READING Borough Council is joining nine other regional authorities in reducing the environmental impact of some of the town’s biggest events.
It is part of a national pilot scheme,the Green Events Code of Practice (GECOP), which sees authorities developing consistent guidance on sustainability for organisers of events around the country.
It was developed by the Vision 25 group, which represents members of the outdoor live events industry, and has been co-funded by the Arts Council and participating authorities.
It will see collaboration between the council and the organisers of events such as Reading Festival and Reading Pride to work towards reducing environmental impact and promoting sustainability.
The programme focuses on seven key areas of change: energy, travel, food and drink, waste, water, influence, and governance, aiming to address the lack of national guidance leading sustainability of events.
It follows a meeting among key stakeholders in Reading’s live events scene, including organisers of Reading Festival, Readipop, Reading Pride, East Reading Festival, Reading Mela, Reading Water Fest, and Blue Collar, as well as members of Reading’s Economic and Destination Agency (REDA).
Representatives from Festival Republic gave a presentation regarding their policies on food and drink, materials, waste, and water, followed by a workshop.
Attendees were also given the opportunity to trial a new advisory tool which offers a quick way to profile how sustainable and accessible an event’s practises are, highlighting places for improvements.
Louisa Dean, head of communications, events, and marketing at Reading Borough Council, said: “We are really pleased that Reading has been invited to be part of this important national pilot.
“Not only will this initiative support Reading’s ambition to be net zero but it will potentially help provide festival organisers and local authorities across the country with consistent guidelines to hold events that are sustainable and environmentally sound.
“It will help tackle many of the issues associated with festivals, such as use of single-use plastics, energy use, management of waste and how visitors travel to the site.
“Event organisers who attended the workshop at the Civic Offices were really enthusiastic and positive about the initiative and, of course, the Council will be playing it’s part directly with the popular events it holds every year, including Water Fest and Reading Children’s Festival.”
Matt Foster, from East Reading Festival, said: “East Reading Festival is really pleased to be helping pilot the Green Events Code of Practice in Reading. This is an important and timely initiative for us, and the wider festival sector.
“We have been talking about how best to play our part in cutting carbon emissions and addressing environmental impact for a while–but as a small, volunteer-led festival we have struggled to know how.
“Already we can see we are on the right path–more importantly we are not alone.
“It has been great hearing experiences of other local festivals, large and small, sharing knowledge about what works as well as identifying barriers that we can address together.
“We know we will need to do some things differently, which is daunting, but also exciting.”
Molly Banbury, Readipop Festival producer, said: “Readipop Festival is absolutely delighted to be involved in such an important initiative.
“It offers independent charity festivals like ours a platform to show and demonstrate the many positive steps towards our sustainable and accessible goals that we are working so hard as a small team to implement.
“But it also offers us an opportunity to identify key areas that still need attention and some support to help us achieve our ambitions.”
