CARBON AWARE PRODUCTIONS
CARBON AWARE PRODUCTIONS
REDUCE YOUR EVENT'S CARBON EMISSIONS
Cutting down carbon footprints is achievable, gratifying and increasingly unavoidable!
The guide below gives tips and links about how to do this for public & private events. Many are obvious but easily overlooked. Power & travel are the most carbon hungry aspect of productions and therefore the focus of CAPs carbon calculator, however changes made in every category will be beneficial.
TRAVEL
USE LOCAL COMPANIES & CREW It will smash down your emissions.
FAVOUR PRE-EVENT VIDEO CALLS in place of face to face meetings where possible.
WORK FROM HOME If everyone working in offices worked from home on one day each wk you would reduce your travel and office Co2e output by a fifth.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT Encourage guests and attendees to arrive by train or bus by making it as easy & appealing as possible! Minibus shuttles to the event from local stations? Offer cheaper tickets if hosting a ticketed event?
ELECTRIC CARS Try London taxi co LEVC.
Encourage car shares using Zip Cars & ask for one of their electric vehicles.
PEDAL COURIERS use 90% less emissions than standard couriers. Companies are popping up throughout the UK. Try Velocious for Bristol, Pedal Me for London, Pedal & Post for Oxford.
DRIVE CAREFULLY Cutting your speed from 80mph to 55mph and being less 'heavy' on the pedals when braking and accelerating can reduce your emissions by a third.
FLYING
"The hard truth is that we are a long way off putting a long-haul passenger plane into the sky without burning around 100 tonnes of fossil fuel...there is no getting around the need to be frugal with flying. Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise." How Bad Are Bananas Mike Berners-Lee
If you can't avoid flying, this is good to know: FLY ECONOMY. Business class tickets produce twice the carbon emissions as economy because your seat uses up more of the plane.
POWER
GREEN ENERGY PROVIDERS Have you made the switch? 100% renewable electricity has a limited carbon footprint. Ask your production office, studio, caterers if they have taken the plunge and switched too.
ELECTRIC GENERATORS with no noise and no fumes are here. Check out Green Voltage. For hybrid generators try the Panalux Hydbrid H40. For ultra low emission generators try On Bio. They all result in less emissions and reduced costs.
LOW ENERGY LIGHTING The lights are cooler, lighter, have no flicker or buzzing and the reduced energy needed to power them means reduced costs for everyone.
CATERING
CHOOSE CATERERS WHO PRIORITISE LOCALLY GROWN SEASONAL FOOD. There's no point in having Peruvian asparagus or Californian grapes, they have to be flown in (unless your event is in Peru or California)! Try The Red Hot Box Company or Green Tea Live.
CONSIDER VEGETARIAN & VEGAN FOOD It can be 60 times less carbon hungry than food made with meat reared on deforested land.
ASK FOR REUSABLE CROCKERY & CUTLERY Anything disposable, whether biodegradable or not, is unfortunately a wasted resource. For London events check out china hire from Rayners and enamel hire from London Event Hire.
REFILLABLE WATER BOTTLES & REUSABLE COFFEE CUPS Encourage guests & event attendees to bring their own.
CHOOSE CANS OVER BOTTLES Glass bottled drinks are carbon hungry because they are heavy and more fuel is needed to transport them. Canned drinks are lighter and therefore better.
BUY WINE IN BOXES 3 bottles of wine have the equivalent carbon footprint to driving 385 miles in an average car! WINE BOXES or CARTONS reduce the weight & therefore footprint of the packaging by a factor of five. Try BIB Wines for the "first ever luxury bag in a box wine" The Independent.
SPLIT FOOD WASTE, GENERAL WASTE AND RECYCLING Separate your rubbish carefully on location. Badly sorted waste is generally incinerated or sent to landfill. London events, check out Quantum Waste.
LIMIT FOOD WASTE Upload leftover food to food sharing App Olio & to City Harvest.
WASTE
Sending recyclable rubbish to landfill produces Co2e in two ways; the emissions from the rotting process and the emissions needed to reproduce virgin products.
RECYCLE EVENT WASTE with companies like Quantum Waste. Unsorted waste will be sent to landfill or burned.
BIODEGRADABLE & COMPOSTABLE PACKAGING from companies like Vegware must be collected separately and sent to industrial compost facilities. It cannot be recycled with standard plastic.
Get Everyone On Board
To achieve Paris Climate Agreement targets the world needs to reduce its carbon emissions by 7.6% every year for the next decade. Amibtious? An understatement.
To make this happen really everyone needs to play their part from event organisers to anyone attending.
If you would like to recommend further eco friendly services nationwide please drop us a line.
AFTER MORE INFORMATION?
If you want a deep dive on how to reduce all carbon footprints read How Bad Are Banana by Mike Berners-Lee.