Mid-Summer Catch up

Whew! Hard to believe we're heading into the second week of July. Much has been happening in the Sustainable San Miguel world.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival - Planet Bluegrass hosted the 34th Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June. They are the first carbon-neutral festival we know of. Not only did they offset all their own carbon emissions through purchasing wind power, they estimated the amount of carbon emitted from ALL festivarians' travel, lodging, etc. and offset that as well - over 4 million kilowatt hours worth.

I helped run the compost crew for the 4th year and this year The New Community Coalition had an information booth in the Green Area. Lots of folks came by to find out what we're doing locally to promote sustainability. See www.planetbluegrass.com for more info.

Since then I've been contacted by the Telluride Film Festival, the KOTO Doo-dah and the Chocolate Lover's Fling to help them "get greener". I've got an intern working on a green festival document that will have a checklist of things to do. Input is always welcome.

Telluride Farmers' Market - Up and running smoothly. We started the week before Bluegrass this year - a time when farmer's have the thinnest harvests. Now in July there's an abundance of local organic produce, meats and flowers as well as booths with beautiful crafts and some yummy food vendors as well. Come by and share the harvest every Friday on Oak Street from 11:30 to 4:00.

Community Feast and Forum was excited to have Lydia Reznick present the live version of Al Gore's presentation that is highlighted in An Inconvenient Truth. Wonderful presentation that focussed at the end on the many small things we can do that add up to lower our carbon footprints.

Telluride Food Coop - If you don't know about this organization you're missing out. Our local food coop orders from the Tucson Warehouse. It's free to join and once a month you can order a huge variety of mouth-watering items. Order books and forms can be picked up in the cubbies in the front of the library, or in front of the Coop office in the Wintercrown Building (above Overland on Main St.). Call Sara for more info at 728-1814. Volunteers who help pack orders get $7/hour credit off their own orders. It's fun and a great way to get products you can't find locally.

Mountain Village Green Building Code was passed on June 21st. Now the Village has a prescriptive code, similar, but more strict than San Miguel County's. The next step is for our Green Building working group to gather and start ramping up for an even stricter code to present to each government early next year.

To participate in Sustainability in our region please call 970-728-1340 or email: kholstrom@gmail.com.