City of Adelaide commits to making events more sustainable

Adelaide is recognised as one of the world’s great festival cities, facilitating over 800 events every year and has recently introduced Sustainable Event Guidelines to help make events in the city more sustainable. 

Events play an important role in stimulating the local economy and fostering a creative and liveable city. For the 2016/17 financial year, City of Adelaide licensed and sponsored events attracted more than 3.85 million visitors to the city and generated more than $290 million in economic benefits for the state.

In recognition of its commitment to being one of the world’s first carbon neutral cities, the City of Adelaide has worked with the events industry to develop sustainability guidelines to support event organisers in becoming leaders in environmental change.

The guidelines focus on initiatives that reduce environmental impacts and deliver benefits for event organisers, attendees, industry and the community.

Lord Mayor of Adelaide Sandy Verschoor said that the guidelines would offer a tool to support event organisers to make their events more sustainable.

“Our city’s event organisers have told us that they want their events to be more sustainable and so we have worked with them to develop these guidelines to offer them practical support and to help them on their way to becoming more sustainable,” said Mayor Verschoor.

“We will start by applying them to City of Adelaide events, such as this year’s New Year’s Eve event in Elder Park, so we can test and trial the guidelines and find out what works and what could be a stumbling block, and how we can work through that.

“We are committed to partnering with the city’s event organisers to ensure their events thrive, flourish and contribute to the fabric and sustainability of the city.”

The Sustainable Event Guidelines have six focus areas with a total of 53 actions including waste reduction and recycling, energy efficiency and renewable energy, zero emissions transport, water efficiency, sustainable supply chain and measurement, marketing and engagement.

The guidelines are voluntary, with the City of Adelaide committed to supporting the event industry to become more sustainable over time. They are applicable to City of Adelaide events as well the events industry in general.

Mark Muller, Production Manager for WOMAD, said, “WOMADelaide supports the City of Adelaide’s Sustainable Event Guidelines and looks forward to working collaboratively with Council and industry to reduce the environmental impact of our city’s major events.”

Festivals Adelaide also supports the guidelines with Chief Executive Christie Anthoney saying, “Festivals Adelaide welcomes the City of Adelaide’s initiative to reduce our environmental footprint and will work with the City of Adelaide to lead the nation in the delivery of world class festivals.”

Click here to view the Guidelines.