Ann Arbor celebrates sustainability at 25th annual A2Zero Green Fair
The A2Zero Green Fair on Main Street Friday evening. Ava Farah/DAILY.
Nearly 100 sustainability-focused local businesses and community organizations lined Main Street Friday evening for A2Zero’s 25th annual Green Fair. The Green Fair featured five themed areas spread throughout downtown Ann Arbor: Electric Avenue, Circularity Street, Resilience Road, Nature Boulevard and the Kid’s Corner, each showcasing the different ways Ann Arbor is working toward the A2Zero carbon neutrality plan, a city-wide sustainability project aiming to make Ann Arbor carbon neutral by 2030. The fair also included presentations by University of Michigan and Ann Arbor environmental organizations, electric vehicle showcases, discussions about conservation work and a community clothing swap.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Missy Stults, City of Ann Arbor sustainability and innovations director, said the fair aims to bring together the Ann Arbor community to celebrate achievements in sustainability and encourage involvement in the A2Zero plan.
“(The) Green Fair itself is a celebration of our community’s commitment to carbon neutrality and becoming more sustainable,” Stults said. “So, we have space for people to get new volunteer opportunities, to learn about something they didn’t know, maybe to take an action that felt out of reach but suddenly feels more accessible. It’s kind of a community celebration of the work and a moment to reflect on where we need to go.”
Stults said the fair has grown since its inception 25 years ago, as Ann Arbor has adopted new initiatives and continued to focus on sustainability efforts.
“We have so many more people that are part of the movement now than what we did at the beginning,” Stults said. “It used to be the Mayor’s Green Fair, which was awesome and wonderful. … But we also have A2Zero now, which was adopted in 2020, and so A2Zero’s sort of the rallying call that helps provide direction. It is more than, ‘hey, look, we’re doing this thing.’ It is ‘no, we are moving towards this goal and objective.’ And that’s demonstrative. So I think it’s got perhaps more structure, and it’s bigger and broader than it used to be.”
In an interview with The Daily, Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said the fair emphasizes the many different ways citizens can engage with sustainability.
“There is something in sustainability and environmentalism for everyone,” Taylor said. “If bees are your thing, there’s a place for you. If energy creation and electrification is a thing, there’s a place for you… There are groups and people who are interested in advancing issues that you care about. And I guess the Green Fair is a great opportunity to meet those folks, then get involved.”
Taylor said Ann Arbor’s focus on sustainability has grown over the past several years. He cited the vetoed ‘40-40-20 policy‘ from 2017 — a policy plan that aimed to split tax revenue into 40% for affordable housing, 40% for climate action and 20% for pedestrian and bicycle safety — along with the Community Climate Action Millage and the Sustainable Energy Utility.
“We, as a municipal organization, have increased our work in the sustainability space, just by leaps and bounds,” Taylor said. “First with funding from the 40-40-20 (policy) back in 2017, then with the passage of the Community Climate Action Millage in 2020, then now with the passage of the Sustainable Energy Utility, we have an opportunity. We are doing great things.”
The Green Fair featured a Solar Mobile Nanogrid Unit made by Sesame Solar. In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Meredith King, former fellow for the Office of Sustainability and Innovations, said the mobile unit can be used to power events like the Green Fair with clean energy.
“So essentially, it’s a mobile nanogrid, so it can fully operate with its own energy,” King said. “It has solar panels on top, and then it has a hydrogen fuel cell for two different forms of clean energy. So we can use it as a decarbonization tool to power different events and facilities with clean energy. We want to use it for community engagement education as well.”
King said working with the Office of Sustainability and Innovations at events like the Green Fair allowed her to expand on her studies at the University and explore her interests.
“I’m passionate about making people aware of sustainability issues and then getting them involved, taking action,” King said. “And so this was a great project to work on because it was centered around engagement and education. … We wanted to kind of funnel them into action, like how can they get involved, and how can they incorporate sustainability into their own lives.”
Daily Staff Reporter Carter Carino can be reached at carinoc@umich.edu.
To read the article on Michigan Daily's website, visit https://www.michigandaily.com/news/ann-arbor/ann-arbor-celebrates-sustainability-at-25th-annual-a2zero-green-fair/.
