(Published in the Downtown Devil)
The Green Planet Festival, an event dedicated to sustainability education, was held at the Phoenix Convention Center Saturday, bringing together eco-friendly businesses and community members.
The event was created and organized by Kyle Michaud, 24, of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and featured both local and national vendors.
“I saw there was a need to connect eco-conscious consumers with green businesses, so I created this platform so businesses could showcase their services to the local communities,” Michaud said.
Michaud began producing events during his college years in New York, during which he started a company that produced music festivals. Over the course of two years, he produced 25 successful music festivals down the East Coast.
When he sold that company last year, he began working on his passion for a greener future, which led to the creation of Green Planet Festivals, the first of which was held in Fort Lauderdale this past February and had over 6000 attendees.
The high-energy event featured 80 eco-friendly vendors. They showcased an assortment of products including fashion, design, aesthetics and health products. There was also a selection of vegan-dining options for guests to sample and enjoy.
Throughout the day, attendees enjoyed live-music performances and demonstrations to promote green living, such as clean eating demos, solar power installation and presentations on how to effectively practice sustainable home routines.
Brigitte Bavousett, an instructor from Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability, was one of the several speakers at the event.
“I’ve done my research on how businesses can have such a huge effect, whether it is detrimental, or to the benefit of our environment, our people and our economy,” Bavousett said. “What attracted me to this particular festival is that they really focus on how being an educated consumer can make a huge difference.”
Bavousett provided insight to what ASU students have accomplished it terms of sustainability, while also discussing basic climate-change issues.
Also included in the ticket price were a number of exercise activities for all ages and skill levels. These included boot-camp sessions from the local-fitness company Youfit, as well as yoga sessions from NamaStacy Yoga Corporation, which is a national nonprofit organization that has co-branded with Green Planet Festivals.
Corbin Stacy, founder of NamaStacy, created the organization with a “pay it forward…one yogi at a time” vision.
NamaStacy aims to promote sustainability and provide scholarships for yoga-alliance teacher programs. Since its beginning, the organization has given 18 fully paid scholarships to create new yoga instructors, or to allow current teachers to continue their education.
Stacy said that when looking for potential scholarship recipients, he is looking for someone with a drive to create a positive change in their community, with a mission of “education, choice and co-creation.”
Michaud was Stacy’s 13th scholarship recipient, or as he calls him, a “BAMbassador.” The two have co-branded together and are working toward organizing many more Green Planet Festivals to come. By 2017, they hope to host the event in 15 cities throughout the country.
“It’s just a win-win situation,” Stacy said. “It’s a win for the communities that attend the Green Planet Festival, it’s a win for the practitioners and it’s a win for the facilitators and teachers and studios because they become more conscious and involved. It’s a whole circle of paying it forward.”
Mike Sills-Trausch, an event attendee, said the festival could inspire other cities to commit to addressing sustainability issues.
“We heard Mark Hartman with the city of Phoenix discuss sustainability issues,” Sills-Trausch said. “I’m impressed with how the city of Phoenix is making a commitment to sustainability. When you have a huge organization like the city of Phoenix representing and working for a large metropolitan area, it becomes a model for change nationwide and they become a social leader and a laboratory for what can be done.”
Isabel Menzel 