Green Living Festival has new look, celebrates 25 years of EarthWays in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Jean Ponzi has been “helping the Garden walk the talk” on conserving energy and educating folks about the environment for 25 years -- and she must know what she’s doing -- she’s been awarded the Gateway Lifetime Public Service Award for the area.

She’s been a major part of the Green Living Festival for decades, and you may even here her voice during the announcements Saturday. Ponzi is excited for the festival, because she feels it’s a chance to not just talk sustainability, but show it.

While she’s been working for the Missouri Botanical Garden for a number of years, her dedication to environmental research, education and communication has been part of her life for much longer.

While sustainability has been a common focus for gardens and homes globally, the EarthWays Center has been advocating for energy and environmental awareness for decades.

This summer, the Center celebrates 25 years -- just with the Garden. It’s changed and morphed in many ways since it first entered MoBot’s fold, but it’s always had a core principal that Ponzi believes in -- educating everyone on how the world around us benefits us.

GREEN LIVING FESTIVAL 2025

This year, the annual Green Living Festival will last from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will be included with the price of a general MoBot ticket. Saturdays are free for St. Louis County and city residents to visit the Garden.

“Hosted by Missouri Botanical Garden’s EarthWays Center, the festival lets visitors explore the links between sustainability and a healthy environment,” the Garden says. “Our experts offer tips to make your lifestyle, workplace, community and residence greener.”

Workshops, tours, DIY projects, yoga, exhibitors, vendors and activities will dot the Garden grounds on June 7.

You can see a schedule of events for Saturday by visiting this link.

EARTHWAYS HISTORY

Originally, EarthWays was born out of the 1990 celebration of Earth Day in Forest Park. Interest in a number of (new at the time) initiatives like recycling, energy efficiency and renewable resources was skyrocketing.

Originally, the group was known as MERP (Missouri Energy Resources Project), a program focused mainly on energy and recycling education in schools. One of their projects was a doll house showing sustainable home options -- and they decided to take it life size.

So, the idea for the EarthWays Home was born. Ponzi says it was a chance to really show that these ideas of better lightbulbs, recycled wastewater and energy saving devices were usable and realistic.

The Green Living Festival was born in 2001, as a street fair outside the house. It hoped to model the green efforts of the organization, and to show how sustainable businesses worked.

For years, the Earthways Home which stood on Grandel Square, showed visitors many of the electric and green energy devices we now use everyday. Energy saving lightbulbs, conservation practices for the garden and all sorts of strategies to save money and the environment.

The EarthWays group, (then known as MERP), wanted the remodeled 1885 home to give folks a true hands-on experience showing that these concepts of greener living were realistic.

Ponzi says that she has fond memories of the home, and feels the home served it’s purpose -- many of the revoluntionary approaches to greener living in the experimental home are now common parts of our everyday lives.

In 2000, the EarthWays organization moved into another phase of their existence -- ing the Garden as part of the Gateway Center for Resource Efficiency.

Over the past quarter century, the EarthWays center has continued their mission of educating students and the public about green living practices, ways to the environment and think about ways to protect the planet.

And the Green Living Festival has been part of that effort since 2001. This year, 50 exhibitors will take part in the Festival, alongside demonstrations of projects, workshops and other interactive activities.

Avery Martinez covers water, ag & the environment for First Alert 4. He is also a Report for America Corps member, as well as a member of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. His coverage ranges from EPA s to corn farms and hunting concerns, and local water rates to rancher mental health.

Copyright 2025 KMOV. All rights reserved.