Step-by-step guide to sustainable music events
This guide - The Green and Sustainable Events Playbook - gives music event stakeholders practical advice, tools, and resources to integrate sustainability into planning and delivery - no matter the size of the event.
It includes a clear list of priorities, the main focus areas for ecologically sustainable music events, and resources for sustainable event management — plus a toolbox with tested, ready-to-use methods.
What’s inside
Music events as catalysts for confidence and change
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Quick guidance for planning and follow-up
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The three focus areas with the biggest climate benefit, packed with concrete examples.
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Resources for green event management
Checklists, certifications, useful resources and links.
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Toolbox
Templates and practical tools.
Step-by-step list of priorities
Start from day one. Involve management and stakeholders early. You don’t need a big budget or new department—simply setting a policy early is an easy and powerful first step.
Work with your team to pick a few priority areas. If your city has no sustainability goals, align with the Paris Agreement and UN SDGs. Keep it simple - clear, realistic goals and a basic policy can take you far without extra complexity.
Collaboration doesn’t have to be complicated. Involve the city, suppliers, partners, and even visitors early to build a shared vision and make actions easier to implement.
Share your efforts before, during, and after the event. Even small actions are worth talking about—they can spark big change in others.
Track your results and share them simply. Showing progress - no matter the size - builds trust and motivates further action.
Key areas for
green music events
Discover the three key areas that drive major climate benefits for music events: Transportation & Travels, Food & Beverage, and Energy & Resources. These focus areas were carefully selected for their comprehensive impact on sustainability, with practical tools and proven methods developed through pilot testing. Explore how these areas can help reduce your event's environmental footprint, and dive into actionable insights, best practices, and inspiring examples to make your next music event greener.
Ready to make a change? Read on!
Transportation and travel are the largest contributors to CO2 emissions in the music industry. This area is crucial for reducing your event's environmental impact, and there are many opportunities to make transportation more sustainable. Audience travel is by far the most important area to focus on, but transport of equipment, artists, and supplies also offers chances to cut emissions.
For audience travel, promote low-carbon options such as walking, cycling, or shared transport like carpooling and buses. Provide clear information on public transport, offer secure bike parking, and work with local authorities to ensure safe, accessible routes. Where possible, offer incentives—such as discounted tickets or shorter queues—to encourage sustainable travel choices.
For equipment transport, choose the most sustainable methods available and establish a travel policy that promotes sustainable practices across all logistics. For artist and staff travel, prioritize low-carbon options and offset flight emissions when necessary. Collaborate with other festivals to coordinate bookings - so one artist can perform at multiple events during the same trip, reducing long-distance travel.
The transport sector is responsible for approximately 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, underscoring the need for sustainable travel practices. By adopting more sustainable transportation options, event organizers can significantly reduce their carbon footprint while setting a positive example for sustainability within the music industry.
This focus area emphasizes the need to make the necessary transportation as clean and efficient as possible while encouraging sustainable travel behaviors in both the audience and event staff. Ready to take the first step toward greener transportation for your event? Explore the tools and resources available to help you plan.
Food & Beverage is a key area for sustainable music events, as food production contributes significantly to emissions and environmental harm, such as overfishing and biodiversity loss. However, reducing this impact is achievable through mindful choices.
Choose sustainable catering by offering organic, local, and seasonal menus with a strong focus on plant-based options to lower the carbon footprint. Local sourcing cuts transport emissions, while replacing bottled water with tap water or dispensers reduces plastic waste. Serve food and drinks in reusable containers instead of single-use packaging, and plan quantities carefully to match attendance—donating any leftovers to charity.
Follow models like One Planet Plate by reducing meat content in every portion (not just offering vegetarian alternatives) so that all servings contribute to lower emissions. Set clear rules - such as banning palm oil, uncertified fish, and other unsustainable ingredients - to make change easier and more consistent.
In addition, music events offer a powerful platform to raise awareness about sustainability. Through conferences, workshops, and other side activities, you can engage event stakeholders on the importance of sustainable food practices and inspire them to act.
By making sustainable food choices and reducing disposable packaging, you can minimize environmental impact and inspire change, turning food and beverage offerings into powerful tools for climate action. Explore our tested practical tools and good practice examples to support your event’s sustainability efforts.
Energy & Resources is a critical focus area for sustainable music events, as it directly impacts both the environmental footprint and long-term sustainability of events. From the venue to accommodation, textiles, waste management, and purchasing, each aspect presents opportunities to make meaningful improvements.
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Energy: Energy is one of the largest sources of emissions at live events. Organisers are encouraged to set measurable targets for energy reduction, with interim milestones, and align with local authority climate goals. Independent oversight and transparent reporting help ensure real progress. It is important to introduce contractual requirements with suppliers and venues to reduce consumption, and to measure and follow up on energy use systematically.
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Venues: Select environmentally certified venues with energy-efficient systems and robust waste-sorting protocols. Choose locations with strong public transport connections to reduce reliance on shuttle buses and taxis, and prioritise venues that already use renewable energy and actively support sustainability through shared transport, waste management, and responsible food practices.
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Festivals: Eliminate fossil-fuel-powered vehicles on site, phase out diesel generators, and work with cities to supply electricity via ground cables. Require 100% renewable energy, supported by storage solutions such as batteries. Best practice examples, like the Festival We Love Green, show how innovation in renewable energy can power stages and site infrastructure.
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Governance: Include year-on-year improvement plans for energy efficiency in licensing conditions, and ensure monitoring is part of contracts and supplier agreements. This creates accountability and drives long-term reductions in emissions.
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Accommodation: When arranging accommodation, book eco-labelled hotels close to the venue to minimise travel-related emissions and ensure energy efficiency.
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Textiles: The environmental impact of textiles is often hidden, from high energy consumption to the use of chemicals and large water requirements in production. To reduce this impact, extend the lifespan of existing textile products, such as volunteer uniforms and backdrops. When purchasing new textiles, prioritise sustainable production methods and ensure they are upcycled or reused rather than discarded.
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Purchasing & Waste Management: Plan purchases with sustainability in mind, focusing on reducing waste, reusing materials, and recycling whenever possible. Work with local suppliers who meet eco and ethical standards. Implement easy waste sorting systems at the event, and ensure that leftover materials are disposed of responsibly. Introduce reusable solutions and disposable-free methods wherever possible to prevent unnecessary waste. Consider experience-based giveaways to minimise product waste.
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Circularity: Embrace the principles of "Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" by minimising waste through smarter purchasing and ensuring all materials are recycled or repurposed, reducing the need for new resources and promoting a circular economy within the event.
By integrating sustainable practices into your event's energy and resource management, you can reduce its environmental footprint and drive industry-wide change. Every decision—from energy supply to waste management—helps create a more climate-friendly event. Explore our tested practical tools and explore the best practice examples to support your event’s sustainability efforts.
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Checklists and templates for green event management
Here you can download a practical checklist, a budget template, and an example list of service providers – based on the key focus areas of climate-friendly event management, with concrete actions to consider. You can also download a sustainability policy template for festivals, built around the same focus areas.
Start small. Choose a few focus areas that fit your event and build from there, rather than trying to tackle everything at once. This way, you can make a bigger impact while staying mindful of your time and resources.
tip:
Green event certifications
Purpose of Green Event Certification
Green event certification empowers music event organizers to demonstrate tangible sustainability, manage environmental, social, and economic impacts effectively, and build credibility with stakeholders. It provides a structured framework for reducing carbon footprints, managing waste and resource use, and improving community and social responsibility. Through thirdparty validation, certification reassures fans, sponsors, and venues of your commitment to sustainable practices - elevating your event’s brand value and paving the way for continuous improvement.
Recommended International Certifications
This list complements MI-RAP’s Tools and Collection of Good Practices
While the Tools share practical methods tested by MI-RAP partners, and the Collection highlights real-life examples, Other resources offer more to explore.
Here you’ll find external guides, networks, research, festivals, and city initiatives — selected by MI-RAP partners to inspire and deepen understanding of ecological sustainability in music and events.
Toolbox
Explore our practical tools to support your sustainability efforts
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ISO 20121 – Event Sustainability Management Systems
A globally recognized standard offering a holistic, management system framework that integrates environmental, social, and economic considerations into every stage of event planning and execution. It’s flexible, scalable, and widely applicable to music festivals, venues, and suppliers.
ISO 20121:2024 - Event sustainability management systems — Requirements with guidance for use
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A Greener Future – Greener Event / Festival Certification
A specialized certification tailored for events and festivals, focusing on areas like energy, transport, waste, water, biodiversity, and social inclusion, with independent auditing and global recognition.
