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 2008 Greening and Sustainability Notes OVERVIEW: Columbia Meadows Amphitheater and facility managers, The Lowell MacGregor Group (LMG), are dedicated to minimizing the venue’s environmental footprint. Their desire is to enhance the concert experience while maintaining the sustainable resources at the 200-acre Deer Island location in beautiful and rural St. Helens, Oregon. LMG has initiated a number of groundbreaking policies at Columbia Meadows (CM) to reduce the carbon energy usage and virtually eliminate the contributions to area landfills. The following outline summarizes LMG’s actions and details CM’s on-site policies towards creating a greener and more environmentally responsible concert venue. ELECTRICITY: LMG has collaborated with the Columbia River PUD, Columbia Meadows temporary power providers, to ensure the use of alternative power sources. Columbia Meadows was one of the original Columbia River PUD customers to take advantage of their burgeoning Choice Wind Power Program, which diverts wind-generated electricity to customers for a fee. Since January 2007, three Oregon wind farms supply all the power to Columbia Meadows 200 acre venue. Columbia Meadows, and the other 284 Choice Power customers in Columbia County, are proud to help The Columbia County PUD divert a portion of the proceeds from the Choice Energy Program to the community. This past year, Columbia Meadows energy offsets contributed to the installation of a 1.1KW Solar panel system at St. Helens High School. In addition to the environmentally conscience changes that LMG has implemented at CM for the grid power, they also require all temporary providers, that generate on-site power, to utilize biodiesel in their generators. Columbia Meadows has annually collaborated with the Vans Warped Tour, the largest summer festival tour in the U.S., as they have moved toward environmentally responsible touring, using biodiesel in their generators and implementing recycling programs. TRASH, RECYCLING AND COMPOSTING: It is no secret that concerts create a large volume of “garbage” in a short period, negatively affecting local landfills. LMG has worked diligently over the past three years to divert Columbia Meadow’s “garbage” away from the traditional destinations, toward more environmentally responsible handling of concert waste. Through interfacing with consulting firms such as Green is Green and Music Matters, LMG uses a combination of on-site and off-site recyclers and composters to minimize the amount of actual “garbage” heading into the landfill system. CM has a dedicated and effective Site and Recycling Crew. During concerts and events, the Recycling Crews are continually emptying the garbage containers throughout the venue, and then publicly sorting thru at one of the recycling stations. The recycling stations have bins designated for biodegradable products, paper, metal, and glass. The Recycling Crew is comprised of local residents as well as dedicated individuals from communities as far south as Eugene, Oregon who have dedicated their lives to the preservation of our environment. Once the concert event is over, the Recycling Crew sorts through 100% of the trash and recyclables before anything is put into dumpsters. LMG provides all of the food vendors at Columbia Meadows Amphitheater with compostable plates and flatware for the food service. Columbia Meadow’s Site Crew lines all garbage bins with Biobags supplied by LMG. In another first, LMG worked out an agreement with Waste Management to handle the biodegradable waste in a new way. LMG transfers the waste to a central hub, in Portland, where it is diverted to the only commercial composting facility in the Northwest, located just outside of Seattle in Maple Valley, Washington . The remainder of the waste that is recyclable is handled locally at the Columbia County Recycling Station. LMG and CM are proud of the fact that over 80% of the materials left behind by patrons have been diverted away from the landfills and into compost, which is feeding the planet or recycled into consumer products that can be reused. ON SITE CONCESSIONS: LMG requires that all CM food vendors and backstage catering providers use biodegradable products such as:
BACKSTAGE AND PRODUCTION: LMG builds the backstage and production compound with a combination of leased mobile trailers, and canopies. Every effort is taken to swap normal light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs, unfortunately due to some fixture types and applications this is not always possible. In this case, those fixtures are only in use for safety and ambiance. CM does not have shower facilities on-site, they are also able to minimize water usage in the toilets by placing bricks in the reserve tanks. As these are leased trailers for offices and dressing rooms, CM is simply unable to swap actual toilet fixtures. LMG buys all toiletries and cleaning products locally and our preferred brand is EarthFriendly. WATER: Columbia Meadows Amphitheater is “off the grid” for our most important consumable product water. Rather than pulling water from the local reservoir system Columbia Meadows Amphitheater pumps water from the local aquifer, filters the water and stores it on-site. Water is provided in bubbler style drinking fountains that provide cool fresh water FREE of charge and free of chemicals and contaminates. There are also Misting Stations inside the venue. This water as well as the unconsumed drinking water is returned directly into the water table on site. ATTITUDE AND APPROACH: The most important element of LMG’s approach, to a more sustainable and responsible Columbia Meadows Amphitheater venue, is that of their attitude. Their method is to try to apply these basic energy saving and environmentally sound strategies in everyday life. By introducing the LMG staff and Columbia Meadows concert patrons to the changes in policy that have been implemented, LMG hopes to educate people to act the same way at home, work and schools in their own community.   Jack Johnson and his crew are passionately committed to greening every aspect of this tour in order to minimize environmental impact. Actions taken include fueling tour vehicles with biodiesel, offering eco-friendly tour merchandise and working with venues to reduce waste, recycle and offset carbon emissions. In addition, Jack Johnson is launching All At Once in partnership with non-profits worldwide. This dynamic new interactive community empowers fans to take action toward a healthier community and planet—based on the concept that individual action, multiplied by millions, creates global change. The All At Once campaign can be experienced both online at www.AllAtOnce.org and at the Village Green, a focal point of every Jack Johnson concert. Online, fans can become a member of the community, get free downloads, learn how to reduce their environmental impact by carpooling to concerts, reducing plastic use and volunteering. The interactive Village Green is the website brought to life. It educates and activates fans to take action while offering the opportunity to connect personally with local, national, and international non-profits. All donations made by fans to these organizations online or at the concerts will be matched by Jack Johnson's charity, the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation (up to $2,500 per organization). “I can’t think of a better reason to put on a concert than to bring people together to create positive change,” said Jack Johnson. “With this year’s tour we are bringing together all of our resources All At Once to give back to each community that we visit.” The Jack Johnson tour is collaborating with hand-chosen community groups around the world. The following national nonprofit groups will be involved in all of the US concerts. For a complete list of all local community groups visit www.AllAtOnce.org: Climate Counts www.climatecounts.org Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastics www.surfrider.org Vote the Environment www.votetheenvironment.org HeadCount www.headcount.org 1% For The Planet www.onepercentfortheplanet.org In addition, fans will be able to offset their carbon emissions that result from traveling to the show two ways: as an extra $.50 opt-in at the time of online ticket purchase, or via an exclusive Jack Johnson offset sticker (available at the show). Proceeds from these contributions will go to the All At Once Carbon Management Portfolio, an offset portfolio created especially for this tour by a team of climate scientists to address the two largest contributors to global warming: burning fossil fuel and deforestation. For more information about the tour go to www.jackjohnsonmusic.com For All at Once Community info go to www.AllAtOnce.org 
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