Keeping it Green: Festivals with a Conscience
Sustainability is, quite rightly, a huge factor for customers planning events. It’s not enough to just do some token gestures that tick a box - environmental best practice needs to be considered in every single stage of the project.
Here’s a few easy ways to help make your festival event as sustainable as possible:
- Choose green suppliers: always check for suppliers sustainability accreditations and chat with them about how to minimise your event’s carbon footprint. We favour using local suppliers wherever possible, which helps keep unnecessary transport to a minimum.
- Selecting the right location: choose a venue with good transport links and encourage guests to take public transport - or perhaps you can even arrange electric shuttle buses! For large sites, we love electric golf buggies to cart your guests around.
- Environmentally conscious waste management: with the best will in the world, events will generate some waste. We do everything in our power to recycle as much as possible, and our preferred waste management supplier proudly diverts over 98% of waste from landfill.
- Eliminate single use plastic: for example, could you encourage guests to bring their own refillable bottle? Or perhaps you could hand out branded, reusable flasks on arrival. Set up water stations on site for guests to help themselves throughout the event. To add a bit of extra sparkle, how about a fizzy water station with a selection of fun flavours to add!
- Thoughtful food and drink: catering is one of the highest waste areas at an event, but luckily there are plenty of ways to minimise this. Bamboo bowls, wooden cutlery or even traditional crockey are all better options than plastic. Request local, seasonal produce wherever possible, and offer enticing vegan/ vegetarian options to help reduce meat consumption. Can any leftover food be donated to food banks, charities, or listed on ‘too good to go’ food collection apps?
- Branding with longevity: creating strong brand presence is crucial at a corporate event, and it wouldn’t be a Headline Festival without branded flags, banners and bunting. But don’t chuck these away when the event’s done - these items can be carefully stored, ready to be used time and time again.
- Eco-friendly giveaways: if you’re planning on handing out branded swag to your guests, make it eco-friendly! How about reusable shopping bags, shampoo bars or metal straws?
- Think before you print: a lot of printed collateral can be replaced with digital versions. Instead of paper event agendas, why not display them on a digital billboard? Scrap the cardboard drinks tokens and replace them with reusable plastic chips.
We love to talk all things sustainability! Get in touch to chat about making your next event as planet-friendly as possible!
