Bristol harbour festival's carbon footprint calculation and strategy for further environmental impact reduction

Abstract

The Bristol Harbour Festival (BHF) is the South West's largest free event. It is a three day celebration of Bristol's unique creativity and heritage, organised by Bristol City Council's (BCC) Arts and Culture Team. This report sets out a phased strategy for BCC to adopt which aims to reduce the event's environmental impact to achieve a long-term goal of becoming carbon-neutral. This is in relation to four specific areas; energy usage, waste and water, travel to the event, and improvements in methodology for measuring environmental impact (the carbon footprint). The event's environmental impact was determined by calculating the carbon footprint of BHF (a contemporary but not holistic measurement of environmental impact) using the current industry standard Julie's Bicycle Online Industry Green Tool. The carbon footprint calculation is based on raw data from contractor bills provided by BCC from energy, water and waste consumption. It also estimated audience numbers and mode of travel percentages carried by analysing the Visitor Survey results provided by BCC. Results showed that the footprint increased in 2010 due to the increase in audience numbers. Audience travel is the largest contributor to the carbon footprint. A critique of the calculator tool was carried out, and an email interview with a key informant from Julie's Bicycle clarified aspects. The report then looks into best practice examples and how similar events are reducing their environmental impact through various innovations, to include these in the strategy. This can then also be used to support the current application for A Greener Festival Award.