The Future Festival Tools will beta launch the Sustainable Events Summit, 19 Oct 2022, 12.50-13.30pm, with Richard Phillips, Climate Change and Music Specialist at Julie’s Bicycle, introducing this new set of free resources designed to empower event professionals with environmental knowledge and skills in a special session demonstrating the tools. In this blog Richard explains the aims and scope of the project:
“This year’s Sustainable Events Summit will see the UK launch of the Future Festival Tools, a set of new resources developed to empower festival and events professions across Europe to take meaningful environmental action.
The Future Festival Tools provide a knowledge hub for festival managers and outdoor events coordinators to meet growing expectations on the industry to radically reduce environmental impacts.
As significant consumers of energy, food, water and materials, producing waste and emissions, reducing these impacts is not a straightforward task – but it is a critical one. Across Europe, the EU Green Deal has set out environmental targets to which every sector of the economy and society will have to play their part. This means the festival industry must contribute to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, de-coupling economic growth from resource use and ensuring no person and no place is left behind.
Immediate operational changes are required to meet these goals, but the role of the festival industry can go much further. In demonstrating leadership in environmental action, solving challenges creatively and engaging audiences, festivals can use their platforms to inspire wider positive change that extends far beyond the festival site.
The free-to-access Future Festival Tools will support the community of festival and event professionals to meet these expectations and fulfil the potential to spark wider societal change. The resources provide information on the practices and techniques to minimise impacts and champion new sustainable models, while also supporting Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers on updates to events management courses.
The resources include:
- A self-assessment tool to understand current environmental performance
- A best-practice guide offering inspiring stories of sustainability in events across Europe
- A certificated eLearning course on how to improve environmental impacts
- A VET handbook for vocational education
The session
A dedicated session at the Sustainable Events Summit will introduce the Future Festival Tools in the UK for the first time. An overview of each resource will be presented to give attendees a snapshot of what is available, before taking a specific deep-dive into the Self-Assessment Tool.
A live demonstration of the Self-Assessment Tool will provide an opportunity to take a detailed look at how to use the resource effectively to get the most value from it. This will run through each section of the Tool, looking at different impact areas (e.g. energy, materials, waste, food and drink) and how festival managers and event co-ordinators can self-assess their current level of sustainability performance.
Attendees of the session will benefit from being the first to engage with this resource and hear from one of the key partners in developing it, Julie’s Bicycle. A preview of the bespoke recommendations the self-assessment provides will be highlighted, giving the chance to see the value that can be gained from the tool.
Following the session, attendees will be encouraged to test a sample of the Self-Assessment Tool and provide feedback for their finalisation.”
The Future Festival Tools session at the Sustainable Events Summit will take place from 12.50-13.30pm on the 19th October 2022. It will be led by Richard Phillips, Climate Change Specialist for the Music Industry at Julie’s Bicycle.
The Future Festival Tools project has been funded by Erasmus and has brought together a group of leading organisations in events and sustainability from across Europe. Project Partners include Native Events, The Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS), Green Music Initiative , Green Events, Julie’s Bicycle, Le LABA , The European E-Learning Institute, Momentum Consulting (IE), Yourope and GoGroup.