In this bumper December edition there is so much to share: Find out the headlines from this years' Industry Green Survey and event organisers' optimism and plans for 2021; meet this month's Green Leader, Lara Deffense (Barbican) and all eight of 2020's featured leaders; join our Christmas appeal to support the youth-led Climate Live global concerts; sign up to the the third and final webinar in the #WeMakeTheFuture Autumn series; read our guest blog about how Pytch Events supported Greta Thunberg with solar power, and meet  the new members of Vision:2025. 

Please get in touch if you'd like to write a blog, have news to share, or want to join the growing community taking action on climate change.

The annual Vision: 2025 Industry Green survey of outdoor events would usually report on the past event season, but with the pandemic leaving fields empty, this year’s survey instead asked the outdoor events community to share how COVID-19 has affected ambitions for 2021.

The survey received responses representing more than 100 UK outdoor events and festivals with an estimated combined audience of almost 2,000,000. Read the results HERE 

Fridays For Future youth-led climate groups have launched global climate concerts in over 40 countries scheduled for April and October 2021. Their message to Governments around the world is "CAN YOU HEAR US YET?"

Climate Live are asking for support from our industry in the UK for their events. Can you provide production skills, pro-bono or reduced rate equipment and infrastructure hire, advice, artists, marketing, or sponsorship? Check out the website here and get in touch with their team at hello@climatelive.org 

In this month's Q&A we meet Lara Deffense, an inspirational young producer for Beyond Barbican, working as lead for Walthamstow Garden Party (WGP) which attracts 30,000 visitors.

In 2019, Lara pioneered sustainability initiatives that saw the festival nominated for two UK Festival Awards (Best Green Festival & Best Family Festival), shortlisted for two International AGF awards, and win an AGF ‘Commended’ Award. WGP is also currently on Julie's Bicycle Accelerator programme.

Read her answers HERE.

Join the last in the series of #WeMakeTheFuture Webinars - 'Speak Up & Speak Out to Lead Change' this Wednesday December 9, 2-3pm. 

Chiara Badiali from Julie's Bicycle hosts Chris Johnson, Sustainability Lead at Shambala Festival, in conversation with Frances Fox, climate justice activist with Fridays for Future and XR Youth and Founder of Climate Live 2021, about why it’s more important than ever to make ourselves heard.

This session will also look at how the outdoor events and festival community can be a part of broader movements in 2021 as part of the Music Declares Emergency 'No Music on a Dead Planet' campaign, and the Arts admin/Julie’s Bicycle 'Season for Change'. REGISTER HERE. 

This May we launched our monthly Green Leaders Q&A, a chance to meet, celebrate and get personal with some of the event industry’s leading thinkers and doers. Check out our very first list of eight exceptional people, and stay tuned in 2021 to meet more leaders.

• Mary Corfield - Director, Greenbelt Festival
• Jenny Hamada - Director of Events, AEG Europe
• Doug Fransisco - Co-founder Invisible Circus & The Rebel Red Brigade
• Kaye Dunnings - Creative Director, Shangri-La & Lost Horizons
• Abena Poku-Awuah - Founder & consultant, Legacy Events
• Andy Fryers - Sustainability Director, Hay Festival
• Marie Sabot - Associate Director, We Love Green
• Lara Deffense - Barbican Events & Walthamstow Garden Party 

Sign up for the second in a series of free live Q&A sessions provided by Live Event Industry climate consultant Chris Johnson on - 'Let's Talk About..Sustainable Events'. Wednesday 16th December 2-3pm. Pre-register and submit questions in advance HERE.

Vision: 2025 caught up with Johnny Palmer, owner of Pytch (formally known as SXS) to find out about his part in providing 100% renewable power for the Bristol Youth Strike for Climate at the Greta Thunburg Rally in February 2020, which saw thousands of Climate protesters gather on Bristol’s College Green. Thanks to Pytch the power was sourced from solar powered batteries making it free, silent and with zero carbon emissions. In this guest blog Johnny shares the event logistics in his own words HERE.

The 13th edition of The Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI13) will take place online on Tuesday 2 March 2021 and will be online. It will address the role and responsibility of the events and creative industries in tackling the challenges of our transport; food systems; equality and inclusivity; health and wellbeing; power systems; design; and materials usage for circularity and more.

The event is now on sale via Ticketsellers, with limited launch price tickets available while they last HERE. 

Without Walls (WW), a consortium of festivals and organisations dedicated to raising the profile of the UK outdoor arts sector, has accepted an invitation to join the Vision: 2025 steering group.

Hannah Hartley (Project Manager at XTRAX, the managing company of Without Walls) and Mark Denbigh (Without Walls Board Member) will represent WW with the aim of involving more city and arts events in the conversation on sustainability. Find out more about Without Walls HERE.

Photo credit: Sophie Laslett: 'As The World Tipped' by Wired Aerial Theatre

Season for Change is a UK-wide cultural programme inspiring inclusive climate action, which runs from now until May 2021. Led by Julie’s Bicycle and Artsadmin and supported by Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the programme is open to any artist (from any discipline) or arts organisation that wishes to submit an event or activation related to climate action or the environment. Find out how to get involved HERE. 

This month a programme of free online events exploring climate justice and what the cultural sector can do to confront climate change took place. You can catch up with the discussions, workshops and performances by artists, social scientists and cultural practitioners via SFC’s YouTube Channel HERE.

Here's what the Vision: 2025 team have been watching, listening to, and reading this month:

What impact will new EU Directives on single-use have on events? Dtangle’s John Reeves chats in Standout Magazine HERE.

City to Sea release food packaging report - From throwaway to reuse, turning the tide on pointless packaging in the food-to-go sector. Read the report HERE.

10 ways to have a more sustainable Christmas - from The Soil Association HERE.

UK should ‘lead world’ and cut emissions by ‘at least 68%’, say climate advisers in The Independent HERE.

The Regenerative Revolution: An impressive report that aims to guide event professionals on their transition to more regenerative & circular event management HERE.   

#Film4Climate 1st Prize Short Film Winner - “Three Seconds” - An epic presentation of where humanity stands today and how we must all work together to make it to the fourth second HERE.

Inhabit is a documentary introducing permaculture: a design method that offers an ecological lens for solving issues related to agriculture, economics and governance. Download HERE.

Crystals, Clits & Climate Podcast S2 E21 - In Consciousness & Capitalism , Ed discusses the power in embracing grief and eco anxiety in order to transform and take action. Listen on Spotify HERE.

Tim Benson, Chair of Powerful Thinking, reflects on the event industry’s “annus horribilis” in this end of year blog. Tim looks back at how suppliers have adapted in this fallow year and how new technology, such as high storage capacity battery systems, and the potential to tap into EV charging stations for city centre events, can help event organisers and power providers set higher energy efficiency targets for the next season. Read the blog HERE.