2016 IFEA Pinnacle Awards

Category: #45 - Best Green Program Entry: Cleanest & Greenest Festival

www.RoseFestival.org

2016 IFEA Pinnacle Awards

DIVISION: Festival & Event Critical Component

CATEGORY: #45 ‐ Best Green Program

ENTRY: Cleanest & Greenest Festival

1. Overview Information a. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF MAIN EVENT

The Rose Festival is a 109‐year tradition making memories for locals and visitors alike each year. The mission of the Foundation is to serve families and individuals with programs and events that promote the arts, education and volunteerism. We value environmental responsibility, diversity, patriotism and our historic and floral heritage. The Foundation has been bringing the community together to celebrate the City of Roses for over a century. As a 501(c)3 non‐profit foundation, the Rose Festival relies on individual and corporate donors to help fund events and programs that support our mission. The Rose Festival’s main events include the electrifying nighttime Starlight , the all‐floral traditional Spirit Mountain Casino Grand Floral Parade, a children’s parade – the Fred Meyer Junior Parade – and CityFair, an urban three‐week fair that features carnival rides, food and concerts for fans of all ages.

Environmental responsibility is a well‐known and celebrated tradition in Portland. As Portland’s Official Festival, the Rose Festival has a responsibility to the community to implement green initiatives in all of the events. For 20 years, the Cleanest & Greenest program has provided cleanups after all three , as well as environmental and recycling programs at CityFair. All of the Clean & Green Team’s efforts have the objective of keeping Portland’s streets and parks looking their best for everyone to enjoy. The Rose Festival also aims to ensure that festival attendees can make a positive impact on the environment while participating in the events.

2016 marks the 20th year of the Rose Festival's award winning Cleanest & Greenest Program. In 1996, the festival introduced the Cleanest & Greenest program, an unprecedented initiative among volunteer, nonprofit and corporate partners, setting an events industry standard and winning its first gold Pinnacle Award from the International Festival & Events Association in 1997. Over the next 20 years, the Rose Festival collected gold award after gold award for the Best Environmental Program in the world. The program started with an all‐hands‐on‐deck parade cleanup team, partnering with local garbage haulers, recyclers, and the city's maintenance bureau. It grew to incorporate a recycling program at CityFair, carbon offsets for parade cars and carnival rides, alternative transportation measures and green programming throughout the Festival. Today, many thanks to the Rose Festival's early initiatives, events and festivals across the globe incorporate green initiatives through recycling programs, cleanup efforts, and sustainability messaging.

Momentum was building this year for a 20‐year celebration. All partners were in place and logistics had been tried and tested over the last two decades. What could go wrong...?

b. DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE / OBJECTIVE OF GREEN PROGRAM The Cleanest & Greenest program found its purpose in 1996 as a parade cleanup for the nighttime, illuminated Starlight Parade, deemed to be the 'cleanest parade in America'. Over the next two decades, the program's purpose grew to incorporate green initiatives in all Rose Festival programming including recycling and composting, alternative transportation, renewable energy offsets, and joining forces with many community partners to produce the Best Green Program in the world.

In 2016, the program's purpose stayed true, even as the program objective