Approximately 40
local and state organizations and vendors, including MIT Electric
Vehicle Team, Groundwork Somerville, the Somerville Gardening Club and
NSTAR, provided information, displays and workshops that discussed
green initiatives to support the surrounding community.

Workshops,
taught by volunteers and organizers, were held in classrooms throughout
the day and featured a variety of subjects. The owner of the recently
opened and aptly named bike shop Open, Joshua Kampa provided
instruction on how to tune and perform basic maintenance on bicycles.
Jen Capuano and Dave Madan demonstrated how to let worms break down
food scraps into rich compost and discussed the various uses of
compost. Eric Becker, one of the festivals organizers, discussed the
implementation of solar power, the possibility of attaining government
rebates for doing so and how to make solar Somerville a reality. There
were also workshops that dealt with shopping for and cooking locally
and sustainably grown foods, properly insulating homes and vastly
reducing our reliance on non-renewable energies.

Brad Arndt,
Coordinator of Somerville's Urban Forest Initiative, was present to
discuss the efforts that are underway in order to increase the number
trees in Somerville's public space. "The Urban Forest Initiative is a
plan that is a direct result from Mayor Curtatone's inaugural address,"
Arndt stated, "Mayor Curtatone discussed the importance of trees and
greenery in a city as densely populated as Somerville." According to
Arndt, The Urban Forest Initiative plans to increase the amount of
trees and green space in Somerville by 20 percent over the next four to
five years.

The Mayor, along with Red Sox mascot Wally the
Green Monster, and State Representative Denise Provost all made
appearances in support of the Living Green Festival.

Checklists
were given to attendees offering ways in which they could begin to live
a more green lifestyle, which included simple solutions such as making
sure to turn off lights and appliances when they are not being directly
used and closing curtains in order to reduce the amount of heat lost in
the winter months. Instruction on the weatherization of homes was
another popular topic of discussion. Weatherization is the process of
installing proper insulation in homes and sealing air leaks to prevent
the loss of heat and air conditioning, which is not only beneficial for
the environment, but is also economically efficient.

Raffle
tickets were sold for attendees with prizes that included a pair of
Boston Red Sox tickets, Gift cards from Wheel Works, O2 Yoga, Pemberton
Farms, A BBC Planet Earth Box set, among a other prizes. Proceeds from
the raffle went to support further initiatives of the Somerville
Climate Action group.

According to both Eric Becker and Vanessa
Rule, another of the festivals organizers, the festival was a great
success and they anticipate that it will become an annual event.

The
Somerville Climate Action group, which started in 2001, holds public
meetings on the third Tuesday of every month. The next meeting will be
held at the Community Growing Center on May 19th.