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Eco Villages are where individuals and vendors join together to promote a sustainable lifestyle and/or innovative technologies. Within these villages, people can sell goods, provide entertainment to help promote a cause, and encourage others to go green.Negotiating green practices with venues, contractors, and vendors is very important. Many of the green practices may be new to them. If so, part of your role will be to educate them on the benefits of going green: environmental savings, goodwill, educating others, and cost-savings.

• Be careful, you don’t want your eco village to trump your actual but be sure set it up near the event so that people will go through it and absorb the information and goods that the vendors are promoting. Keep in mind that the determined area may also require specific permits and equipment.

Stay local. Your contributors should all share the same belief but don’t necessarily have to use the same means to spread the word.

• Some examples: Local farmers, like the ones at farmers market, and restaurants can display and sell their food while community organizations can encourage participation in their groups.

Is all the equipment and supplies accounted for? Some things you might need to double check on are, tents, tables, chairs, tablecloths, food permits, car permits, ect.

• Inform the vendors from the beginning of the planning process of the importance of their participation in any sustainability and recycling efforts.

The participants may need extra time to close their shop and get their supplies together for the eco village. This may be a good opportunity to see if they will need volunteers to help them move their things and for set up and take down, this could help with community-involvement.

ECO VILLAGE CHECKLIST

• Select an appropriate size and location for your eco village (this may depend on the location, funds and size of the actual event).
• Who are your participants? Local business, community organizations, individuals…
• Speak with the vendors that you are interested in and see how they would like to participate.
• Work with the greening efforts committee.
• Meet with all the eco village vendors to talk about the specifics of the event like setup and take down times.
• Double check arrival times and delivery times
• Help set up
• Use volunteers
• Help take down
• Thank you notes to the contributors