Sustainability at Park(ing) Day

Livable Buckhead held its annual Park(ing) Day event this past Friday, October 1st. For any who may have missed out, Park(ing) Day is an annual event held around the world where folks repurpose parking spaces by temporarily converting them into parks and art installations. We had a lot of fun transforming the Lenox Square parking lot into miniparks for the community to explore and enjoy!

We also brought sustainability to Park(ing) Day in many ways. We had waste stations with separate compost, recycling, and landfill bins marked with signage to educate our participants and attendees on how to properly separate and divert their waste.

We also encouraged our participants to create their parks using reclaimed materials wherever possible. The Beck Group – this year’s winner of The People’s Choice Award – built their parklet using a host of recycled materials: yard signs from CHaRM (the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials), gravel from a job site that was returned, garbage bins from Lifecycle Building Center, and many more repurposed supplies. The Beck Group created an outstanding park and did it with a small carbon footprint by giving all these materials a second life.

Atlanta artist Quamaine Giles was also there creating a piece of art with the help of Park(ing) Day attendees. Quamaine incorporates sustainability into his work through a number of eco-friendly practices. He adds texture to his paint using fallen sawdust from his carpentry projects, and purchases Home Depot’s “oops paint” (incorrectly mixed paint that may otherwise go to waste), to name a few.

Thank you to all who attended and helped us out with our sustainability efforts!