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| AT&T San Jose Jazz Festival Sets Record for Green Results The 20th AT&T San Jose Jazz Festival held August 7-9, 2009 in downtown San Jose set a new record for achieving one of the highest diversion rates ever for a Bay Area event. By diverting 97% of the potential waste from landfill, the festival exceeded its 2008 record of 94%. In 2006, prior to setting waste diversion goals, the festival generated over sixteen forty-cubic-foot containers of waste. In 2009, that amount of materials generated was less than half. Guidance on reducing event waste is provided by the City of San José Environmental Services Department, as the Jazz Festival is designated as one of the City's Large Zero Waste events. "The AT&T San Jose Jazz Festival is proud to continue its successes in making the festival as green as possible, " said Geoff Roach, CEO and Executive Director of San Jose Jazz. "Besides reducing the impact that the festival has on the environment, the festival provides a great vehicle to educate the public on the potential that such programs can achieve. These efforts align perfectly with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's efforts to make San Jose the greenest city in the United States and with the mission of San Jose Jazz to make Silicon Valley a great place to live." "Zero waste is more than just recycling waste, " said Janice Sitton, Zero Waste Event Specialist with the City of San Jose Environmental Services Department. "Zero waste means strategic planning and sustainable purchasing on the front end as well as recovery of materials for recycling and composting on the back end. San Jose Jazz was the first event producer in San Jose to embrace the idea of material diversion and their leadership is a great model for other Silicon Valley events as well." San Jose Jazz and the City worked together and with the over 130 vendors at the festival to plan and implement the material diversion programs. Beginning in late 2008, plans were made to work with festival vendors to understand their needs and to educate the vendors on the value and feasibility of the program. This year's waste reduction success will be a starting point for the 2010 AT&T San Jose Jazz Festival to be held in downtown San Jose August 13-15, 2010. San Jose Jazz, producer of the annual AT&T San Jose Jazz Festival, is a public benefit corporation dedicated to promoting jazz through performance and education to enrich the lives of people in our community. Proceeds from the performances help to support San Jose Jazz's education and outreach programs as well as other year-round performances throughout Silicon Valley For more on San Jose Jazz and the 20th Annual AT&T San Jose Jazz Festival, please visit www.sanjosejazz.org. The Zero Waste Event Program was created to encourage waste prevention and reduction, recycling, and composting at events held in the City of San José. The program promotes one of the City's Green Vision to thrive as an environmentally sustainable city and conforms with California's Assembly Bill 2176 (AB2176), which sets guidelines for waste management at events. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Jazz News :: home page |