“ OPERATORS WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO ADOPT MORE SUSTAINABILITY MEASURES IF THEY WANT TO CONTINUE TRADING .” exactly what alternative power sources are available ,” he says . “ Doing so can mean that with accurate and detailed information , event producers are in a much stronger position to make informed decisions about transitioning to a more efficient power strategy , which can actually lead to saving more fuel and hiring less equipment ,” says Scully .
COVER FEATURE
Massive Attack have pioneered live event sustainability
fuel that we ' re burning . If you ' re being met with crippling costs , the last thing that you want to do is have inefficient generators burning excess fuel . It ’ s important to focus on having better specking of your energy in advance , be smarter with the kinds of things you ' re plugging in and look at ways to reduce the energy requirements . Also , look at things like hybrid system , because there ' s money available to get people connected to the grid where that makes commercial sense .”
While some festival operators are shelving sustainability measures in a bid for short-term survival , Scully says that implementing clean energy solutions doesn ' t always mean a complete redesign of the power strategy and vastly increased costs .
He says that when starting the journey to economical and clean-energy solutions , there are important steps that all event operators can make towards emission-free and sustainable power solutions that can lead to reducing costs .
“ Firstly , start monitoring power use with a power inventory and collect data from all your electrical equipment used onsite , also measure and monitor your power sources onsite so you know
Rob Scully
“ OPERATORS WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO ADOPT MORE SUSTAINABILITY MEASURES IF THEY WANT TO CONTINUE TRADING .” exactly what alternative power sources are available ,” he says . “ Doing so can mean that with accurate and detailed information , event producers are in a much stronger position to make informed decisions about transitioning to a more efficient power strategy , which can actually lead to saving more fuel and hiring less equipment ,” says Scully .
He says that in the not-too-distant future a sustainable power strategy will be critical to an event obtaining a licence : “ With incoming regulations around carbon reporting and the increase of Low-Emission-Zones in major cities to reduce carbon emissions , operators will have no choice but to adopt more sustainability measures if they want to continue trading .”
Encouragingly , AGF ’ s report found that in general the events it surveyed are increasingly introducing hybrid , renewables , and battery storage systems to reduce fuel use .
Leaders in the field Significant positive steps are being made across the sector when it comes to power provision . While Glastonbury is clearly in a field of its own , the sustainable actions being taken at the 210,000-capacity event are nonetheless impressive . Last year , the entire festival was powered by renewable energy for the first time .
Emily Eavis said it was the culmination of having trialled alternative and renewable fuels for more than a decade , with lots of ‘ baby steps ’ taken over many years to steadily increase the use of renewable energy , both from the grid and onsite sources including a solar PV array on the cowshed roof and an anaerobic digester that turns waste cow manure into biogas .
Massive Attack has also long been a pioneer of live event sustainability . Among the work it has carried out includes the commissioning of the Super-Low Carbon Live Music report published in 2021 . Created by The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change , it acted as a roadmap for artists
22 accessaa . co . uk