The USANA Amphitheatre is going green.

United Concerts wants to make its major outdoor summer-concert venue more environmentally friendly. The idea actually started in 2005 when United Concerts was trying to get singer-songwriter-surfer and environmentalist Jack Johnson to perform. Before he said yes, Johnson first wanted to review United Concerts' environmental policy.

Johnson wanted assurance that USANA was taking some basic steps to be environmentally conscious, such as recycling. That's when administrators at UC realized they should already have been following a few of those steps full time and not just temporarily to appease Johnson.

United Concerts contacted several colleges to see if anyone was up for the task of greening USANA. Utah Valley State College accepted the challenge.

Danny Horns, the head of UVSC's Earth Science Department, was already teaching a class that established a process for companies to become more environmentally friendly. Each business is given a "footprint analysis," or what is essentially an environmental audit.

"All of the operations of a business have to be looked at ... energy use, lights, waste generation. We look at how much trash they throw away, car pools, water use, etc." he said. "The goal of looking at those is to determine which one would be easy to improve upon."

What the group came up with was, that the best way to reduce the impact on the environment at USANA was to reduce the amount of waste during a concert.

Chris Abbott, with United Concerts, said the college's recommendation turned into a four-step plan. The first step is recycling. Not only will fans be asked to separate their trash into recycling bins starting this summer, but USANA will also ask its concessionaires to recycle such items as tin cans.

Concessionaires will also use recyclable and biodegradable materials this year, such as the cups used to serve drinks or the cardboard boxes used to ship merchandise to the venue. "If we can bring in recyclable products, the output is easier to recycle," Abbott said.

The second part is USANA's new "green team." Some of those UVSC students will set up stations at USANA for each concert and be available to answer questions about recycling, as well as instruct concertgoers on how to use the recycle bins.

"Rather than having a smiling trash can staring at you ... that's where the green team will come in handy," Abbott said.

In the coming summers, United Concerts hopes to institute more steps to green up the venue, including improving CO2 emissions such as when tour buses drive in, be more efficient on water usage and try to encourage more car pooling to concerts, possibly by rewarding car poolers with prime parking spots.

UC Marketing Vice President Teresa Mooney said greening up USANA is not only good for the environment, but there are several economic benefits, especially in reducing energy costs.

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