We’re reducing our carbon footprint!

The Sustainable Ballard Festival is fun, educational, inspirational and a darn good community event!  But let’s face it … it creates a carbon footprint that runs counter to our mission to live more sustainably.  Exhibitors and some attendees arrive at the festival by car.  Rented equipment — tables, chairs, canopies, barricades, honey buckets — all arrive in delivery trucks.  Even though our musicians and food vendors are (almost) all from Ballard and don’t have far to travel, they still need to drive vehicles to bring their equipment, supplies and food trucks.  Our electricity is solar-powered, but we still need a generator or two for some of the food.

evergreen carbon capture logoThat big footprint is why we’re partnering with Forterra and their Evergreen Carbon Capture Program.  Motivated by their mission to conserve and restore the lands in our region, Forterra’s Evergreen Carbon Capture program helps companies, organizations and individuals improve the long-term resiliency of our home.

How it works

Along with their Field Partners, Forterra plants and maintains the ECC trees in cities and rural lands throughout Western Washington. Tree planting is part of their comprehensive habitat restoration efforts, meaning ECC participants are not only mitigating their carbon impact—they are helping develop healthy, resilient forested parks and natural areas for future generations.

The trees

ECC plants native evergreen trees on Forterra stewardship lands as well as on protected private and public land actively managed by local organizations and agencies. Together with our Field Partners, ECC maps and tracks tree survival to ensure the success of the project.

See where the trees live

Our footprint

We do our best to make our fest sustainable: solar power, t-shirts and decorations from reused and recycled materials, local suppliers, focusing on the local community, but we still use carbon. To bring us all the way to carbon neutral, Forterra will plant and maintain enough trees to offset 22 tons of carbon — more than enough to offset this year’s festival footprint.