A Greener Festival (AGF) has launched a stamp of approval to provide green suppliers with independent and trusted verification and recognition of their sustainability actions.

AGF, a not-for-profit company committed to helping events, festivals, and venues around the world adopt environmentally efficient practices, has created a stamp of approval, enabling industry suppliers to demonstrate independently verified green credentials to their customers.

To attain the new stamp, suppliers will need to demonstrate a commitment to supporting biodiversity, and reducing their organisation’s emissions and waste across the company’s operations, purchases and investment. The supplier assessment will consider the organisation’s approach to applicable key elements of environmental sustainability including energy, food and beverage, transport, waste management, water, plastics and packaging, social responsibility, as well as its policy and strategies for dealing with hazardous materials and reductions in CO2 emissions.

The new certification will help events, festivals and tours identify verified green suppliers more easily, reducing the time and overhead of having to undertake their own internal supplier assessments. For suppliers with the new logo/stamp, it will reduce the effort required to demonstrate their green credentials to prospective customers. 

Mark Ward, production director, at Proper Proper Productions, said: “I’ve had so many conversations over so many years with major touring artists around why isn’t there something like a ‘kitemark’ so we can see who is really good at doing this stuff. For the industry to have certification now from AGF – a known, trusted and proven source – is a huge positive. In many ways it’s a gamechanger.”

Claire O’Neill, CEO of AGF, commented: “Ensuring an event, tour or venue is as green as possible can be resource heavy and confusing, and it depends significantly upon the action and engagement of the suppliers. Those who are taking action to change our industry for the better deserve recognition, and if we can help to reduce the resource burden to find and evidence Greener suppliers at the same time we can effect change more quickly.”

Sustainability is high on the agenda in the music and live events industry and more venues and festivals are demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability and reduction of environmental impacts by implementing a variety of actions so it is a natural progression for all businesses and suppliers within the sector to follow the same ethos.