Bestival Signs Up To 10:10 And Commits To Reduce Carbon Emissions By 10%
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The Plugged In Bandstand/ Recycling/ Travel/Bestival Green Team/ We Are What We Do
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
It won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone to find out that they care about the environment at Bestival.
One only has to have to have a quick look around their stunning Robin Hill Country Park site to know that it’s worth looking after.
So they were massively proud to be the recipient of an 'Outstanding' Greener Festival Award in 2009, making Bestival one of only 13 festivals worldwide to achieve this top level award.
Not content to rest on their laurels, this year they are pulling out all the stops to make Bestival an even greener and more environmentally friendly event than it already is.
As part of that green masterplan they have signed up to the 10:10 campaign making a firm commitment to reduce our carbon footprint by 10% starting in 2010.
10:10 is an ambitious project to unite every sector of society behind one simple idea: cutting our emissions by 10% in 2010. We think it’s a fantastic campaign to get involved with, which is why they have signed up to it, said a spokesperson for Bestival.
You too can sign upp to the 10:10 pledge. It’s quick and easy to do, just click here.
Bestival, with the support of environment specialists Julie’s Bicycle – http://www.juliesbicycle.com/ – set a carbon output benchmark in 2009 and we are already putting in place measures to reduce this by 10% at this year’s event by reducing carbon emissions from onsite energy use, waste and water consumption.
There are lots of amazing initiatives happening across the site which include the Plugged In Bandstand stage which will be totally solar-powered once again this year, all with help from the green-minded friends at Southern Electric.
What’s more, the whole surrounding area, (previously called The Village), will become Bestival's version of Tomorrow’s World – envisaging an inspired, sustainable, green and fun future. Plus all the other power generators in the Tomorrow’s World area, that power the WI Tent, Farmer’s Market and Sushi Yurt will be run on local Wight Made Biodiesel – made from the 1,600 litres of used cooking oil collected from the all the food stalls at Bestival 2009.
Over half the waste at Bestival 2009 was recycled which was great but with your help they want to do much better this year, so they have been putting a lot of work into redesigning our campsites to make it easier for our waste teams and, crucially, you to get waste into the correct bins so it can be recycled properly.
Bestival also REALLY need you all to take your tents, etc. home with you. Tents are tricky devils to recycle due to their mixture of components… and even worse, once they get mixed up with items that could have been recycled they often make the whole jumbled lot utterly unrecyclable, which means it all gets sent to landfill, which is a big fat no-no. So if you’re reading this and you usually leave stuff behind, please please don’t.
The Glastonbury Festival recently ran a Please Take It Home campaign – www.facebook.com/pleasetakeithome – and this is a great idea. Other festivals all over, plus other events in parks and open spaces, should take not of this.
Lots of you will be pleased to hear that there will be even more composting toilets at Bestival this year too. Not only are they cleaner and less stinky, they also don’t need water or nasty chemicals to work.
One big area where the are at Bestival looking to reduce their environmental footprint is Travel. Coach or Train are easily the best ways of getting to Bestival. And they are also the cheapest. Southern Vectis are offering some great value door-to-door Coach Travel packages.
Their coaches will pick you up from 25 towns and cities in the UK and take you direct to the Bestival site (& back), including ferry travel – so no changes and no extra travel costs. Head over to www.islandbuses.info/bestival.shtml for more info and to book.
And South West Trains operate fast services to Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton to connect with the ferries to the island… simple. We’ve also created a new onsite bus and coach station, so those of you that do come by public transport will have a much shorter distance to walk with all your stuff.
If you really must drive, please check out our Car Sharing service - www.liftshare.com/event/20 – and fill your car up with people, thus splitting the carbon emissions between more people.
As well as all this, the Bestival Green Team – their troupe of top-hat-sporting eco-minded volunteers – will return for their 4th year. They will be handing out recycling bags and free cigarette butt bins to help you to do your bit to Keep Bestival Tidy. And, do you really have to smoke?
And We Are What We Do, the social movement behind the ‘I'm not a Plastic Bag’ shopper and Historypin, will unleash their latest creation onto Bestival this summer: A massive, fantastical, trash-guzzling creature, with a penchant for recyclable waste.
Part monster, part foodie snob, he will be roaming the festival munching cigarette butts, paper plates, plastic cups and tin cans out of the hands of festival partiers. And as a sign of his appreciation he will be leaving his bitemark on anyone that feeds him their trash. Bestival are not responsible for any limbs lost.
We are in the process of finalising even more environmental initiatives for this year’s Bestival… watch this space! In the meantime, please sign up to 10:10 yourself; and then get your work, school, friends, parents et al to do the same - www.1010uk.org – we need to work together to achieve a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010.
10:10 is an ambitious project to unite every sector of British society behind one simple idea: we work together to achieve a 10% cut in the UK ’s carbon emissions in 2010.
10:10 was conceived by the team behind climate blockbuster The Age Of Stupid and is run by a small independent team, supported by an army of volunteers and a dream team of partner organisations including ActionAid, Comic Relief, the Energy Saving Trust, the Carbon Trust, the Public Interest Research Centre and many more. Low-carbon printer manufacturer Kyocera Mita and Eaga, the UK ’s largest supplier of heating and renewable energy, were the campaign’s original sponsors.
It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of a huge problem like climate change, but by bringing individual actions together under one banner, 10:10 enables everyone to make a meaningful difference. Launched in September 2009, the campaign has, to date, garnered the support of over 70,000 individuals and more than 2,500 businesses, including household names such as Sony, Adidas and Microsoft. In addition, celebrities ranging from Sienna Miller to Bill Bailey to Daisy Lowe have all voiced their support.
10:10 has been making waves in government, with the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreeing to cut emissions by 10% within days of coming to power.
Each month 10:10 focuses on different ways to reduce your carbon emissions, offering expert advice on everything from insulation to recycling. In addition, 10:10 has joined forces with 350.org – who last year orchestrated 5,200 environment events in 181 countries – to coordinate the biggest-ever global day of action on climate change, on October 10, 2010 (10:10:10).
We Are What We Do is a not-for-profit social movement which encourages individuals to take small actions that will make a big difference socially and environmentally.
Founded in 2004, We Are What We Do create products, tools and experiences that facilitate these actions.
To date, they have published three books - Change The World For A Fiver which sold over one million copies world wide, Change The World 9 to 5 which was launched by David Cameron in 2006 and Teach Your Granny To Text which was given to every school in the country by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) as a teaching resource.
A collaboration with Anya Hindmarch and Sainsbury’s in 2007 launched the I am NOT a Plastic Bag shopper, taking the issues onto the front pages and helping Sainsbury’s reduce the number of free carrier bags issued by 58% in the following two years.
This year, they launched their latest creation, Historypin, in partnership with Google, in a bid to bridge the intergenerational divide. Historypin aims to become the largest user-generated archive of historical photos, using Google Maps & Street View technology. People can upload their photos and the stories behind them, ‘pin’ them to a particular location on Google Maps and line them up against Street View, creating a window into the past.
WeAreWhatWeDo.org features over 150 simple, everyday actions anyone can do to and track. The current most popular actions include Hug someone, Cook a meal from scratch, Use a mug not a plastic cup and Read a story with your child.
Make sure you check out www.bestival.net for more info.
© 2010
Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.
