Julie’s Bicycle has awarded fourteen UK festivals its Industry Green certificates, with Shambala becoming the first to get the full three-star award for running almost entirely on renewable energy. Julie’s Bicycle director Alison Tickell told CMU: “The challenge of reducing impacts while growing the business is being tackled head on by this brave group of festivals, It’s not always comfortable to put the green brand to the test. This group of festivals are doing it for real” .The full list of newly awarded festivals is: Big Chill, Glastonbury, Grass Roots, Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, Isle Of Wight Festival, Latitude, Leeds Festival, Lovebox, Reading Festival, Shambala, Sonisphere, T In The Park, Truck and Wood Festival.
Also out this week are the nominations for the Music Week 2011 Julie’s Bicycle Green Business Award. The six finallists are Firefly Solar CIC, KOKO, The NEC Group, The Premises Studios Ltd, The Sage Gateshead and Truck Enterprises for the Wood Festival.
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: 
