Green Festivals was the largest and longest-running sustainability event in the United States. Green Festivals brings together the world’s most trusted companies, innovative brands, national and local businesses, pioneering thinkers and consumers, in one dynamic marketplace to share solutions for living healthier, more sustainable lives. Founded in 2002, Green Festivals is a zero-waste event, with over one million attendees. Originally, conceived by Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange and executives as sustainable event producers Seven-Star including Alan van de Kamp Grau, Georgia Malki and Joseph Malki the event series started in 2003 launching in San Francisco. Greg Roberts was also seminal in the event's creation. Green Festival offers the widest selection of products and services to work green, play green and live green – from food, fashion and health, to energy, home renovation, garden and design. Each Green Festival also features hands-on demos, educational activities for kids and families, panels featuring inspirational speakers, and live music and entertainment. Past speakers have included founder of RawYouth.org, Charles Chen; fashion designerJeff Garner; vegan chef and healthy living educator Leslie Durso; Seth Goldman, president and CEO of Honest Tea; Amy Goodman, investigative journalist and syndicated columnist at Democracy Now!; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation; among many others. Green Festival is a marketplace of more than 250 eco-friendly businesses-everything from all-natural body care products and organic cotton clothing to fair trade gifts and home renovations from renewable resources, and vegan-vegetarian offerings based on organic, non-GMO or local artisanal foods. Green Festival events are taking place in five cities in 2017, including New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Ft. Lauderdale. Past festival locations include Austin, Seattle, Chicago and Denver. Seven-Star, Inc. produced of 65 iterations of the event across the United States over its 13-year production history. In 2009, Seven-Star, Inc. won the EPA Waste Wise Award for a 98.8 waste diversion effort. Seven-Star, Inc. sold its operation of the event series and passed of its assets and employees to Messe Stuttgart. In 2013, Green America and Global Exchange, two long-term partners of Green Festivals, joined forces with Messe Stuttgart, a leading international tradeshow organizer producing Europe’s largest consumer show on sustainability, green products and Fair Trade.
