Hay Festival Achievements... so far
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Transport
- Bio-diesel tank on site for use in the official vehicles and generators.
- Guests and artists encouraged to travel as far as possible by public transport.
- Messageboard set up to encourage car-share and public transport links.
- A special Hay Train carriage from London to Hereford booked for any member of the public wishing to come to Hay with other Hay visitors.
- Shuttlebus provided to move people around town and the site to minimise car use.
- Secure bike parking provided on site.
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Site Management
- Swapped stage lights for discharge lights reducing consumption.
- Lighting runs fitted with manual switches to maximise natural daylight usage.
- Rationalised power distribution to keep a balanced load on national grid thereby reducing consumption.
- Fitted fluorescent lights rather tungsten where possible.
- Used nearest largest contractor to supply lighting, staging and sound.
- Local suppliers used as much as possible for all supplies.
- Halved dependency on aluminium trackways by replacing with recycled plastic tracks.
- Planted several hundred trees on site.
- Constructed a natural water reservoir on site to collect and re-use water drained from site.
- Provided water standpipes on site so that people can refill water bottles rather than buy new.
- Solar powered mobile phone recharging points on site.
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Waste Management
- Full recycling of waste for both trade and public, minimising amount to landfill.
- Information provided for the public encouraging them to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
- Reduced print run of the programme by 25% and the Essential Guide by 60%.
- Limited the general leafleting of public by the various organisations that are represented at the Festival.
- Increased use of e-booking from 35% to 50% of total.
- Site toilets all recycle grey-water.
- Offer all the used coffee grounds for the public to compost.
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General Resource Management
- Produced environmental statement and policy documentation.
- Main programme, the Guide and the Hay Fever children’s programme all printed on recycled paper using vegetable/mineral oil based environmentally friendly inks.
- Ended our distribution by van of the programme around all TICs in the area.
- Artist’s flowers grown in Kent, England – no flights involved.
- All contractors surveyed to measure impacts and encouraged to reduce waste and minimise their own impacts.
- Fair-trade products promoted on site.
- Eco-friendly baby products sourced for the Children’s Zone, e.g. wipes, nappies etc.
- Staff encouraged to stay calm, lowering breathing rates and therefore reducing CO2 emissions.
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Carbon Off-setting
- Hay Festival is off-setting what it cannot reduce with Solaraid – a charity working in Malawi to adapt kerosene lanterns into solar versions and help.
- Public donations to Solaraid for personal off-set encouraged on site and through the website – total donations £2,500.
