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Green

Live Nation Entertainment is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, Festival Republic, Academy Music Group, LN Media and Sponsorship, and Artist Nation Management.

As the world’s leader in live entertainment, Live Nation Entertainment have a responsibility to preserve the live music experience for generations to come and a tremendous opportunity to use our platform to inspire global environmental action.

We rely on the environment to create world class live events. We are stewards of the environment where our venues and live events are based, the setting plays an integral part in creating the unique atmosphere that forms lasting memories for fans.

We will work to reduce the environmental impact of our venues and festivals to ensure we are being responsible global citizens, taking care of the communities where we operate, and doing our part to curb the most harmful impacts of global climate change.

Festival Republic’s approach to environmental sustainability;

Festival Republic began the journey of addressing environmental sustainability in 2007 starting with Latitude, Reading and Leeds Festivals. This now includes Wireless, Download and Electric Picnic Festival and we also work with Creamfields, Isle of Wight and Camp Bestival.

  • We partnered with Julie’s Bicycle and The Environmental Change Institute and the University of Oxford, to investigate the impacts of the music industry in 2007 publishing First Steps  Mapping UK Music Industry Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
  • Responding to calls across Europe to make sustainability a priority Melvin Benn and Ruben Brouwer from the Netherlands put together a coalition of Live Nation companies to develop a sustainability charter. The charter, Green Nation, was adopted as global Live Nation May policy in 2019.
  • We have employed a full-time sustainability coordinator since 2009. Live Nation now employs a Global Director of Sustainability, Head of Sustainability for Europe and the Middle East and Head of Sustainability for the UK and Ireland.
  • Festival Republic have signed the Festival Vision 2025 Pledge to significantly reduce our climate impacts (annual Green House Gas emissions and other impacts) by 2025 (from 2015 levels). The Show Must Go On Report 2020 highlights the impacts of the UK Festival Industry and its efforts to reduce them. We were a key funder to this important report and it was developed with our involvement and are on the Steering Group of Vision 2025 and Powerful Thinking.
  • Festival Republic has signed up to Music Declares Emergency. We acknowledge the impact that our business has on the environment and are committed to telling the truth on the scale of the climate emergency and taking urgent action.
  • The Live Nation Green Nation charter sets out our target of reducing our carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and sets out eight focus areas of sustainability split up into three priority impact areas. The following pages set out what we have done so far on our sustainability journey and what we plan to do.

CLIMATE CHANGE

We are working towards the Green Nation target of a 50% reduction in our scope 1 & 2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030.

ENERGY

The energy we use is the highest cause of emissions from our festivals so it is a key focus in our strategy.

Reduce

  • We are working towards eliminating the need to use fuel to power generators by installing mains grid connection on our festival sites. The UK energy grid is currently around 50% powered by renewables so this will be a huge change.
  • We monitor generator fuel consumption annually. The results are analysed to determine the potential to reduce generator sizes and subsequent fuel volumes. Early meetings are held with power suppliers to drive energy efficiency in the site planning and assess the risks of changing generator sizes.
  • Our main power suppliers use LED festoon and tower lights that save considerable amounts of energy.

 

Replace with Renewable Energy

  • Solar hybrid generators are implemented at a number of our events where suitable and we calculate the emissions savings they generate. EXAMPLE: In 2019 generator-battery-solar solution was used at Leeds Festival to power the induction cabin saving 1228L of fuel and 3,317 kg of COe2 emissions.
  • We calculate how much biofuel we need to use to meet our emission reduction targets.
  • The amount of biodiesel doubled in 2019 as a result of this and continues to increase.
  • We put a lot of work in to checking the provenance of any biofuel that we use. There is a risk that it could contribute towards deforestation as it can be a by-product of palm oil. We strive to find a European source that is non palm derived and always use 2nd generation biofuel (from a waste product). Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) is a specific type of biofuel that has a 90% reduction in carbon emissions when compared to regular red diesel and can be used in the majority of engines.

TRAVEL & TRANSPORT

We partner with Big Green Coach offering dedicated coaches to festivals from around the UK and promote the benefits of low carbon travel at an activation at the festival. Big Green Coach sponsors 5 sq foot of Amazonian rainforest for every coach traveller.

Carsharing is encouraged with Liftshare including a priority car park for car sharers and free parking for those who registered.

EXAMPLES:

Electric Picnic (IE) Tour de Picnic is a fundraising and fitness challenge where participants cycle 80K or run 17K to Electric Picnic Festival, Ireland, each raising a minimum of €450 for charity (registration fee included) and are awarded their weekend festival ticket at the finish line. In 2019, a total of 939 participants cycled a total of 53,520 km and ran 4,471km.

At Download Festival, Heavy Metal Truants includes 50 cyclists covering 162 miles over 3 days from London to Download Festival at Donington Park, raising money for charities. Riders receive a VIP upgrade for the Friday of the festival.

In 2018 & 2019, Download and Reading festivals balanced the journeys of those who choose to travel by car by adding £1 to every car park ticket sold. This was donated to Energy Revolution (now Ecolibrium) and invested in Solar for Schools who put solar panels on school roofs. Reading balanced 808,462 average car miles equivalent to 235 tCO2e and Download balanced 1,433,368 miles equivalent to 416 tCO2e. A total of £24,329 was invested in Solar for Schools to support two local primary schools close to the festivals to install 30kw peak systems that will provide 40% of their energy.

NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY

We prioritise waste reduction, followed by reuse and then recycling, energy recovery and disposal. We are committed to implementing closed loop waste management systems and strive to support the development of a circular economy.

Every site has its own unique features and designs take into account ecologically sensitive areas or artefacts of heritage or cultural significance. We work within any local conditions and carry out

environmental impact assessments if required to protect local flora and fauna while holding our festivals.

PLASTICS REDUCTION

Due to the widespread negative environmental impacts of plastic pollution and in line with the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive all Festival Republic events is phasing out the sale of single use plastics during 2021.

We implement a sourcing policy that prioritises:

  • Reuse over single use.
  • Renewable over finite resources using certified compostable products under EU Directive EN 13432.
  • At least 30% recycled content where alternatives are not available.

Festival Republic has implemented a single use plastic policy from 2019 that take the following measures to reduce single use plastic at our festivals.

  • We promote a refill campaign to the audience, crew and artists with reusable water bottles are available for sale at the merch stalls for those who do not bring their own
  • No single use plastic water bottles are provided backstage to crew or artists as standard. We provide water stations back of house to enable reusable bottles to be refilled.
  • To support the plastic recycling industry and to reduce the amount of virgin plastic we use all bottled water that contains a minimum of 30% recycled content in line with the UK Plastic Pact. This applies to bars, vendors and sponsors ensuring the same material is used.
  • All water and soft drinks are served in recycled plastic bottles or a paper cup. We have some post mix soft drinks outlets that reduce the number of bottled soft drinks and bars decant soft drinks from large bottles.
  • In Ireland recycled plastic cups have replaced regular plastic cups, as well as 100% recycled plastic (rPET) water bottles.
  • Plastic cutlery and straws have been banned since 2009 and only compostable containers are permitted. Bulk sauce bottles are used rather than single use sachets and compostable straws are only given out if asked for, they are not provided as standard.

REUSE, RECYCLING & COMPOSTING

We aim for all of our festivals to be zero waste to landfill and achieve a 50% (or higher) material recovery rate by 2030 and align our targets with the local authority recycling rate.

  • We receive reports from the recycling facility that our festivals use annually and have tracked our waste and recycling since 2009.
  • Many of our festivals are already reached out target of 50% recycling rate and those that aren’t are showing improvement year on year.
  • All of our festivals are zero waste to landfill.

We have had a deposit return scheme on paper cups and water bottles since 2009. This was extended to all bottles in 2016. Cups are collected separately and sent to cup recycling schemes.

Festival Republic have a longstanding collaboration with Greenpeace who ran a cup and bottle deposit return scheme in 2016 – 2019 and they also campaigned on their ‘plastic free rivers’ campaign with a public petition.

Our festivals were the first to host the Co-op’s reverse vending machines in our campsite supermarkets in 2018.

A three bin system is in operation at all festivals (recycling, compostable and non recyclable).

  • Our Green Team distribute recycling bags to campers and run a recycling incentives sucn as competitions for campsite recycling.
  • We have recycling points in each campsite with full material separation – plastics, metal, card, glass and food at a number of our events or following our three bin system.
  • We allow charities and not for profit groups to access the festivals post event to salvage tents and camping equipment that has been left behind by campers. We run public facing campaigns to aim to prevent this from happening however.
  • EXAMPLES: The Download Ecocamp has been a feature of the festival since 2018, hosted by Greenpeace creating a community of 1400 campers who left no trace and zero waste.
  • Electric Picnic (IE) introduced ‘Greta’s Campsite’, a zero waste campsite in the main camping grounds of the festival dedicated to Greta Thunberg, alongside continuing the 2500 strong BYE Ecocamp.

FOOD

– Festival Republic are developing a way to highlight the carbon footprint of meals working with the University of Gloucestershire, using a simple 3 level rating system, to give consumers an idea how much carbon is in a specific meal. They can then make an informed choice on the high or low carbon options.

WATER & WASTE WATER:

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

We are committed to using our position and reach to engage with our customers to raise awareness of environmental issues and connect and collaborate with local and national environmental causes and organisations.

EXAMPLES:

  • Our 2019 ‘Zero Waste Festival Goer’ campaign asked festival goers, artists and staff to take pledges for the environment with a chance to feature on the main stage TV screens. Pledges were amalgamated into three x 30 second videos, one shown on each day, with the Sunday video focussing on taking tents home. The aim was to create positive peer to peer influence on festival goers. As a result, there was an observable reduction in abandoned tents, Reading Festival showed a 50% decrease in the amount of tents left in 2019 compared to 2017.
  • A number of artists took part including the 1975, Hozier, Twenty One Pilots, You Me at Six, SWMRS, CHVRCHES, The Wombats, Ten Tonnes and Press Club (see video from 21 Pilots) https://twitter.com/OfficialRandL/status/1165745415448195072?s=20
  • At Electric Picnic (IE) Cultivate, Environmental Recovery Solutions and Climate Ambassador Ireland recruited 100 ‘Field Agents of Change’ on the ground who raised awareness, handed out recycling bags, collected 2000 environmental pledges, highlighted relevant talks and activities on site in the Global Green area as well as promoting other initiatives and campaigns to reduce our impact outside of the festival.
  • Every Can Counts promote the importance of can collection and recycling in the campsites with activities and can cages that festival goers could fill with empty cans.
  • Extinction Rebellion were invited to the UK & Ireland festivals in 2019 hosting a climate change talk and ran a stall with a print station. They filmed a message to the crowd highlighting environmental actions festival goers could take at the festival and beyond, including attending the Global Climate Strike, these messages were played this on the big screens between acts [link to XR video, see Sustainability Videos file with all the links].
  • In 2021 the Youth Climate Justice Activists are being given a platform at Latitude, Reading and Leeds, consisting of Climate Live, Fridays For Future, Mock COP, Teach The Future, XR Youth and the UK Student Climate Network.
  • DEFRA launched their ‘Keep It Bin It’ campaign at Leeds Festival 2019, with a live mural of how native wildlife is affected by litter and a photo shoot with Billie Eilish.
  • From 2021 we are working with the London School of Economics to design the first extensive test of Nudge Plus against thinks, boosts and nudges to promote pro-environmental behaviour and measure spill overs across diets, waste, energy, water and transport sectors.