European Green Festival Roadmap 2030 self-assessment

Decide what your sustainability strategy actually covers, and draw a clear line around what's in scope and what isn't.

A solid strategy spells out its scope, a vision, and clear goals for each area you want to improve, written with your real budget and timeline in mind.

Set an ambition level you can actually hit, then rank the areas and actions that matter most first.

Build your own action plan tailored to your event, using Yourope's European Green Festival Roadmap 2030 as the reference framework.

Pick KPIs that let you track progress: things like energy use, landfill waste cut, recycling rate, the shift from cars to public transport, and water consumption.

Measure where your festival stands today so you have a baseline to improve against.

Treat monitoring as an ongoing loop: use what you learn to update the strategy, adjust actions, set fresh goals, and keep pushing down CO2 while raising awareness.

Know every mandatory obligation that applies to your event, at local, national and EU level.

Check whether you need specific permits or licences to legally operate.

Keep a live log of the legislation that applies to you and stay current on environmental and sustainability rules.

Real change needs everyone in the loop: staff, partners, suppliers, performers and visitors all have a stake in the strategy.

Pick the right channel and level of involvement for each group, based on their role and relationship to the event.

An independent certification, AGF, ISO 20121, ISO 14001 or EMAS, can help steer your event in the direction you want.

A third-party audit of your strategy signals to everyone that you're serious about sustainability, not just talking about it.

Every environmental certification requires you to have a documented strategy or action plan in place.

Certifications aren't permanent, so budget time and effort for re-certification down the line.

Fund the sustainability strategy properly from day one of planning, not as an afterthought.

Give sustainability its own line item in the budget.

Look into grants and other funding sources aimed at greener festivals.

Introduce green fees you can reinvest into sustainability: a small add-on to ticket price, parking charges, or a reusable cup deposit.

Put a share of profits back into environmental or social projects, locally or through a charity partner.

Check whether your bank has genuinely ethical policies, and switch if it doesn't.

Look at ethical options for things like staff pension investments too.

Keep crew, audience, performers, suppliers, contractors, local communities and authorities in the loop on your sustainability policy before, during and after the event, and give them a way to feed back.

Frame sustainable practices as an invitation, not a rule: communication that gets people on side rather than lectures them.

Build progress reports or dashboards that make your sustainability progress easy to see at a glance.

Share what's working: on your site, on social, at industry conferences, and in interviews, so the wider scene benefits too.

Push local government and officials on the infrastructure gaps holding festivals back: better public transport, grid connections on site, renewable energy investment, mains and sewage access, waste treatment capacity.

Team up with other organisers to lobby political leaders for the systemic change festivals need. Collectively, the industry has real reach and real leverage.

Build an Energy Management Plan using the actions below as your framework.

Set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) targets for cutting energy use across the site.

Identify the best-practice strategies that fit your event and track your progress reducing energy use.

Map out what needs power in each area and estimate total draw once everything's running.

Check consumption regularly and build a baseline energy figure for each area.

Get suppliers, performers, contractors and staff all contributing to the usage data.

Run regular reviews to catch energy being wasted.

Switch off lights in empty rooms, like production offices, and dim or kill outdoor lighting in areas not in use.

Turn off heating and cooling in unoccupied rooms, staff offices, dressing rooms and the like.

Make energy efficiency a real factor when buying new technical kit.

Make sure cold rooms and freezers storing food and drink are properly sealed.

Use LEDs and energy-saving bulbs on stage and off, and recycle them at end of life.

Consider automatic lighting, timers, dimmers or motion sensors; indoors and outdoors both have systems for this.

Work with your lighting suppliers to bring more low-energy fixtures on site.

Meter every food stall individually so caterers pay for exactly what they use, that alone tends to cut consumption.

Phase out diesel generators in favour of sustainable fuels or renewable generation.

Work out how much power your site could realistically generate on site, and what kind of renewable setup it can support.

Connect to the national grid and choose a green energy tariff.

If your site has a permanent car park, consider a solar carport: shade and green electricity in one.

Extend the life of phones and laptops with proper cases, regular cleaning, and full shutdowns rather than leaving them on standby.

Donate working electrical equipment you're not using to a reuse scheme instead of binning it.

Electronics, batteries and bulbs that have reached end of life count as hazardous waste, never put them in general rubbish.

The EU WEEE Directive sets the safe collection, recycling and recovery procedure for all electronic and electrical waste, including batteries and bulbs, so follow it.

Buy equipment labelled Energy Star or EPEAT-certified.

Get faulty electronics serviced before you write them off, a repair can extend their life well beyond a replacement.

Write a procurement policy that bans single-use and hard-to-recycle plastics across every department, especially traders' serveware, sachets, straws and coffee cups.

Only print what you actually need, use both sides of the page, and don't overorder wristbands, badges, lanyards or merch.

Go digital with performers (registration, schedules) and audiences (tickets, programme), and send documentation by email ahead of time.

Keep accreditation, ticketing, accounting and invoicing fully electronic.

Keep a storage area for offcuts and put them to use on smaller items like signage.

Use data from past events to estimate what you actually need, so you're not over-buying materials.

Finalise designs and exact measurements for stages and props before you buy materials or start building.

Cut back on or ban single-use decoration and choose sustainable, reusable décor instead.

Reuse, share, rent or donate materials to squeeze more life out of them: stage kit, fencing, banners, signage, tents, electronics.

Skip dating your banners and signage so they can be reused next time.

Set up a system for storing and managing equipment between events.

Build long-term partner relationships (sponsors, vendors) so banners and assets are designed for multi-year use.

Cut disposable serveware and invest in reusable alternatives.

Consider pre-pitched camping to cut down on abandoned tents.

Have volunteers and crew patrol sensitive areas, hand out rubbish bags and encourage the crowd to keep the site clean.

Put dedicated bins in toilets for hygiene products, toilet roll tubes, tissue and wipe packets.

Put up signage asking people not to spit toothpaste or mouthwash straight onto the ground.

Ban the sale of disposable, non-recyclable plastics and other throwaway items.

Supply campers with biodegradable tent pegs so anything left behind breaks down naturally.

Scale your bins and sanitation facilities to your actual ticket numbers.

Clean toilets and sinks and clear drains regularly throughout the event.

Collect clean food waste and compostable toilet waste separately and turn it into compost for soil conditioning.

Write a Resource and Waste Management Policy and walk production teams through it early, so you know what waste streams to expect across build, show and breakdown.

Coordinate with waste collectors and removal contractors and prepare a site-specific Resource and Waste Management Plan.

Set up dedicated, easily accessible areas for storing and sorting waste.

Spread a full range of bins, paper, glass, cardboard, wood, metal, food and organic, residual, across every zone (offices, production, arenas, camping, food courts, parking), plus dedicated safe storage for hazardous waste like WEEE, bulbs, batteries and medical waste.

Use clear, easy-to-follow signage for your waste system.

Communicate recycling initiatives to everyone, audience, crew, contractors and performers, before and during the event, electronically, through volunteers, and on your site maps.

Make sure waste gets collected during the event itself and properly sorted for reuse, recycling, composting or recovery.

Staff enough cleaning crew and onsite sorting teams to keep up.

Put volunteers at bin stations to help visitors sort their waste correctly.

Introduce a rubbish deposit on the ticket that visitors get back once they've cleared their campsite and handed in filled trash bags.

Track what types of waste you're producing and how much of each.

Identify your worst offenders, the spots generating the most waste and the most contamination.

Aim for zero waste to landfill, with only the small residual streams (sanitary and medical waste needing autoclaving or destruction) going to thermal treatment or energy recovery.

Write a Food & Beverage sustainability policy that spells out your goals and commitments: sourcing sustainably, cutting the carbon footprint of menus, protecting the health of crew, performers and visitors, reducing food waste.

Train your in-house catering and bar staff on what the policy actually requires of them.

Make sure Food Safety and Health & Safety rules are covered in every document and training session.

Draft a Food & Beverage Charter, aligned with the policy, for every external caterer, bar and trader to sign up to.

Put together a trader and catering handbook that guides them through implementing the Charter properly.

Run a meeting, workshop or webinar with traders, caterers and bars to walk through the Policy, Charter and Handbook, and take their questions before the event.

Review every in-house menu and push toward fully vegetarian or vegan options built on local, seasonal, organic ingredients.

Move to fully reusable or compostable, sustainably sourced serveware, and consider food formats that skip serveware entirely.

Push visiting caterers and traders, whether by encouragement or requirement, to review their own menus and serveware.

Any produce sourced from lower-income countries should be ethically sourced and Fair Trade certified where applicable.

Forest-sourced products need FSC or PEFC certification, ocean-sourced products need MSC certification.

Set up proper waste management for food waste and compostable serveware, and make sure it's actually handled and treated correctly.

Support your chefs and traders by building an organic supply chain and connecting them with local organic producers and wholesalers.

Calculate the carbon footprint of any food and drink the festival produces or sells directly.

Ask external traders, caterers and bars to run CO2 assessments on their own ingredients, dishes, menus and drinks.

Pull all that CO2 data together and work out the total CO2e your current menus will generate.

Stick to eco-friendly chemicals for all cleaning and sanitising: floors, surfaces, utensils, hands, the lot.

Never pour fats, oil or grease down the drain, collect them separately and send them off to be treated or turned into biofuel.

Ask caterers and traders to use water-saving prep techniques, steaming instead of boiling, keeping lids on, that kind of thing.

Use proper production, handling and storage practices to keep spoilage and waste down.

Adjust menus to keep customers happier and cut down on food left uneaten.

Get creative with surplus: stale bread into croutons, spare fruit into dessert toppings, vegetable trimmings into soups, sauces and stocks.

Right-size portions and drop garnishes people never actually eat.

At buffet-style service, encourage people to take only what they'll actually finish.

Track how much food gets wasted, what kind, and why, then build prevention strategies around that data.

Compare what you bought against what customers actually ordered.

Donate non-perishable and still-good perishable food to local food banks, soup kitchens and shelters.

Check with your local food bank or food rescue service on what they'll take, many will also collect donations free of charge.

Keep food, organic and compostable waste separated from other waste streams.

Bring in a waste contractor who can run a separate collection for organic waste.

Compost organic waste onsite where it's practical and safe to do so.

Where safe, return composted food and organic waste to agriculture for reuse.

Any food or organic waste leaving site for treatment should go to an anaerobic digestor, biodigestor or composter.

Write a sustainable transport policy that prioritises low-carbon travel and cuts unnecessary journeys.

Run travel surveys to capture mode of transport and distance travelled, and let that data shape future decisions.

Survey each group, staff, crew, performers, suppliers, visitors, and set targets for each: less car use from visitors through better public transport options, less flying from performers by booking more local acts, shorter supplier journeys through local sourcing or bulk orders.

Cut travel where you can with calls, video conferencing and webinars, and stack face-to-face meetings together with other trips like site walkovers.

When travel is unavoidable, push staff and crew toward walking, cycling or public transport, and pick meeting locations that minimise distance for the most attendees.

If a car is the only option, encourage carpooling with three or more people and plan efficient routes.

Where you're providing vehicles for staff or crew, choose electric or hybrid where you can.

Push suppliers toward low-carbon delivery methods: bicycle couriers, electric vans, or combined deliveries.

Treat flying, for people or freight, as a genuine last resort, only after every other option has been ruled out.

Store build materials and hired site vehicles close to the venue to cut transport emissions.

Buy and rent materials from local suppliers to keep transport emissions down.

Order in bulk and combine collections or deliveries into single journeys to avoid unnecessary trips.

For multi-day or multi-week festivals, consider an onsite market for essentials, fresh produce, hardware, office supplies, toiletries, so people don't need to leave site to buy them.

Send out transport options, routes and incentives well ahead of the event, and repeat the message regularly so people can actually plan around it.

Use your website, ads and social channels to nudge visitors toward eco-friendly transport, and toward leaving the car at home.

Reward low-carbon travel with perks: discounted tickets, refreshments en route, a free shower on arrival, or earlier site access.

Give clear location info through map apps so people don't waste travel getting lost.

Encourage walking or cycling by organising groups and mapping a safe, staffed route with local authorities.

Provide secure bike parking and an onsite bike repair shop.

Bundle a free or discounted local public transport ticket into admission, and coordinate that with transport providers.

Arrange shuttles from the nearest bus and train stations and major transport hubs, or set up park and ride.

Charge for car parking and reinvest the fee into sustainability, or cut parking back or remove it altogether.

Run hybrid elements so people can experience part of the festival without travelling at all.

Set up plenty of outdoor drinking water points so everyone has easy access.

Get the message out to everyone onsite about conserving water and turning off taps.

Check the water distribution system regularly for leaks.

Run appliances efficiently: if there's an onsite laundry (performer towels, catering tea-towels) or a wash system for reusable serveware, only run full loads and skip extra rinses.

Install water-saving fixtures: push-button taps, flow regulators on taps and showers, dual-flush toilets.

When buying or hiring water-using appliances like washing machines, check the label for water use per cycle.

Use marquees with sidewall rain gutters, or fit them to existing ones, and collect the rainwater for reuse.

Design your onsite water distribution strategically, so every area that needs water gets it, without pumping it further than necessary.

Prioritise waterless urinals, water-free toilets or low-flush toilets.

Where you do need flushing toilets, capture handwashing sink water and reuse it for flushing.

Festival sites often suffer soil compaction, which hurts natural drainage. On permanent sites, consider a Sustainable Drainage System to restore that.

Ban toxic chemicals onsite as far as practically possible.

Any chemical that could end up in the water supply, cleaning products, shampoo, toothpaste, should be eco-friendly.

Communicate the eco-friendly products policy clearly to everyone using them: cleaning teams, traders, caterers and visitors.

Collect oils and greases separately, never down the drain.

Never tip paintbrush-washing water down the drain, let it evaporate and the paint residue dry out instead.

Dried latex or water-based paint cans can go with residual waste, but oil-based paints, spray paints and thinners must be treated as hazardous waste.

Prepare a site drainage plan that maps every water source and runoff area.

Only dispose of wastewater removed from site at properly licensed facilities.

Look at alternative temporary toilets that save water and cut chemical use: vacuum loos, compost toilets.

Identify grey water streams you could reuse, from handwashing basins and showers, and figure out how to put them to use onsite, irrigation, toilet flushing.

If you own the venue, install eco-friendly permanent toilets.

Separate urine from sewage at the source and harvest its nutrients for reuse in agriculture.

For a permanent, legal onsite solution, design a natural wastewater treatment system using retention ponds and reed beds.

Invite local stakeholders into your planning meetings, they often have useful input on managing the surrounding areas.

Ask local residents for feedback on how the festival could work better for them.

Set up a clear complaints channel for neighbours and local communities, with someone responsible for responding quickly and properly.

Advertise temporary roles locally first and hire as many staff as you can from the surrounding community.

Source locally and sustainably wherever you can: equipment and tent hire, food and drink, merchandise, printing, signage.

Give locals a chance to fundraise for local charities or community groups at the event.

Offer free tickets to nearby residents, or in denser areas, give a batch of tickets to a local residents' group to raffle off.

Host free events so the local community gets to enjoy the festival space too.

Keep night-time noise and light pollution to a minimum.

Put enough lighting, signage and stewards on the surrounding roads to prevent traffic incidents.

Manage crowds safely with adequate security and medical teams on hand.

Have a solid Traffic Management Plan and Emergency Preparedness Plan covering every likely emergency: traffic incidents, high winds, flooding, fire.

Run risk assessments for dangerous tasks or areas, and back them with proper training and PPE so the work stays safe for both the crew and the surrounding environment.

Check local environmental plans and policies, they'll flag local concerns and point you toward local groups worth engaging.

Talk to local environmental action groups for existing data or past biodiversity surveys of the site, and to learn what sensitivities the wider community already knows about.

Bring in a professional ecology consultancy to run a biodiversity assessment (a Phase 1 Habitat Survey) before the event, to map the habitats, animals and plants on site and assess your impact on them.

Use that baseline data to design the site around minimising impact on existing habitats and species, and to enable follow-up ecological surveys later.

Host a local habitat clean-up: nearby woodland, hedgerows or beaches.

Organise tree and wildflower planting on site or in the local community.

Bring in a local ecologist and run a mini biodiversity survey during the festival that the audience can join.

Invite local environmental action groups to give talks or workshops at your event on local wildlife and their own programmes.

Set aside nature walk routes or quiet zones where people can experience nature without disturbing wildlife.

For a large, recurring event at the same site, consider setting up a local environmental community fund that local groups can draw on for their own projects.

Review the site plan, flag sensitive areas, and steer infrastructure away from them: trackway, stages, production areas, campsites, toilet blocks. Build with the land, not on it.

Block access to ecologically sensitive areas: nesting birds, waterways, bat roosts.

Add fencing, exclusion tape and signage along paths and boundaries to keep people out of sensitive areas, and make toilet signage especially clear so people aren't tempted to use unprotected areas instead.

Keep a buffer zone around water courses to stop litter and pollutants, including urine run-off, from getting in.

Set aside dedicated areas for handling hazardous substances like paints and fuels, with spill kits on hand there and at other spill-risk spots like food stalls and toilets.

Mark out root protection zones around sensitive trees with fencing and signage explaining why they're there.

Add more ground covering across more of the site to protect the soil.

Build Emergency Management Plans for bad weather and accidents that protect the local environment as well as people.

Make sure your Emergency Management Plans and Risk Assessments line up with local disaster response plans for forest fires, flash floods and extreme storms, events that are only getting more frequent as climate risk rises.