From Organic Fanny Packs to 'Pure' Trash,
Party Planners Face Logistical Nightmare
By STEPHANIE SIMON
June 25, 2008
DENVER -- As the Mile-High City gears up to host a Democratic bash for
50,000, organizers are discovering the perils of trying to stage a
political spectacle that's also politically correct.
Consider the fanny packs.
With biodegradable balloons and organic snacks, Denver Democrats hope
to stage the "greenest convention" ever. See examples.
The host committee for the Democratic National Convention wanted
15,000 fanny packs for volunteers. But they had to be made of organic
cotton. By unionized labor. In the USA.
Official merchandiser Bob DeMasse scoured the country. His weary
conclusion: "That just doesn't exist."
Ditto for the baseball caps. "We have a union cap or an organic cap,"
Mr. DeMasse says. "But we don't have a union-organic offering."
Much of the hand-wringing can be blamed on Denver's Democratic mayor,
John Hickenlooper, who challenged his party and his city to "make this
the greenest convention in the history of the planet."
Convention organizers hired the first-ever Director of Greening,
longtime environmental activist Andrea Robinson. Her response to the
mayor's challenge: "That terrifies me!"
After all, the last time Democrats met in Denver -- to nominate
William Jennings Bryan in 1908 -- they dispatched horse-drawn wagons
to bring snow from the Rocky Mountains to cool the meeting hall. Ms.
Robinson suspected modern-day delegates would prefer air conditioning.
So she quickly modified the mayor's goal: She'd supervise "the most
sustainable political convention in modern American history."
Now, she must pull it off.
To test whether celebratory balloons advertised as biodegradable
actually will decompose, Ms. Robinson buried samples in a steaming
compost heap. She hired an Official Carbon Adviser, who will measure
the greenhouse-gas emissions of every placard, every plane trip, every
appetizer prepared and every coffee cup tossed. The Democrats hope to
pay penance for those emissions by investing in renewable energy
projects.
Perhaps Ms. Robinson's most audacious goal is to reuse, recycle or
compost at least 85% of all waste generated during the convention.
The Trash Brigade
To police the four-day event Aug. 25-28, she's assembling (via
paperless online signup) a trash brigade. Decked out in green ****rts,
900 volunteers will hover at waste-disposal stations to make sure
delegates put each scrap of trash in the proper bin. Lest a fork slip
into the wrong container unnoticed, volunteers will paw through every
bag before it is hauled away.
"That's the only way to make sure it's pure," Ms. Robinson says.
Republicans are pu****ng conservation, too, as they gear up for their
convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Like the Democrats, they're
cutting down on printing by doing as much work as possible by email;
using recycled office furniture; and urging employees to walk or take
public trans****tation to work. The Republicans also encourage vendors
to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
'Lean 'n' Green'
But Matt Burns, a spokesman for the Republican convention, looks on
with undisguised glee at some of the Democrats' efforts -- such as the
"lean 'n' green" catering guidelines.
Among them: No fried food. And, on the theory that nutritious food is
more vibrant, each meal should include "at least three of the
following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and
white." (Garnishes don't count.) At least 70% of ingredients should be
organic or grown locally, to minimize emissions from fuel burned
during trans****tation. "One would think," says Mr. Burns, "that the
Democrats in Denver have bigger fish to bake -- they have ruled out
frying already -- than mandating color-coordinated pretzel platters."
Democrats say the point is to build habits that will endure long after
the convention. To that end, the city has staged "greening workshops"
attended by hundreds of caterers, restaurant owners and hotel
managers. "It's the new patriotism," Mayor Hickenlooper says.
Laura Hylton, general manager of Biscuits & Berries catering, agrees
in principle. But she has been testing her recipes using local
ingredients for weeks and still can't get the green peppercorn sauce
right when she uses white Colorado wine. The state's high-altitude
wine industry took off in the early 1990s and produces some award-
winning labels, but Ms. Hylton says diplomatically, "It's a
little...lacking. Our wineries out here aren't what you'd see in
California or France."
Joanne Katz, who runs the Denver caterer Three Tomatoes, will take one
for the green team by removing her fried goat-cheese won tons with
chipotle pepper caramel sauce from the menu. But she questions whether
some of the guidelines will have the desired earth-saving effects.
Compostable utensils, she says, are often ****pped from Asia on fuel-
guzzling cargo ****ps. As for the plates: "Is it better to drive across
town to have china delivered to an event and then use hot water to
wash it, or is it better to use petroleum-based disposables?" she
asks.
The convention's greening gurus say they're doing the best they can
with the most current information available.
Coors Conflict
But it's almost inevitable that principles, politics and profit will
conflict. To wit: Coors Brewing Co., in Golden, Colo., will donate
biofuel made from beer waste to power the convention's fleet of flex-
fuel vehicles. A green star for the convention -- but it has rankled
die-hard liberals, who boycotted Coors in the 1960s and '70s to
protest hiring practices that they said discriminated against blacks,
Latinos, women and gays. Heirs to the Coors fortune have long been
active in conservative causes and Republican politics.
Convention officials say Coors is a good cor****ate citizen. And a
Coors spokeswoman says the donation was a gesture of civic pride, not
politics.
No matter, grumbles Anna Flynn, a longtime union member from Denver
who objected to the donation. "Any way you put it, it's still Coors,"
she says.
Chris Lopez, a spokesman for the host committee, says that securing a
diverse group of sponsors is as much about showcasing the regional
economy as promoting sustainability. He added that Democrats are
****ging sponsors to "think green" by participating in an eco-festival
and cutting back on paper fliers stuffed into delegate goody bags.
Watching the greening frenzy from afar, Fred L. Smith Jr., president
of the libertarian Wa****ngton think tank Competitive Enterprise
Institute, suggested the Democrats could really shrink their footprint
by staging a virtual-reality convention: "Just have everyone stay at
home with their laptops, sitting in their pajamas, interacting through
their avatars."
Ms. Robinson, the greening director, says big showy conventions are
part of the American political tradition, and thus worth a few
emissions here and there. Also, she hates to be a killjoy.
True, she did try (unsuccessfully) to get bottled water banned from
the convention hall. But remember those balloons? She checked the
compost heap last week -- and found them still intact. She has added
more liquid to try to get them to degrade.
And if they don't? "The balloons will be there," she promises.
So will the fanny packs -- made in the U.S.A. of undyed, organic
fabric. Mr. DeMasse vows to get a union shop to print the logo, but he
says the ink will be petroleum based. Unless, that is, he decides to
get the logo embroidered -- with biodegradable thread.
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