Our Mission to Leave No Trace at Festivals
For around 360 days a year, our greenspaces are home to nothing but some sheep, cows, and a whole lot of fresh air – the picture of pure serenity that is synonymous with the British countryside. It’s oh so quiet and so peaceful until the sheer eccentricity of festival season strikes, and our fields transform into a vibrant, magical oasis of colour and fun – a temporary town constructed in the middle of nowhere that pushes the local population up by a few extra thousand overnight.
Come rain or shine, day or night, the crowds will gather – 6.5 million people to be exact in the UK each year – armed with their tents, sleeping bags, and waterproofs (obviously!) to watch their favourite artists perform. That’s 6.5 million people who need feeding and watering. Naturally, doing the dishes is out of the question, and despite technological advancements, there is no dishwasher in the world that can keep up with that demand, so disposable everything it is. Bottles, cups, plates, cutlery – the list goes on. This waste, along with the sheer operations of a festival, their energy consumption, increased carbon footprint from travelling guests and artists, and land degradation, means that festivals have quite an impact on the environment. In fact, they produce an estimated 23,500 tonnes of waste each year. That’s around 78 Boeing 747 jumbo jets, filled to the brim. It’s a problem, and we at Arc want to do our bit to have a positive impact on reducing those stats.
Across the UK, we’re on a bold mission to reduce waste and champion sustainability at all of the camping festivals we’re working with this summer through out Leave No Trace campaign, started by our Director, Michael Gavin.
What inspired you to start this initiative of Leave No Trace in our festival operations?
When we started working at festivals, there was a lot in the news at the time about fields of tents and waste left behind at UK festivals, and when we were asked in my MBA to come up with a real-world project whereby sustainable behaviour would create triple bottom line value, it seemed like the obvious thing to look at within Arc. I was very conscious I didn’t want us to make the problem worse on site at these events through our activities, and that we had a responsibility to try and do things differently and set a better example.
How important is the involvement of our stakeholders in the success of Leave No Trace?
They are vital; we need the support of all stakeholders to make a difference here. Colleagues, clients, suppliers, consultants, lectures, and external team members have all played a super important part here. We have been very fortunate that our festival clients have supported us with what we are trying to achieve here and are very much on the same page. External suppliers and consultants have made valuable contributions along the way in terms of ideas and knowledge.
Perhaps most importantly, we need the buy-in from our team members. For us as a business, the way for us to make the biggest difference when it comes to climate action is through our TM pool and database of thousands. It’s amazing to see how passionate they are to support us here, whether it is through the pledges they make or how they have conducted themselves and engaged with the project while working on site.
What are the long-term goals for Leave No Trace?
The long-term goal is to keep refining and improving the project so we can have the biggest impact possible. I want to establish more partnerships with festival operators and our clients to ensure we remain at the forefront of the sustainability challenges they are facing. For instance, we are providing support to Cream and their Cleanfieds initiative next week, which is one example of the likely next stage of our own sustainability journey at UK festivals. I am also keen to improve the impact we have in getting team members to and from site to keep lessening the emissions we create here and hopefully increasing the procurement of electric vehicles when we need to coach people in to sites.
“I think the climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges we face as a global society right now. You can see from the last few years that there has been a rise in the frequency of severe weather events around the world because of climate change. Or, alternatively, how the ice caps have shrunk in Greenland and Antarctica. For me personally, it’s important because I want my daughter and future generations to be able to enjoy the planet and live in a healthy, sustainable, and equitable world.”
Our Leave No Trace Campaign
Arc Sustainability Champions
These team members go through a selection process whereby we identify people who are passionate about sustainability. They are then given an induction about how we can best leave no trace. In return, we pay them a higher rate for encouraging green practices on site.
Green Pledge
All team members are given a sustainability guide we require as part of our pre-event communication and asked to pledge to leave no trace while on site.
Site Clear Down
On the last day, our sustainability champions will work with the rest of the team to ensure the fields we camp in are completely clear when we leave and also any equipment left behind (e.g. tents) is recycled or donated to charity.
Specific Waste Recycling Stations
We are initially focusing on providing team members the ability to dispose of clothing, vapes, and food packaging in a responsible way which we will then recycle post-event. We will also support on site with the collection of general waste and normal recycling procedures.
Re-using Equipment to Preserve Value
We provide tents to any staff to borrow free of cost to anyone who already doesn’t have one to prevent single-use purchase. We then collect the tents, get them professionally cleaned, and re-issue for future events as a demonstration of the circular economy in practice.
Did You Know?
According to The Association of Independent Festivals, around 250,000 tents are left behind at music festivals across the UK every single year. 90% of these are estimated to end up in a landfill or incinerator.
Carbon Emission Tracking
We survey all our team members to find out the nature of their journey to and from the site so we can track performance year on year and understand more about how we can lower our carbon footprint moving forward. Any emissions are offset as part of our annual impact strategy process through accredited schemes.
Can Festivals Really Be Sustainable?
The Øya Festival in Norway is known as one of the greenest festivals in the world, aligning their sustainability effort with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They have three primary objectives:
- Combating climate change
- Fostering sustainable development by embracing circular business models
- Ensuring a fair and sustainable transition for all
Photo Credit: Øyafestivalen, Facebook.
Within their climate change actions, the festival already has an entirely fossil-free production site, eliminated single-use plastics and has climate calculated and labelled all the food and menu items. Their future goals include:
- Zero general waste by 2023
- Increase material recycling degree each year, reaching 100% (80% in 2025)
Our Wider Impact Strategy
If you know anything about Arc, you’ll know that we’re not just a temporary staffing agency. Oh no! We want our business to be a force for good and our Impact Strategy is at the core of everything that we do. You see, back in 2020, when the world stood still, we mobilised, discovering our “why” and exploring where we wanted the business to go. We had always wanted to be more than just a recruitment company, but the hectic nature of the pre Covid-19 events industry provided little thinking time.
We invested in our vision, aligned our goals with our values, and created a new 2025 Impact Strategy that focuses on tackling the three biggest issues currently threatening the hospitality industry, including the climate crisis. You can track our progress in our latest Impact Report.
Make Your Climate Action Pledge Today!
You can read about why it’s time to take climate action in another one of our blogs. If you’d like to get involved in taking climate action, make a climate action pledge via our Google Form.