Our Environmental Impact

In 2009 we commissioned a report to measure the carbon footprint of the Festival. This measured staff transport, fuel use by caterers, electricity from mains supply, fuel used in diesel generators and transport for site set up.

• The majority of CO2 emissions came from the diesel and electricity used on site, followed by caterer cooking gas.
• 42% of staff travelling to the site each day walked, cycled or used public transport.
• Artist local transport emissions were kept low by using local accommodation and mini-bus transport to get artists to and from the site, rather than individual vehicles.

These are some of the measures we currently use to reduce our environmental impact:

• Staff are encouraged to ‘switch off’ where possible.
• Working closely with our on-site electricians to ensure non-essential lighting is switched off during the day and that low energy light bulbs are used where we can.
• Taps used by campers will automatically switch off to conserve water. Please help us conserve water at the Festival.
• Local waterways, land and the biodiversity of the area are protected from negative impacts and contamination by the provision of sufficient toilets, waste fluid collection, adequate site drainage and the safe disposal of chemicals.
• We have been assured that there is no sensitive wildlife in the immediate area.
• Trackway is used on highly trafficked pedestrian areas to protect the park ground. We pledge to put right any damage caused to the site as soon as possible after the event.
• Our bars will be using a system of reusing plastic pint and half pint glasses, which has had a major impact on the tidiness of the site and reduced the number of glasses that we waste.
• Because we want to maintain a traditionally pulled pint, we have to use rigid plastic glasses and not cardboard ones. Before the introduction of this system we used around 40,000 plastic glasses, many of which ended up littering the site and were are hard to pick up once they became shattered and embedded in the ground.
• If customers are concerned that their glasses have become dirty, there will be machines to give them a quick wash, though we hope people will use this sparingly in order to save water, as it takes 1/4 pint of water to rinse each glass. We hope people will cooperative and not demand a clean glass every time they order a pint as that would rather defeat the objective. Age restrictions will apply when deposits are returned to ensure that children do not claim unattended glasses.