Why This Man and His Team Are the Greenest in Rochester

For John Batdorf, this weekend's all started with peak oil.

It was six years ago, and Batdorf was in his mid-40s, living in Grand Blanc and semiretired from his position as CEO of his own software and computer systems company.

He remembers reading an article in Rolling Stone magazine about the inevitability of a time when there isn't enough oil to go around.

"That got my alarm going," Batdorf said.

"I had an inkling all along that something was not quite right," he said. "But I read this, and then I started to think about how we were doing things all wrong, about how, as you produce any kind of natural resource, there will come a point when you just can't produce any more."

And so the story goes that Batdorf decided to be part of the solution.

Promoting Green Living

As the president and CEO of MI Green Team, Batdorf is the leader of the to downtown Rochester this weekend.

His intents? To show off renewable energy (all of the festival's energy will be produced on site) and get people thinking about becoming more connected to the local sources of their livelihoods.

"My goal is to get people to realize there are alternate ways of doing things that are workable, sustainable and that make sense," said Batdorf, the former executive director of the Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center.

And he wants to show Rochester and its mostly middle-class residents that being green isn't necessarily about living with less or being cheap, he said.

"My background, where I come from, it was the country club setting, the throw-away society, not unlike Rochester," he said. "I am trying to show these people that the source of a community's livelihood is local and not Wall Street, that being green is about being connected locally."

So you don't have to be a vegan or an environmentalist to attend. And if you don't drive a hybrid car? That's fine, too.

Batdorf said that across the country and in our local community, the same people tend to get greener and greener.

But it's the rest of the everyday citizens — families, singles, young and old — who can expose themselves to some of the green living options available in town during the three-day festival.

About the Festival

The festival opens from 4-7 p.m. Friday near the corner of Third and Water streets in downtown Rochester and continues from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.

It will include hundreds of booths showcasing green products and services, as well as activities for children and nonstop programs. It coincides with the at nearby

But back to Batdorf.

Just how green is the leader of the Green Living Festival?

Well, he doesn't commute; he works from home and in coffee shops around town. He drives a Toyota Prius. And his reusable bags are well-used.

But more than all of those things, he said what makes him green is his intention to promote green things.

Will Rex works with Batdorf on the Green Living Festival.

"The most exciting thing for John, and for all of us organizers, is for this festival to put the spotlight on Rochester," Rex said.