Charting a sustainable journey for events
Chris Johnson is co-founder and sustainability lead of Shambala festival ( cap . 15,000 ), chair of Vision : 2025 and co-founding member of the Association of Independent Festivals , as well as co-founder and CEO of sustainable travel charity ecolibrium . Here , he reflects on the milestones across the events sector , and where we are going .
Some 20 % of events last year put new sustainability measures in place
In the beginning pioneering events such as The Big Green Gathering and Glastonbury led the green charge , with festivals including Shambala joining the fray in the noughties , putting sustainability front and centre of their purpose . New organisations emerged , whose focus was to support climate action in music and events : Julie ’ s Bicycle published various reports about music industry environmental impacts , A Greener Festival began certifying events impacts , and Powerful Thinking launched as a free-toaccess resource about sustainable energy management . It was a challenging decade for these projects in that engagement beyond a committed minority in the industry was hard to achieve .
Arguably , the UK festival industry ’ s collective approach to sustainability started with the Show Must Go On Report , launched at the 2015 UK Festival Awards . This was the UK ’ s live events industry response to COP21 in Paris , Julies
Bicycle and Vision : 2025 with support of Live Nation , the AIF , AFO , NOEA , NCAS and many others . This first publication of environmental benchmarks and roadmap for the sector , gave birth to Vision : 2025 , with a set of targets in-line with the commitment to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees . A free-to-access second edition was published in 2020 and is widely referenced .
2018 brought step-changes : The AIF ’ s Drastic on Plastic campaign engaged 90 festivals to eliminate single-use plastics within three years and reached 12m on social media . Live Nation launched its world-leading Green Nation charter , Vision : 2025 passed the hundred festival members mark , new organisations like ISLA – supporting agencies and corporate events – emerged . Against a backdrop of Extinction Rebellion in ascendency , Greta ’ s Friday for Future Strikes going global , and ‘ Blue Planet effect ’, conversations about sustainability took centre stage in the event industry for the first time .
2020 ’ s pandemic presented a mixed bag for events ; some organisations used the unprecedented break in rhythm to consider sustainability strategy and move things forward . Impressive
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