In 2015, A Greener Festival took a year out from running the Awards to restructure and create more comprehensive tools for assessing and supporting events. The new awards procedure still includes a festival self-assessment with supporting documentation, but this now reflects the requirements of an Environmental Impact Assessment. Rather than submit a new application each year, repeat applicants will build on their initial assessments, set targets and monitor progress. The unique on site assessment from an AGF environmental auditor will still take place during each event.

A Greener Festival can provide support to help produce Environmental Impact Assessments and other supporting services, but strongly advocate that events have the skills and knowledge in-house to do this themselves. Advice and support about doing this is freely available and Environmental Impact Assessments from other reliable third party sources are also welcomed and accepted.

“When A Greener Festival began 10 years ago we were trying to raise awareness about how to reduce the environmental impact of festivals. The new process for the awards goes beyond promoting best practice and events successes, but also helps organisers to understand, plan and improve their entire events sustainability.” Claire O’Neill, Co-Founder of A Greener Festival. Apply for the awards HERE.

If you have a background in sustainable event management and are interested in becoming a trained AGF assessor they are inviting applicants and providing training for the roll. Apply HERE

Firefly Clean Energy designed and installed part of the power infrastructure for Secret Garden Party 2014, one of the UK’s biggest independent festivals with an audience of 30,000. The hybrid technology installed saved over 10,000 litres of diesel, significantly reducing the festival’s carbon footprint and fuel costs.

Freddie Fellows, Founder and Director states:

“We’ve used less diesel, reduced our CO2 emissions, and demonstrated that you can run a clean, green festival – so hopefully there will be more and more events turning to hybrid and renewable power next year!”

Powerful Thinking is working with festivals to develop an unprecedented industry-wide colloboration (Energy Revolution) to tackle climate change. Energy Revolutionwill work with festivals and their audiences toward a fossil-free future by reducing festival energy emissions, and driving investment into renewable energy through audience donations to account for travel carbon. Over ten significant UK festivals will launch the project in early 2015, with the aim of collectively funding a 1MW Festival Wind Turbine.

Watch out for the launch in early 2015…

It’s been an exciting year for sustainable power solutions in the UK, with the number of festivals managing power sustainably exponentially increasing.

Renewable suppliers have been inundated with new business. Midas UK, a leading biofuel specialist who recently won theSupplier Awards Green Award, has experienced their busiest season in fourteen years with almost 200 events. Firefly Clean Energy have seen a 33% increase in contracts compared to 2013, providing over 45 events with hybrid energy solutions.

Festivals such as Bestival, Reading, Shambala, Secret Garden Party and Standon Calling have seen their fuel bills and carbon footprints reduce by embracing efficient practices and renewable technology. Sustainable and renewable energy is becoming the new norm.

Find out your festival’s fuel efficiency rating in less than a minute!

Festivals organisers can now use a free online tool to check their energy performance. Supported by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), this simple tool asks a series of questions and then provides the user with an energy rating based on industry benchmarks and fuel-related carbon emissions. Over time the data will provide improved benchmarks for small, medium and large events, allowing festivals to better judge their performance.

Use the FREE Fuel Tool on the AIF website HERE