Downtown Alliance - Salt Lake City, Utah

6th Annual Downtown Eco-Festival

May 9, 2009 at Library Square from 10am to 6pm.

Library Auditorium Schedule

11:00 am - "Sustainability and the Wealth of Cities" by John Norquist

President and CEO of the Congress of the New Urbanism (CNU). Website: www.cnu.org

(Introduction by Mike Hathorne, invited) 

John Norquist, 16 years the all-powerful mayor of Milwaukee (1988-2004), is the ultimate urban evangelist. Under his leadership, Milwaukee experienced a decline in poverty, saw a boom in new downtown housing, and became a leading center of education and welfare reform. He has a worldwide reputation for turning around cities considered beyond redemption, for being a free-thinking politician who challenged the endless growth of suburbs and championed the renewal of old neighborhoods with a distinctive mix of strong municipal intervention and old-style capitalism.

Norquist is now President and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). CNU is the leading organization applying the principles of city and town design to today's development challenges-including local, regional, and national transportation planning. Working with architects, planners, transportation engineers, CNU advances walkable, compact neighborhood developments as an alternative to sprawl. Norquist is a leader in national discussions of urban design and educational issues. He is the author of The Wealth of Cities, a book that outlines the free-market mantra "Cities grow, trade, produce, erect buildings, evolve neighborhoods, spin off factories, stores and theatres and universities, with or without higher forms of government."

1:30 pm - "Petroleum Free in One Year" by Doug Fine

Investigative journalist and author of Farewell, My Subaru. Website: www.dougfine.com

(Introduction by Mayor Ralph Becker, invited)

Doug Fine is a world-class adventure writer and investigative journalist, writing culturally-insightful and comic dispatches. From his expeditions, Fine realized he was most alive while living in wild ecosystems. He relinquished the suburban values with which he was raised and moved to extreme rural Alaska, hoping to prove that a former suburbanite could survive away from Costco. Happiness and self-awareness were his goals. This resulted in his award-nominated first book, Not Really An Alaskan Mountain Man.

For his second book, Fine decided to practice living a sustainable lifestyle. In 2005 at age 35, he moved to an obscure valley in Southern New Mexico to write Farewell, My Subaru , about the effort to live off fossil fuels and find salvation in the process. From solar panels to goat husbandry to driving a veggie fueled oil truck, Fine explores whether an American can live a green life without becoming overwhelmed by electrocution or contradiction.

4:00 pm - Fuel: The Film, Presented by Sundance Institute

Website: www.fuelthefilm.com

Fuel: The Film is an insightful portrait of America's addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions. Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to track the rising domination of the petrochemical industry - from Rockefeller's strategy to halt Ford's first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney's petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation - and reveals a gamut of available solutions to "repower America" - from vertical farms that occupy skyscrapers to algae facilities that turn wastewater into fuel. Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America's complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible, it's imperative. (Runtime 1:40)

Featured Activities

Alternative Transportation Exhibitors: Biodiesel, solar-powered, electric, natural gas, pedal-powered. Talk to vehicle owners, inventors, and businesses about alternative fuels. Are you ready to make the change? Learn more about the options that best suit your needs.

Local Plant Vendors: Add some "green" to your life. This is the perfect time of year to plant a garden. Live Green vendors will include a variety of local growers with bedding plants for the yard and garden. There will be Master Gardeners on hand to offer advice and to help you select the plants that will be perfect for your yard or patio.

Sustainable Products and Businesses: Get to know businesses that strive to reduce carbon footprints. Recycled paper products, low-water toilets, and recycled timber buildings are just a few examples of the variety of products that will be displayed and sold at Live Green. This is a great think tank for moving towards a clean and green future.

Zero Waste Food and a Beer Garden: Enjoy food from a selection of organic and natural food vendors. Chase it down with a cold Organic Amber from Squatter's Brewery. The zero-waste food and beer garden will be solar-powered. Live Green will also attempt to completely eliminate disposal plates and utensils at the event, so be prepared to set the standard.

Repurposed Fashion Show (6:00 pm): We partner with SLCC Fashion Institute to bring you this innovative show. Envision couture clothing made from recycled materials, encouraging creative reuse and sustainable fashion solutions in an eclectic and inspiring production. 
http://shiftslc.blogspot.com/2009/05/6th-annual-live-green-eco-event.html

Live Music: Take a spin on the bike to generate power for our "Pedal-Powered Music Stage". Shake Your Peace joins Live Green as part of their tour focused on sustainable music. Other artists include Utahpia 2009! and CelloJoe (the wildest beatboxin' cellist in the West). www.shakeyourpeace.com

Eco-Activities for Kids: Bring the entire family to Live Green. Teaching children preservation will help them learn from previous mistakes and strive to make the world a better place. This year's activities are presented by the experts in art and science from The Leonardo.

Community Advocates: Meet the organizations that fight the good fight. Learn which groups are focused on which issues. When you find the right fit, volunteer your time to help the nonprofit community.

Recycled Art Vendors: Live Green engages local artists that reuse materials to create pieces of art. Old wine bottles become glasses or windchimes. Records become clocks. The old becomes new again.

Builders and Architects: It is no accident that Live Green is in Downtown Salt Lake City. Downtown is home to leaders in green building design. Choosing to live in a downtown area is a green choice. Downtown is walkable, mass transit is readily available, amenities are nearby, and the use of space is much more efficient that what you might see in the suburbs.

Event Sponsors

Downtown Alliance
Ebay Green Team
Squatters
Clif Bar
Salt Lake City Corp
Salt Lake County
Mount Olympus
Blue Sky
Department of Environmental Quality
LLoyd Architects
Rocky Mountain Power
City Weekly
Catalyst
Slug Mag
Arrow 103.5
FM 100.3
KSL Newsradio 102.7
KCPW 88.3
KRCL 90.9