Joe GallopPan European festival association YOUROPE has published the European Green Festival Roadmap 2030, which aims to give European festivals and events a reliable guide for sustainable actions.
The roadmap is part of the association’s three-year project Future-Fit Festivals (3F). The guidelines on sustainable events are based on the requirement of the EU Green Deal – cutting emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
The roadmap, which also follows the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is the result of a collaboration with experts from A Greener Future (AGF) and Greener Events Norway as well as YOUROPE’s GO Group (Green Operations Europe) think tank.
The roadmap aims to provide a “comprehensive framework” for the sustainable improvement of cultural events. In seven fields of action, the suggested actions range from management structures to specific practical measures in the creation and production process.
The roadmap is public and free to use for any European festival or cultural event. It is the first pan-European publication of its kind to be jointly developed and published by and for the festival sector.
Drafts of the roadmap were presented at this year’s Green Events & Innovation Conference (GEI) in London and at the 9th international GO Group workshop in Barcelona, Originally, the development process had started in early 2022 with a kick-off workshop and public discussion panels with representatives of the European Commission and Parliament.
YOUROPE general secretary / Go Group co-founder Holger Jan Schmidt said, “Improving our festivals and increasing sustainability throughout the industry is an ongoing topic for YOUROPE and also for me personally. That’s why it’s a particular pleasure to present the European Green Festival Roadmap as the icing on the cake of tools we recently published – all are open source, accessible to everyone and transferable to other cultural areas. We believe that the Roadmap is a big step in the only right direction. Also, it serves as an excellent basis for further exciting and helpful projects.”
AGF CEO Claire O’Neill said, “After nearly two decades working with festivals worldwide for sustainability, we’re really happy to harness and share learnings in this European Green Festival Roadmap with YOUROPE. The roadmap helps prioritize and simplify the actions individual festivals need to take, and shines a light on areas for collective effort by the industry and beyond.”
The roadmap can be found here.