AUTUMN | FEATURE
Focusing on reuse
event , and bringing in experts have all helped us to learn about our audience and underlying principles of behavioural psychology , enabling us to understand how and why to make changes .
I like that some of the basics of festival sustainability are genuinely straight forward and do-able for most events , like using reusable bar cups , reducing diesel consumption in generators , and encouraging low carbon travel . But things can quickly get complicated when you get into the details , such as when looking into the supply chains of HVO fuels . Working with Julie ’ s Bicycle , we ’ ve been able to look into the whole supply chain , going as far as meeting with a company that provides satellite images of deforestation that helps to trace links between suppliers and local loss of forest .
We have a well-established approach which is based on evidence . We collect a tonne of data on everything imaginable at the event , from energy to food footprints , so we can see clearly where our impacts are , where changes between years have been successful and where they haven ’ t . This continuous and often imperfect process – we often don ’ t have perfect data , but enough to make
a reasonable judgement – helps us to prioritise , learn , adapt and make the case internally and externally about changes that are needed to reduce negative impacts . If we feel motivated to tackle a new topic , such as going meat and fish free , we do the research to be well informed before we launch a campaign or change to the festival . We ’ ve learnt a few things about communications , that we think have really helped take our audience and other stakeholder along with us with some of the changes we have made , such as :
• Not trying to communicate too much at any time , for example one big change or new campaign each year is enough . Knowing the user journey and targeting messaging accurately in term and relevance in the moment .
• Being honest and passionate , for example when we launched being meat and fish free , we didn ’ t pretend we had all the answers , or say that we thought everyone should be vegan ( we don ’ t ), but we did and do feel it vital to move toward plant-based diets for climate .
Have there been any mistakes made or regrettable decisions in terms of things that didn ’ t work so well ?
We ’ ve been making mistakes for over 20 years ! It ’ s very much part of the organisational culture to put it on the table and learn from it . I haven ’ t got a massive calamity to share ( actually I have many , but there not about green initiatives ), but we ’ ve got plenty wrong . The year we launched our Recycling Exchange - whereby people pay a deposit with ticket purchase , and then bring waste back to us at the event for a refund or merch bundle – the queues were long , and we didn ’ t have handwashing facilities , so we almost put everyone off recycling .
What was the biggest focus at this year ’ s event in terms of introducing new sustainability measures ? Our main public facing campaign in 2023 is campsite materials with the aim to get the recycling rate up from 51 % to 75 % – we ’ re asking our audience to ‘ scoop ’ any food out of recyclable containers , ‘ splosh ’ any liquids out of recyclable containers , and ‘ separate ’ all materials , to enable us to recycle . Another new initiative this year is dedicated and subsidised rail + entry packages , opening up a new low carbon route to the festival with shuttle busses between rail and the event .
What advice would you give to a new festival operator working on extremely tight budgets who wants to minimise the event ’ s impact ? There are some genuine quick wins , lots of things that can be achieved by investing a small amount of time to get a strategy together , and having the conversations necessary to get others engaged . One example is energy – research suggests that most outdoor events can save about 40 % of fuel and in some cases this can be achieved with a few conversations and a contract clause .
Generally , the information is out there to help organisers to learn about sustainability , such as the Vision : 2025 resources hub . An amazing new development is the Future Festival Tools free online e-learning course , which is a bitesize option to learn everything about the basics easily and quickly . We ’ ve asked all our team and stakeholders to do this , and also put the core team through certified Carbon Literacy Training .
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