Festivals and outdoor events have huge ecological footprints: they consume energy, water, food, materials and produce waste and carbon emissions. Faced with the ambitious climate and environmental goals proposed by the EU Green Deal to 1) reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; 2) de-couple economic growth from resource use, and 3) ensure no person and no place is left behind, every sector of the economy and society will have to increase efforts and play their part. During the process of writing this application, our sector has been faced with the biggest challenge imaginable. With thousands of events across Europe cancelled for 2020, we are in a time of unprecedented uncertainty, the future of the festivals sector looks bleak due to the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. The financial security and safety of many people working in the industry are under threat. Financial risk and business consultants claim that Glastonbury could experience revenue losses of over £100 million as a result of being axed for 2020, and the total costs of cancelling the event will be in excess of over £60 million. For these reasons, our project is specifically aimed at a well-defined niche in the overall sector: i) Festival managers and outdoors events’ coordinators from the private, nonprofit and public sectors. They are under pressure to adapt their practices to comply with environmental legislation and market pressure, but - Are unaware of the breadth of practices implicated in sustainability and the new processes/products/services in the marketplace (environmental) - Lack the skills to navigate the cost implications, innovate in their business models and lead change (business/entrepreneurial) - Lack of skills to tackle risk and rebuild business models ii) VET providers. As festivals grow in importance, colleges need to update their events’ management courses and curricula, as well as scale up the teaching of environmental competences and sustainable business models. iii) Stakeholders, especially local authorities, cultural, economic, tourism and environmental agencies. If festivals are to create positive net impact, stakeholders need to understand how to identify and champion new sustainable business models, so as to reap the economic and tourism benefits without compromising environmental or economic or cultural goals. The project will introduce a new methodology for training festival/outdoor events’ professionals in environmental competences, so they can adopt new business models and reduce the environmental impact of their events. Specifically, we aim to - Transform how sustainability, both environmentally and from a business perspective, is understood, taught and practised in the festivals and outdoor events’ sector by developing, testing and introducing a suite of new educational resources which reaches at least 600+ stakeholders, VET trainers and professionals. - Enable 450+ festival and outdoor events professionals to develop strategic and practical environmental and business/entrepreneurial competences they need to produce more sustainable and viable events. - Encourage the widespread adoption of the approach by introducing it to 300+ VET trainers in key organisations, so that the next generation is better prepared to promote sustainable festival/event practices. On completion we will have enabled current and future generations of festival and events’ professionals to improve their competences in relation to climate action and forward-thinking approaches to sustainable business/entrepreneurship. The long-term result will be a reduction in the environmental impact of the events sector and improved progress towards the national and European climate goals while ensuring that sector personnel are better equipped to deal with business planning for the future. Sustainable Festivals EU will achieve this by developing new, practical, industry-led training and introducing it directly to festival managers and outdoor events coordinators, as well as encouraging the VET sector to mainstream it in their provision. Our work will take place in two phases, producing the actual training materials and then achieving the results relating to their implementation. Subsequently, at least 150 individuals - festival managers and events coordinators, VET trainers and stakeholders - will have early access to the materials as part of our pilot testing and grow in knowledge and skills. Finally, partners will benefit from all the results in substantial ways. Staff from events’ focused partners will be the first to participate and benefit from the materials, leading to a competitive advantage in professional development, and increased understanding in how to bridge industry-led change with competence development. Our VET specialists will gain a strong boost to their environmental credentials and ability to contribute to the sustainability agenda.
Objectives: Transform how sustainability, both environmentally and from a business perspective, is understood, taught and practised in the festivals and outdoor events’ sector by developing, testing and introducing a suite of new educational resources which reaches at least 600+ stakeholders, VET trainers and professionals. - Enable 450+ festival and outdoor events professionals to develop strategic and practical environmental and business/entrepreneurial competences they need to produce more sustainable and viable events. - Encourage the widespread adoption of the approach by introducing it to 300+ VET trainers in key organisations, so that the next generation is better prepared to promote sustainable festival/event practices
Our sector was faced with the biggest challenge imaginable. With thousands of events across Europe cancelled for 2020, the future of the festivals sector looked bleak due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial security and safety of many people working in the industry were under threat. But another crisis pertained. Festivals and outdoor events have huge ecological footprints. Faced with the ambitious climate and environmental goals proposed by the EU Green Deal to be more responsive. The project partners were motivated to introduce a new methodology for training festival/outdoor events’ professionals to adopt new business models and reduce the environmental impact of their events. The needs were i) Festival managers and outdoors events’ coordinators - Were unaware of the breadth of practices implicated in sustainability and the new processes/products/services in the marketplace (environmental) - Lack the skills to navigate the cost implications, innovate in their business models and lead change ii) VET providers needed to update their events’ management curricula, as well as scale up the teaching of environmental competences iii) Need to understand how to identify and champion new sustainable business models