Leeds Festival measures its carbon footprint annually, and in 2019 received five out of five stars in the Julie’s Bicycle Creative Green Certification.

We employ a dedicated sustainability team who work as an integral part of the festival planning process, developing a sustainability action plan for the festival and ensuring these actions are undertaken on site.

We know that we cannot tackle climate change alone, and as such we support climate positive initiatives in the broader music industry. Leeds Festival is part of Vision 2025, contributed to the The Show Must Go On Reports in 2020 and 2015, and has signed up to Music Declares Emergency.

The energy we use is the main contributor to the on-site GHG emissions at Leeds Festival. Our strategy is to first reduce our required usage, and then to replace our energy sources with renewables.

Energy Reduction

• Through our membership of Powerful Thinking we are working to reduce the power consumption at the festival to a minimum.
• We monitor fuel consumption annually, to determine the potential to reduce generator sizes and related fuel volumes.
• We require that LED festoon and tower lights are used to reduce energy consumption, and that onsite suppliers plan power distribution efficiently.

• Our aim is to use 100% renewable energy from either biofuel or mains supply by 2030, and this year we are fuelling Leeds with 100% Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), from a 10% share of total fuel in 2014.
• HVO is a renewable biodiesel made from used cooking oil, which emits 90% less carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) when compared to using regular white diesel.
• We assess our biofuel’s provenance, endeavouring to use European sources that are from a second-generation waste product such as used vegetable oil, not palm derived.
• Battery storage solutions and solar hybrid generators are utilised at Leeds Festival in suitable areas, and we calculate the emissions savings they generate.

We strongly recommend and promote low-carbon travel options to get to Leeds Festival.

We partner with national coach provider Big Green Coach, work with Uber on ride sharing and provide shuttle buses from Leeds train station to provide lower-carbon alternatives to single-occupant car travel.

To mitigate the environmental impacts of plastic pollution, Leeds Festival does not sell any virgin single-use plastic. This includes sampling containers, cutlery, plates, cups, bottles, serve-ware, sachets, stirrers and straws. We implement a sourcing policy that prioritises:

• Reuse over single-use.
• Renewable over finite resources.
• Products with the highest recycled content available, including at least 30% where alternatives are not available.

Leeds Festival has implemented the following measures to reduce single use plastic at the festival:

• We provide water refill stations across site, and encourage fans, staff, and artists to use reusable bottles. These are also available for purchase onsite.
• No pre bottled water is provided as standard to crew or artists.
• All bottled water sold at Leeds Festival contains a minimum of 30% recycled content in line with the UK Plastic Pact, supporting the plastic recycling industry.
• All soft drinks are served in either a recycled plastic bottle, a paper cup, or a can where permitted.
• We operate soft drink post-mix outlets and bars are required to decant mixers from multi-serving bottles to reduce the number of bottles.
• Plastic cutlery and straws have been banned since 2009, and only EN 13432 certified compostable materials are permitted for food service containers.
• Bulk condiment bottles are required to be used instead of single-use sachets.

We aim to achieve at least a 50% recycling rate by 2030, and to go beyond Leeds City Council’s recycling rate. Leeds Festival is zero waste to landfill, as all festival waste is either recycled, composted, or used to generate energy from waste.

We work with York based organisation Everything is Possible to recruit a passionate group of volunteers to help spread the word about our recycling initiatives, including:

• Our recycling reward scheme, offering customers prizes for recycling in the campsites.
• The three-bin system we implement site-wide, allowing separation of recyclable, non-recyclable, and compostable waste.
• Our deposit return scheme on paper cups and water bottles, incentivising recycling in the arena.
• The Co-op reverse vending machines, where customers are rewarded with supermarket vouchers, and plastic bottles are recycled into uniforms for Co-op colleagues.
• Campsite recycling points and bags distributed to campers, allowing them to collect and dispose of their waste and recycling. - Engagement campaigns including the UK government’s #OneStepGreener pledges, and our Zero Waste Festival Goer initiative to encourage campers to take their tents home.
• Collaborations with charities and not-for-profit groups including local scouts, guides, Football Clubs, Hidden Homeless Leeds, Hull Help for Refugees, Trailblazers CIC, Safe Start education and others to repurpose tents and camping equipment that campers do not reuse themselves.

• We measure the amount of water consumed at Leeds Festival annually.
• Self-stopping taps are in operation at the Festival to minimise water wastage.

We advise our food vendors and caterers to follow minimum standards with regards to food sourcing.

• Eggs to be free range, fish sourced according to the MSC Good Fish Guide, and meat to be RSPCA Assured.
• We encourage using vendors local to the festival, and ensure a number of dedicated vegetarian and vegan options are available to festivalgoers.
• We are committed to develop awareness of the carbon footprint of food, in 2021 we trailed food carbon labelling with the Street Feast area with the University of Gloucestershire. In 2022 we are expanding this further with London School of Economics to develop a dedicated food carbon calculator to inform customer choices.
• We are reducing the carbon footprint of food consumed by our crew by not serving high-carbon food, and having at least one meat-free day per week in crew catering.

We are committed to collecting and redistributing any surplus food from the festival, and have worked with Everything is Possible and St Georges Crypt to help us do this

• Pledges of positive action for the environment taken by festivalgoers, artists and staff as part of our Zero Waste Festival Goer and #OneStepGreener campaigns,
• Collecting over 10% of Oxfam’s target signatures for their 2021 UK Climate Justice campaign.
• Giving a platform to climate change campaign groups including Greenpeace, Music Declares Emergency, Oxfam, Extinction Rebellion, and Youth Climate Justice Activists.
• Empowering our staff and artists to play their part in improving the sustainability of the festival, by educating them on the initiatives we put in place across site.

We carry out measures to ensure that Leeds Festival avoids negatively impacting the wildlife that live on the site all year round.