.png){kind=logo}
In this episode, your host, Mike Smith, discusses the climate consequences of our upcoming national election about how humans really make choices. He also talks about Taylor Swift, private flights and music festivals - bet you weren't expecting that!
Next, he welcomes his guest, Kyra Holt of Planet Bluegrass to discuss her work in sustainability, solar power, and of course, bluegrass music. They discuss female leadership in the climate space, her own climate journey and the strong community ties that festivals can enable.
00:00 Introduction & Episode Overview
01:11 Trump vs Harris
04:48 Decision Making
11:55 Taylor Swift’s Carbon Footprint
15:09 Kyra Holt’s Background & Connection to Planet Bluegrass
17:16 Kyra's Unique Combination of Music and Sustainability
23:44 Kyra's Role at Planet Bluegrass and the Festival Community
32:20 Sustainability Goals and Challenges at Planet Bluegrass
38:50 Measuring and Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
43:05 Pursuing a Greener Festival Certification
44:38 Rejecting the Status Quo of Materialism
51:05 Outro
Mike Smith (00:02)
Hi everyone. And welcome again to The Climate Dad the podcast where we talk about and explain the news and science of climate change and the things that you can do both as an individual and as part of an organization. I'm your host Mike Smith, the father of two great kids and the founder of Aclymate where we help businesses measure, reduce, report, and offset their footprint for an affordable price and without having to become a climate expert. Today, we'll be talking about climate consequences of our upcoming national election about how humans really make choices and Taylor Swift, private flights and music festivals bet you weren't expecting that.
We'll also be joined by our friend, Kyra Holt of Planet Bluegrass to discuss her work in sustainability, solar power, and of course, bluegrass music. Stick around, it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Mike Smith (00:55)
Alright, let's start with our climate dad joke of the episode. Why should we never argue about climate change? The answer? It just always turns into a heated debate.
All right, now that we've got that groaner out of the way, let's talk about choices and debates. There was a graph that came out fairly recently from the good people at Carbon Brief, and it talked about the consequences of electing Donald Trump to a second term versus electing Vice President Harris. I'm not here to engage in extended political commentary, so please don't get worked into a lather just yet. But this show is about information and about not hiding from reality, because clearly we've just really been doing that for far too long
Anyway, the top line of the report is that electing Trump would likely add about 4 billion tons of carbon emissions from the US alone to the atmosphere by the end of the decade. That's by 2030. The second Trump presidency, we would likely still see a slow reduction of emissions, mostly driven by the momentum of the continued decarbonization of electrical power generation in the United States. So much renewable power is coming online that there's just, it will continue to decarbonize.
But at this level, it would absolutely prevent the US from contributing its fair share of decarbonization to the Paris Climate Agreement. And as a result, it would likely cause much of the world to backslide too. We really do need US leadership in this space. Effectively, it would put our climate future into a pretty grim spot. On the other hand, electing Harris would keep existing policies and laws in place, as one would expect, such as the Inflation Reduction
And this would mean that the US would likely see about a 40 % emissions reductions relative to its 2005 baseline by 2030. That's about triple the emissions reductions that would occur under the Trump scenario. It's still not enough actually, but it would obviously be significantly better from a climate perspective. The Biden -Harris administration, however, has also announced power generation rules that are neutral on the type of fuel being used to generate electricity.
but which would require power generation to be completely carbon emissions free by 2032, like on a per plant basis, or those plants would be required to close by 2039. This is an additional emissions impact that isn't included in the Carbon Brief analysis, and in effect, it would require all the people that have been talking about clean coal for so many years to put up or shut up. They would have to capture their emissions and sequester them permanently or switch to renewable energy sources.
This would also affect natural gas plants too. These policies obviously wouldn't have much effect before 2032, but if Trump is elected, he'll almost certainly end them, just like he did with Obama's Clean Power Plan when he took office the first time. You can make your own choices, but this election is really only a choice between these two realistic candidates for president. Alternative candidates will mean that you're really leaving your choice up to others. I also think it's important for the climate movement to leave open the door for climate concerned conservatives.
I've argued this for many years because we're all in this together and we're going to need everybody to be doing their fair share and climate. There's a big breakdown between older and younger conservatives. The climate generation sweeps across all the political persuasions and there are very interested climate folks within the conservative leaning side of politics here in the United States. Their views may be a little bit different from those on the left and maybe a little bit less government focused. So we'll need to leave some space there for them to be accepted.
That said, Trump and his administration are pretty staunchly focused on the expansion of fossil fuel usage. And should he be elected, will strongly and negatively affect our climate. There's really only a choice between two viable candidates. One of them is significantly better on climate. And I would encourage you, if you are concerned about climate, to vote accordingly.
Mike Smith (04:48)
So let's talk about how humans make choices. There's a famous book that's been out for quite a while now called Thinking Fast and Slow by a fellow named Dr. Daniel Kahneman. It's about behavioral economics. it essentially breaks down human processing into two different decision pathways.
The first is something that's pretty fast and intuitive and the second is something that's a little bit slower and more logical. You can also think of like the fast and intuitive as being that that part of your brain that is a little bit more unthinking. It's things that you do and you're not even totally sure why. You can think of it as you know it's categorical thinking for example like that person is is good or this thing is bad that color is blue.
this event is not fun. Big kind of categorical thinking that causes us to be able to make decisions quickly. And that evolved over eons to give animals, including humans, the ability to rapidly identify things in their environment to make decisions. It's kind of what you would think of as common sense. But the thing about common sense is one, it's not always so common, and two, it's not always right.
And that's the other part of the human experience is the decision -making that's slow and a little bit more logical the thinking slow This is the prefrontal cortex stuff This is where you sit and you think and you try to make the right decision based upon the facts And too often in our rushed world we find ourselves not being able to do that. This is what really makes us human It's important to understand that these two are interrelated as well that if you're trying to build habits
that by doing things in slow, logical ways over a long enough time becomes more of a habit and then it becomes a more intuitive thing. Want to make your bed? You have to make the decision that you want to make your bed and that you're going to do something about it. Get up every morning, make your bed before you go to breakfast. Do that long enough and it'll become habit. You just make your bed before you go to breakfast, kind of without thinking. The same sort of stuff happens when it comes to working out or eating right, being more present with your family.
spending time outdoors, all the things that slow and logical thinking build the right habits. Because what ends up happening a lot of time with the fast and intuitive stuff is that it's kind of hacked. We build these habits because one of the ways that we think quickly is when we get a hit of dopamine in our brains, when there's something that we find with a lot of pleasure, it kind of bypasses the slow and logical habit building.
behaviors and goes immediately to this part that's like deep within us this animalistic view of the world where like this is good because my brain says it's good immediately and as a result our brains have kind of become hacked over the years hacked for tech by social media and dating apps to constantly swipe left and right hacked for in our food with such elevated levels of sugar and salt that we've become addicted
We're kind of all messed up because we're really just addicted to dopamine. But the thing about there is a different brain chemical that we all need to be thinking about as well. And that is serotonin. A lot of the stuff that we know that we need to be doing, exercising more, eating right, spending more time outside and with the ones that we love, we have to be deliberate about that. And when we do that, you find peace.
So instead of that, like that, that kind of sugar high, that quick rush of like, this feels good. And then it's gone and you're looking for the next little hit of something to make you feel good. Serotonin is more lasting. This is what gives you peace. This is what helps you. It quite literally helps you sleep at night. and so that is where real happiness comes from. The happiest people I've ever met in my life are the ones that seem to be most at peace. They're not so worked up because they have set their world up and their lives up that way.
And this is relevant for climate because you'll get the same dopamine hit from recycling a can as you would from not buying a plane ticket to Africa. You feel good for that one little minute where you did the right thing and then shortly thereafter it's forgotten. Do you remember the last time you recycled a soda can? Gone. But the thing is about like avoiding that trip to Africa is you also...
like miss out on all the opportunities and the experiences associated with that. And you see like if friends have gone or family have gone to do something like this, because of social media, you see all of that. And it almost like brings pain like this avoidance. And that I think is getting hacked in our current political context. You'll hear a lot of people talking about how dealing with climate is to take away everything that's fun.
And that if you do anything that has any impact on climate, then you really can't be taken seriously. And that comes from this sense of trying to exact pain from doing the right thing. They're trying to hack your system. You should ignore them. They're not really usually engaging, honestly. And you know what makes you happy. In the case of not taking a plane trip to go to Africa, I would say that...
There are a lot of opportunities near to home that would be less stressful, less expensive, and you could do more frequently. And wouldn't that bring you more peace? So this is where the real work on climate is. It's about bringing you and all of us a little bit more peace and a little bit more of actual real happiness. Because it's a false choice to say that we can either be happy or take care of the environment. It's a false choice.
To say that we can either be good for the environment or good for the economy We have to be good for the environment to be happy. We have to be good for the environment to have a good economy And that's where the real work of climate begins So don't let them take away your happiness for this make the decisions slowly deliberately and Sometimes they're going to have negative impacts on the climate and don't beat yourself up about that because this is the world that we live in the
this is just where we're at. And then when it comes to big decisions, you need to recognize where your big decisions are and where your little ones are. It's always great to do recycling. I would never tell you to stop doing that. But think about like, hey, one less plane ticket might be a lot more than if I recycled all the rest of the year. One person that you're voting for, that's a much more consequential decision than however many cans that you're gonna be recycling.
So think about where your decisions can have real big impact and do that. Spend the time focusing on the big decisions that have big impact and don't sweat all the little stuff little
Mike Smith (11:55)
so speaking of having fun and climate, you may have also seen Taylor Swift's climate footprint from traveling around so much. Taylor, as I think the entire planet knows now, is an absolute economic engine on a world tour and in the middle of a really very high profile romance with future hall of famer and tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, Travis Kelce So she's been racking up the miles in her two private jets
There was even a tracker, if you remember, during the Super Bowl to make sure that she would get back from Japan and the concert that she had in Tokyo in time for the big game. Anyways, according to the Killjoys over at Greenly Ms. Swift's private planes emitted a lot of pollution in 2023, and I think they're probably pretty right about that. According to them, at least 139 metric tons of carbon dioxide on her North and South American legs alone. The thing is this. Taylor Swift could make better decisions on climate.
and I really hope she does. But when the person is the business, I think we're all being a little silly and shaming her for this. Those emissions are minuscule compared to the global whole. And as a matter of fact, for the vast majority of people listening to this right now, Ms. Swift's emissions for her private travel are really small actually compared to your own employer's emissions. So instead of getting upset at Taylor and posting on social media,
Just let's make a better choice and go talk to your employer about what they're doing about their business footprint. Let's do something more productive than buying into the narrative that doing right by the climate means that we need to stop having fun. And Taylor, if you're listening, you can be a great example of making better decisions. For my money, I'd just say take Travis on the road with you. Less time on planes and it's just a lot more time together.
Mike Smith (13:43)
Are you interested in being part of what bends the curve of emissions, but don't really know where to start? We'd love to help you over here at Aclymate where we have the easiest, the most affordable climate solution for your business. We'll show you ways to reduce your carbon footprint and we'll get you on the path to net zero. It'll help you win new customers and keep your most valuable ones, attract and retain the talent you need from the climate generation. And our green business certification program will help you show your climate bona fides and win certification with B Corp, EcoVadis Green Business Benchmark.
A Greener Future and more. Mention The Climate Dad and get a 10 % discount. Now, it's time to meet with today's guest, Kyra Holt from Planet Bluegrass. I consider myself very fortunate to know Kyra, and somehow after every time we speak, I kinda come away feeling pretty upbeat about the world. I think you will too.
Mike Smith (14:36)
All right, on today's episode of The Climate Dad, I'm really lucky to be joined by my friend, Kyra Holt. She heads up school sustainability for Planet Bluegrass. If you haven't heard of Planet Bluegrass, you may have heard of what they do. They run a series of awesome shows in the bluegrass and folk music space, including the world famous Telluride Bluegrass Festival, which we got to attend last year. Kyra, thanks for joining us.
Kyra Holt (14:59)
Thanks for having me.
Mike Smith (15:01)
Yeah, so as always, you know, could you give me a little background of who you are? What makes you, you know, we've talked about your job title, but like, tell me about who you are as a person.
Kyra Holt (15:09)
Yeah, I can tell you a little bit about my background. I was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, and I've actually been going to the festivals that Planet Bluegrass Hosts for many, many years. I think my first one was when I was 10, and my dad actually owned the land that the current festivals are held at in Lyons, Colorado. So I have really deep roots in...
with Planet Bluegrass, I guess, and music in general. My mom owned HB Woodsongs in Boulder for about 30 years. And HB Woodsongs is an acoustic music store, and she recently just retired from doing that. So I guess I kind of had it in my genes, Bluegrass and music, and started playing banjo when I was about 13.
and actually went to the schools that I'm now running. I did move away from Colorado and went to North Carolina.
partly because Earl Scruggs, you know, the father of bluegrass banjo was from there. But I knew that I could find bluegrass in North Carolina. I could also find basketball, which I was really into at that time. But I ended up, you know, studying math, which is sort of interesting. My background is in mathematics. And from there, played music with a lot of great people, made some really good connections.
but I also kind of got into sustainability
Mike Smith (16:45)
one of the things that I find really interesting about you, Kyra, is that you're a musician involved in the music space who cares about sustainability. And some people go like, OK, yeah, that checks. But then you have this really technical background like you are not afraid of spreadsheets. And so I think that makes you like a really interesting person that's not necessarily like the most typical person in this sort of space. And so.
I'd like you to kind of weave together a little bit about like how you pulled those three things together to make, you know, the powerhouse that is
Kyra Holt (17:16)
You're very nice, Mike. I do love a good spreadsheet. I guess.
You know, in North Carolina, I met a mentor and this woman kind of came into my life through a partner at the time. the woman's name is Rebecca Wren. She and her husband at the time were writing a book about the carbon free home and it was like a
1920s house in the middle of Durham, North Carolina, and they needed sort of minions to help them, you know, make this happen to work on projects. And so me and my partner at the time, we decided, hey, this looks like a pretty good deal. You know, good to stay in this house for free and, you know, do a work trade exchange. So,
You know, after college I was a little bit lost playing in my bluegrass band, making some money there, met this person, ended up in this house, and just started working with this couple on writing this book and they were engaging in all sorts of creative carbon -free home treatments, I guess. So...
You know, we took out the air conditioning, all the HVAC system. This is North Carolina, remember? It's really hot. Took out the HVAC systems, took out the stoves, you know, put in those little camp stoves that, you know, worked on wood alcohol. You know, made solar ovens, put in a small PV system. You know, I think it was like 1 .5 kW that ran the entire house.
So did a bunch of things, even human manure, we did that. I did poop in a bucket for about two years. And I don't know that that made it in the book because it kind of broke some health codes, I'm sure. But it wasn't stinky. It wasn't hard at all. It was challenging to live that way. But we really...
did a lot of these things and it was just like the creativity in it was really cool and just this sense of like, yeah, we don't need a bunch of stuff to live on. So it was this really interesting 20s experience that I had for about two or three years I lived in that house. And so that really shaped me in starting to think about this carbon free living situation and.
Mike Smith (19:51)
That's just crazy. Like.
Kyra Holt (19:58)
Rebecca Ren is actually, she's a licensed electrician and at the time she was working for a solar company and teaching at Solar Energy International in Colorado. And so I kind of broke up with that partner of mine and was like, what's my new journey? And Rebecca is one of the smartest people I know.
So knowledgeable about all sorts of things not scared to take chances and to learn and so she said hey I'll give you a half scholarship to come to Colorado. I had no money at that time and so I went to Colorado and attended a two -week course in women's photovoltaic install and design and it was a really cool course by Solar Energy International because it was taught by all women and it was
you know, all women in the class. So really, really cool experience. We got to design and install about three different systems. And I knew then I was like, yeah, this is my feature. I loved the math of it. And like that course and that one week we really dug into the math and I love numbers just cause they make sense and they don't lie to you or anything like that. So that was really kind of my, my start in the sustainability world. And.
So I ended up knowing that I wanted to do solar design at that point coming out and really got a job doing PV installation at a residential PV installation for a company in North Carolina and did that for about a year on roofs and that sort of thing. And then sort of made my way into commercial design once they realized that I could really handle.
handle some other things and taught myself AutoCAD when I was answering phones for the company. And yeah, so that kind of happened and I just started wanting to learn more and it ended up at Duke for getting a master's degree in basically power distribution. And yeah, so that's kind of how it.
how I sort of really got into sustainability.
Mike Smith (22:21)
know, it didn't escape my attention that you went back and forth between Colorado and North Carolina, like the two hotbeds of bluegrass in this country. But it's also I think it's fascinating to see in the climate space that there is a lot of female leadership here in a way that I don't think a lot of other industries have. And so it's really cool that you ran into this gal who she's a path breaker. You know, she
Kyra Holt (22:40)
Thank you.
Mike Smith (22:49)
Like essentially she made her home into a lab for a carbon free lifestyle, right? And what worked and what didn't work, she was willing to give it a try. And so because she broke that path, there are now, and other women and other leaders more broadly within climate, like we don't have to actually think about like pooping in buckets so much, but like, but you were willing to take those chances and to learn and to see, okay, how can we make something that works for all of us?
Kyra Holt (22:59)
Mm -hmm.
Mike Smith (23:16)
And I just think that's like super cool. I also think it's really interesting that you took this kind of communal lifestyle. And then you turn that into a career. okay. So you went.
Back to get your master's in power distribution, a very technical degree from a very well regarded school, Duke University. so how'd you get get to Colorado? How'd you get into playing Planet Bluegrass?
Kyra Holt (23:44)
Yeah, so great question. So yeah, I worked, started an engineering company in North Carolina and did that for, I don't know, six years or something. Meanwhile, you know, still was playing with my band and reconnected with my husband now, who I had met when I was about 19. He also plays banjo. It's the way most people meet their spouses through a banjo lesson.
Mike Smith (24:14)
Yeah, a common thing.
Kyra Holt (24:14)
very, very common. So I did get a banjo lesson with him when I was about 19 and then, reconnected after, you know, I moved on from the eco village and kind of got back into normal society. but, yeah. So met him and then we had our son and realized that he was a touring musician and, was gone a lot and I needed.
and support and I still had my mom and my dad and my brother back here in Colorado. And so we decided to move to Longmont. And at that time I was just sort of starting to get burned out with the engineering because our engineering company had moved into super big spaces, you know.
10 megawatt, 100 megawatts. And at that point I was like the director of engineering and it was just really stressful, you know, trying to care for a little tiny human and make sure that I didn't make one little mistake that would cause a very expensive problem. So.
I decided that I wanted to change and that's when I started reaching out to Planet Bluegrass and just seeing if there was any opportunities there.
Mike Smith (25:34)
Gotcha. And how long have you been with Planet Bluegrass?
Kyra Holt (25:38)
This will be my third festival season this year.
Mike Smith (25:43)
Yeah, you're, you know, to kind of continue on with that powerhouse when, you know, the Aclymate team was on site last year at Telluride, it seemed like you were connected with everything. Like, Kyra was just bouncing around all over the place and somehow you just kept really cool about it all. So I don't know how you, maybe you were, you know, all turmoil on the inside, but on the outside you look cool as a cucumber, Kyra.
Kyra Holt (26:14)
I was not feeling very cool, but yeah, it's a small team and I really give this small team a lot of credit because they do, they put on humongous festivals, but it's just not the small team, it's just all these volunteers and I think that that's sort of plays into the root of Planet Bluegrass is that, you know, it's really all about this community.
and the volunteers that come in and help for these and make these large events happen. I mean, it's just really incredible. And I think that that's part of the reason why Planet Bluegrass has been so successful with their sustainability initiatives is because they truly have the buy -in from their attendees who we lovingly call Festivarians.
Mike Smith (27:03)
I didn't have an appreciation for that, that level of community. you know, as we were going up to the festival, I was like, boy, you're, you guys are a little obsessive about this And then when I got there, I was like, okay, I get it. This is very much, you're responsible stewards of the relationship and the environment, there in the, in the Valley there at Telluride.
you're very connected to your Festivarians and making sure that they both have a great experience, but also that they are respectful of the relationship with the town. The part that I really got a kick out of on the sustainability front was you literally have volunteers posted sitting on top of dumpsters to make sure that nobody throws the wrong thing in the right receptacle, you know, like that you're.
Kyra Holt (27:51)
Yeah.
Mike Smith (27:51)
And I've never been anywhere where like you have people sitting on chairs on top of dumpsters, making sure that all the right stuff goes in the right place. I really enjoyed that.
Kyra Holt (28:01)
Yeah, the crew is just amazing. And the cool thing about it is there's been people coming for so long. So they've seen all of this evolve and have really taken ownership of it. And then they bring in new folks. And it's like you said, you instantly kind of get it. And it's almost just like,
a mini little society where all of a sudden it's like, this is what we're doing here? Okay, this is cool. You know, and so it's just really a unique way to introduce people that aren't familiar with sustainable practices into this, you know, this mini society where everybody's kind of in harmony and working together.
Mike Smith (28:46)
You know, so picking up on kind of that theme of community there, it seemed like everybody knew you, you knew everybody. There was the family, multiple generations. I thought that was unique for this festival is that like, you saw people from eight to 80, all of them having a good time, everybody being respectful of each other. I thought that was really neat. I also, I think about like, you,
have taken what you were doing with that communal living with Rebecca Wren and the work she was doing and you've almost kind of like imparted a vision that's larger than that. Like how you have this community, you have this norm setting opportunity. I just think that's really cool.
Kyra Holt (29:28)
Yeah. And I mean, I really honestly just can't take credit for any of this either. Steve Szymanski has been pushing this from the very, very start.
really been innovative, leading the way and pushing practices that nobody was even thinking about early on. So I have to give all the credit to Steve and the others that were part of this.
So I think Steve and his team have really shaped this in a way and just sort of really integrated it into the operations at this point where it's just seamlessly like, yeah, put out the CRT stations, you know, the compost recycle trash stations. You know, it's not, it's just so built into the culture at this point that it just runs so well
Mike Smith (30:19)
I think that's fair. You know, obviously the festival is in its 51st year this year. So, and you know, so there is a history of culture there, but I would also say like, based on my own personal experience, you've imparted your own stamp upon it too Kyra. You know, so maybe let's go into the question of why do you do this? this is not easy.
Kyra Holt (30:35)
Thanks.
Mike Smith (30:42)
there's a lot of work that goes on in the background. I've seen it. Planet Bluegrass commits a lot of time, effort and resources to doing their hardest work on sustainability. And they hired a powerhouse in you to run it. So why? What's in it for them?
Kyra Holt (30:45)
Yeah.
I don't think there's anything in it for them. I mean, I think it's just sort of the way that it should be. I think that the vision is so big about the festival itself being just sort of this.
and place where people can be totally in the present, and just enjoy the music. being one with the earth. You know, it sounds super cheesy, but, if you don't have trash cans on your festival, you know, it just puts out a different vibe where you just maybe don't see as much trash and...
I think it's just this rare opportunity just to try to be more in the present and that just means working with the Earth, I guess. And you know, that all sounds a little hippy -dippy, I guess, but I don't think that they're doing it for themselves. I think it is for the bigger reasons.
Mike Smith (32:10)
spending time in Telluride, lightning strikes nearby, notwithstanding, like the place is pretty idyllic and you do find yourself wanting to do just a little bit better. What are some of the challenges that you're having in making progress towards your sustainability goals? I guess, first of all, what are your sustainability goals moving forward and what are the challenges you're facing with that?
Kyra Holt (32:20)
Yeah.
some of our main focuses, I guess, in terms of sustainability are reduction of waste. And then another big one is obviously carbon.
which we've been so grateful to work with you and I'd love to talk about that as well. But I, and I think, so those, I would say those are our two main goals is waste reduction and carbon reduction.
So in terms of waste diversion goals, we've averaged about 60 % waste diversion. So that means that 60 % of all the waste created on site is diverted away from the dump, just the mainstream dump, or trash. So that's pretty great. We did struggle with that last year. We did have a challenge.
We did not hit that in at Rocky Grass and Folks Fest And one of the reasons was due to some of the front range issues with composting in general, which is contamination. And our main composter that we use was not allowing us to compost the serving items like compostable.
napkins and stuff like that. It just was only food scraps. And so that means meant that we didn't want to have any contamination in our waste stream because we were using another waste stream or another facility that would take our compost. And so we really wanted to make sure that we had a clean, clean compost to send to them, which meant that we only wanted to use compost from
the actual stations that were staffed and actually kind of visually checking and making sure that it was compost going in there. So that meant that we couldn't use the compost from the campgrounds that we would maybe historically use. So we had, we didn't quite hit our 60 % goal. But our goal is always just to keep reducing that as much as we can.
Mike Smith (34:50)
That's an interesting.
That's an interesting intersection there because for those of you that may not understand why this is a challenge is that Denver and the Front Range has rapidly expanded the ability of municipal compost. I have a green can that I put out back for all of my personal compost, for example. But as they've expanded that, that means that the percentage of people that are well -educated about compost has reduced.
as compared to the whole thing. And so there's a lot more garbage that's just getting into the compost stream. And so even though the city itself and the front range more broadly is doing better in getting more compost diverted from that, for folks that have been working on this and doing a good job of it for a long time, it actually made their life harder. And so that's an interesting challenge as we're making progress on sustainability more broadly as a society, that some of the leaders now are actually...
getting pushed back and having to figure out new ways to do that. What?
Kyra Holt (35:53)
And I don't fault A1 for the facility for shutting down because it really is a big issue. If people aren't consciously only putting compostable items in that bin, then there's going to be contamination.
Mike Smith (36:10)
The other thing I would educate kind of the listeners here is that it's a lot of work to do recycling and Telluride. One thing that I don't think most people really appreciate is that small rural towns, they don't have single stream recycling because it's just not cost effective for being able to haul all that. And so Kyra and her team doing this work of making sure it's getting sorted, that's only half of the problem. The other half of it is getting it to a recycling facility.
How far away is the recycle? It's in Montrose, right, Kyra? Which is like an hour and a half away from Telluride? You know, so that's a real commitment that Planet Bluegrass is doing in order to make sure that they're diverting waste from the landfill into, you know, being reused or recycled.
Kyra Holt (36:43)
now yeah yeah
Yeah, and our compost goes all the way to Olathe, which is even just a little farther. But I think that that's the idea of composting. I don't think many people understand just how big of an impact it is. And maybe they think, we're just kind of reducing the quantity or the volume of trash that goes to the landfill. And that's better. You know.
But composting, I think one of the most surprising things is composting just has a huge effect. I think it's, and you might know more about this, Mike, but I think it's something like 20, you know, if you, you know, for example, put a, like a banana peel or something in the regular trash, it's the way that it breaks down in that trash heap that creates.
maybe something like 20 times more carbon in the terms of methane than if it was that same banana peel was put into the compost because of the way the process that it breaks down. And that's huge, right?
Mike Smith (38:11)
just like feel good, like, you know, let's just put less stuff into the ground. We're also putting less stuff into the air. This is big climate impact stuff. And reducing things rotting in landfills where they break down through anaerobic digestion means that we're doing things for the climate too. This isn't just feel good stuff. This actually matters from a climate accounting standpoint and from our, you know,
Kyra Holt (38:18)
Yeah.
Mike Smith (38:37)
preserving our climate future.
So moving from compost, let's talk about your carbon footprint very explicitly. You know, what's your journey been like on that as far as carbon accounting and carbon footprinting and where this is going?
Kyra Holt (38:50)
Yeah, so I think that Planet Bluegrass has been on the forefront of this as a festival and a lot due to Steve Szymanski who, I believe in 2007, made a promise to the town of Telluride that they were going to neutralize, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival carbon footprint.
by buying offsets. And so Planet Bluegrass has been doing this since 2007 and they have had a lot of help along the way. I believe a group called Clean Energy Research was one of their first partners in helping them create and analyze using a very big spreadsheet their carbon footprint for the festival. And so...
that has been something that they've done since 2007. But we're so excited because we were, you know, so happy when I came on board, I, you know, got handed this spreadsheet and was like, wow, this is, this is a lot of work.
that's when I reached out to you, Mike. So we were, I was very grateful to find you, through Solar Energy International, who was using your services as well. So, and we're just, I have to tell the listeners about this, this online survey that you created for our Festivarians to really help us.
with the Telluride carbon footprint. And out of our three festivals,
the carbon footprint travel to Telluride we know has made up the majority of our Scope Three emissions and just our total emissions in general. So this was a really big problem for us, continues to be an issue. And the first thing we needed to do to tackle the issue is to really try to figure out what the numbers are. So that's where Aclymate was really, really helpful.
Mike Smith (41:00)
Yeah, we really enjoyed that experience ourselves. So first of all, back to the kind of of programs and education, you guys included like a two page spread about Aclymate in the program, which I thought was incredibly generous. So much so that I framed a picture of it and put it up on the wall here in the office, along with the 50th anniversary poster. So I'll have to show you a picture of that sometime, Kyra Kyra. But.
Kyra Holt (41:24)
That's awesome.
Mike Smith (41:25)
But second, it was like super informative for us to kind of go go this development process with you about this survey to help you to figure out your footprint. There was a lot of lessons that we learned out of that that we thought we could share with others as well. So - Aclymate actually in the process of developing and releasing a broader events calculation tool for other folks. So and that's all because of Planet Bluegrass's leadership and their willingness to kind of bring us on the journey.
Kyra Holt (41:51)
Yeah, and it was really great because we were able to put out this survey to the audience. And at Telluride, specifically, we got about 10 % participation. I think it was a really successful journey. And we got a lot of great information from it, including, you know,
just what are our carpool averages of people per car and where are people coming from, where are they flying into, Denver versus Montrose. And it's really sort of going to shape our sort of next moves to try to tackle and reduce some of the travel related carbon footprints.
And it's going to kind of serve as our benchmark going forward as we try to reduce that through possible mass transit in the future. Yeah.
Mike Smith (42:46)
Awesome, love it.
So where do you think your industry is going? Specifically, I know that you are looking into a new green business certification program, specifically something known as A Greener Festival Did I get that name right?
Kyra Holt (43:05)
Yeah, it's a it's it's greener what's a A Greener Future the name of the company. But they have A Greener Festival certification. Yeah.
Mike Smith (43:16)
Got it. And so, you know, why are you going after that certification? What's in it for you?
Kyra Holt (43:25)
I guess we're always trying to continue to grow, but we're excited about A Greener Festival because we also are just kind of curious about the industry.
And I feel like there's this new energy being put into sustainability and festival and events. And it's really something important to our Festivarians as well. And sort of, you know, this new generation of humans that are going to have to live with the future.
We just think it's a great opportunity to get involved in this network and see what we don't know as well.
Mike Smith (44:02)
I think that's interesting. There's a couple of things that come out to that for me is it talks about like the importance of like as a passionate amateur, you probably should have somebody checking your work. I really liked that. I also really liked the idea that if you want to maintain that leadership position, you're going to have to keep upping your game. And then also what I thought was most interesting here is that
If you find out that you haven't been doing it all that well, or you have been doing it well, but like if there are places that you can improve, that's not a bad thing to find out that you've been missing the mark in a couple of spots. It's a good thing. It gives you the opportunity to improve. What's a status quo that you reject?
Kyra Holt (44:38)
Yeah.
I guess in life in general right now, I would say just this materialism in a way, this need for more things, more material being produced, this just buying new
I guess personally, I've just been constantly evaluating, you know, what is enough for me? What's enough for my family for us to be happy without, you know, just this constant need to purchase or just be involved with the materialism
this idea of just sort of enjoying what we have, and that means just not feeling like you need to buy a bunch of little
Mike Smith (45:43)
sure does. I mean, like.
Once you buy an instrument, you learn how to play music. Music's free. You don't need anything more than that instrument and a little little of time. And as I think about my time when we went to Rocky Grass where you hosted us and had just a phenomenal phenomenal time, was one of the most relaxed and peaceful moments of the last year for me was just sitting in St. Rain Creek Vrain around my friends and family and some music was playing in the background. Kids were floating down the river. Life was pretty good and it didn't cost much and it didn't take much.
Kyra Holt (45:50)
Mm -hmm.
Mike Smith (46:16)
and, so yeah, I reject that status quo as well. Like we, we, we just don't need as much as we think, and we don't need to spend as much as, as we do, as we think as well. you've talked about work life balance before and that that was a struggle for you earlier, you know, especially as like a, you know, a young parent. and when you were describing that, you actually sounded to me like a Navy spouse. you know, on my background, which is like, you know, the.
Kyra Holt (46:27)
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
Mike Smith (46:44)
the sailors away and so somebody's got to keep the home fires burning and like in the Navy they talk about that you know being a Navy spouse is the hardest job in the Navy and so like balancing that that's I think something that resonates with a lot of people especially women and so how have you kind of rebalanced that moving forward because during festival season I know your hair is on fire then too right so help me just understand like how you kind of keep all the balls up in the air.
Kyra Holt (47:07)
Yeah.
Sure, and I think it kind of goes back to the sense of community. So, and like I said, you know, I grew up as a festival kid. My kid is now almost 10 years old. It's about the same age I grew up going to the festivals. And so, you know, during festival season, he's sort of, I don't want to say feral, but just kind of, you know, able to explore a little bit on his own.
And, you know, his dad, my husband also works at the festival part time. my parents are there. So it's kind of just relying on the whole family and friends. So, you know, I like to tell this funny story that at Rocky Grass, my son wanted ice cream. He couldn't find me. And so he just looked in the ice cream line and
found a friend he knew, had their parents buy him ice cream. I was like, that's interesting, you know, but he's just using his community,
Mike Smith (48:18)
I mean, it strikes to me this more traditional lifestyle actually, even though people may not think of it that way, which is that children used to be fairly independent and that was because there was a community that was looking out for them. And so by having many people that are keeping an eye on him, he has the ability to actually do a lot more and he's developing a sense of independence. I think that's neat. If you were going to write a book, what would it be about?
Kyra Holt (48:43)
Yeah.
that's interesting because I have started a book. It's a fictional novel and it's really shaped by the festivals actually because it's about a...
Mike Smith (48:53)
Okay.
Kyra Holt (49:02)
an all female bluegrass band, which I have been in before. And it's about friendship. And basically this group of young women are trying to win a bluegrass contest. And the finals of the Grand Ole Opry and there's bumps and bruises along the way, but it's just sort of a story about.
friendship and finding yourself and gaining confidence I finished a draft of it a long time ago or a few years ago and I'm currently turning it into more of a young adult book because I think it maybe works better for that age group if it's more of a coming of age situation because the story's based in their 20s.
like early early 20s. And I think the fun part is that it has QR codes in it that I recorded songs with different groups of women who have been really inspirational in my life through music. And so you can, you know, the book says, it's called The New Darlings. The New Darlings are playing in the stage or something. And then you can put the QR code and listen to the song that they're playing. So.
Mike Smith (49:54)
Mm -hmm.
Kyra Holt (50:21)
That's my dream. There might be there's a little bit of sustainability stuff in there, you know. But yeah.
Mike Smith (50:29)
I love it. It's very much a work of who you are.
Well, Kyra, it's been really great to chat with you today. Again, Kyra Holt heads up schools and sustainability for Planet Bluegrass They run three great music festivals as well as a bunch of different bluegrass schools. Give them a look on the internet. And if you can get tickets to Telluride, they're hard to get, but if you can get them, you should absolutely go. What a phenomenal experience. Thanks for joining me today, Kyra
Kyra Holt (50:57)
Yeah, thank you, Mike. This was really fun.
Mike Smith (51:09)
Kyra's pretty great. And I really like to joke sometimes that talking to Kyra is like taking a dose of serotonin. Somehow I just always feel a little more at ease. Anyways, to wrap up, I want to hear from you. Go to Aclymate .com or send an email to theclimatedad at Aclymate .com to submit a question for me or the show. Again, Aclymate is spelled A -C -L -Y -A -T -E. If your business needs help measuring, reducing, reporting, or offsetting your company's climate footprint, please reach out to my team at Aclymate and we'll...
Be sure to get you set up with the best, most affordable, and easiest climate solution out there. Thank you again to Kyra Holt for joining me and thank you all for listening. I'll be back next time with a breakdown of all things climate and with another guest. Make sure to subscribe to The Climate Dad where you get your podcasts and to share, like, and comment on social media. Again, my name is Mike Smith and this was The Climate Dad.
.svg.png)