Baton Rouge hosted its first Green Crawl on Thursday, with a pub crawl-esque event designed to promote green business and living around the city.Participants in the event made stops at six Baton Rouge businesses along a predetermined path before finishing at Chelsea’s Café for the finale party with free Abita Beer and live music by Paul Burch and WPA Ballclub.Beginning at any one of the stops, attendees biked, carpooled and drove their way along the 12-mile route through the downtown and Mid-City areas, down Corporate Boulevard, College Drive and Perkins Road while making stops to learn more about how to buy “green” and replace standard methods of living with green alternatives.The businesses, including Brown + Danos Land Design, Chenevert Architects, Mid-City Bikes, Time Warp and Honeymoon Bungalow, Gulf South Solar and Noelie Harmon, each partnered with a green nonprofit organization to highlight green living at each stop.”It is extremely important for people to know that going green is not only easy but cost-effective and good for the community,” said Amy Strother Gatz, Green Crawl co-creator and organizer. “It can be fun, too, which is why we wanted to host an event that was fun and educational at the same time.”Planning for the Green Crawl began four months ago, when Gatz and Jeff Shaw and Ann Shaney of Gulf South Solar came up with the idea as a way to promote green businesses around Baton Rouge.Gatz said the event was successful and she looks forward to another event in the spring.Josh Holder, manager at Time Warp, which co-sponsored the event, helped show attendees how buying vintage clothing and furniture is a green alternative.”We are trying to make Baton Rouge aware that green is a very possible and easy lifestyle,” Holder said. “Vintage clothing is 100 percent recycling, green and cheap. It is becoming a trend, and it’s completely green.”Mid-City Bikes was one of the stops along the Green Crawl, and owner Travis Hans was excited about showing off new bike accessories. “This crawl will definitely bring in more business to green shops,” Hans said. “People want to learn new green ways.”As participants made their way along the path, they presented a “passport” for a stamp at each stop, which would allow them into the finale party. Gift certificate prizes were also given to contest winners who had visited every stop along the way.Brittany Jewell, philosophy senior, said she had a great time at the stops and knows the importance of events like this.”Not only does [the Green Crawl] provide information about the causes and effects of environmental problems, but it provides solutions to its participants,” Jewell said. “More importantly, it introduces like-minded residents to one another, people who are really concerned about problems like these.”—–Contact Jake Clapp at [email protected]