- Posted on June 20th, 2024
60 Festivals Sign up for Green Events Code of Practice Pilot
Julie’s Bicycle, alongside our partners Vision:2025, are collaborating with ten local authorities and more than 60 events to test how a Green Events Code of Practice (GECoP) can be adopted nationally.
“The Green Events Code of Practice has been developed to avoid a lottery of
expectations across England, and establish consistent standards. Everyone is
asking ‘what good looks like’ and how to understand and measure it. This project will
help to answer that question.”
– Vision: 2025 Chair and Shamabla Festival Director, Chris Johnson.
As a summer of exciting arts, music and sporting events gets underway, event organisers and attendees watch keenly as the effects of climate change – from floods to heatwaves – continue to be impossible to ignore. In the face of these challenges and with a desire to significantly lessen their environmental impact, the outdoor events industry has come together to take action.
The Green Events Code of Practice (GECoP), has been developed by the UK outdoor events industry as a working draft, and aims to establish clear, consistent, affordable, and workable minimum voluntary standards for sustainability in events nationally.
Practical use of the code as a framework will be tested out by events this summer and will help us understand the feasibility of rolling it out nationally as a best practice guide for outdoor events.
The Code focuses on seven key areas where positive environmental change can be achieved. Its overall aim is a minimum of 50% reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 through reductions in fossil fuel consumption, reducing meat and dairy consumption, eliminating single-use plastic and many other measures.
Participating cities include Manchester, Liverpool and Reading, with events taking part including WOMEX Worldwide Music Expo, Bristol’s Harbour Festival, Parklife Festival, Reading Festival, The Davis Cup, Shambala Festival, Leicester Mela, National Athletics Championships, Chinese New Year celebrations, the Euro 2024 Fan Village, and several Pride festivals.
In December 2024 the project will report on the variety of ways the code has been put into practice, and outline a pathway to national adoption.
The project is co-funded by Arts Council England and participating local authorities.