From Swanage Carnival and Boomtown Fair to Glasgow City Council, Emily Ford delivers a crash course in making live dates more environmentally friendly ahead of a busy weekend for festivals and other gatherings.
Councils across the UK are setting bold net-zero targets, but one area often escapes alignment: live events. Festivals, concerts, and large-scale gatherings may be temporary, but their environmental impacts such as energy use, waste and the carbon emissions can linger long after the final act.
Despite the growing urgency around climate action, sustainability rarely features prominently in event licensing. This blind spot leaves councils with few tools to proactively manage environmental impact, even though they’re often left dealing with the consequences. The question is no longer if local authorities can influence sustainability at events – but how.
What really drives emissions at events (and what’s often missed)
A typical event’s carbon footprint extends well beyond its site boundaries. Audience travel is often the single largest emissions source, especially when festivals draw national or international crowds. Behind the scenes, energy use is a major factor, historically reliant on diesel-powered generators. Freight and logistics, crew travel, supply chains and waste also contribute significantly, yet often fall outside what most councils or organisers actively track. Without accountability or shared frameworks, key areas of impact are too easily overlooked.
Where councils can step in
Local authorities may feel limited, but they already have levers at their disposal: planning conditions, event permits, infrastructure investment, and procurement guidance. The challenge is using them effectively, without creating red tape that deters cultural events.
Boomtown Fair provides a compelling case study. Winchester City Council required the festival to ensure at least 30% of attendees arrived via public transport. In response, Boomtown implemented an integrated coach travel and ticketing scheme that made low-emission travel the default, not the exception. The stipulation became part of the licence, proving councils can directly shape event sustainability through regulation.
Similarly, Swanage Town Council banned single-use plastics at local events. The Swanage Carnival now uses a reusable cup hire and return system across all bars and stalls, cutting plastic waste at the source and protecting the local environment. Meanwhile, in Glasgow, the city council has introduced a requirement for large park-based events to submit pre-event Environmental Plans and post-event Sustainability Reports.
These include measures across energy, waste, travel, biodiversity and even climate risk scenarios – a growing priority as extreme weather becomes more common. TRNSMT and other large-scale events must now report how they’ve delivered on these goals, with transparency built into the process.
Internationally, Amsterdam has invested in permanent electrical hookups at major event sites – like the SAIL maritime festival – so that organisers can plug into cleaner grid electricity rather than using diesel generators.
Meanwhile, in Vancouver, every event applying for a public permit must complete a Green Event Form, scoring their commitments on waste, energy, and transport. These approaches succeed because they don’t rely on voluntary action. Instead, they embed environmental goals into planning in clear, practical, and enforceable ways.
Lessons from the private sector
At Hope Solutions, we’ve worked with some of the UK’s most recognisable event brands to embed sustainability into operations and partnerships. A current example is our work with DF Concerts to develop a Carbon Reduction Plan across their Scottish events. The plan is aligned with Live Nation’s Green Nation Charter, but also with Glasgow’s Net Zero Strategy and Scotland’s 2045 national targets.
We help organisers tackle key impact areas, from audience travel to energy sourcing, while also planning for site-specific risks, like extreme weather. By working collaboratively with local councils and suppliers, we ensure that sustainability efforts are ambitious yet achievable. Councils that are willing to be partners in this process rather than gatekeepers see better results.
The recent Green Events Code of Practice pilot, adopted by councils in Manchester, Bristol, Reading and others, showed how shared standards can drive rapid improvement. In that trial, 60% of organisers added new sustainability actions as a direct result of council input, proving the power of collaborative pressure.
Embedding sustainability into public space is everyone’s business
Local authorities don’t have to go it alone, but they are uniquely positioned to lead. Through thoughtful permit conditions, shared frameworks, and constructive engagement, they can push the events sector to meet the same standards they set for housing, transport, and planning. Sustainability in public space is everyone’s responsibility. By embedding it into licensing and collaboration, councils can help ensure the show goes on – without costing the planet.
Emily Ford is Hope Solutions, a global environmental sustainability consultancy leader specialising in media, entertainment, music and cultural industries.
Image: freestocks / Shutterstock
More Case Studies, Features and Industry Insight:
Should London rethink Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land to solve housing crisis?
Quick question: what is tropospheric ozone, and how dangerous is it?
Death by 1000 cuts: Reform UK councils and net zero