SEPTEMBER | FEATURE
The big issue
Will the fiscal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic
mean sustainability initiatives are sidelined by
event organisers as they fight for survival or will
they continue to put the planet first? Christopher
Barrett finds out.
The festival industry has
long been at the forefront of
environmental awareness
and sustainability issues, with events
such as Glastonbury (cap, 147,500),
WOMAD (40,000) and Shambala
(15,000) among the many to not only
introduce new ways to reduce their
carbon footprint but help educate
and inspire the tens of thousands of
people who attend each year.
Much work has been done across
the festival and events industry
in recent years to reduce its
environmental impact, and among
the many initiatives is Vision: 2025
– which has seen the operators of
107 festivals pledge to make a 50%
reduction in the environmental
impacts of their events by 2025.
Among the other industry
organisations to make considerable
progress is outdoor events industry
sustainability steering group
Powerful Thinking, which has
created resources including ‘how to’
guides, energy monitoring tool kits
and advice on how to get the most
from power contractors.
Climate change lobbying group
Julie’s Bicycle has been very active
on behalf of the music industry since
it was founded in 2006, while A
Greener Festival’s many initiatives
include an award scheme that has
assessed and certified hundreds
of festivals, events and venues
worldwide for sustainability.
Much has been achieved and there
is a lot to lose, so this year has seen
Vision: 2025’s annual Green Survey
repurposed to explore the impact
of Covid-19 on the festival sector’s
sustainability ambitions.
As well as being co-founder,
operations director and
sustainability lead for Shambala
Festival, Chris Johnson is co-founder
and chair of Powerful Thinking and
Vision: 2025. He says the aim is to get
100 festival operators to complete
the survey. With 50 responses in,
there are already some interesting
findings.
Asked if their experience this year
had led them, as organisations, to
change the priority of sustainability
within their operating strategies,
around 50% said there will be
no change, while a quarter of
respondents said they would make it
a higher priority.
“It is only 50 festivals but as an
initial result it is reassuring,” says
Johnson.
Another encouraging finding was
that one third of festival operators
said that in 2021 they will implement
the same environment plans as
last year, while 25% said they will
implement more ambitious plans.
“With Vision: 2025, we are hoping
as an industry to make at least
a 50% cut, in the context of that
journey we have had a year where we
haven’t been able to implement any
new measures. It is inevitable that
Covid-19 has stalled progress but
reassuring that 25% said they will
implement more ambitious plans
next year,” says Johnson.
The banning of festivals by the
Government this summer has clearly
had an impact on the environmental
plans of some event organisers
though, with the survey finding
12.5% of respondents will be
less ambitious next year and the
dominant reason for that is lack of
budget.
Johnson says the survey has
shown that the picture hasn’t
changed in terms of priorities:
“The biggest focus among festival
operators is clearly single-use
plastic but more than half of festival
organisers said they are confused
about bioplastics.
“There is a real appetite and
momentum building in our
industry around sustainability and
particularly single use plastics. We
have seen a very lively and useful
debate, but my concern is that the
solutions being considered are
influenced by commercial concerns.
The advice that I have always given,
and research suggests is the best
option for the environment and often
for costs, is re-use.”
Ben Robinson, founding director
of independent promoters From
The Fields and co-founder of Kendal
Calling (cap. 25,000) and bluedot
(10,000), says the downtime this year
has enabled him and his colleagues to
focus more heavily on environmental
measures.
He says, “People who work on
festivals are very versatile and
innovative, so with Covid we have
been given the opportunity to take
a fresh look at how and why we do
things. For me the exciting thing is
looking at efficiencies and reducing
waste.
“We are more committed to
sustainability than ever. It is a
false impression that building
sustainability into festivals is a costly
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