In this month's Vision: 2025 newsletter: 

• Industry Green Leader Q&A with Aileen Ging at Wild Rumpus
• Blog: Festival Sustainability Round-up for 2023
• Guest blog: New report on mycelium as a building material for the creative industries
• Powerful Thinking Blog: UK's energy security and support National Grid decarbonisation 
• UK Festival Awards celebrate sustainability
• Sustainable Suppliers: Re-uz UK, formerly Green Goblet, tips for a successful reusable cup system
• Vision: 2025's panel at Event Sustainability Live, watch on-demand.
• Future Festival Tools Case Study: Timber Festival
• Fusion Festivals Case Study: Innovations Village at We Love Green, Paris
• Selected news, jobs, events, and comments from across the live events industry and beyond.

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

Aileen is the Sustainable Operations Lead at Wild Rumpus – a not-for-profit outdoor arts organisation based in 4 acres of woodland in the North West. Wild Rumpus produce a wide portfolio of (mostly outdoor) events - all seeking to deepen connection to nature through art and play. In our monthly Green Leader Q&A, Aileen shares her experience of event sustainability and what keeps her motivated and inspired. Read Aileen's answers. 

Last year Timber Festival was featured as a case study in the Future Festival Tools Green Stories - see below for our featured case study. 

In November we spoke to Tess Wilson @ Boomtown Fair, read her answers here.

In this end-of-year blog, Chris Johnson delivers his annual round up of event sustainability; covering new campaigns, advice and resources, initiatives and strategies, and a taste of what's upcoming in 2024. Read Chris' 2023 highlights. 

In 2023, Team Love & Temple Design Studio showcased the creative use of Mycelium panels in a festival setting at Silver Hayes, an area of Glastonbury Festival.

The project set out to explore the potential for Mycelium Panels, a regenerative material made out of the root network of fungi, to be used as an alternative material in festival builds. In this guest blog Pauline Bourdon, Head of Sustainability at Team Love, shares the report and next steps for event professionals looking to use mycelium panels in future projects. Read Pauline's blog and download the report.

The Association of Festival Organisers (AFO) takes place on Saturday 10th February 2024 at the Silk Mill, Derby

First speakers have been announced, including Phil Hayes (TicketSellers &Eventree) who brings the latest insights into pricing, fees, bands and tiers, and Helen McCabe (Harrier) & Jim Dyson (Emmaus) to explore safeguarding and welfare in event safety planning. Book your tickets to the conference 

Vision: 2025's panel "What is good when talking green?' at Event Sustainability Live, last month at the ExCel, is now available to watch on-demand, with panelists Andrew Lansley (Cheltenham Festivals) and Alex Camacho (Isla).

The panel explored industry standards for outdoor events, acknowledging the many frameworks, voluntary certifications, and approaches to sustainability, plus a lack of legislation, and discussed how to understand what is good and bad in terms of environmental performance. Watch the session on Event Sustainability Live and book your tickets for the 2024 edition.

Congratulations to Boomtown Fair and The Green Gathering, two Vision: 2025 members who were recognised at last week's UK Festival Awards (UKFA) for their sustainable event initiatives. The Green Gathering won the A Greener Future Award and Boomtown won the new ecolibrium ‘Transport Impact Innovator Award’ for 2023. Congratulations to all of the UK Festival Award winners.

In 2023, Team Love & Temple Design Studio showcased the creative use of Mycelium panels in a festival setting at Silver Hayes, an area of Glastonbury Festival. Read the report and findings HERE. 

Each month we feature a case study from the FUSION – Festivals as Social Innovation Incubators project:

We Love Green (80,000 capacity 3 days) takes place over three days in Paris’ largest public park. The programme includes the Innovations Village which brings together companies and NGOs to enable festival-goers to discover creative and activist solutions to current problems. Read the We Love Green case study on the Fusion Festivals website. 

Timber Festival, UK (capacity 5,000) have embedded sustainability at all levels of their event and, despite having only celebrated five editions so far, they are working on a comprehensive sustainability strategy.

As well as internal motivations for their focus on sustainability the Timber team are also driven by the expectations of their audiences and programming partners. The festival is passionate about collaborating with a wide range of community groups, schools, commissioning partners, researchers, conservation specialists and NGOs as well as artists. Read the full case study.
Photo: Timber Festival

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:

The O2 win the Green Award at the LIVE Awards, plus all the winners named, in Clash Music HERE

Massive Attack plan festival powered by 100% renewable energy, article in The Guardian HERE

2023 sustainability developments revealed in Standout Magazine HERE

Insights from COP28

• 30+ governments attend the Group of Friends of Culture-based Climate Action at COP28 on Julie's Bicycle news HERE
• Did the tides turn for oceans at COP28? Climate summit draws mixed reviews on Mongabay HERE 
• Indigenous people and climate justice groups say COP28 was ‘business as usual’ in The Guardian HERE
• 'Everything you need to know about COP28' by The Greenhouse Agency HERE
• 'COP28: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Dubai' on Carbon Brief HERE 
• UNFCC press release on COP28 agreements HERE 

Event Industry dates for your diary: 

• ecolibrium Community Gathering, 31st January, 17:00-19:00, Artists Residence, Bristol 
• AIF Congress: 1st Feb 2024, at The Bristol Beacon
• AFO Conference: 20th Feb 2024, Derby Silk Mill
• A Greener Future's Green Events and Innovations Conference #GEI16, 27th Feb at The Royal Lancaster Hotel, London

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.