In this month's Vision: 2025 newsletter: 

• Industry Green Leader Q&A with Tess Wilson, Operations Manager, Boomtown Fair
• Guest Blog: Graham Brown, host of the Sustainable Event Summit, shares his highlights from SES 23
• Launch of the environmental chapter for the Purple Guide. News release + Watch the launch
• Watch ecolibrium’s latest Climate Responsible Travel for Live Events webinar
• Resource Spotlight: Glossary of Sustainability Terms
• Powerful Thinking Blog: Tim Benson updates us on developments in fusion energy science
• Live Green Awards announce shortlist for 2023 - including Vision: 2025
• UK Festival Awards partner with ecolibrium for the new Transport Impact Innovator Award - see the shortlist
• Sustainable Suppliers:  Case study on Waste Baling Machines, winner of the Showman's Show Green Supplier & Innovation Award 2023
• Future Festival Tools Case Study: Body&Soul Ireland increase recycling rates by 60%
• Fusion Festivals Case Study: Rocken am Brocken connects audiences to nature
• Selected news, jobs, events, and comment from across the live events industry and beyond.

Get in touch with your questions and suggestions at info@vision2025.org.uk

In this month's Q&A we spoke to Tess Wilson, Event Operations Manager and Head of Sustainability at Boomtown Fair, Senior Production Manager at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and Event Manager for Brockwell Live.  Tess has worked in Production and Operations at events for 12 years and adopted Event Sustainability into her role through her lifelong passion for environmental awareness. Read Tess's answers here.

SES 23 welcomed over 250 outdoor event professionals for a day of insights, presentations and discussions at The Showman’s Show, Oct 18th, 2023.

In this guest blog, Graham Brown, Vision: 2025 Steering Group Member and host of the Sustainable Event Summit #SES23, shares highlights from the day including celebrating the summit sponsors and speakers that made the day such an inspirational resource for the industry. Read Graham's blog.

The new Purple Guide Chapter on Environmental Sustainability was launched by Steve Heap (Chair, EIF) and Chris Johnson (Chair, Vision: 2025) at Vision 2025’s Sustainable Event Summit, Oct 18th 2023.

Steve Heap explains, "Drawing on information from far and wide means this chapter reflects the collective acceptance and commitment towards the event industry minimising our negative impact on the environment. We must act to leave a World suitable for the next generation to run festivals and outdoor events of the future.”

The Purple Guide Environmental Sustainability Chapter is a concise overview, signposting the areas of best practice for Outdoor events to enable the industry to assess national environmental standards by local authorities, with the aim of reaching Net Zero by 2030. Read the news release or watch the launch.

Watch the recording of ecolibrium’s latest Climate Responsible Travel for Live Events webinar, which ran in partnership with the Association of Independent Festivals. 

What's covered in the webinar? ecolibrium's mission to move low carbon travel to the heart of live events culture, their vision to unite events in environmental restoration and their collective positive impact to date. Hear from project partners Energy Garden and The Rainforest Trust and a Live Q&A where guests from Founding Festival members, Boomtown Fair, Shambala Festival and Kendal Calling share tips to measure & tackle travel impacts. Watch the webinar.

Vision: 2025 has been nominated for the LIVE Green Award in 2023 along with event sustainability leaders Exeter Phoenix, The Green Gathering Festival, A Greener Future (AGF), Isle of Wight Festival, The Nest Collective x Sam Lee and The O2. 

The Live Awards will take place at the The LIVE Awards 2023 will take place at Troxy, London on Tuesday 12 December 2023 To book tickets or tables and view the full list of awards and nominees visit LIVE Awards 2023.

The UK Festival Awards (UKFA) has partnered with ecolibrium to introduce a new ‘Transport Impact Innovator Award’ for 2023. The award acknowledges and celebrates the festivals who are making progress in addressing emissions from travel to and from events. 

Shortlisted events include 2000Trees Festival, Above&Beyond at Anjunabeach Brighton, Bluedot Festival, Boomtown Fair, Greenbelt Festival, Junction 2, The Green Gathering and Timber Festival. Read the judges' comments and book tickets.

A new open-source glossary of sustainability terms has been launched on the Vision:2025 website, to help event organisers understand the language of sustainability.

Written by consultancy Hope Solutions, it was identified as a need during the work to write the new Purple Guide Chapter on Environmental Sustainability, which has now been launched on the Purple Guide website. The Glossary is an open resource and will be updated continuously with feedback. Use the glossary.

Each month we feature a case study from the FUSION – Festivals as Social Innovation Incubators project. This month we look at Rocken am Brocken, an annual three-day open-air festival that takes place in a meadow bordering the Harz National Park, Germany.  The festival runs under the motto “Nature, Music, Friendship” and the programme focuses on creating experiences that connect people to nature with a percentage of profits going to support the National Park. Read the Rocken am Brocken case study on the Fusion Festivals website. 

Body & Soul Festival, Ireland raised their recycling rate to 60% by improving their waste collection systems and working closely with waste contractors and crews. They also implemented a three-bin system front of house and hired volunteers (called Earth Guardians) to monitor these bin stations and engage with the attendees so that the material flows would be kept separated. Read the full Body & Soul case study.

Photo: Body&Soul Earth Guardians

Our selected news picks from across the Live Events Industry and beyond, including jobs, events, blogs, reports, and what the Vision: 2025 team has been watching, listening to, and reading this month:

Event Industry dates for your diary: 

• UK Festival Awards, 5th December, Escape to Freight Island, Manchester
• Live Awards, 12th December, The Troxy, London
• AIF Congress: 1st Feb 2024, at The Bristol Beacon
• AFO Conference: 20th Feb 2024, Derby Silk Mill, Derby. 

ADE Green Recap: 10 Questions on Carbon Offsetting Carbon offsetting HERE

Guide for reusable cups at venues published by Hope Solutions, Julie's Bicycle and LIVE  HERE

DEFRA advice on preparing for the single-use plastics ban, in StandOut Magazine HERE

The Discomfort Practice Podcast #89 - Betsy Reed & Selina Donald (The Bulb Eco) talk about the challenges of creating sustainable events HERE

The O2 becomes the first UK arena to launch a Green Rider, in IQ Magazine HERE

Chris Johnson, Chair of Vision: 2025 & Co-Founder of Shambala Festival talks about environmental purpose with Access All Areas HERE.

Our newsletter reaches over 4,200 UK event professionals interested in sustainability. Send jobs, events, resources and articles to feature here to: info@vision2025.org.uk.