24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY May 23-29, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com During one of the early years of Cali Roots, festival co-owners Amy and Dan Sheehan showed up to the Monterey County Fair and Event Center on a Saturday morning following the show the previous night. They were horrified by what they saw. The lawn area in front of the stage was nearly hidden, buried under a sea of plastic cups and bottles. A groundskeeper, meanwhile, was trying to clean it up by using a leaf blower to pile all of the trash into multiple mountainous heaps. “It was something that will stick with us forever,” Amy Sheehan says. “In that moment, we knew we had to do something different.” And they did: The next year, festival organizers implemented a ban on single-use plastic water bottles on site, not only for attendees, but for everyone involved in putting on the event. More than a decade later, they continue to one-up themselves every year. Now, Cali Roots is a certified green business in Monterey County, and was certified as the first green festival in California in 2020, proving that it’s not an oxymoron. Since focusing on green efforts, festival organizers estimate they have diverted more than 600,000 single-use plastic cups and bottles through the Steel Pint and REVERB’s Rock n’ Refill programs. They’ve also collected 100 tons of recyclables, donated 50,000 pounds of composted food waste to local vineyards and planted more than 7,500 redwood tree seedlings. The festival also has a no-idling policy for vehicles, where vendors are required to shut off their vehicles while they set up their spaces. And to encourage people to leave their vehicles at home and use other methods of transportation, the festival has parked 5,000 skateboards and bicycles at its free bike and skate valet service. The little things matter too, Sheehan says, which add up in the long run. The festival has worked to incorporate more LED lights into the event, and even installed eco-friendly toilet paper. Sheehan says festival organizers were figuring out how they were going to valet park electric bicycles, as their thicker tires prevent them from fitting in standard bike racks. But it’s a challenge they’ll happily take on. “There’s all these new, fun little challenges that come with what we’re doing,” she observes. In recent years, Sheehan says she’s seen a shift in attitudes among touring bands and music festivals: Many bands are forgoing the cases of plastic water bottles and instead are asking organizers to supply them with jugs so they can refill their bottles. “We were ahead of the curve when we did that,” she says. “There was a lot of education with our fanbase. Now it seems so obvious 12 years later, but at the time it wasn’t a normal process.” Commemorative Nalgene bottles are sold on site every year (with proceeds this year going to Surfrider Monterey County), as well as steel pint cups (those who buy a new cup or bring their cups from a previous year can get a discount on beer). REVERB, a Maine-based organization that partners with musicians and festivals to green their events, has been working with Cali Roots since 2016, setting up free water refill stations throughout the festival and selling reusable bottles to donate to a nonprofit organization. Project Manager Brian Farrell says he’s seen that mindset to ditch the single-use plastic bottles grow among festival attendees over the years. “People remember, ‘Hey, I’m going to a show. I need my keys, I need my phone and I need my reusable bottle,’” he says. During the 2023 Cali Roots festival, REVERB estimates it had 25,000 fillups at the water stations, amounting to more than 37,500 single-use bottles avoided. “The numbers can be staggering,” Farrell says. “It makes such a big difference. It really adds up over time.” It’s not just about water bottles. Sheehan says festival-goers are encouraged to “pack in and pack out.” Have a lighter that dies over the weekend? Don’t trash it at the festival—throw it away at home. Volunteers with Blue Strike Environmental are also stationed near the recycling and composting bins throughout the fairgrounds to help people choose the right option. “We’re trying to be mindful and ask that people be mindful with us to do the right thing,” Sheehan says. She notes that while all of these efforts are more expensive than the traditional route many festivals take, the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term costs. “I feel like we’ve set some standards for others to follow,” Sheehan says. “A lot of us have children now, which definitely puts things in a different perspective. We want to leave this planet better than we found it.” Reduce and Reuse Cali Roots went green more than a decade ago, and the results speak for themselves. By Erik Chalhoub Courtesy REVERB Water bottle refilling stations operated by REVERB are one of the reasons Cali Roots has cut single-use plastics by an estimated 600,000 bottles since organizers began emphasizing sustainability. The festival is now one of Monterey County’s certified green businesses. Karen Loutzenheiser “I need my keys, I need my phone and I need my reusable bottle.” Two of the previous years’ reusable (and collectible) steel pint mugs sold at the event.
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