Green Chief Sustainability were invited to work alongside Tepee Life and the Splendour in the Grass Sustainability team on a new project designed to increase recycling in the campgrounds. Tepee Life strategically placed 5 of their roomy abodes around areas of the Splendour campsites that had previously acquired a lot of rubbish and manned them with groups of Environmental Science students, known as The Green Chiefs. These chiefs spent 6 hours a day talking to happy campers about what could be recycled and where it could be placed to ensure collection. Cardboard boxes were distributed alongside portable butt bins-an idea that the Chiefs relished as communicating with campers is so much easier if you have a gift to give. Especially as these gifts made recycling and not littering easier. In some campsites the campers were collecting the boxes faster than they could be distributed!

Part of the 6 hour shift was spent using litter pickers to keep main walkways clean, and towards the end of the festival directing campers towards the bulk bins as they packed down camp became par of the course. Most groups of Chiefs had opted to wear costumes which made them stand out from the crowd and instilled a sense of unity and an easy approachability that became key to the success of the programme.

Amie Green, our own Green Chief expert was on hand to collect data from over 100 surveys conducted over the weekend, which should give an indication on how successful the Green Chief programme was and how it can be improved for next years Splendour.

Another year, another home for Maitreya. This time they’ve settled at the Carisbrook Harness Racing Track, which although is slightly more urban than their previous sites, it is handily serviced by 3 different waste companies. This means that bargains can be struck when working with tight budgetary constraints. Infrastructure requirements were based on waste and recycling quantities that was received in 2010 and 2009 but a big surprise came on the Sunday of the event when Green Chief had already filled it’s skips

with recycling. In fact we collected 250% of previous years in terms of recycling and re-useable stuff. The food waste was bound for the piggy-wiggies on a local farm and the paper and cardboard to a local mulching plant. Although recycling collection increased, so did landfill by roughly the same amount, with 8 sofa’s and 5 mattresses being the most we’ve ever collected at Maitreya. As punter numbers didn’t increase with a corresponding amount (although they did increase) this has led us to believe one thing….Maitreya festival goers are messier than ever.

In other news, The Varishard were joined by long-term supporters Lenka and Pavel who rinsed out the ‘Leave No waste’ message with a rather filthy Trash Flasher character. Anyone who came across the Trash Flasher would have been sickened into tidying up their campsite-quite horrible and hilarious in equal measures by all accounts. It did the job though and a vast amount of campsites left no trace as they left-some even separating their recycling into the fee-free recycling bags provided on the gate. Special mention also has to be made to the Marybrough Footie Club who provided crew every morning for the arena clean and every evening for the Loot Ute. Maitreya 2011 was one of those that worked because everyone pulled together and took ownership of the event, resulting in a very special feel-good vibe espoused on Main Stage by a passionate  Green Chief representative. Love it.

The behemoth that is Rainbow Serpent Festival has been and gone and left an incredible mark on our souls. The best Rainbow yet in terms of teamwork, recycling rates and final clean up time. This time Green Chief had an awesome team of 4 Shift Supervisors, 2 team leaders and 1 Green ops specialist making up the core crew. We also had around 8 local crew taking care of the morning emu picks around the arena and the Loot Ute collection service for the markets and the campsites, who worked on a daily shift pattern. Complimenting this were over 60 volunteers throughout the weekend, these guys and gals spent most of their time in the Recycling Centre sorting and processing the recycling and organics. Occasionally, if they were very good, we’d release them onto the dancefloor to make clean areas for dancing feet. Overall it took 2  1/2 days to clean 90% of the entire site, which left the small pick crew from Talbot Football club 6 hours work when collecting bottle caps and cigarette butts.

There were many initiatives over the weekend, two of which had been allocated funds from the Rainbow Serpent Arts Grant. Our Can Collection device this year was named Vol-CAN-o and situated by the Rainbow Spoon Gateway to the south of the main arena. Not as popular as last year’s Canaconda-although it did re-use much of the new materials from last year’s structure and was made from 92% reclaimed/upcycled materials-it proved mostly popular with the festival kids who could be found scaling the mountainous top and crawling inside to see just how it worked.

The roaming theatrical pursuits of The Varishard hit Rainbow for the first time and made quite an impression. With 5 performances spread over Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of the festival a story was developed over time which included; The rapid growth of the Trash Monster (a holy mess of trash walking on stilted legs), regular sightings by David Fat-and-through and his TV crew-who would commentate on the growth of this being, the two Garbage Grannies and finally our very own Trash Bag Sheriff (who managed to find time to act as Shift Supervisor, Recycling Centre Manager and set-up and pack down crew. This girl is magic!)The hot and sweaty work put in by this troupe of 5 amateur and professional performers is believed to have contributed untold amounts to the reduction in the final clean up time. Did we mention it was just 2 1/2 days? Rock on.

Over 60 20lt buckets were used to collect compostable waste from the Food Markets

A change to regular staffing meant that our very own Green Ops were on hand to rig lighting, repair/build/re-build bin stations, back trailers, borrow equipment and fill holes left by bogged waste trucks. Unfortunately we cannot name these individuals as this would compromise their positions…we’ve said too much already. General awesomeness was also found in our very own Market Waste & Recycling Co-ordinator ( aka M-dog) who did a stirling job settling the Food Market Stallholders, inducting them to the collection process, holding a welcome meeting and collecting feedback at the end of the event. Emma was responsible for the set up and running of the Bag Deposit system-a mammoth task which lasts all weekend and means multiple trips to the front gate either by bike or by commandeering a golf buggy. Not an easy task in its self. Around 80% of all those partaking in the scheme returned their bags and got their refund which again was super successful. And finally, our Ute Loot team. The boys in the utes did good-flat out manic on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the event taking down tents and ferrying all manner of items to the recycling centre. Extra hours were required of these guys who also rescued equipment from the ultra-boggy Shine On site, serviced the bins in the main arena as well as the Market Stalls and rose magnificently to the challenge. Every single day. Kudos.

But what about fun I hear you cry? Yeah, we managed to have a bit of fun over the 18 days Green Chief were on site. All of the Shift Supervisors managed a whole day off each, in which to run riot. The obvious benefits of such rostering were relaxation (sleep) and rejuvenation(beer) but it also allowed the team to see, from a punters perspective what was working and what wasn’t. For example, with the Rainbow site being so huge it was obvious that more bin stations were needed and those that were placed well should have been lit at night with an obvious sign or marker. Many improvements were suggested at the debrief meeting, but generally the team left the site feeling that they had finally cracked it. Although the  jury is still out on exactly how much of the total waste was recycled, you’ll hear about it, and the upcoming initiatives for next years Rainbow here first!

To continue this years theme it did rain, but just at little, at Festival Of the Sun. We thanked the garbage gods that the Loot Ute could run on bitumen roads which of course made the final clean up day marvellous. This year the Loot Ute team decided to give out awards to the cleanest campsites and shame the messy ones which was an excellent way to reward campers who were proud of their campsites. Lots of interaction with the audience  this time around, with bin monitors placed on the bin stations. This must have been one of the cruisiest jobs at the whole festival-stand here, make sure the right thing goes in the right bin, and watch your favourite bands. The ‘Gurge were pretty special I thought and the rest of the team did have a coupe of rock-star moments-we almost lost one of our team leaders to That One Guy who can talk the hind legs of a rabbit apparently! The entire FOTSUN crew were in a remarkably calm state over the weekend, proving that this little festival has finally come of age…a shame that some of the audience didn’t act in such a mature manner, with several branches being broken off trees and some people diving head-first into wheelie bins in the middle of the crowd. These of course were the exception, rather than the rule and inevitably we were rather happy with the state the campsites were left in. Most people had made the effort to black bag everything (aided and abetted by the Sunday Morning Trashbag Bandit) and at least half the sites were spotless. We love Festival Of The Sun!

Holy Moely! What an adventure Shine On turned out to be. With new crew members learning the ropes in the most challenging of conditions, special bonds were formed between all of the crew who managed to live through what has arguably been our toughest gig yet. Knee deep mud and constant rain hindered a couple of new initiatives which were due to be launched, such as the newly decorated Loot Ute Campsite Collection Service (even 4WD’s were getting bogged in the quagmire that the main campsite roads became) and the inaugural outing of The Varishard-a troupe of roaming performers whose aim was to publicly embarrass patrons who left waste at the campsites.

The Bag Deposit scheme was yet again a success, enabling us to maximise the collection of recyclables from the campsites, although a lower than usual return rate was experienced. Debates rages as to if the weather, poor signage or a misunderstanding of the system contributed most to this. It was clear however that the standby TrashBag Bandit performance has a measurable impact on campers packing up and taking their campsites with them. All of the Green Chief crew were pleasantly surprised when only 3 sofas were left behind, one of which could be re-used for an upcoming event. The number of trashed gazebos was high and although all the scrap metal on site, including the aluminium cans, have been collected to raise funds by the Talbot Football Club, it was still disappointing to see so many wasted structures. What was heartening to see in the form of structures were one particular campsite erecting shade from wooden poles. Perhaps this is soemthing that can be investigated for future festivals.

Aside from the initiatives we received lots of compliments on how tidy the festival site was and kudos for this as usual goes to the shift leaders Emma & Heidi for working their magic with the volunteers, all of whom did the most amazing job working in the rain and puling wheelie bins through the mud. A special mention should be made of Maddy who joined us from set up, worked through the festival and was still raring to go for the pack down. A most amazing group of people made this event a success and if not exactly a pleasurable, certainly bearable, experience. Rock On!

North Stradbroke Island is a stunning location for a festival and it was an honour to leave the site, nestled between Mallaluca swamp and pristine Home Beach, in immaculate condition. Our very own Heidi O’Sullivan had been tasked with the role of Sustainability Co-ordinator, which involved not only organising recycling and waste provisions, but dealing with grey water catchment and storage, collaborating with the Queensland EPA to make the event Butt Free, running a stallholders meeting to educate them on community compostable items as well as a million other little jobs which inevitably delve into all areas of the festival management structure. With 3 months of pre-work Heidi did Green Chief proud and Island Vibe would have been pretty stoked too as the final waste-to-landfill figure came in at around 6m3, a fantastic feat not only by working with a team of dedicated volunteers (some real stars among this years group) but also involving the Local Community Gardens and supplying them with over 4m3 of compost. But the compostable material wasn’t the biggest potential waste Island Vibe donated-there was also a Whale constructed from bamboo that has been re-located to the gardens, with hopes it can be used as a greenhouse in the coming months.

All together the Vibes did the environment proud. I have never been to an event before where after the Main Stage dancefloor cleared only 3 handfuls of rubbish had to be picked up from the floor. It was incredible. I heard that an assessor from the coveted A Greener Festival award was also in attendance and based on all I saw, smelt and felt over the weekend I hope that Island Vibe manages to pick up some accolades for all their hard work towards expanding the environmental consciousness.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has’ (Margaret Mead). Our very own Amie Green was invited to attend this years AUSfolk  in the capacity of presenter and host for two distinct topics: The Tipping Point: Solutions for waste & Recycling and Increasing The Green Peace: A practical guide to a greener festival.Both sessions sparked lively debate and questions from event organisers from across Australia and the convergence of event specialists resulted in a resounding success at the beautiful Woodford site of Woodfordia. Amie took a tour around the site and was hugely impressed by the worlds first water treatment plant designed to specifically to cope with the massive volume of waste water generated over a short period of time. The scope for eventually harvesting the methane from the black water to power the plant is indeed one of the most innovate uses of today’s technology within a permanent festivals’ capacity.

Informative sessions and workshops covering funding, creative business planning, PR, multiple case studies and top class musicians were the order of the day with real friendships and business opportunities arising from the 2 day and 3 night convention. The most honest and enlightening music buiness conference I’ve attended! Bring on Ausfolk 2011!

A downloadable copy of her presentation is available here although it does not include the Glastonbury videos which can be viewed through Youtube instead.