Sustainability
Green by name
Green by nature
How we measure up
‘Betternotstop – More Than Music’ surveyed 100 UK music festivals and delved into their sustainability policies to see exactly what actions they were committed to. The below shows the results of their survey.
Less than half have a publicly available sustainability policy
Less than two thirds are delivering any form of social impact programm
Only 45 % have carbon offsetting measures in place
Green Events Co. is proud to already be delivering on all of the above suggested policies.
Publicly Available Sustainability Policy
GEC has a publicly available sustainability policy which is reviewed annually.
Social Impact Programmes
GEC delivers a number of Social Impact Programmes to benefit communities and business in the areas we work.
We work with our traders to collect surplus food and redistribute to benefit the communities where our events are held. The scheme minimises the amount of waste being removed from festival sites and goes to help people in need. Open Kitchen, one of this year’s beneficiaries, is Manchester’s leading sustainable catering company. Open Kitchen uses salvaged food to supply meals for people struggling with food insecurity across Greater Manchester. We ran this scheme at a number of events this Summer and saved tonnes of food from going to landfill. Let’s feed bellies not bins!
Carbon Offsetting Measures
We’re tackling climate change! We use a travel carbon calculator to calculate and record all our travel to the events that we work at to analyse the emissions for our journeys. Emissions are balanced by making donations to UK investment in renewable energy and reforestation in Kenya.
What did we do in 2022
Contributed to the 2022 ‘More Than Music’ report, the vision is for music festivals to elevate their positive environmental and social impact on a local, national and international scale.
Curated and provided all food concessions at two exclusively Veggie and Vegan festivals.
All our traders pledged to provide at least one Vegan or Veggie main meal.
Set up Sustainability Whatsapp groups at our events to push out messages to traders on how they could improve their practises and encouraged them to work together and share their innovative sustainable ideas with each other.
Worked with power providers to reduce the amount of time generators were switched on and the amount of diesel being used.
We completely eliminated plastic bottles at a number of events by only selling soft drinks and water in aluminium cans.
Added invisible menu items as a ‘pay it forward’ scheme for customers to buy an extra meal which is then gifted to a person in need.
Collected and recycled all waste cooking oil at the end of the events.
Salvaged 1286 kilos of food which was donated to charity.
What our traders are doing
- Using organic coffee beans for plantation sustainability.
- Using certified compostable cups and lids.
- Selling carton and canned water which carries a significantly lower carbon footprint that plastic water bottles.
- Coffee grounds collected after event and recycled and turned into soap!
- Working plastic free.
- Selling organic and fairtrade ingredients.
- Sourcing locally.
Looking ahead to 2023
- Encourage traders to offer a discount to customers who provide their own cups or food containers. #contactlesscoffee
- Provide more vegan and veggie options.
- Reduce traders power requirements ~ save our Planet and £££s by using LED, solar other renewables.
- Include an affordable meal option or children’s portion on menus to reduce cost and waste.
- Source responsibly, sustainably, locally.
Partners for change
Ecolibrium is a live events industry response to the climate crisis – a community of events, festivals, suppliers, artists and music companies taking action to reduce travel impacts and invest in climate solutions. www.ecolibrium.earth
Better Not Stop was launched as a business with the express purpose of making the world a better place – to bring people together so we can create a better future for people and the planet.
Better Not Stop carry out the ‘More Than Music’ report which looks at publicly available data, as well as insights from industry experts, for 100 UK Music Festivals. It explores sustainability and impact in the UK music festival industry as it currently stands.
www.betternotstop.com
Eat Well MCR operate across Greater Manchester, partnering with organisations that support people sidelined by poverty to deliver up to 1,000 meals every week. We support people in our community including families living in temporary accommodation, women taking refuge in sheltered accommodation, food-banks looking after families and single parents in dire straits, and schools whose families are experiencing food poverty and inequality. The chef made meals go beyond satiating hunger, providing a moment of genuine respite and relief in difficult times.
www.eatwellmcr.org
Open Kitchen is Manchester’s leading sustainable catering company. Profits from our business go into providing food and supplying meals for people struggling with food insecurity across Greater Manchester.
www.openkitchenmcr.co.uk
Kendal Calling is committed to limiting our overall impact on the environment and are taking actions to reduce it. We have created a trader pledge which demonstrates your commitment to supporting us with this.
www.kendalcalling.co.uk/sustainability
Carbon Footprint Ltd share a common responsible goal to track and reduce carbon emissions ‘at source’ as much as possible and to compensate for unavoidable emissions – via carbon offsetting – to render companies’ activities to be net zero carbon/carbon neutral. With this action, companies protect both environment and their own businesses.
www.carbonfootprint.com
Reduce
Encourage traders to offer incentives to customers who bring their own food containers.
Re-use
Encourage all staff to make use of the reusable water bottle provided to them by Green Events Co.
Recycle
Ensure traders purchase consumables that are recyclable and then recycle them accordingly
Prohibited items.
- Plastic cups and plastic lids
- Plastic straws
- Plastic cutlery or stirrers – oil or plant based
- Single serve sachets of salt, pepper, sugar or sauce
- Expanded polystyrene or plastics of any type including PC, PP, PET, rPET, HPDE or LDPE Glass bottles
- Black bin bags
- Single use plastic bags (with the exception of clear bin bags for waste only)
- ‘Bad’ Glitter
What to use instead.
- Compostable paper and cardboard cups, reusable cups and mugs. All concessions must adhere to the compostable serve-ware and packaging guidelines (simply ‘biodegradable’ is not acceptable)
- Wooden Cutlery and stirrers
- Compostable paper, card and bagasse plates, bowls and boxes
- Paper straws
- Multi-serve condiments
- Clear bin bags
- Biodegradable glitter