What Makes Charleston Green Fair Unique?

In 2008 Charleston Green Fair exceeded their greening goals by diverting nearly 95% of our waste from Charleston landfills.  We plan to meet those same standards this year and we will continue to look for creative ways to set the example for greening a large scale event, as well as carrying over those same practices to all of our Green Fair Events!

Are you looking for ways to make your South Carolina Event more environmentally-friendly?  Contact the South Carolina Green Fair and let us help you create a more sustainable event.  We are committed to making South Carolina a GREENER place to live!

The Charleston Green Fair is committed to producing an event that exemplifies the highest standards of environmental responsibility, not only through our exhibitors and programming, but through our actions as well. Throughout the development and planning of this event, we are constantly scrutinizing every decision as to its relative impact upon the environment. Every aspect of this event will be produced in a manner that showcases the best of our “Green” Charleston!

Below are some of the many efforts we are undertaking this year with the help of our Green Team, our event production staff, a few experts and a whole bunch of dedicated Volunteers!

Special Thanks to Walmart our 2009 Greening Sponsor!

Local & Ecologically Friendly Products

In these days of globalization, high oil prices and mass produced products, it is becoming more important everyday that we use local and ecologically friendly products in order to help lesson our impacts on the environment and to help support our local economy. Whenever possible we are using local and regional vendors to provide everything from great local organic food to production supplies for the event itself.

EverGreen Concepts is providing all of the bio-degradable paper goods, which are manufactured in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

As we prepare and plan for the Green Fair, we are doing everything we can to keep our printing needs as low as possible, and when we must print we are utilizing paper that contains recycled content instead of virgin white paper. In fact, our event program will be printed using recycled content  paper and soy ink and will be distributed in the Charleston City Paper.

Waste Reduction &Landfill Diversion

Anytime people gather, it is simply a given that waste will be produced; the larger the gathering, the greater the amount of waste. To help minimize our event waste, we have asked every exhibitor, food vendor, and service provider to assess the items that they are bringing to the event for opportunities to reduce waste, and where ever possible we are helping our vendors to replace traditional products with ecologically friendly ones. For example, all food vendors are required to use 100% biodegradable and eco-friendly disposable service ware instead of traditional plastic and Styrofoam plates, cup and forks. By doing so we will be able to compost these items instead of landfill them.

Throughout this event you will be provided with hundreds of opportunities to make the green decision and help us to minimize our environmental impact. Everywhere you might expect to find a trashcan or dumpster, you will find something very different, a Resource Recovery Station. At these stations, you’ll find that most of what you might normally have thrown away is actually valuable resources that can be reused and recycled. Each Resource Recovery Station will provide receptacles for the following:

Organic / Biodegradable / Compostable items:

Nowadays, compost doesn’t necessarily mean Manure. In fact, the EPA estimates that roughly 35% or more of our nations waste could composted and turned into an amazingly simple organic product that can be used to supply organic nutrients and fertilizers to farmers, stabilize erosion and mitigate topsoil loss, and help to minimize global warming by preventing Methane production in our open landfills.

By composting our organic waste, we are also helping to lesson the strain on our over-burdened landfills. So remember, if it’s made from things that are grown, you can put it in the compost bin.

Recyclable Items:

Recycling is becoming vitally important these days, especially for institutions and organizations that produce massive amounts of waste. At CGF, you’ll find the recycling program to, for the most part; reflect that of Charleston’s residential recycling, with a few exceptions. This year we will be collecting all Aluminum and Steel, Plastic bottles, all Mixed Paper, Glass, and corrugated Cardboard for Recycling. If you are ever unsure of an item’s “recyclability”, please feel free to ask any of our trained Resource Recovery Station hosts for clarification.

We are also asking the citizens of Charleston and the low country to bring us all of your small electronic waste. There will be bins available at the entrances to Marion Square for you to bring us all of your old cell phones, batteries, wiring, old CD’s and small portable electronics for recycling. If you have any items bigger than a toaster, we will be happy to tell you how you can make arrangement to have you items recycled after the event. Remember, some electronics can be very hazardous if not disposed of correctly so please take this opportunity to do it right!

The following items are collected for recycling in Charleston SC and at The 2008 Charleston Green Fair:

• newspaper and all inserts

• magazines and catalogs

• white paper, including junk mail

• corrugated cardboard pieces no larger than 3′ x 3′ in size

• paperboard, chipboard, and paper tubes

• steel & tin cans

• aluminum foil and trays (must be completely free of food debris)

• plastic bottles

• plastic beverage rings (soft type only, not the rigid type)

• glass food and beverage containers

• gable top cartons

• aseptic (drink) boxes (Tetra-Pak)

• *Electronic waste (i.e. cell phones, batteries and small used electronics will be collected onsite by the Charleston Green Fair Green Team

Landfill:

Any Item that fails to fall into the above criteria will then be categorized as Landfill. Of course, this is what we hope to avoid. Through our efforts, we hope to recovery as many resources as possible and contribute as little as possible to South Carolina’s landfills.

CGF Green Legacy

It is our hope that through the Charleston Green Fair discussions will continue and grow, relationships will be formed and green initiatives will continue to grow. Already, strides are being made in the hospitality industry, bringing more awareness to the City’s Green Committee’s Initiatives and creating discussion amongst other green events. As the Green Fair comes and goes and we begin our plans for next years events, we look forward to raisimg the bar in so many ways!

Goals for future Green Fairs

Though we have done everything we could this year to create the greenest possible event, there were some initiatives that we just couldn’t plan for this year, but in the coming years the CGF plans to work toward becoming completely carbon neutral and to be supplied and powered 100% by local and green resources.