Environmental nonprofit A Greener Festival (AGF) has announced the recipients of the A Greener Festival Award in 2021.
Launched in 2007, the AGF Awards is the gold standard for festivals and events to reduce their environmental impact.
In the latest round of awards, eight events across five countries have been recognised including Paradise City (Belgium), Elrow Town (Netherlands) and Deep Tropics (US).
Recipients received awards across four categories: outstanding, highly commended, commended and improvers.
The festivals and events were awarded based on a rigorous assessment, site visit and post-event analysis of their sustainability actions, with assessors looking at 11 areas, including transport, waste, power, water and local area impacts.
According to AGF, the standards have been developed over 15 years in consultation with 1000s of events, event services, suppliers and sustainability experts across key areas assessed.
The 2021 AGF Awards will be presented during the Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI 14) and International Live Music Conference (ILMC 34) on Friday 29 April at the Royal Garden Hotel, London.
“WE’RE IMPRESSED BY THESE EVENTS THAT NOT ONLY TOOK PLACE BUT ALSO REDUCED NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS”
AGF CEO Claire O’Neill says: “We’re impressed by these events that not only took place in 2021, which was a feat in itself, but also maintained and developed their actions to reduce negative environmental impacts and enhance positive community impacts.
“We’re happy to be able to award this certification. Record numbers of events worldwide have applied for AGF certification in 2022. This shows the appetite and need for genuine action for sustainability, and the expectation from audiences and local authorities alike for events to prove their minimum environmental standards.”
Gilles De Decker, co-founder of Paradise City Festival, adds: “Claiming you are sustainable means taking responsibility. AGF has been auditing Paradise City Festival for several editions now and it is thanks to their valuable feedback and detailed analysis of the ecological footprint of our festival that we can improve year by year. So this recognition as one of the most sustainable festivals worldwide means a lot to our team.”
Joel Atchinson, regenerative design and co-founder, Deep Tropics, comments: “Working in collaboration with the AGF team was incredibly rewarding and expansive! Even with the great success of producing a climate positive event, the depth of their survey and data collection revealed several blindspots of which we are very grateful to have identified. We feel like our team has a clearer roadmap, and a more refined approach to build on into 2022 and beyond!”
A full list of AGF Award winners for 2021 is below:
Paradise City (Belgium)
“Outstanding” A Greener Festival Award 2021
elrow Town (Netherlands)
“Highly Commended” A Greener Festival Award 2021
Cridem pel Clima (Spain)
“Commended” A Greener Festival Award 2021
Deep Tropics (USA)
“Commended” A Greener Festival Awards 2021
Festival de la Luz (Spain)
“Commended” A Greener Festival Award 2021
Lost Village (UK)
“Improvers” A Greener Festival Award 2021
Madblue (Spain)
“Improvers” A Greener Festival Award 2021
South Summit (Spain)
“Improvers” A Greener Event Award 2021