Tom HallEnergy Revolution, festival industry charity that works with events, audiences, suppliers and artists to calculate and balance carbon emissions from travel, is on track to meet its 10 million mile target.
Kendall Calling’s Ben Robinson told Access that 35 festivals are now signed up to Energy Revolution, with some events boasting a voluntary donation rate at 10% of ticket buyers.
“The charity was set up after looking at how our industry can help mitigate the environmental impact of festivals. Energy Revolution was set up more than three years ago, and came from the think tank Powerful Thinking. Its conclusion was that some 80% of a festival’s footprint was from audience travel.
“35 festivals now take donations at point of booking, with carbon calculations based on the user’s postcode. The funds are then invested into different renewable energy projects including a wind turbine and tree planting initiative in India.
‘The initiative is incredibly well researched, and also includes solar projects and a project to power electric buses in Bristol.”
The charity’s goal is now to balance 10 million miles by 2020, after is has achieved 5.3 million miles of carbon balancing so far.
“The second wave we are working on is targeting suppliers and crew travel, and artists.
“We have sent out on advance packs, encouraging them to look at their impact to offset. Every penny goes directly into carbon saving schemes,” Robinson adds.
Find out more and join the Energy Revolution at www.energy-revolution.co.uk