At height of summer festival season, UK music gets a green boost.

Julie’s Bicycle, the organisation that helps the music industry to reduce carbon emissions, has launched an online tool to help festivals measure, analyse, report and act on their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as part of their post-event review.  The IG (Industry Green) Tools are available free of charge to any creative sector business in the UK, and provide a tailored approach to measuring and recording annual GHG emissions for festivals and outdoor events, venues and office spaces. Julie’s Bicycle Director Alison Tickell told us that “Julie’s Bicycle aims to take the guesswork out of how the music industry can reduce its impact on the climate and our shared environment.  Our IG Tools will help organisations like festivals and music venues understand where emissions are happening and what they can do over the long term to cut them.  Measuring how you’re doing is the first step towards tackling the urgent challenge of climate change”. And Melvin Benn from Latitude, Leeds and Reading promoters  Festival Republic said “In 2008 over a million festival goers gathered to share music and company. Many festivals have made real efforts to reduce environmental degradation. recycling waste, waste vegetable oil biodiesel, locally sourced food supplies, responsible water use, composting, and occasionally on-site renewable energy have been part of festival planning for some time now. In their beautiful locations greenfield festivals can, and some do, strongly communicate the ethics of sustainability. But we need to do much more, starting with the reduction of GHG emissions”.  Currently Julie’s Bicycle also has IG Tools in development to help measure CO2 from touring, recording studios, retail, distribution, and manufacturing facilities.  Continuing updates are available online at: www.juliesbicycle.com . Julies Bicycle say that the IG Tools aim to further unite the music industry by contributing to climate-impact benchmarking.  Benchmarks are indicators of environmental performance, gained by comparing an individual organisation with the average carbon emissions of similar organisations. Benchmarks allow a company to say with confidence whether their work to reduce GHGs meets or exceeds broader standards of best practice - and drive change.  Our own Greener Festival Awards scheme recommends that applicants make use of the IG tool for festivals if they need help or guidance in measuring their carbon impacts – which is a key awards criterion. The tools are also key to the process for businesses seeking an IG mark, an “eco-label” certifying creative organisations (or suppliers) who have a demonstrable commitment to carbon emission reduction and environmental responsibility.Photo  Ben Challis (at Glastonbury 2009)