Considering that several thousand people crammed into the festival space on Treasure Island we think that overall they handled the transportation issue in a pretty Green way. We made our way to the festival via zero-emission Bauer buses that picked most of the masses up at AT&T Park. The only real griping we heard came from East Bay attendees who said that they had to drive or take BART to SF instead of having shuttle buses come to the East Bay as well.

Upon entering the festival we couldn’t help but noticing the Ferris wheel but then after that we spied a pair of decent size solar panels that sat near the entrance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t determine or find anyone who knew what the solar power generated. We’re sure it the energy went toward something beneficial.

Not that we didn’t get into the bands with MSTRKRFT rocking the house with their style of house and MGMT hitting a big home run by rocking into their first album but we didn’t have time to play amongst the Green sidelights. We liked the addition of the Sustainable Living Roadshow with its Recycle Swish – interactive NBA style take on recycling and Green education. The multi-colored bins existed all over the venue and Clean Vibes volunteers did a pretty good job of monitoring that the right item went into the correct bin. Last year, the festival diverted 72 percent of waste to recycling and composting – a slightly higher rate than Green San Fran.

We also appreciated the TRASHed Recycling Store which offered incentives (shirts, sun block, tickets, etc) I n exchange for cups and plastic bottles but we didn’t see many people taking advantage of the opportunity. We know that festivals need to make a profit so we’re okay with the water refilling station charging a $1 to refill a container (unless you buy a Treasure Island bottle which in that case the water is free) but at least they didn’t sell high fructose corn syrup (err soda) at the same booth.

Even behind the scenes the generators run on B20. Now we’re not going to say that these bringing thousands of people together won’t have some detrimental effects but compared with many of the other festivals out there Treasure Island Music Festival runs a pretty tight green ship.

San Franciscans utter a lot about our lovely municipal transit system otherwise known as MUNI but now they have even more reason to spout off about it. Normally when we hear MUNI coming out of someone’s mouth it usually follows on the heels of “Damn.” Now we can change that utterance to “Green Muni”. Sure, the 71 bus might not come on time but when it does arrive at least it will be running on biodiesel. In fact, San Fran now claims to have the largest green fleet in the nation.Of course, the fleet includes not just MUNI but ambulances and street sweepers as well. The fleet runs on virgin soy oil bought from producers in the Midwest. Sure, we’d like the fuel purchased from somewhere local but hopefully that will come in time.

The environmentally friendlier fuel will hopefully sharply reduce toxic diesel exhaust linked to a higher risk of asthma and premature death. Just last month, Mayor Newsom announced a new project called SFGreasecycle, a program to collect fats and cooking oils from restaurants, at no charge.All of the city’s 1,500 diesel vehicles power up using the fuel known as B20, a mix of 20 percent soy-based biofuel and 80 percent petroleum diesel fuel, which reduces toxic emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and other pollutants that lead to global warming.

Although B20 marks an improvement, it’s still 80 percent petroleum diesel. We’re looking for B100. And we have word of a B100 station opening soon.