Festivals get free reporting tool for GHG emissions

Julie’s Bicycle, an organisation that helps the music industry reduce carbon emissions, has created the IG (Industry Green) Tools to be used freely by any creative sector business in the UK.

Although the UK music industry is not particularly carbon-intensive, a 2008 report, also by Julie’s Bicycle, into the GHG emissions produced by the sector, found that annual audience travel to music events accounted for a sizable 43 per cent of all the industry’s emissions. 

The IG Tools give a customised and tailored approach to measuring and recording annual GHG emissions for festivals, outdoor events and venues. They are based on research reports from the Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and can help festivals identify savings in energy costs, inform refurbishment and capital investment decisions, and prepare for ongoing environmental legislation on local and national levels. The tools are "Powered by AMEE" – a neutral aggregation platform that gives access to the latest scientific calculations for analysing carbon impacts, and an audit trail behind the raw input data.

Julie’s Bicycle director Alison Tickell said the new service would help organisations, such as festivals and music venues, understand where emissions are happening and what they can do over the long term to cut them. "Julie’s Bicycle aims to take the guesswork out of how the music industry can reduce its impact on the climate and our shared environment," she said. "Measuring how you’re doing is the first step towards tackling the urgent challenge of climate change."

Boss of Festival Republic Melvin Benn said: "In 2008 over a million festival goers gathered to share music and company. Many festivals have made real efforts to reduce environmental degradation. Recycling waste, Waste Vegetable Oil biodiesel, locally sourced food supplies, responsible water use, composting, and occasionally on-site renewable energy have been part of festival planning for some time now. In their beautiful locations greenfield festivals can, and some do, strongly communicate the ethics of sustainability. But we need to do much more, starting with the reduction of GHG emissions."