The Event Production Show (EPS) saw the launch of the Donut Assessment Tool for Events (DATE) that will aid the implementation of the national Green Events Code by local authorities.

Environmental sustainability groups Vision: 2025 and Julie’s Bicycle worked with DATE’s designer, academic and industry consultant Andrew Lansley (pictured right), to embed the Green Events Code within the toolkit. He said DATE will provide local authorities with a free-to-use, simple tool kit to assess an event’s community, accessibility, and environmental sustainability impacts.

DATE has a section dedicated to event and venue accessibility that is based on material provided by Attitude is Everything via their Live Events Access Charter. These elements were combined with a further project assessment tool used by Cheltenham Borough Council, then redeveloped to create DATE. Its development was supported by Cheltenham Festivals, and Cheltenham Borough Council.

Vision: 2025 said it will work with a pilot group of local authorities across the UK to trial the code, in order to develop an understanding of how it can be implemented to best effect in practice for outdoor events across areas such as policy, and assessment for site permissions and tenders.

Vision: 2025 chair Chris Johnson (pictured left) said, “The Green Events Code represents an opportunity to establish a consistent and work-able approach to sustainability across the live events sector for all stakeholders. We will be publishing a Green Chapter of the Purple Guide by Summer 2023, based on the code, to develop the foundations for wider adoption.”

Lansley said it had been great to be able to collaborate on the project over the past year, without a commercial agenda, with the sole aim of producing something for the benefit of the industry: “The potential positive impact of DATE across the events sector is very exciting indeed. This free-to-use toolkit will make a genuine difference across our whole industry and feels like a dream come true.”

Vision:2025 is currently gathering expressions of interest from local authorities to take part in the Green Events Code testing phase. To express interest, contact chris@vision2025.org.uk.