Education, Reduction, Offsets, Advocacy and Celebration

 Keeping the Scene Clean and Green at Blues & Brews

Telluride Blues & Brews Festival is dedicated to keeping our environment clean and green. Join us in our commitment to ensuring a greener future for the Town of Telluride, our Festival and the planet.

The power of music to gather, evoke emotion and send a message is undeniable. We’re committed to using our resources to promote sustainability and encourage environmental responsibility. We act with the planet in mind and are dedicated to a high standard of sustainability. Our festival sits in a gorgeous public park located on a beautiful planet and we intend to keep it that way for generations to come.

Through partnerships, action and we focus on waste reduction, environmental education and advocacy, energy offsets and earth celebration, we aim to have the most positive impact as possible.

Reduction

The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival has implemented the following programs to reduce our footprint at the festival and year-round.

No Single-Use Plastic Bottles

The United States uses roughly 50 billion plastic water bottles a year, and nearly 80% of them end up in the landfill. The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival says no to single-use plastic water bottles. In fact, you won’t find one for sale in the Festival. Instead, we’ve built two free, convenient, and easy to use hydration stations in the festival grounds. Bring a water bottle or use a reusable cup - just say no to bottled water!

No Single-Use Tasting Glasses and Beer Cups

Beer is best enjoyed out of a cup, so our festival requires the use many cups. Instead of single-use plastic, the festival employs multi-use souvenir cups. Attendees who hang on to these commenorative cups for reuse throughout the festival are rewarded with discounts on beer, wine and cocktail refills. These cups can also be used at the festival hydration station and for timeless home, bar or restaurant cup-ware.

Compostable and Recyclable Utensils

All festival food vendors serve their food on compostable or recyclable plates and utensils reducing unnecessary plastic waste. We also utilize compostable dishware in all festival catering areas.

Compost and Recycle Stations

There are multiple compost and recycle stations located throughout the Festival for proper waste disposal. Each station is manned by an environmental volunteer who helps determine if trash can be recycled or composted. From 2014 through 2017, 44% of waste at the Festival was diverted from the landfill. Help us bump that number up!

Energy Efficient Pedestrian Travel

We encourage all attendees to carpool to Telluride, park and leave their vehicle put for the weekend. With Telluride’s robust public transportation infrastructure this is a safe, simple and fun way to reduce carbon emissions. During the festival the Telluride Gondola offers free transportation to-and-from Mountain Village from 7-2 am. The Galloping Goose offers complimentary rides on a 10-minute local circuit and throughout San Miguel County. Check the schedule here.

If you are unable to bring a bike, the Wilkinson Public Library has a bike-share program, Telluride Townies, that works like a library book. Check a bike key out from the front desk of the Wilkinson Public Library, keep it for four days (locked up of course), reduce your carbon emissions, and bring it back when you're done. Call (970) 728-4519 for more info.

Low Impact Commuting Office

More than 75% of time, the Festival’s full-time staff utilizes human-powered or public transportation options to commute to our office reducing carbon emissions.

Education & Advocacy

Green Beer: Sierra Nevada Partnership

The festival is proud to partner with Sierra Nevada! Through use of renewable energy, bio-gas, sustainable building construction and more, Sierra Nevada is widely recognized as the most environmentally friendly production brewery operation in the world. Learn more about Sierra Nevada’s sustainability measures, click here.

Volunteers

Once inside the park, patrons find dedicated teams of environmental volunteers, helping to spread the green message by offering to take recyclables, filling water bottles at the filling stations, and helping fans to properly discard their waste in the correct bins near the vendor area.

Celebrate

Join us for the festival and sign up for our Bluesletter to stay up-to-date on how you can get involved with our greening efforts.