EcoContainer adds sustainability to Factory Square

This weekend in Northside, there will be giant sculptures by internationally acclaimed artists, cool exhibits inside shipping containers and giant toys. But the inaugural Factory Square Fine Arts Festival also plans a sustainability showcase in the Eco Container, a space designed and sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, The Sustainability Partnership of Cincinnati and the Green Umbrella. “ParProjects wanted to make their site and their festival as environmentally conscious as possible,” says Sustainability Partnership member and realtor Libby Hunter. “They want to be good stewards of the site they are leasing.” The EcoContainer, which like other containers is eight-foot by eight-foot by 20-foot, will feature a demo of a green roof and rain barrels, supplied by Green-Streets LLC. Inside, festival-goers will find materials about a wide range of sustainability initiatives, from geothermal to solar power to LEED-certified real estate. Outside the container, People Working Cooperatively will install its EcoHouse, an eight by 10 foot portable house that features a solar panel and other environmentally friendly elements. In addition, EcoEnvironments will have a truck with a working geothermal unit on-site during the festival. Hunter says ParProjects’ objectives for the festival, and their plans for a community arts center, excited members of the sustainability partnership, a consortium of businesses that focus on initiatives from law to building materials and stormwater management to real estate. “Everybody wanted to be a part of it,” she says. “We’re looking to more permanent and substantial installations for their big opening in the spring of 2012.” By Elissa Yancey