Backyard Hero- Ean Tafoya
by Tim Wenger
Ean Tafoya has many ideas about how to make festivals and events in Denver more sustainable. Serving with Capital Hill United Neighborhoods has given him the opportunity to work with both the CHUN People’s Fair and City Park Jazz, and he hopes to use his position on the Denver City Council to work towards making those and other Denver area festivals more eco-friendly.
Born on Earth Day right here in Denver, Tafoya has always had a passion for the Mile High City as well as environmental action. “I’m a Denver native,” Tafoya says. “I was part of the bussing system here, I was integrated into schools across the city. I watched T-REX be built. I rode a bus every day from 1st grade to 8th grade, so the idea of being on an RTD bus and consuming that time, that was my time. People say that the bus takes forever, but it’s time that is reclaimed to you. I read books, I did my homework. When you’re in a car and you’re angry, you can’t do anything else.”
After spending a few years at the University of Colorado in Boulder, he moved back down to Denver and finished his degree at Metropolitan State College of Denver. “I graduated as Valedictorian of Arts & Sciences from Metro State, and I was recruited by the mayor of Denver on a project called Denver Seeds,” Tafoya says. The goal was, “How do we get to 20% local food by 2020? I would go and I would talk to farmers and I would come back and talk to the policy people.”
Tafoya is now a Legislative Assistant with Legislative Services office at the Denver City Council, the legislative and administrative policy backbone of the City Council. As part of his duties, Tafoya writes a weekly public blog called the Council Connection that tracks what is happening with the City Council and the issues currently at hand. He also facilitates meetings, does graphic arts and poster design for city events and works on a plethora of special projects ranging from environmental efforts to bringing the live music to Fillmore Plaza. Through his work, Tafoya hopes to help Denver bring efficient environmentally friendly options to public events such as festivals and fairs. “I really don’t think these community events should do community harm,” Tafoya says. “There is enough of us. Get us together, a lot of this should be really possible.”
To help take that belief to a bigger scale, Tafoya serves with a neighborhood group called Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, who are responsible for the annual CHUN Capitol Hill People’s Fair. “We are working on really promoting service that has to do with trash clean up, waste management, and how we get to better goals that way,” he says. “Most people don’t realize that the city of Denver lags far behind national averages on recycling. I think people think we do a good job, but we don’t.”
He also works with City Park Jazz and is constantly working to make that festival as sustainable as possible, and he hopes to take his ideas to many more festivals locally and regionally. “I’ve been to some giant festivals,” Tafoya says. “I’ve been to Electric Daisy Carnival, Wakarusa. All these places, everyone’s trying to work towards (environmental) initiatives.” With simple ideas like marking recycling, trash and compost bins with high-flung balloons so people know where they are, Tafoya hopes to see some of these initiatives implemented in Denver’s events. “I think something in the city, when they are talking about event’s policies, there is really no standardization in how they go about it. I think (standardization) would enable and facilitate more sustainability. At these large festivals, they float these giant balloons in the air- blue is where water is, black is where trash is, you know where those bathrooms are. People I think are more willing to carry their trash an extra 100 yards if they know where they need to go to do it. Once you get to a point where you have it standardized at every festival, then people realize what they need to do.”
Tafoya speaks of aluminum can recycling, saying that it is engrained in people’s minds to recycle aluminum cans because it is so easy to do so at many places including homes. He leads that idea to recycling at festivals and large events- if recycling stations for all disposable items are clearly and consistently marked at public places, people will be more apt to recycle more often.
Getting to these events sustainably is another important issue, says Tafoya. “Where we decide to have these large festivals, and how accessible they are to public transit, is important,” he says. “With City Park Jazz, wouldn’t it be great if we had a booth with people working that had maps saying ‘Where did you come from?’ They say, ‘What would it take to get you on a bus?’ I would like to see people who are legitimately educating them saying ‘Here’s a giant bike map. Here’s the bus route. Can you make a commitment to come with your friends?’”
Something such as a reserved seating area for guests who arrive via bike or public transit would be a great way to reward those who honor their commitments to sustainability, he says.
The same goes for food vendors. Working only with vendors who use non-Styrofoam products, or rewarding those who work without them at your festival with fee discounts or other incentives, would be an easy way to start, he says. “In my dealing with vendors, nine times out of ten, they can make that leap easily if you give them a heads up,” Tafoya says. “Especially if you are consistent across all festivals, again the standardization that I’m talking about. We need to be talking right now with them about next year. You can’t just mandate it three days before the festival.”
He would like to see the city offer some kind of rewards program for vendors who work to make sustainable
Tafoya also had the pleasure of working on the recreational marijuana legislation prior to the legalization, helping to put together what would be presented to the public for them to vote on. “I think that the city and county really did their due diligence with trying to come up with ideas for something that has never really been done before,” Tafoya says. “We had to take what we were doing with the medical and bring it across the board. We did the right thing and brought it to the voters, and the voters voted for the taxes.”
Find out more about Denver festivals and events at denvergov.org
Category: Buzzworthy
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
 |
 |
