Maintaining strong communication lines with the public and various community stakeholders about the event’s plans for the future is a vital strategy for SHIFT’s success in advocating for the protection of public lands. Besides doing year-round engagement through digital newsletters, breakout sessions, and grassroots activism, SHIFT uses the Whova app to run a paperless communication platform with all attendees about the SHIFT Agenda and sustainability initiatives. SHIFT creates a comprehensive communications strategy each year before the event that adheres to the STOKE template for ensuring transparent, honest, and consistent messaging across all platforms to mitigate the risk of greenwashing. This way, you stay informed and can get stoked on authentic sustainability programs that your festival pass gets access to.

SHIFT’s management team utilized the STOKE Sustainability Management System Template to create their own comprehensive set of policies and procedures for their sustainability initiatives and goals. The SMS is the sustainability equivalent of a floor plan, operational programme, delegate management system, and banquet event order all rolled into one. It guides all management practices, staff training, policies and procedures, goals and implementation strategies. This is their go-to document and your guarantee for an epic event that enables you to #STOKEresponsibly.

Making sure everyone—no matter what their ethnicity, sexual identity, or economic status is—has an equal opportunity to attend an event, should be a defining trait for any sustainable event. SHIFT takes this seriously as it is devoted to bringing a more diverse audience and voice to the national conversation over the use and protection of public lands. Over $27,000 in scholarships are offered to those in the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) to cover cost of attending the ELP and SHIFT Summit and 50% off tickets for the SHIFT Summit are offered to college students. Innovative nonprofit organizations that leverage outdoor recreation for conservation gains are honored as SHIFT Award Official Selections through the SHIFT for the Planet forum which helps connect these organizations with funding sources and attend the event for free.

SHIFT encourages healthy outdoor lifestyles and had several walking tours with leading medical professionals about prescribing recreation to align with 2018's of Nature Rx. A guided walk in Bridger-Teton National Forest was used as an example of a successful public lands/public health trail model on both municipal and federal lands that was free to the public. One of the afternoons were dedicated to networking outside on the trail with local non-profits leadings attendees as well as hired local guided trips if desired. Most notably were the Walk with a Doc session led by Dr. David Sabgir— who started the movement in 2005 which has exploded to 400 chapters—as well as the Shinrin-yoku tour, which is a Japanese term that means “taking in the forest atmosphere” or “forest therapy.”

To shed light on some alarming facts from The Sidran Institute about posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and the benefits of prescribing time outside, SHIFT held an evening film festival called the Pointy End of The Spear. Several films showcased ways this so-called nature therapy is working and how the lessons we are learning as a result can be applied to the population at large. From prescription drug commercial spoofs on “Nature Rx”, to Arctic Circle backpacking missions with veterans, to coral reef restoration projects with vets, and more, the series of films demonstrated the effects of nature- and recreation-based therapy from a science- and emotional-based context that was truly powerful.

Beyond what’s on stage, there are a variety of opportunities for an event to expose you to local businesses who offer goods and services that reflect the local environment and culture. Collaborating with local entrepreneurs in such a way that these entrepreneurs are integrated into the event, creates a more authentic and impactful experience. SHIFT embraces this throughout the SHIFT Summit, but the People’s Banquet demonstrates best practices in supporting local entrepreneurs. Through a collaborative effort with local suppliers six months leading into the event, SHIFT sources food from local farms in Wyoming and Idaho and pairs these producers with restaurants and chefs in Jackson to create a unique menu that keeps it all local. The result is an epic finale to the three-day event with a farm-to-table offering and local craft beer, spirits, and wine selections to pair with the half vegetarian and half responsibly-raised meat menu.

The motivational speaker or most popular artist should not be your only attraction. Advocates for the outdoor and action sports lifestyle seek out the best events which feature unique cultural and environmental interpretive experiences that engage, educate, and empower attendees with new knowledge or perspectives they didn’t have before. Something profound they can take home with them and share in their circles. Beyond SHIFT’s use of the Whova App to communicate various environmental and cultural interpretive experiences to complement the event’s agenda, the SHIFT Summit included panelists and speakers from all different types of backgrounds (Native American groups, State officials, National Park rangers, etc.) to give rich context to public lands and recreation conservation and activism stories and strategies. SHIFT also partnered with the Jackson Hole Historical Society on interpretation about the history of Jackson and its heritage in conservation with Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

Sacred cultural, historical, geological, and archaeological sites provide unique characteristics to event destinations by framing the history and culture that defines the region. Maintaining these sites and respecting the cultures who value them most, is something SHIFT inherently values as an organization dedicated to protecting public lands. SHIFT conducts year-round engagement and advocacy work to protect public lands and for 2018 they hosted Alastair Lee Bitsóí, communications director for Utah Diné Bikéyah, who debuted the Take Your Shoes Off campaign, which introduces the healing concept of reciprocity by helping participants connect to the land from a Native American perspective. Jonah Yellowman also kicked off the 2018 SHIFT Festival with an acknowledgement of the land, a request for permission to use its lifeforms for public health benefits, and a prayer of thanks for its assistance with our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Through a partnership with Westbank Sanitation, local farmers, Teton Science School volunteers, and Teton County Integrated Waste and Recycling, SHIFT recycled 111 pounds and composted 266 pounds of waste (110 lbs more than 2017) over three days to achieve a 83% diversion rate. Klean Kanteen provided aluminum pint cups to all pass holders as well so attendees could reuse their cups all three days and then take them home. Attendees who posted photos of themselves participating in zero waste efforts were entered into a raffle to win a jacket from local apparel company, Stio.

SHIFT’s carbon footprint of 109.87 metric tons of CO2 were primarily made up of natural gas (10.20 tons) and attendee travel (99.71 tons). To improve upon SHIFT’s tree planting initiative from last year, the event purchased verified carbon offsets from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Natural Methane Capture project in La Plata County, Colorado for its Scope 2 emissions (natural gas). Attendees had the option to offset their own travel when purchasing a ticket to support this incredible project on Native American owned land that prevents the leakage of methane and provides an alternative source of income instead of fossil fuel and mining projects for the Southern Ute Tribe. To eliminate Scope 1 shuttle emissions, SHIFT promoted the use of the free transit bus around town as well as the local bike share program.

The way that events purchase the ‘stuff’ they need to operate can be a powerful tool for encouraging and supporting locally produced sustainable goods and services while reducing wasteful byproducts. SHIFT itemized all of their purchasing needs and categorizing each item as disposable, recyclable, refillable, or compostable and made goals for increasing waste diversion before the products even arrive at the venue. This purchasing audit also identified ways for the event to purchase more locally sourced goods and Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance certified coffee and tea through its venue partners. Furthermore, SHIFT strengthened its relationships with responsible lodging partners in the area who have sustainable tourism programs as well as local farmers and chefs for the People’s Banquet. SHIFT 2018 was also a paperless event thanks to their implementation of the Whova App.

100% of SHIFT’s energy demand was supplied with renewable energy through the Lower Valley Energy Green Power Program, which purchases clean energy from the Horse Butte wind farm south of Idaho Falls, ID and the Foote Creek wind farm between Rawlins and Laramie, WY. Lower Valley Energy (LVE) is the local grid supplier who offers this Renewable Energy Credit (REC) program to residents and businesses of Jackson and SHIFT partnered with LVE and Energy Conservation Works to promote the program and encourage more residents to sign up. There is no on-site renewable energy at any of the venues and no generators were used during the event, but SHIFT hopes to get one of its venues to invest in on-site renewables in the future.