SUSTAINABILITY GREEN EVENTS CODE LAUNCH
Does your future look green? Sustainability experts discuss event and festival sustainability best practices, and StandOut looks at new resources that will help #eventprofs on their sustainability journey
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vent professionals representing more than 500 UK festivals and outdoor events gathered at the 2022 Sustainable Events Summit to witness the launch of the Green Events Code; new guidance that aims to establish national minimum sustainability standards, targets, and practices. Developed by Vision:2025, the industry steering group, the code is intended to provide clear standards and shared targets for sustainability that are understood and adopted by the entire outdoor events industry. The code will focus on the key areas of governance, energy, travel and transport, food and drink, materials and waste, water, and positive influence, and it is based on five key principles: The industry needs to act urgently on the climate crisis, the industry will act based on evidence, the industry must be transparent and report impact annually, the industry accepts that not all climate-positive decisions will provide cost benefit in the short-term, and the industry will strive to make progress year-on-year.
The overall aim is to commit to a minimum of 50 per cent reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2030, with specific targets, including a 50 per cent reduction in fossil fuel consumption at live events by 2025, a reduction of at least 30 per cent in meat and dairy consumption on-site by 2030, and to eliminate single-use plastic by 2025.
with the LGA, the Local Authority Event Organisers Group (LAEOG) and the Institute of Licensing (IoL) to develop an adoption strategy for local authorities. What’s more, the Green Events Code will be piloted as a standard with “pioneer” councils in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
ADOPTION STRATEGY
The creation of the code is a major positive and the trial will be instrumental in developing best practices. When developing the code, industry stakeholders were in broad agreement that there was a risk of a “lottery” of standards and enforcement if local authorities were left to create their own standards and enforce them. At the code’s launch, Chris Johnson, chair of Vision: 2025 said that he hoped that the Green Events Code would emulate the success of The Purple Guide and he said it has the potential to be “something meaningful”. However, he also commented that the journey forward is fraught with questions and challenges as the code’s implementation is navigated.
The code has been created following a DCMS Select Committee report – published in May 2021 – on The Future of UK Music Festivals. The report recommended that the Government, the Local Government Association (LGA), and representatives from across the festival sector developed standardised environmental objectives that local authorities must adopt when licensing festivals. Increasingly, local authorities are creating standards and requirements for events as part of licensing and site permission processes. A key aim of the new Green Events Code is to facilitate consistency and over the next year, Vision: 2025 will work
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
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