Green Events Header

Yourope and GO Group are once more contributing heavily to Europe’s leading conference for sustainability in the live music and event industry, GreenEvents Europe in Bonn/Germany on Nov 25 and 26 2013.

As in previous years the conference will offer high-level input by speakers of international reputation without neglecting practical relevance and direct applicability. Meet speakers from spearhead institutions such as Green Music Initiative, Green Festival Alliance, Powerful Thingking, Slow Food Youth, Fareshare and Energieagentur NRW, experts and scientists from Bucks New University, Cologne University, Ökoinstitut e.V. and Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen as well as top panellists from major events like Roskilde Festival, Rock Am Ring, Shambala Festival, Way Out West, We Love Art/We Love Green Festival, Rock For People , Cabaret Vert Festival, Exit Festival, Open Air St. Gallen and Evangelischer Kirchentag.

GreenEvents Europe offers top level input – without losing touch of the practical implementation. Connect with experts and professionals involved in event organisation, listen to other’s opinion, start or intensify networking, exchange knowledge and best practise ideas. As last year, there will be plenty of opportunities to network and interact. Please find the latest program (subject to changes) here and here for speaker info.

For the first time a Beginner Workshop on green event management for participants with no or little knowledge is offered prior to the regular conference on Sunday nov 24th, afternoon. Followed by our GreenEvents warm-up on Sunday evening.

Register here and check special offers for Yourope members, students and companies who send more than one delegate.

Topics discussed with all parties involved (promoters, venues, suppliers etc.) are

  • The waste business – How it works and what the value of the waste collected at events is
  • Catering without meat – Is it possible? Effect on the footprint and consequences for event organizers
  • Greener Arena – What can they do to promote sustainable events?
  • Upcycling – Save money and resources by converting worthless into valuable things
  • Electricity and power – Try out new concepts small scale that can be moved to the „real world“
  • GreenEvents Technic Forum – Technical solutions to special problems
  • Camping and waste – How festivals can join forces to make things better
  • Audience Attitude – Do people behave better in a clean environment?
  • Good Catering – Smart solutions and good practice
  • Down The Loo II” – Human left-behinds and smart mobile and sustainable solutions for events
  • Plastics – Do we produce too much, can we avoid it? Consequences for us and the planet
  • Degrowth and events – Alternative concepts for triple bottom line
  • Talking Cups – Biodegradable vs. multi-use – which are more sustainable ?

GreenEvents Europe is funded by:
Foundation for Environment and Development North Rhine Westphalia

GreenEvents Europe partners:
GO Group (Green Operations Europe)
Yourope (The European Festival Association)
IBIT, Internationales Bildungs- & Trainingszentrum für Veranstaltungssicherheit
Bundesamt für Naturschutz
Bucks New University
Green Music Initiative
DB Deutsche Bahn
Musikwoche 

Green Events Europe is an event of:
Sounds For Nature Foundation e.V. in association with
BN*PD | Bonn Promotion Dept. | Funk & Schmidt GbR

Nominations announced for 2nd Green Operations Award

After the success of the first presentation of the “Green Operations Award“ at the European Festival Awards 2012 with winners We Love Green (FRA) GO Group once again is responsibe for the green category of the most important pan-european festival awards. We are grateful for the trust of Yourope (the European Festival Association) and the EFA organisation in our green competence. GO Group takes care of the selection of the Green Operations Award jury, long and short list selection and the presentation of the award winner.

This is the long list (in alphabethical order) of 18 festivals from ten European countries nominated by the GO Awards jury members:

Green Operations Award coordinator and Yourope’s anchorman for green issues Holger Jan Schmidt (GreenEvents Europe) says: “What I have learnt in those first almost three years of the GO Group is that the festival scene is the true spearhead of the green events movement in Europe. I come across new actions, initiatives and events with wonderful ideas and great efforts almost every other day. And so we are happy to present a great long list of festivals nominated by our jury members. To be honest, it is impossible to award the greenest festival in Europe. They are so different in size, venue, audience, philosophy and history. What we do is the true acknowledgement and a reward for superb action, innovation or improvement. By preparing the long list for this second edition I already know that we will have a great winner. There are so many wonderful festivals with impressive initiatives in this list – I can’t do more than applaud to those. All winners already!“

This is the definition for the “green oscar“ of the European festival scene:

Green Operations Award
European Festival Award for Green Excellence
The Green Operations Award is an annual award presented by Yourope and the GO Group. Its target group are festivals that have made a significant contribution to or achievement towards developing more sustainable events. Examples for respective achievements are practises and systems introduced at their own event, the development of good practices, which they have shared with other events, a specific innovation or continuous improvements over a number of years. The Award is given out by a panel made up of experts that are not directly linked to any specific festival with the exception that the previous year’s winner will be invited to cast a vote for the following year’s award only.

The Green Operations Award – Jury 2013 reads like this:

The short list, selected by the jury will be announced together with the other short lists of the EFA in early November. The winner of the Green Operations Award will be announced and presented during the European Festival Awards ceremony in Groningen on wed January 15 2014 . The ceremony will be held at the Oosterport on the opening night of next year’s EurosonicNoorderslag festival and conference.

Contact:
Holger Jan Schmidt  | Sounds For Nature Foundation e.V. | Auguststr. 18 | 53229 Bonn
Tel.: +49 (0) 228 20 70 80 7 | Fax: +49 (0) 228 20 70 80 8
www.soundsfornature.de | www.green-events-europe.eu
 | www.go-group.org