Fiesta Hermosa: Greener Than You Think

 I've become a big Carla Merriman fan.  Merriman's the executive director of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau. "Environmentalist" may not be the first word you think of to describe Merriman, but in all my dealings with her she's been a strong green ally. 

Whether it's reducing waste and cutting the carbon footprint of Memorial Day weekend's Fiesta Hermosa or helping to educate Hermosa businesses about cost savings and incentives for going solar, Merriman and the chamber have been the kind of business sustainability supporters I wish every South Bay city had. 

The latest enviro feature added to the Fiesta is a bicycle valet service. It's being handled by the chamber and Hermosa Cyclery and will allow visitors to ride their bikes to the event and drop them off for safekeeping. Later, they can pick them up when they're ready to leave. 

Hermosa Cyclery, owned by Steve Collins, will also offer tire inflation and mini tune-ups at a low cost during the event.

Besides supporting the perfect zero-emission transportation option, this new bike valet service couldn't be more timely because delays in the Upper Pier Avenue construction project are wiping out precious parking spots for cars.

Another great green addition to this year's Fiesta is the inclusion of the  South Bay Environmental Services Center. This nonprofit South Bay resource provides free services for local residents and businesses. Visitors to the Fiesta will be able to information from the center on the latest rebates and tax credits; free energy and water audits; government energy retrofit and loan programs for solar; and water-saving and energy-efficiency equipment.

To help cut waste, the chamber has already banned the use of Styrofoam and plastic bags by Fiesta vendors. All of the plates and cutlery at the Fiesta will be made of recyclable or compostable materials.

It's about time that Hermosa Beach ordinances match the sustainable model set by the chamber for its Fiesta vendors. It seems only right to ask the local businesses that pump a lot more wasteful plastic and Styrofoam into the city than the Fiesta does to stop that practice.

Merriman is quick to credit the community help she's getting on the Fiesta. "Lisa Ryder Moore from the Hermosa Beach Green Task Force also works for Waste Management and she's been soliciting donations of reusable 'green' bags to use at Fiesta," Merriman said. "We're going to be able to give out free bags to shoppers at the event, thanks to Lisa.  She's also gotten us 40 of Waste Management's clear plastic recycling containers that make it easy to see where plastic and aluminum should go."

Supervisor Don Knabe and his staff also earned Merriman's appreciation. "Our main shuttle buses that bring visitors from our free park-and-ride lot at Northrop Grumman are all low-emission vehicles and are generously provided by the county of Los Angeles, courtesy of Supervisor Don Knabe," she said.

The Fiesta's power generators will all be run on biodiesel again, thanks to Bell Event Services. Bell collects oil all year long from Hermosa restaurants Patrick Molloy's, Fat Face Fenner's, Hennessey's and Sangria to power them. I was surprised to learn that Bell also collects all the oil that Fiesta food court vendors use and recycles it to green other events.

I'm not the only environmentalist with good things to say about the chamber's efforts. Phil Friedl, chairman of the Green Task Force (GTF), recently wrote: "It's great to see the Fiesta taking steps in the right direction. I hope the GTF and the chamber can continue to work together to make our events and city as sustainable as possible."

When I asked  Merriman about her dreams for future Fiesta greening, she enthusiastically said, "We want to be the greenest festival we can be. Right now we're proud to be a shade of green and getting better with each new Fiesta. If I had my druthers, we'd have all zero-emission vehicles and we'd power all our equipment by solar. And as soon as we can do that I'll be even happier." 

Joe Galliani is a weekly environmental columnist for Hermosa Beach Patch.