Sustainability

Like most great experiences, it’s the small things that add up to the Treefort phenomenon. And it’s especially true when you think of Treefort in terms of clean and green.

Take a look around. Take a moment to notice:

• The musicians and entertainers stand on a clean Main Stage.
• The sidewalks and roads stay free of trash throughout the festival.
• Treefort decorations and signage are built with recycled materials.
• Parked along the food trucks is a silent, solar-powered trailer generating power to the Main Stage.
• The cool Treefort merchandise always strives to help, not hurt, the environment.

Behind this amazing clean and green Treefort experience, is a volunteer community known as The Green Team. These incredible folks work every day of the festival keeping things clean and pointing the way to the recycling and composting bins. Long before you arrive each morning, they’re cleaning up and clearing the way so that your experience is fun, safe, and free of trash.

A huge Treefort thank you to our Green Sponsors, the Green Team volunteers, and you.

We are always looking for great people to bring into the Green Team family so if you are interested in being a volunteer on the Green Team, please contact us by sending an email to green@treefortmusicfest.com.

The Treefort Green Team includes:

♻️ 4 Co-Directors – Mel, Kat, Jenna & Erin (aka The Garbage Gals)
♻️ 6 Lead Volunteers
♻️ 100+ Volunteers
♻️ 15 Boise State Compost Captains
♻️ And You! Thousands of festival-goers who do their part to keep the festival green!

Yay! Thanks for wanting to help keep Treefort (and the City of Boise) green and beautiful! You can send an email to green@treefortmusicfest.com with your questions.

Julia Davis Park

During the festival the Green Team is focused heavily on Julia Davis Park. Treefort takes over the entire park, which houses Treefort's Main Stage + Hideout Stage, Merchandise, Alefort, Artfort, Kidfort, Food Trucks, the Radio Boise stage at the Bandshell, and so much more. It is our largest “venue” and sees thousands of festival goers over the 4 days it is open. We want to ensure the hub of Treefort is an enjoyable place to hang out!

Our Julia Davis Park waste collection efforts are top notch compared to many festivals in the country and certainly one of the best in Idaho. We monitor waste stations and focus on waste reduction by sorting all of our waste to ensure we’re reusing, recycling, and composting everything we can. Yes, that means our incredible Green Team sorts through everything you toss throughout the fest. Next time you see a Green Team member, give them a huge “thank you!”

+ Keep your eyes peeled for recycling and compost stations (aka our Compost Creatures!) within the festival footprint.

Venues

One of the great things about being an urban festival is that many venues already have established waste management and recycling practices. In addition, most establishments use reusable food and drink containers so their recycle and waste footprint can be smaller than the park.

However, our venues are still a part of the overall carbon footprint of Treefort! So, as we continue our work measuring and reducing our carbon footprint throughout the fest, we will be working closely with our venues to improve where we can.

The City of Boise

We all love Boise, and Treefort believes it is our responsibility to be a good citizen. Treefort takes care of Boise during the festival by dedicating a Street Team to clean up after all the night owls have called it quits. Our crew is up early in the morning picking up what got left behind from the night before.

We encourage everyone to Look down. Pick up. And keep Boise clean.

Boise does not have any commercial composting options or services available. So how do we do it? Due to an amazing partnership with Timber Creek Recycling, as well as a high quality compostable products vendor, Eco-Products, all food, containers and cups at Julia Davis Park and Treefort Music Hall are compostable! Be sure to ask one of our Green Team volunteers roaming the festival, or chat with a Compost Captain to learn more! Our goal is to provide as close to a zero waste festival experience as possible.

Treefort uses the Boise city recycling service, main items are plastic, aluminum and paper. Here is a complete list.

What is a carbon footprint and why does Treefort measure it? Great Question! A Carbon Footprint It is the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels. The Main Stage footprint is mainly from power generators and natural gas used by the food vendors. Each festival. we set annual goals to measure, understand and reduce our carbon footprint.

In 2016 we began formal efforts in measuring our footprint. We started with our Main Stage area where we control the energy produced and how it is created. Since then, we have continued our efforts out from the Main Stage area to include venues, suppliers and performers' travel.

Want to know how to measure you own carbon footprint? Try this!

Each year we try to make progress in our sustainability efforts by improving what we are already doing and adding new initiatives that will address a new problem or improve on an existing initiative that will reduce our environmental impact. Here is what we have done so far and are working on this year.

2026

• Created custom-build Compost Creatures to help educate festival-goers and make composting and recycling fun!

2025

• Expanded compostable options to include all food and food truck containers

2020/2021

• Pilot a reusable plate program for Foodfort
• Green Team will be managing a wash station for Foodfort and rental cups

2019

• No single use plastics used for beverages (beer, wine, cocktails, water) at main stage.
• Pilot a rental cup program for those who forget to bring their steel pints.
• No single use plastic water containers for artists backstage, instead using aluminum.
• Introduce new Treefort merchandise made from past Treefort signage and decor items.

2018

• Improve awareness using signage for keeping Treefort Green.
• Reuse and recycle much of the Treefort decor built.
• Introduce steel cup use at Alefort to replace plastic.

2017

• Steel pints for DRAFT beer at the main stage to eliminate single use plastic cups.
• New water station for the main stage. Steel cups and water bottles needed, no single use cups will be available.
• Meter water use at Alefort and Main Stage.
• Launch “Refort”, the reuse or upcycle of prior Treefort years decorations.

2016

• Established the Festival Patron Green Pledge when purchasing tickets.
• Established the Vendor Pledge which requires food vendors to use compostable or recyclable containers.
• We are growing the Steel Pint initiative to increase the number of reusable cups during the festival.
• Expansion of our Trash, Recycle, Compost program to other venues.
• Divert plastic beer cups from recycling to local nurseries for reuse as plant start containers.
• Establishing Treefort’s carbon footprint for the Main Stage and using carbon credits to offset.
• Focus on locally made, upcycled merchandise.
• (Planned) increased use of solar power.

2015

• Became the first festival to be a Certified B-Corp.
• Continued the Trash, Recycle, Compost program at the main stage.
• Continued use of Solar Power Trailer.
• Reduced beer cup use by introducing the Steel pint cup which can be refilled.
• Began offering Eco Friendly merchandise (organic blend t-shirts).

2014

• Establish a Green Team of volunteers to keep the festival clean and manage trash, recycling and compost stations.
• Provide a composting option.
• Introduced the use of solar power for parts of main stage.
• We built trash stations from recycled pallets for the main stage to draw attention and educate patrons on our efforts.

• Practice the 3 R’s:  Reduce (what we don’t need), Reuse (no single use), Recycle (what you cannot refuse or reuse).
• Walk, bike, carpool, or take the bus.
• Bring your favorite reusable drink container. Don’t forget your steel pint for beer.
• Purchase Treefort eco-friendly merchandise and show it off!
• Bring a collapsible lightweight bag that can be used for merchandise and/or food purchases.
• Do not litter. Use our awesome Compost, Recycle and Trash stations.
• Look down, pick up and keep Treefort clean!
• Spread the word and help others be green.