It was hot. It was loud. It was a good time.

Back from Bonnaroo, CREx was proud to be this year's official CO2 offset quantifier and offset provider for them. As part of the Carbon Crusher team we lent support to the well-entrenched sustainability program that has been in place for some time. We were also privileged to work with the Urban Land Scouts to spread the good word about urban farming and my kind of critical resistance like planting seed bombs.

We hope to bring the very popular Carbon Crushing Bike back again next year with a new and improved generator (as we recycle the alternator).

Our next stop? The Big Up Festival in upstate NY, Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, NC and back home for The FEST in Gainesville by Halloween.

CREX OFFSETS WGOT’S 3RD BDAY PARTY BASH

Holopaw plays the Atlantic for WGOT bday bash

It was loud. It was fun. It was carbon neutral.

Local sonic heroes Holopaw, Travis Atria of Morningbell and Cassette, all played great birthday sets.

Myself, a longtime supporter and friend of low power radio in our town, I had a short walk down amnesia lane while recounting the history of low-power radio in Gainesville. Once squatted by pirates, 94.7 on the radio dial was chosen about 12 years ago as a quiet little spot to put Free Radio Gainesville. After a short spell of avoiding the FCC in and around various houses, closets and even under staircases, Free Radio Gainesville was eventually cat and moused into a corner and it’s collective equipment was illegally seized by the FCC in 1999. Fast forward to present day and we have WGOT Low Power radio broadcasting “legally” at 100 watts at the same frequency that was squated so long ago…

Now another chapter is about to unfold with CREx and WGOT coming together to have Gainesville’s first carbon-neutral radio station. The birthday party was the start, but we are looking forward to working together over the next year to broadcast the benefits of going low, and going local with your CO2 offsets. On another serendipitous note, Steve Schell of WGOT is also a longtime Community Weatherization Coalition volunteer and coordinator, CWC being friends of CREx with our low-income weatherization offset projects. For more info on our locally generated offset projects go to here to our papa website, www.earthgivers.org

DRINKING TINY FOOTPRINTS

The footprint of your non-local bottle of beer? Try 900 grams of CO2. Ok so that’s like .002 lbs of CO2. But add that up and depending on your drinking quotient and whether or not you are attending college you might be contributing to about one lb per year. Here’s some more interesting items and their CO2 footprint:

http://www.tinygreenbubble.com/eco/environmental/item/1278-three-things-with-surprising-carbon-footprints

CREX IS TOTALLY ON FACEBOOK

Yes now you can be our friend on facebook too. Click here to do it.

DO IT!

some friends of CREx

THE FEST 2009 VIDEO

FEST 7's carbon footprint was calculated to be almost half as big as FEST 8's when including hotel stays and band travel...

Check out our lastest video here on The FEST 2009 and some footprinting stats, courtesy of Carbon Solutions

FEST 8 PICS AND STATS

Map with pins placed by FEST8-goers indicating where they traveled from

Gainesville Florida’s annual FEST event entered its eighth year this past October. A rock music event that lasted three days, the FEST 8 hosted a few hundred punk and alternative unsigned and signed bands from independent music labels.

It attracted approximately 6,000 people from all over the U.S. and many international countries. For FEST 8, twelve different venues accommodated the performers and revelers over the 3-day weekend, creating a raucous carnival of attendees that stretched along University Avenue and Main Street in downtown Gainesville, FL. As an event that relies heavily on electricity and long distance transportation, FEST 8’s CO2 output was of a magnitude that merited both carbon accounting and offsetting.

On October 30th at 10 A.M., three volunteers surveyed FEST-goers at the event registration on their distance traveled, method of transportation, number of travel companions, and time spent in a hotel. Attendees were also asked to place a pin on U.S. and world maps to indicate where they traveled from, creating a visual geographic representation of the FEST’s scope.

Strikeforce Diablo at FEST8

According to the survey of 1,026 attendees, approximately 10,219 tonnes of CO2 was emitted in total or 1.70 tCO2 per person. 20% of these emissions were generated by cars, 72% by air travel, 8% by lodging, and ~1% by electricity used to power the venues during the shows. Approximately 6,000 people attended the event, making the FEST 8’s total carbon footprint around 10,219 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of emissions from the consumption of 1,150,00 gallons of gasoline.

THE FEST8 IS HERE AND IT WILL BE NEUTRALIZED!

There will be light snow showers in Missoula tonight, but there’s only sun in our forcast this Halloween weekend in g-ville. Let the sun rock it’s turn into raw power this weekend curtousey of Pure Energy Solar’s t

ower of power.

Let the sun contribute to some ringing ears at the FEST8 this weekend- the forcast is favorable.

Come see what Society Promotions has in store for us this weekend too. I am certain we will be fully synethsized with visual equivalent of sustainble rock. An art collective by design, they will use nature to inspire them. Check them out virtually here.