In this month's jam-packed newsletter: 

• Industry Green Leader Q&A with Désirée Messmer, Staff Manager and Sustainability at OpenAir St Gallen
• Social Cohesion and Sustainability Manager at Team Love, Pauline Bourdon, presents Team Love's first sustainability report in a guest blog
• Vision: 2025 launch the Towards Zero Waste Festivals Report
• Citizen-science call out out for festival waste data: contribute to the next phase of the Towards Zero Waste Festivals project 
• Powerful Thinking blog on five stages of working with your event power contractor to co-create an efficient power plan. 
• Green Events Code Updates: Launch of partnership with the Donut Assessment Tool for Events (DATE) to support Local Authorities in assessing event impacts. Plus, Call out for an expression of interest for Green Events Code Local Authority pilot
• EarthPercent X Earth Day 2023: Call out for Artists to join fundraiser campaign 
• Sustainable Suppliers: Betternotstop produce 'Leave nothing but memories' campaign for Kendal Calling 
• Green Gathering win International Greener Festival award! 
• Delivering Behaviour Change at your Event workshop wiith Sustainable Sidekicks 
• 'PLANT A SEEED' Sustainability of major events in urban environments report 
• Case Study: OpenAir St Gallen discount public transport tickets to cut travel emissions 
• 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

Désirée Messmer manages the staff and volunteers at OpenAir St. Gallen and SummerDays Festivals in Switzerland, which are both part of Gadget abc Entertainment Group. Désirée is in the team for sustainability programme "Green Gadget", introduced by the Gadget Group in 2021 with the goal of reducing the environmental footprint of events. In our monthly Q&A Désirée's shares her sustainability journey so far and below in this newsletter you can read a case study of OpenAir St Gallen's sustainable travel success.

In February 2023, we spoke to Weibke Schumacher, Head of Communications at Futur 2 Festival: Read about Weibke's sustainability journey in our monthly Q&A. 

The Towards Zero Waste Festival Report, launches today, 23rd March.  The report is the culmination of in-depth stakeholder interviews, specialist knowledge from Resource Futures, input from and industry working group and a literature review or resources from across the industry.  The report highlights the challenges and opportunities for sustainable waste management at UK greenfield festivals and provides solutions-focused recommendations for event organisers. Download the Executive Summary and full report HERE.

As part of the next steps of the Toward Zero waste Festivals Project, Vision: 2025 are running a 'citizen-science' call-out for waste data from festivals to better understand the waste at UK festivals in 2023. Events can take part by collecting and submitting basic data on waste this season, and will be given everything they need to request data from waste contractors + new guidance and resources! Find out more and register.

Pauline Bourdon, Social Cohesion and Sustainability Manager at Team Love, spent the last year gathering data across all of the Team Love festivals, and compiling their 2022 sustainability impact report. The report aims to provide an insight into the environmental, social and economic impact of Team Love's three inner-city UK festivals: Love Saves The Day, Forwards Bristol, and Waterworks.

In this blog for Vision: 2025, Pauline explains the scope of the report, gives us the headlines on the total impacts across all events, reveals the three issues that Team Love audiences cares the most about, and shares a case study on the environmental impacts of Love Saves the Day 2022 at Ashton Court, Bristol. Read the blog here. 

A sector-leading partnership launched the Donut Assessment Tool for Events (DATE) at The Event Production Show panel hosted by at LAEOG UK which explored the pilot implementation of the national Green Events Code with local authorities. 

DATE will provide local authorities with a free-to-use, simple tool kit to assess an events' community, accessibility and environmental sustainability impacts. Vision: 2025 partnered with DATE’s designer; academic and industry consultant Andrew Lansley, to embed the Green Events Code within the newly developed tool kit. Read more about the Green Code DATE toolkit.  

Vision: 2025 are inviting Local Authorities to express interest in joining a project to explore the implementation and use of the national Green Events Code for outdoor events.

Ten committed Local Authority partners will be chosen for the project, beginning in October 2023 and running over 6-9 months. The chosen LAs will co-design the process, work with each partner to identify scope and goals, arrange check-ins, and harvest and share learning. The process will be designed to create a collaborative learning environment for the benefit of all parties. Register your interest here. (open until 7th April). 

EarthPercent, the charity which supports the music industry to address the climate emergency, are encouraging artists to donate previously un-released tracks for a two-week fundraiser campaign on Bandcamp, with all the proceeds raised going to some of the most impactful climate causes around the world, and match-funded by the charity's founder Brian Eno. Find an explainer deck on EarthPercent x Earth Day 2023.  To get invoved contact: joel@earthpercent.org or DM EarthPercent on Insta.

The Green Gathering was presented with the International Greener Festival Award – at the Green Events and Innovations Conference this February 2023. 

Green Gathering also won the International Greener Power Award for demonstrating that it's possible to run a whole festival - not only the stages but the backstage production, traders and all - using off-grid renewable sources. Read the full news release. 

GO GROUP invites you to this 2-day seminar, April 17-18 2023, in Barcelona. This 9th international GO Group workshop will deal with what event organisers need and can do to become "Future-Fit Festivals“, with an exciting program featuring an extraordinary mix of inspiring keynotes, presentations of brand-new tools and case studies combined with creative workshops, discussions, talks and networking events, with speakers from major events as well as scientists, experts and activists. Find out more and register here.

Are you trying to engage your event stakeholders with pro-environmental behaviour change? 

Join the upcoming 'Delivering Behaviour Change at your Events' workshop on Tuesday 25th April 17:00-18:30, with Livvy Drake (Sustainable Sidekicks), for insights into using behaviour change principles to drive change. There is a 20% discount for Vision: 2025. Use code: Vision20. Tiered pricing and recordings available. Sign up HERE.

The Changency worked with Berlin-based University Hochschule für Technik to produce a sustainability study of five major shows of German band SEEED in August 2022 at Wuhlheide Berlin (cap: 17.000). As well as collecting data on energy consumption, travel emissions and the impact of food & drink offerings, they surveyed audience expectations and opinions. Download the summary from the Vision: 2025 Resource Hub.

OpenAir St. Gallen (capacity 27,500) in Switzerland increase public transport travel by subsidising train tickets by 50% in a collaboration with the Swiss National Railway. Recognising that cost was a major barrier to leaving cars behind and catching the train they subsidise public transport to make it more affordable. City buses as well as shuttle buses between parking, the main station and the festival site are included in the festival ticket as well as the 50% discount on train tickets. Read the full case study on the Future Festival Tools website. 

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

Promotor, Robomagic COO on creating a more sustainable touring model with a focus on tackling travel and transport impacts, in Access All Areas HERE 

Inflatable structures specialist, Evolution Dome, commit to invesment in solar and battery storage capabilities HERE 

Roskilde Festival share their plans for the future with Access All Areas: with a look at sustainability initiatives past and present HERE 

Article in The Guardian on Football Premier League flights that raises interesting questions about action beyond membership of frameworks HERE 

Our newsletter reaches over 3,600 UK event professionals interested in sustainability. Send jobs, events, resources and articles to feature here to: info@vision2025.org.uk