programs & Projects

Community Carbon Fund

The Community Carbon Fund is Sustainable Tallahassee's most significant and far-reaching program.  When you donate to the Carbon Fund, you are assured that the funds you donate will be kept in our community, used to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions locally, and used to benefit local social service agencies that serve the disadvantaged.  What a win-win local benefit! 

Your donation will be leveraged by Sustainable Tallahassee to accomplish more than the dollar amount of your donation - due to energy rebates and arrangements we can make for discounted or donated materials. You can use our easy Carbon Fund calculator to determine your personal Carbon Footprint, and gear your donation to offset your carbon footprint.  Click our Community Carbon Fund page to learn about our successes, our current projects, and how you can participate. 

Green Drinks

Green Drinks is our "signature event" - a monthly gathering for everyone interested in learning about and fostering sustainability in our community and our world.  It's both fun and serious: an opportunity to get to know others interested in sustainability, and an opportunity to hear a short program on a relevant topic.  You are invited!  Check our calendar for the next date and location of Green Drinks.  Learn more about Green Drinks HERE.

Trash Dash 5K Run

Our annual Trash Dash 5K Run was first held in 2011 as a fundraiser.  Check out these past Trash Dash events for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Community Calendar

Our website calendar displays our Sustainable Tallahassee events and those of many other organizations.  Keep a link to our calendar handy to find out about upcoming community events that are sustainable-related.  And if your email editor is Outlook or Mac you’ll be able to download events directly to your own calendar. 

Capital Area Sustainability Council

In 2011 Sustainable Tallahassee organized the Capital Area Sustainability Council (CASC) to bring together organizations that have a community wide sphere of positive influence on sustainability.  The purpose of the sustainability council is to serve as a clearing house for the exchange of ideas and information, to promote collaboration and cooperation on sustainability projects and issues, and to eliminate or reduce duplication of effort among the participants.  To bring attention to their sustainability achievements to the public, member organizations of the Council rotate writing "Greening Our Community" articles which are published in our local newspaper, The Tallahassee Democrat.  Learn more about CASC HERE.

EcoTeams

EcoTeams are the most grassroots, and most personal, ways to learn about and adopt more sustainable lifestyles.  Want your office to reduce waste and stop buying Styrofoam? Start an EcoTeam at work.  Wish your neighbors would reduce using pesticides and excess water on lawns?  Start a neighborhood EcoTeam.  Want your friends or family to stop buying gas guzzling vehicles and bottled water?  Start an EcoTeam of friends or family.   Want to explore more about sustainability in your civic or religious group? An EcoTeam is terrific way to do that.  It's easy because we provide all the resources!  We'll even coach and help your discussion leader.  

The resource information is right here on the Sustainable Tallahassee website, fully available to you at no charge - because we want everyone to have the opportunity to gain the passion for a sustainable lifestyle and a sustainable community.  Everything about EcoTeams is HERE.

Rags2Bags

The goals of our Rags2Bags program are:  
To reduce the use of fossil fuels
To reduce plastic bag injuries for marine life
To keep trash out of our environment!

Our Rags2Bags team educates and inspires behavior changes by making shopping bags from donated fabric - and giving away the bags with a message about sustainability tucked inside.  By the end of 2017 the team had made and given away over 5,000 bags!  Click HERE to find out more, to join the team, or to donate materials.

Kick Bottled Water

Drink tap, not bottled!  DuPont patented the first PET plastic bottles in 1973.  By 2006, only 33 years later, global bottled water sales were $60 billion.  We all know the environmental issues these discarded single-use bottles have caused, not to mention the fossil fuels to create and transport bottles, the cost and energy to recycle them into new products, and the fact that less than 25% get recycled.  It's stunning to imagine it's all happened in less than 50 years!  Our Kick Bottled Water project has involved strong efforts to bring attention and challenge people to change behaviors, by:  publishing articles in the Tallahassee Democrat, creating a Pledge to Kick Bottled Water, and creating a Bottled Water Monster to showcase our efforts at public festivals and other events. Learn more about our efforts in these articles and on our website:

LeMoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival, April, 2016
Article: Greening Our Community with two Green Festivals, April, 2017
Article: Getting Passionate About Sustainability, January, 2017
Article: Dollars and common Sense - Bottled Water is Money and Resources Down the Drain, October, 2017
Article: Drink Locally - Stop Buying Commercial Bottled Water, May, 2015