Lovebox
Each year Lovebox takes London’s Victoria Park by by storm and makes for one of the capital’s landmark events in the summer social calendar. Held in London’s oldest public park in Tower Hamlets, bordering Bethnal Green, Hackney, and Bow, Lovebox harnesses the energy and dynamism of these creative and trendy quarters. But it’s not just the internationally renowned headliners and cool-factor that makes this festival great, its commitment to environmental sustainability is also highly commendable.
The founders and team behind Lovebox Weekender Festival clearly signalled their environmental ethos when they signed up to the 10:10 UK-wide campaign to cut carbon emissions by 10% back in October 2009. Julie’s Bicycle’s Industry Green assessment has shown that Lovebox achieved this aim nearly fourfold by reducing its emissions from energy use by 38% between 2009 and 2010, despite almost doubling its ticket sales in 2010 and it has been awarded 2 star Industry Green (out of a maximum 3 stars) recognising this achievement.
Parent company Mama Group and Lovebox Festivals Ltd as well as Sustainability Consultant Andy Mead of Firefly Solar all collaborated on this sterling effort. The positive trajectory looks set to continue in 2011, with a raft of new targets that should tackle a broad range of environmental performance indicators.
Environmental initiatives
Lovebox began implementing its environmental policy during the 2010 event. The areas of focus are transport, waste and recycling, energy and monitoring and evaluation. Initiatives include:
- actively promoting public transportation to the event via the website;
- banning all drinks from being brought on site to reduce waste;
- implementing a policy to enforce use of biodegradable materials by caterers as well as ensure that all coffee and tea on site is Fairtrade;
- increasing the rate of recyclable or biodegradable drink vessels from 80% to 100%;
- providing clear signage throughout the site to encourage recycling with an aim of recycling 50% of waste and diverting from landfill to an energy from waste plant 48% of waste;
- ensuring that only FSC certified wood is used internally and by contractors;
- reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from energy use by decreasing the size and number of generators on site;
- reducing diesel consumption by 10% and replacing diesel generators with solar and hydrogen fuel cells and pure vegetable oil and bicycle power.
These initiatives were implemented by a communicative and dedicated team, which held fortnightly meetings with the Director, weekly management and production meetings on Lovebox’s specific GHG reduction strategy, as well as meetings to discuss the objectives and procurement strategy for the 2010 Lovebox Event. Andy Mead, the Sustainability Consultant for Lovebox, worked closely with the team to gather information on current working practises and opinions on how these practises could be changed or improved.
The Lovebox production team then actively researched the environmental credentials of potential contractors for the 2010 event, who were also asked to provide evidence of their own environmental policies. The final decision to use a contractor was based on their compliance with the festival’s environmental policy. Contractors also had the opportunity to offer their specialist knowledge and opinions towards forming Lovebox’s strategies through a questionnaire circulated during the event.
A sustainability team was contracted to help monitor the success of the environmental initiatives employed at the 2010 event and to report on the outcomes produced. Lovebox’s environmental policy can be found on the festival’s website, along with top tips to the audience on how they can help Lovebox reduce its impacts. The audience is encouraged to walk and/or cycle to the event and facilities to secure bikes are available on-site. Audience members are also encouraged to take part in activities on-site, including pedal powered art installations and sound systems, and provide feedback to the festival on its impacts and initiatives through a questionnaire circulated during the event and on social networks promoted by Lovebox.
