Keep California Beautiful enlists Burning Man to help transition the Carlsbad Marathon to a “Leave No Trace” event
January 18, 2008 Carlsbad, CA. – When Keep California Beautiful was charged with developing a plan to help “green” the Carlsbad Marathon they looked to the ground-breaking work of the nation’s largest Leave No Trace event; Burning Man. Inspired by Burning Man’s achievements and ability to efficiently mobilize to create change, Christine Flowers, the Executive Director of KCB engaged the Burning Man organization for their consultation and support.
“We are very proud that the work we have done to make Burning Man an inspirational, and more importantly effective, role model for socially and environmentally responsible action continues to transcend the boundaries of the event and provide value in a wide variety of real-world situations.” Marian Goodell, board member of Black Rock City, LLC., said.
After consulting a case study developed by Burning Man’s Environmental Manager, Tom Price, KCB developed a Litter Abatement plan for the Carlsbad Marathon focused on creating a culture of participation and the development of practical solutions to mitigate and facilitate the disposal of event related garbage.
The plan calls for Burning Man’s Department of Public Works (DPW) to take on a consulting role to KCB in order to assess and assist with the execution of the Litter Abatement plan. A crew of eleven DPW volunteers, lead by Dominic “DA” Tinio, the head of the DPW’s playa restoration team, will be on hand for the marathon, working to do a pre-course evaluation and develop benchmarks that both KCB and the marathon organizers can use to determine the effectiveness of the litter abatement plan.
“Burning Man has been an integral part of the development of the litter abatement plan and continues to provide value through their ability to implement and assess the various elements of the plan in action.” said Flowers. The success of this program at the Carlsbad event could become a blueprint for the California Integrated Waste Management Board and the California Environmental Protection Agency in the development of other No Trace events. [para_end]
