World Environment Day might not be until tomorrow, but Festival HQ are releasing news today of their contribution to green issues.
Having 50,000 adoring fans in the palm of your hands is a powerful position to be in, so hats off to John Giddings for teaming up with Ed Miliband (he of Department of Energy and Climate Change [DECC] fame) to encourage Isle of Wight Festival goers to sign up to the campaign to reach a global deal on greenhouse gas emissions.
Ed Miliband won’t be there in person, but will be screened on the main stage throughout the three days of the festival, sending a message to festival goers to sign up to the campaign to reduce global greenhouse gases.
We understand that The Isle of Wight Festival is the only music festival partnering with the DECC this year and this is down to their actions in working towards making the festival a more sustainable event.
Eco a-go-go
There are a number of ‘eco actions’ that the festival have taken on board, including the use of more renewable energy; launching the headline environmental campaign Give Bees a Chance (check out the podcast) as well as encouraging responsible travel.
Ed Miliband, had this to say “Congratulations to the Isle of Wight Festival for going green and helping to spread the message on cutting carbon.
“The UK Government is working hard to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, and we’ll be heading to Copenhagen in December determined to achieve an historic international deal to tackle climate change”
“But we all need to play a part in helping to combat global warming. Through the partnership between DECC and the Isle of Wight Festival’s environmental consultants Eco Action Partnership, we’ll be able to spread the message about the importance of individual actions, while urging people to sign up to a pledge calling on all Governments to reach an agreement on global action.”
To thank the festival for getting involved in spreading the word the DECC have donated solar panels to power some of the backstage area.
John Giddings, Isle of Wight Festival Promoter comments: “Last year we employed Eco Action Partnership to implement a five year plan to make the festival more sustainable and together we are now in the second year of what is already a well received programme of Eco Actions, tackling our main negative impacts which are Waste, Travel and Energy. The collaboration with the Department of Energy and Climate Change allows us to promote the importance of reducing emissions on a much bigger scale which will hopefully send a strong message to other businesses and individuals that by working together towards a common goal we can make a huge difference to the future of our planet.”
With one week to go until the festival – we’ll have plenty of festival news coming your way over the next seven days.
Image: Crop of Ed Miliband taken from image by net_efekt
