SF Green Festival Generates Discussion on Sustainability Revolution

“Social media is the tipping point for a sustainability revolution” Joey Shepp, CEO of Earthsite, echoes through a microphone to an audience of about 75. Meanwhile, outside of the room where Shepp is speaking, women are donning plastic bag gowns and candy wrapper purses while children joyously make masks and costumes out of “used materials” (aka trash). Thousands of bright-eyed people shuffle through the crowded isles of the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center, sipping organic chai cola and inquiring about products like paper made from elephant dung.

This is just a glimpse of last weekend’s eighth annual San Francisco Green Festival, which attracted over 40,000 attendees. But don’t let scenes like this fool you into thinking this was just a kitschy green trade show. As Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green for All, put it in her discussion titled Green Cities, Green Centuries: “This moment presents an opportunity to bring people together who haven’t been brought together before.” The eclectic blend of environmental stewards, social justice leaders, media experts, artists, performers, chefs, eco-businesses and conscious consumers proved to be a vibrant and ambitious mix. Speakers covered topics ranging from The Growing Power of Shareholder Activism to Accelerating the Green Economy. Whichever panel or discussion festival goers attended, or whether they were just conversing in the organic beer garden, there was a constant dialogue exploring what each of us can do to move our country forward and scale back our impacts on the environment.

Todd Process, am environmental scientist from Nevada, traveled all the way to San Francisco just to attend the festival. Process said his favorite part of the festival was meeting people and “chatting about philosophies and communities.” He commented how he felt the festival brought people with a similar vision together: “It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. This is a good reminder that we can all do our part and contribute in someway. It really gives people a chance to see how big this movement is.”

With over 400 businesses present, the festival also generated much discussion about green products. One thing that sets green consumers apart from the average consumer is that they’re interested in the process of how something is made — not just the product itself. The festival gave people a unique chance to speak directly with representatives from hundreds of companies who passed Green America’s screening process about where the materials for their products come from, how it’s manufactured and how it’s transported. “It not only lets you know what you’re buying, but how your purchase is potentially impacting the environment and the workers who made it,” one attendee said while shifting through organic cotton baby clothes.

So what will be the tipping point for a sustainability revolution, if we reach one at all? Social media? Green jobs? Conscious consuming? Stricter regulations on our food system? No consensus on a magic bullet for our world’s energy and environmental woes was formed. But many ideas were raised about what will be the next step for the green movement, and one thing is certain: the dialogue will continue in April when the Green Festival returns to San Francisco for more panels, music, green shopping and, hopefully, more plastic bag gowns.

–Jenna Scatena