SANTA BARBARA Shena Turlington was on a mission.

The "green coordinator" at Santa Barbara's Lightning in a Bottle music festival jumped into an electric golf cart to make last-minute preparations Friday before thousands arrived for the event combining electronic dance music, avant-garde art and environmental stewardship.

She drove down a dirt road to make sure signs such as "Be kind to your mother. Sort your recycling," and "This baby runs on biodiesel" taped to a generator, were in place. From there, the 24-year-old with hawk feathers in her hair looked around for a volunteer to help work the door, where everyone is asked if they want to buy wind-energy certificates to offset their drive to the festival. Trips from Los Angeles cost $2.50 for cars, $2.75 for SUVs.

Then she virtually sprinted into the festival's makeshift office, powered by nearby solar panels, and printed up fliers on recycled paper with messages such as "recycling one aluminum can will power three hours of TV."

She found Sara "Rainbow Flow" Lepard, who was wearing a bikini, fairy wings and red leggings that made her look like a sunbathing-Superwoman, to tack signs up around the 40-acre venue in the rolling hills near Lake Cachuma. Lepard came from Canada for the three-day music event.

"I'm all about having fun, but there has to be some responsibility toward nature," said Lepard. And that is what the three-day festival is all about.

After going to years of music festivals that left a sea of waste after the music stopped, organizers of Lightning in a Bottle decided to create a unique musical event that didn't leave behind mounds of water bottles or burn up tons of energy.

"I don't think there are a lot of event promoters who take enough responsibility for what their events create," said Jesse Flemming, one of the executive promoters with The Do Lab, which is putting on the event. "When we decided to make it a full-blown festival, we wanted to do it in an environmentally responsible way."

Some major events have taken small measures to be environmentally responsible. The Oscars this year bought energy offsets to counter the power it used. The Coachella Music Festival gave one free bottle of water for every 10 empty ones recycled. Even the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 2004 did some energy conservation.

But few events take it to the level of Lightning in a Bottle. Solar panels are set up near the main stage to power all the amplifiers and lights. Although they were expected to capture about 3,500 kilowatt hours over a week, if more energy is used, the organizers will buy wind-energy certificates to make up the difference.

Not only are recycling bins everywhere, but there are also compost bins where people can throw away the fully biodegradable plates and forks made from potato and corn. The compost will go to a local blueberry farmer.

Generators that power one of the stages called the "Treehouse" run on reused vegetable oil. Cardboard and paint and materials used for signs are all reused. The hand-sanitizer in the Port-a-Potties is organic. All vendors must agree to use only organic, local produce and serve them in biodegradable or recyclable containers.

All light bulbs at the campground were replaced with compact fluorescent bulbs. The list goes on and on.

Although organizers are committed to doing everything by the eco-book, they admit it can be hard because it costs more. The festival, now in its seventh year, has yet to turn a profit.

"Doing it green costs considerably more money," said Flemming, estimating an extra 20 percent. The event costs about $150,000 to put on, but he thinks it will pay off in the long run and people will appreciate the effort.

Besides, he said, it's the right thing to do.

Finding products that meet festival requirements can be a bit harder than making a trip to Wal-Mart. Besides tracking down the corn-made forks online, Flemming had to go to Oregon to find T-shirts made of organic cotton and printed with natural inks.

Turlington was brought in from Australia to run the eco-side of things. An economist by trade, she is passionate about every detail, down to reminding coffee vendors to tell their customers to compost their cups. She plans to lead the "trashy girls" a group of scantily clad women who remind people to pick up after themselves around the campground this morning. Once the event is over, she'll do an audit to see what worked and what can be done better.

Flemming hopes the message of environmentalism comes through while not being preachy.

Although the event is like a three-day Halloween party for adults, where mere piercings and tattoos are passe and outrageous costumes with drum-major hats and skimpy tops are the norm, some think this whole idea of environmentalism is finally catching on.

"More and more people are aware of it," said Jeff Yost, who was selling rocks, didgeridoos and other "random treasures." "It's not just the hippies and the freaks."