10 Carbon Busting Greener Festival Tips
The Guardian recently reported that a study by Julie’s bicycle, revealed that large music festivals (i.e more than 40,000 people) can generate around more the 2,000 tonnes of CO2.
This year I’ll be going to Glastonbury Festival, and Camp Bestival and living by 10 greener festival tips as The GreenFestivalMan.
Number TEN - Fashion
Don’t waste money buying new clothes that will get trashed. Shop around charity or thrift Shops for pre-festival bargains. A large number of UK festivals have charity shops on site.
Number NINE - Toilets
This applies to guys more than girls. Festival toilets can be pretty grim but less grim than the thought of 10′000s of people urinating at random in a field. Doing so is tantamount, to empting the content of a large toilet right over the entire festival. Poor santitation = nasty stomach upsets and ecosystem pollution.
Number EIGHT - Lighting
It’s dark you need light. Use renewable power torches and lights, like the Puma Dynamo Torch available from EcoOutlet.co.uk. (It even has a strobe light).
Lights comes in all forms from solar to water powered.
Number SEVEN - Tent pegs
Made from potato starch, Millets.co.uk have launched a range of biodegradable tent pegs from GreenStake. Reusable, but won’t ha
rm wildlife if you lose them in the ground.
Number SIX - Fire!
If like me you need fire be sociable and gather round someone else’s.
Use deadwood, don’t pull any branches down. Using charcoal? make sure it’s from a sustainable source. Charcoal in the UK should be FSC certified and can be sourced from British woodlands.
This year I’ll be using the WoodGas Biomass Camp Stove. Originally designed for developing countries to minimise smoke pollution. There are only a few UK stockists at the moment, but a larger number in the USA.
Number FIVE - Power
Use recharagable batteries or personal renewable power sources.
A number of personal solar panels are available to charge various different electronics like MP3 players, batteries and mobile phones. Most can be found for reasonable rates on the internet.
A recent addition to the pack, is the HYmini wind powered generator and handheld charger.
Number FOUR - Cleanliness
Use natural, bio degradable, wet wipes. Better still, take a flannel, remember those?
Use biodegradable soap and Eco-friendly toothpaste. Many ‘non-green’ hygiene products release nasty chemicals. These chemicals eventually get into food chains.
Number THREE - Rubbish / Trash
Leave no trace. Leave nothing but footprints. Use on-site recycling facilities or take home waste to recycle and/or compost.
Don’t trash your tent or burn it, give it to an organisation like Globalhand.org for recycling. If it does get trashed, salvage the useful bits. Tent poles can make good flag poles. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Number TWO - Food
Buy local, eat seasonal – try out the local food stalls. Meat eaters can cut back their carbon footprints but eating more vegetarian food. Cut it out or cut it back. This year at Glastonbury I’ll be only eating vegetarian food, but only if I can find another 15 meat eaters to join me. Sign up on www.PledgeBank.Com/GoVegetarian .
If going vegetarian isn’t your bag try to make the special effort to get something that’s local, free range and preferably organic. The meat tastes better that way and will have taken less carbon to produce.
A good range of organic and fairtrade museli and granola bars are available (excellent munchie food).
Decant soft drinks into a re-usable bottle, like CamelBak’s innovative BPA free range.
Alcohol from local breweries will quench the festival thirst. Find yourself stuck with a bottle but no way of getting in to it? Show your friends how old stuff can be reused. EcoOutlet.co.uk retail bottle openers made from recycled metal spoons.
- Number ONE -Transportation
Most of your Carbon footprint originates from the way you travel to the event. Use public transport where possible, many festivals across the world can be accessed by trains and coaches. Rock am Ring in Nurberg and Glastonbury included.
Going by car? arrange a lift share via liftshare.org or find a travelling companion on boards like eFestivals.com or networking sites like isanyonegoingto.com. Whatever your means offset it a few times using audited carbon offset companies like Climatecare.org.
Have a happy Festival and Camping Season. See you at Glastonbury or Camp Bestival.
GreenFestivalMan
(aka Gareth, GGG Editor)
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The Green Festival Man says ‘Festival Season is Upon Us’
This year I’m trying to reduce my carbon footprint at Glastonbury Festival by living by 10 Carbon Busting Green Festival Tips.
Recently a number of GreenGuys and GreenGirls have written about the environmental and health benefits of going vegetarian. Some reports even say vegetarians have half the carbon footprint of their meat eating counterparts.
People go vegetarian for many different reasons, but for me it’s about the environment.
I’m looking for 15 other meat-eaters to join me between the 25th - 29th June 2008, and try out vegetarianism.
WILL YOU JOIN ME?
Join in the fun at http://www.pledgebank.com/GoVegetarian
OR text ‘pledge GoVegetarian’ to 60022 (in the UK only)
The idea has already generated a lot of lively debate on eFestivals and fits in nicely with Glastonbury’s attempt to lead the way in Green Festivals in 2008. Much of their marketing material carrying the strapline ‘Leave no trace, Love the farm’.
Over the coming weeks I’ll be reviewing a number of the latest eco-camping products and publishing my 10 Greener Festival/Camping Tips on GreenGuysGlobal.
I’ll be writing from the festival on my environmental finds, and asking people what they are doing in their lives to help reduce their carbon footprint, and finding difficult about making changes in their lives.
Join the group ‘Follow The Green Festival Man’ on Facebook, and become a friend of the Green Festival Man on Myspace http://www.myspace.com/GreenFestivalMan.
Look forward to chatting with you soon.
GreenFestivalMan
(aka GGG Editor Gareth)
PS Keep watching this website for my GreenFestivalTips later in the week.
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One morning I was walking to work in London when I passed a woman unlocking her shop on Old Bond Street.
Miya Coffee, Carbon Offset, 100% Fairtrade and 100% Organic!
Something new has appeared in the canteen at work. I thought it might be worth a mention here. Miya Coffee claims to be the first coffee in the world that is 100% Fairtrade, 100% organic and the estimated 7000 miles it has taken to get to the UK from Columbia is all offset.
There is a lot of contention over the success of carbon offsetting programs but I like to take the simple view that they have to be better than doing nothing. Miya Coffee contributes to reforestation projects in Kibale National Park, wind turbines in India and the supply of biomass ovens to people in India and smokeless stoves in Honduras.
Just to make sure though, Miya triple the total estimated delivery distance and offset 21,000 miles rather than 7,000.
It tastes pretty good too. Next time you buy a coffee why not mention it.
Useful links:
http://www.miya-coffee.co.uk/index.html
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10 Carbon Busting Greener Festival Tips by Gareth on June 14th, 2008
The Guardian recently reported that a study by .
GM crop, global hunger, world food.
Frankenstein foods, biodiversity loss, corporate takeover of the countryside. These have all been given as reasons to hate GM. That’s my experience in the UK.
Some Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in poorer countries support the use of GM crop. These NGOs see it as another problem: the gap between the rich and the poor, between people that grow in order to survive, and those that grow for profit.
Corporate names like Syngenta and Monsanto have become dirty words for opponents of GM crop. Sometimes options are limited, drought, pest resistant GM crop? or famine? Some can not afford the choice. GM producers need vision to survive. If they want to help create the future perhaps they could identify ways to work closer with local communities to tackle food and environmental challenges together. Perhaps they could grow back the rain-forests, or grow plants on the moon? All companies can pursue ethical profit.
World food prices are on the up. Globally this means more people starve to death. But with that comes resource wars, famine, and mass immigration. Oh and the price of bread goes up in your local shop. (Ahhh - That’s why developing countries like GM crop).
GM food could still provide solutions. such as better use of natural fertilizers and local crop varieties. A UN report in April 2008 called for more local food production (1) . Developing countries will need to adapt quickly to survive in a world without the same levels of trade in cash crops with developed countries addicted to unseasonal, flown in food. I only hope that the World Bank accounts for this in their policy making.
Why do we hate those GM crops so much? Well at heart we’ve always been a nation of farmers in the UK (and many other countries). We can still afford the luxury of non-GM varieties. For the moment I prefer vegetables that haven’t been produced so intensively. Those that have used natural fertilizers, as opposed to those generated from oil.
Developed countries don’t have the same concerns as non-developed ones. We do not have wide-scale hunger and nutrition problems. But we do have a legitimate concern for our environment.
I love those local varieties of crop, those that help regional agriculture and resist the development of crop mono-cultures. They make me feel humble. I’m proud of Jersey Potatoes and British Strawberries. I support fair-trade for our farmers. I don’t want to see one type of wheat, I want choice.
The argument against GM is not one against feeding the needy, its one against the alteration of our national natural environment.
(1) UN report demands urgent action on soaring food prices. The Independent, April 2008.
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This video made my day.
Welcome New Editor Gareth!
I have some fantastic news for Green Guys Global - Here is our first brand new editor since the site launched with its original team!
Welcome to Gareth Edward Jones!
Take a look at Gareth’s editor profile page to see why the ‘Edward‘ part is important as well as all of the amazing experience he’s had and plans for his new role at GGG.
Gareth has certainly already inspired me with his recent guest editor article ‘Waste - Power to the Consumer‘ and I have no doubt at all that he’ll motivate us even more with his energy and ideas.
To find out more about Gareth check out his Green Festival Man myspace page and his Arctic Survival Challenge page on Justgiving.
Great to have you on the GGG team Gareth and happy blogging! x
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10 Carbon Busting Greener Festival Tips by Gareth on June 14th, 2008
The Guardian recently reported that a study by .
The Green Festival Man says ‘Festival Season is Upon Us’ by Gareth on June 10th, 2008
This year I'm trying to reduce my carbon footprint at Glastonbury Festival by living by 10 Carbon Busting Green Festival Tips.
Miya Coffee, Carbon Offset, 100% Fairtrade and 100% Organic! by Gareth on May 30th, 2008
Something new has appeared in the canteen at work.
Welcome Green Guys Global!
It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed since 9 very excited ex City Hippy editors began their brand new venture with Green Girls Global.
During that time we have discovered so much about making our lives greener, written over 300 posts, gained 4 fantastic new editors, been featured in The Times and Marie Claire and now, the biggest celebration of all, launched this brand new Green Guys Global blog!
I’m very happy to have our new Green Guys on the team and from what I have learned about them over the past few months I know they’ll do a great job.
Please welcome Jez, Andy, Adam, Joel, Charles & Asi. Visit the editors page to find out more about them and drop them a line to say ‘hi’.
Show our guys your support by leaving comments or getting in touch to let them know what you think, be a part of the GGG community.
Don’t forget to sign up to our new newsletter where you’ll get a round-up of both Green Girls and Green Guys Global news.
Whilst you’re around pop over to Green Girls Global, we’ve had a make-over to match the guys’ new site too.
Finally, if you would like to join either of the GGG blogs as a full time or guest editor then please get in touch.
Well there’s not much more left to say except for thank you for reading our posts, linking to us, talking about us and helping us get to this one year milestone. May there be many more to come!
Over to you gentlemen….
Vicky x
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