Eco-Clubbing In San Francisco… AND Oz?

The latest Green Pages Australia newsletter talks about green nightclubs and greening the obviously large numbers involved in the party scene – clever thinking by San Franciscan Paul Hemming, back in 2004.

Paul is the owner and founder of Green Temple. Acknowledging the wasteful nature of the hospitality industry he decided to create the greenest nightclub in the world and set up a ‘living hub for recreation, culture and education that strictly adheres to the triple bottom line of People, Profit and Planet’…

Mike Zuckerman, Director of Sustainability for Paul’s club since January 2007 explains:

“We started with consumables, the no brainers, compostable cups, straws, all corn starch based. We recycle our bottles and we compost our food. The easiest things to implement are the ones with immediate financial returns. We get rebates and receive credits on our waste bills by keeping up good recycling and composting practices…

We try to take the decision making out of the partiers hands when they get to the venue so all they need to think about is having a good time…

Because it’s a large place where people gather, a nightclub is a logical place to make an impact on consumable products. But Temple goes a lot further than that: Cleaning products are non-toxic, food is organic whenever possible, and the lights are efficient bulbs, all of which contribute to the nightclubs footprint on the environment.”

Paul adds:

“There’s a lot of openness from people trying to do the same things as us in other cities. There are clubs putting similar practices into effect in New York, Rotterdam and Chicago. You can even see the impact inside in the office here. Everybody that works here has a real positive sense of possibility-it goes beyond our love of nightlife and music.”

Great idea – IS it happening here? Email us if you know of a green party scene.