It is the goal of the Irish Festival of Knoxville to host a zero-waste, carbon-neutral event. While most people are familiar with zero-waste, which includes recycling plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, aluminum, etc., many people are not familiar with "carbon neutral" or "offsetting carbons". This is an effort to counter the carbon emissions from cars driving to the festival, electricity consumed at the festival, fireworks, helium balloons, etc.

There are companies that exist solely for this purpose. They use a formula for emissions based on the projected number of attendees and what activities will cause carbon emissions, and how much. They request a dollar amount to then be invested into clean energy and efficiency projects that capture clean energy from wind, farm animal wastes, and landfill gases. While purchasing these investments to "offset carbons" may satisfy the "carbon neutral" status, the Irish Festival of Knoxville feels a greater need to affect a lifestyle change by educating the community on ways to reduce carbon emissions individually and as a community.

If you refer to the May 29, 2008, "USA Today", and the "Knoxville News Sentinel", you read that Knoxville is among the Top 10 Cities with the worst carbon emissions. In an effort to reduce carbon emissions, the Irish Festival of Knoxville is hoping to offer community-wide shuttle service from designated areas and bring people to the festival by bus.

The Irish Festival of Knoxville has chosen TerraPass, a for-profit company, as our carbon offset provider. (www.terrapass.com) They are a leading consumer retailer of offsets for reducing greenhouse gases. This decision resulted from the fact that TerraPass has had projects in the Southeast, and also because their commitment to "matched-vintage" offsets, which achieve greenhouse gas reductions in the same year they are purchased. TerraPass also has good tracking and reporting and they do not put funds into planting trees.

Information will be available at the Irish Festival of Knoxville calculating the carbon impacts associated with the festival, and how we can all reduce our broader environmental footprint throughout the year.

Links:
USA TODAY
Knoxville News Sentinel