Back in July 2019 we pledged to Festival Vision 2025 which stated that we would:
1 – Reduce waste where possible, aiming for 50% (or more) recycling rates by 2025
2 – Aim to reduce annual diesel consumption by 50% (or more) by 2025, primarily by working with audiences, suppliers and artists to positively influence travel choices and reduce travel-related emissions
3 – No single use plastic bottles supplied at any event by 2025
4 – No single use plastic straws supplied at any event by 2025
5 – No single use plastic cutlery, or single use plastic food packaging at any event by 2025
1 has been very difficult to implement while there is a lack of education to the wider event attending public, although exhibitors are slowly improving their supply chain.
2 has made some progress, with public transport networks being utilised, or park and ride schemes being implemented.
3 has made very slow progress. Non-plastic bottles are still not widely used at events, or in general.
4 has been a success, as straws are now illegal to be sold.
5 has made some progress, although not fully implemented, many caterers have improved their suppliers and switched to non single use plastic food packaging. There is a Parliamentary proposed ban on polystyrene containers, plastic plates, cutlery, and balloon sticks.
Looking at points 3 and 5, we are now banning all single use plastic bottles, and requiring exhibitors to use compostable/recyclable/reusable plates and cutlery. This clause has been in our Terms and Conditions for over a year now, and many of our events already have this policy implemented, but now it is being rolled out across all of our events and more importantly being implemented moving forward.
To reduce our general CO2 emissions, we have started a ‘plant a tree‘ scheme, which is slowly increasing in popularity amongst exhibitors to reduce their CO2 emissions. We also use a webhost that uses 100% renewable electricity and has a number of green initiatives, and our office energy supplier is also 100% renewable electricity.
