Festivals are joining the green movement
Sustainability at leisure and events
- Make more explicit the link with sustainability
- Determine how sustainable the sector is
- Come up with new models and tools
Regarding
sustainability efforts in leisure, events and festivals are doing relatively
well. The events industry in the Netherlands has a ticket turnover of about 180
million Euros, with a total of about 26 million visitors per year. Both the
number of festivals and the number of visitors are increasing every year. Festivals
have thus major socio-economic impacts. Notwithstanding, festivals have
potentially negative environmental effects, of which waste is the most visible one.
Fortunately, several festivals have been working on sustainability for several
years. Good examples of European festivals recognized by its sustainability
efforts are: Boom Festival (Portugal), Roskilde Festival (Denmark) and
Glastonbury Festival (UK). Meanwhile, more and more events are joining the
green movement. While reducing their environmental impact, events become
exemplary for millions of visitors, mostly young people, as well as for
companies in other (leisure) areas.
Dit artikel is eerder verschenen in Uncover waar docenten en onderzoekers van de Breda University of Applied Sciences in twintig verschillende bijdragen de festivalisering van de samenleving beschouwen. De diversiteit in de eventssector wordt steeds vanuit een ander perspectief aangevlogen zoals events & meaningful experiences, events & placemaking, events & wetgeving, events & change en events & international network. Uncover is voor slechts € 10 (ex. BTW en verzendkosten) te bestellen via de webshop van NRIT Media.
Green Events Nederland: making more explicit the link with sustainability
The festival sector in the Netherlands has decided to work together to tackle this challenge. A platform was established in 2014, Green Events Nederland, where about 10 leading festivals and green organizations work towards a competitive and green festival sector.
In 2015, Green Events Nederland and Stichting Nederland Clean joined forces to
put together a Green Deal between festivals and the Dutch government. Green
Deals are agreements to help the implementation of sustainability goals. In
this case: 'The main goal
of the Green Deal is to reduce the quantity of waste per visitor through
collaboration at festivals, to separate waste and to recycle more and better” (www.greenevents.nl).
In 2015, eight
festivals committed with explicit targets towards mitigating waste: Amsterdam Open
Air, DGTL, Extrema Outdoor, Into The Great Wide Open, Mysteryland, Solar
Weekend, Welcome to the Village and the Black Cross. The focal areas have been: reducing campsite waste,
mitigating overall littering, and composting of biodegradable waste (www.nederlandschoon.nl).
Paul Schurink from Green Events Nederland stated:"With the Green Deal Waste-free festivals, we have created an atmosphere where organizers feel free to share knowledge. Sharing knowledge at this scale is very special and very valuable."
Green Deal: some concrete outcomes
DGTL festival, a two-day electronic dance music (EDM) festival, taking place in Amsterdam and attracting about 40,000 people is at the forefront of sustainability in the Netherlands when it comes to festivals. Besides the choice to offer only vegetarian food at the festival and implementing reusable hard-cups, DGTL decided to strive to become the first circular event in the world (www.metabolic.nl). This ambition goes beyond the objectives of the Green Deal, going from waste-free to fully circular, viewing waste as a rich resource.
Another valuable lesson relates to the deployment of personnel. The Camping mayors on the Black Cross and Camping Guardians on Mysteryland have shown that peer to peer communication makes an important contribution when it comes to behavioral change among visitors.
The
Vierdaagsefeesten, a festival of celebrations around the annual 4-days marches
event around Nijmegen, has joined the Green Deal in 2017. This festival has
more than 600 performances, with free access, attracting 1.5 million visitors
throughout a week. "Every event has many experiences in the field of waste collection,
post-separation, recycling and processing. Sharing these experiences and
possible solutions together means that together we can take quicker steps
towards waste-free events. Four-day celebrations are proud to contribute to
this," Teddy Vrijmoet, director of The Vierdaagsefeesten (www.greenevents.nl). Joining the Green Deal is part of a consistent
sustainability strategy of the city of Nijmegen for the region, which led to
been awarded as European Green Capital in 2018.
Research and Practice coming together: how sustainable can the sector be?
Between 2015 and 2017, Green Events and the municipality of Leeuwarden
(currently hosting the Leeuwarden 2018 Cultural Capital) partnered with the Center
of Expertise for Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality (CELTH) commissioning a large
research project to: 1) assess strategies to tackle specific waste problems; 2)
understand the impact of the festival visitors, and 3) provide instruments for
festivals. The research consisted of two phases using a mixed-method approach:
exploratory and experimental. The second phase focused on two types of waste:
hard-cups and cigarette butts. This resulted in a research report by De Brito and Cavagnaro (2016) on strategies for sustainable
events.
In addition, in the last four years, various other pilot projects were
conducted by Green Events in the search for effective
solutions to prevent, separate, or valorize waste into useful raw materials. The projects included composting organic waste and reducing camping waste and litter.
Tools to enhance sustainability
Festivals
like DGTL are using the material-flow analysis, to create insights into the
waste streams. An important conclusion is that most waste is not produced on
the public side, but it is backstage – so more effort needs to go into that.
There are also specialized consultant companies which offer services powered by
specific sustainability tools, which can be of help for festivals. To mention a
few: Julies Bicycle in the UK offers support to organizations striving to be
carbon neutral and Metabolic in the Netherlands strives to help festivals, and
other organizations, to become circular. Nadine
Galle, Consultant at Metabolic, said: "When we look at the material flows
surrounding the organization of a festival, various waste streams can be
identified... The first step... is to understand the source of the
waste... as well as the final destination
of the waste (...) Only then can you ... move towards becoming sustainable.”
(www.metabolic.nl).
Green Certifications
A Greener Festival (AGF) has been auditing European festivals for their sustainability efforts, for more than 10 years. There are several award levels, rewarding progress, for both festivals and business events. This award scheme can be used by festivals to ‘tell about’ their efforts, and how they are recognized as valuable by independent parties. In addition, it is also a means to get feedback and tips on how to improve further. Therefore such certification scheme can be seen as an instrument to develop the green events & festivals community and to spread innovation.
Claire O’Neill, Co Founder, A Greener Festival, said: "There are very tangible opportunities for events and venues to save resources and money through actions that benefit the environment. There is an expressed interest ... that events want to ... share best practice. That is where we can help” (www.agreenerfestival.com).
Looking ahead
Green Events Nederland aims to further share the acquired knowledge in the longer term with the overall Dutch events sector, and not only with its signed members. A toolkit is being developed so festivals can improve the prevention of waste and/or recycling opportunities. In addition, topics such as behavioral change and communication are also being included for further inclusion in the toolkit.
Many
other events are organized in nearby countries such as Great Britain and Germany,
making the international industry increasingly competitive. The Dutch sector
wants to improve competitiveness and become more sustainable. Fortunately, the
sector is prepared to work together for that. Hopefully this will also inspire
other leisure organizations in taking the sustainability path.
Laura van der Voort, co-founder Green Events, is optimistic: "Dutch
festivals are expanding their leadership position with sustainable applications
and work on the circularization of festivals. Festivals serve as the perfect
testing ground for our society. The Netherlands wants to be circular in 2050
and can learn a lot from the festival and event sector in this way.”
References:
- De Brito and Cavagnaro (2016): Full report @ http://greenevents.nl/rapport-strategies-for-sustainable-events/
- Vaugeois, M. P.Parker & Y. Yang (2017) Is leisure research contributing to sustainability? A systematic review of the literature, Leisure/Loisir, 41:3, 297-322
- www.agreenerfestival.com
- www.greencapital2018.nl
- www.greenevents.nl/green-deal
- www.greenevents.nl/vierdaagsefeesten-streeft-naar-afvalvrij-festival
- www.juliesbicycle.com
- www.metabolic.nl/publications/afvalvrij-dgtl
- www.metabolic.nl
About the author
Dr. Marisa P. de Brito is senior lecturer & researcher Events & Placemaking at Breda University of Applied Sciences. She is conducting applied research in relation to strategy, decision-making, sustainability and performance.
