Green policy framework the basis for Splore organisers

In October last year, Splore was the first New Zealand festival to receive a Greener Festival Award. Photo / Jason Burgess

The Splore Festival, last year confirmed as one of the 36 greenest festivals on the planet, is this year aiming for even greater heights. Held at Tapapakanga Regional Park from February 20-22, the organisers are this year aiming for an 85% diversion of rubbish from landfill. Last year, 73% of the waste was kept out of the bin.

To get there, they've asked for help from festival goers'.

The majority of landfill waste, about 60%, came out of the campsites on the last day of Splore 2014, creating a huge load on the festival waste sorting team.

To combat that problem, an online form has been accessible to this year's punters, who have emailed suggestions to cut down the waste stream. The goals are twofold; to utilise the collective knowledge of the crowd, and to make festival goers more aware of what they are bringing to the festival and what they take home.

Splore 2014 produced over 13,000kg of waste but, after sorting, just 3500kg was landfilled. The rest was recycled, re-used or composted.

A large part of this success was achieved through the festival-wide communication to attendees - from the ubiquitous festival philosophy and mantra - 'Love and respect your space, leave no trace', found everywhere from the festival website homepage to large electronic signs at the event itself, to the friendly volunteers from Waste Against Waste, the crew who will wash your crockery and cutlery with solar heated water, and the volunteers at the waste stations who helpfully oversee the separation of compostables from recyclables.

Festival attendees are also encouraged to 'pre-cycle', which starts at the store they buy their festival provisions from. Those attending are encouraged to eschew packaging, and strip everything back to the bare minimum before setting off for the festival - hopefully with a bunch of others sharing a car or in one of the Splore buses (three quarters of the emissions of the festival come from the transport to the park and home again).

The ripple effect of insisting only on sustainable supply chains spreads the Splore effect much further than the boundariesof Tapapakanga Regional Park. Not only does the festival have a strict procurement policy, but all traders applying to be at the event must meet robust sustainability requirements.

Food traders must source local food and ingredients where possible (the Clevedon Farmers' Market is busy the week prior), and coffee sponsors must serve only Fairtrade coffee. Preference is also given to traders serving organic food and beverages.
Ethically produced and Fairtrade arts, crafts and merchandise are also encouraged.
For temporary constructions at the site, those using recycled construction elements will be favoured, and VOC-free paints only will be accepted.

In the run-up to the festival, and following the event, sustainable transport, couriers and freight companies are used wherever possible.

The Splore organisers have invested in the SEMS tool kit (sustainable event management) to use as a sustainability framework for management and suppliers to work from across all the festival operations. SEMS will also provide a comprehensive post event sustainability audit.

Splore is also the first festival to be accredited as a 'Conscious Consumer's festival. Conscious Consumers is a business accreditation programme and marketing platform that helps hospitality businesses respond effectively to increasing consumer demand for environmentally and socially responsible products and services.

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