited to sell their wares. This year’s vendor lineup has a hefty local representation, including: Greenheart, a Bucktown retailer that sells eco-friendly and fair trade goods; Futuregarb, a Wicker Park eco-fashion boutique; Souldier, a local group of artisans who craft accessories out of guitar straps and other music-oriented materials; and Mata Traders, a Chicago-based firm that imports fair trade clothing from women in India.

The city of Chicago is expected to benefit from the festival’s ramped-up greening activities, hopefully with as little waste as possible ending up in nearby landfills, says Ms. Stengel. Even though more aggressive recycling and composting will occur during the festivities this year, it’s hard to predict whether the actual volume of recyclables will be less than the 45 tons of recyclable materials that were diverted from landfills last year. That’s partly because this year Lollapalooza planners are expecting 90,000 concertgoers on each of the three days compared with the 70,000 per-day attendance last summer, Ms. Stengel notes. More people translates into more garbage.

However, C3 Presents will attempt to counteract the impact of the larger crowd by reducing the need for plastic bottle recycling. Event organizers are encouraging people to bring their own reusable water bottles and fill up at the free filling stations scattered throughout, says Ms. Stengel. In addition, the only water sold at the festival will come packaged in a sleek “bottle” that is made mostly from paper instead of plastic. The Boston-based manufacturer, h2o, developed the packaging, which can be recycled in a process called hydra pulping.

Back by popular demand this year will be a farmers market food option aside from the music festival’s food court. The market, which will be located at the north end of Green Street, will feature smoothies, fresh fruit, sprout salads, mushroom burgers, shots of wheatgrass and grilled cheese on a stick from farmers and local food artisans based in Illinois and neighboring states. Participants include Tiny Greens, Urbana; Seedling Fruit, South Haven, Mich.; River Valley Ranch, Burlington, Wis., and Brunkow Cheese, Darlington, Wis. Chicago-based Rock n Roll Noodle will cook Thai food made from local ingredients.

Other green-oriented participants expected at the concert include local groups promoting their activities at informational booths at the Lolla Cares area, which features organizations that engage people in all types of non-profit, community-based programs. The Sierra Club will have a booth with experts offering tips about clean energy, and FamilyFarmed.org will be there to talk up the benefits of its local, sustainable food system efforts.

Crain’s spoke with Ms. Stengel about the challenges of greening a three-day outdoor concert event.

Crain’s: How integral is the greening aspect of the festival to the overall planning of Lollapalooza?

Ms. Stengel: We plan the entire event through a green lens, and one of our major goals is to minimize our environmental footprint. That comes mostly with waste diversion and carbon offsets. It’s hard to produce a huge green music festival, but hopefully through our efforts we can create a larger impression that improves the way music festivals are produced throughout the world. We hope people take a message home with them about recycling or composting at home.

Crain’s: The city of Chicago has yet to come up with its own residential composting program. How are you expanding the festival’s composting efforts this year?

Ms. Stengel: Last year we tried back-of-the-house composting (behind the restaurants), but we hope to see better results this year with a front-end composting system we’re running with Pritchard Event Services. We’re trying to divert as much waste as possible.

We’ll be asking the audience to participate in the composting, and we’ll have volunteers at 10 stations to back up the program. We’ll also have signage to indicate which items are appropriate for which bins. It’s about actively engaging people, and it’s about ensuring a successful program without contamination. We have to make sure the right food scraps end up in the right bins. We had a lot of volunteer applicants. Let’s see how many follow through and show up.

Crain’s: Are there other green aspects of the festival that might engage fans to do more than groove to the music?

Ms. Stengel: I’m really excited about our Rock & Recycle Program. We’re inviting concertgoers to trade in a full bag of recyclables and in exchange get an organic bamboo cotton T-shirt made by Five Bamboo. They also win a chance to get a specialized Lollapalooza bike from the Trek bike company.

Crain’s: This is the second year Lollapalooza will be featuring a local farmers market. Why is that important to the festival?

Ms. Stengel: I have a personal interest in farmers markets. Before I came on full time to C3, I was challenged to introduce farmers markets to these events, and I even started a market in Austin, Texas, where I live. The Chicago area has such a thriving sustainable food production movement, it would be a shame not to feature them at Lollapalooza.

This is one way for us to promote people to enjoy local food. It’s also a way for us to support local businesses that are smaller vendors than the ones at our food court. Hopefully every year the farmers market will grow and the vendors will show more interest and apply.

Crain’s: Can you describe the festival’s carbon offset program?

Ms. Stengel: We offset our production footprint from all the carbon emitted, from the power from our generators and staff travel, through a Michigan project. We’re happy to tie the offsets to a local project in the Midwest because it makes it more tangible to people here. Last year we had carbon offsets, but they were scattered all over the country.

What’s new this year is we’re also offsetting the travel footprint of all the artists traveling to and from the event. We sent out a survey to all the tour managers and we’re expecting them to tell us how many people are traveling with the band, their mode of transportation and where they’re coming from and going after the event. Then we’ll take an average (since they don’t expect everyone to reply) and we’ll buy carbon offsets that will go to that same project in Michigan.

Crain’s: Is it getting easier to green a massive multiday event today than in recent years?

Ms. Stengel: It’s becoming easier because there are more resources. Biodiesel is more widely available. Our generators are now run on biodiesel, so it’s nice to have that delivered onsite. It’s also easier because every year we can build on what we have done in years past. We started the Rock & Recycle Program in 2005 in Grant Park when C3 started producing the festival. Now we have recycling volunteer teams and other volunteer teams to help out, including a bike valet service. You have to have people interested to make anything work.

Crain’s: What’s on your green wish list for next year?

Ms. Stengel: In the future, I’d like to see complete clean-energy activations in the park, such as cellphone charging stations using solar power. I’d also like to find other ways to highlight local green, clean energy companies. We encourage any local green companies that want to help out to contact us.

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