Shambala festival
Set in a picturesque country park in Northamptonshire, the environment has always been central to the ethos of Shambala Festival. The event is now firmly established as a focus for innovation in sustainable technologies and the more elusive “science” of drawing people into a deeper dialogue about the environmental sustainability issues confronting us all today. For these reasons, Shambala is the first organisation to achieve a 3 star Industry Green certification from Julie’s Bicycle in 2011.
Shambala has been undertaking independent carbon auditing since 2007, and thanks to a partnership with Peter Harper, Head of Research at the Centre for Alternative Technology, the scope of their studies has been even broader than our Industry Green assessment, including factors such as staff and concession travel and camping equipment, examining the life-span of the materials used to construct stages, and even guestimating how much more people might drink at a festival compared to a typical weekend at home! Building on a decrease in emissions per audience member of 20% between 2007 and 2008, Shambala achieved an impressive reduction of 63% in its primary emissions per audience day from 2009 to 2010.
Towards 100% renewable power
This reduction reflects Shambala’s ambition to becoming 100% renewably powered by 2013. In 2008 Shambala aimed to use 100% waste vegetable oil (WVO) bio-diesel across the site (not-with-standing that WVO bio-diesel is not a renewable power source) but had issues with power consistency and experienced power-outs. A search for a bio-diesel provider that could accommodate the event in 2009 was unsuccessful which meant Shambala resorted to regular diesel for the 2009 event. 2010 has seen a relative success with a transition to 95% non-mineral based power through the use of WVO bio-diesel and six micro renewable energy suppliers on site, alongside diesel and gas sources, resulting in a reduction of 88% in energy emissions from 2009 to 2010. In 2010 the festival supplied solar showers and composting toilets.
Audience travel emissions
The biggest environmental impact produced by festivals is audience travel. As Shambala’s energy emissions decrease, so the proportional impact of their audience emissions has increased, from 53% in 2009 to 90% of the festival's total emissions in 2010. Audience travel remains a challenge: an audience travel survey in 2010 showed that 79% travelled by car - although with an average occupancy of 3 people they are well above the average (2.6). 10% travelled by train, 8% by dedicated coaches, 3% by public transport bus, and 0.2% by short-haul flights. While the festival isn’t in direct control of audience choices on issues such as travel, Shambala has a number of initiatives that aim to reduce these emissions and encourage more festival-goers onto public transport, including a biofiel shuttle bus service from the local train and bus station and subidised express coaches from 6 cities. If audiences can see busing as a realistic travel option there is huge potential to reduce emissions.
In 2009 Shambala began to offer drivers the option to offset their travel through an accredited scheme, raising £4,000 which was donated by popular vote to the World Land Trust. A partnership with Sustrans also inspired nearly 100 people to cycle to the event from 5 cities across the UK in 2009.
Shambala's environmental priorities are communicated to the audiences online and on site, and a recent survey highlighted that the festival’s audience does feel strongly about the environment; the website, press releases, emails, event programme, the ticket buying process and the festival site all reflect the environmental credentials of the festival, and on the Sunday of each festival the organisers run a ‘People’s Parliament’ for audiences to comment on their 'green credentials' and feed back on how the festival is run.
Locally-sourced products and materials
Shambala is going beyond the minimum requirements of their own commitment to environmental performance through work with the supply chain that supports the festival, requiring contractors and traders to complete questionnaires and comply with a sustainability checklist for tendering. ‘Green’ trader assessments and awards are also undertaken.
Ambitious policies to reuse materials and enforce traders to source produce locally were partially met in 2009, and in 2010 these policies were communicated to all artists, creative projects and area/venue managers. This procurement policy on traders means that produce has to be ethically sourced with a preference for small/local suppliers, resulting in fairtrade tea and coffee and happy meat and a priority for organic traders, while all construction timber has to be FSC certified. Preference is also given to traders who are powering themselves self sufficiently and the local community is invited to trade via a community letter.
For the future
For the 2011 event, the festival is re-assessing the feasibility of waste-to-energy schemes: previous feasibility studies found relevant facilities were too distant from the festival site, making the transport impact too large.
From the organisers...
Shambala Coordinator Chris Johnson believes “festivals have a key role in inspiring behavioural change in society. Our challenge is finding the most effective ways to communicate sustainable messages to festival goers, by virtue of the way we manage events, how we communicate this, and the content of the events.”
“Good auditing provides the information we need to make informed decisions about where to concentrate our efforts in reducing carbon, and how successful initiatives have been year on year” says Jen Coles, Shambala’s Sustainability Coordinator.
Over the years, the efforts of Shambala have provided new insights into innovation on how to run a more sustainable festival. The ambitious sustainability policy of Shambala provides a guiding light in educating, inspiring and motivating the festival sector as a whole. Shambala have taken this role one step further by convening the Power Providers Forum in partnership with Julie’s Bicycle in early 2011, bringing renewable and low-carbon festival power providers together with promoters to discuss up-scaling renewable power provision to festivals nationwide.
