By Briony and Clare, UWE Bristol Senior Lecturers in Events Management.
Events Management academics, Briony and Clare, discuss the environmental impact of events and how climate change is causing events to be cancelled. They reveal how their teaching and research is ensuring sustainability is at the forefront of people’s minds when they plan or attend events. Keep reading to learn more about Briony and Clare’s work.
The impact of events on climate change
In 2018, the UN issued a warning of the urgent need to mitigate climate change, followed by a ‘code red’ for humanity in 2021. Unfortunately, the events industry is contributing to the climate crisis, as events are resource intensive and contribute to the carbon emissions responsible for global warming.
The impact of climate change on events
Though events contribute to climate change, outdoor events require particular climactic conditions. For example, regattas need the right tidal conditions, balloons can only fly in calm skies and winter sports events can only go ahead with snow.
We’re starting to see the effects of climate change on outdoor events, with events being cancelled due to adverse weather conditions and water shortages. Outdoor events are also at risk of being cancelled if we don’t protect the land they’re held on.
The good news is that festivals provide a great space to trial sustainability interventions to reduce the impact of humans on the environment. They also provide festivalgoers with an opportunity to experiment with their perspectives and behaviours. We’re both researching how festival organisers can contribute to sustainability.
How Briony’s research is making sense of environmental attitudes
Briony: My research looks at behaviours, attitudes and values of festival attendees towards sustainability when they’re inside the festival site. Although they may hold certain values in daily life, these can often be forgotten or ignored at events, like when we see violence at football matches as a result of herd mentality.
Ignoring or forgetting values during events may result in unsustainable behaviours that impact the environment. During the summer, I’ll be conducting research at music festivals where I’ll be observing behaviours and interviewing the festival attendees about their attitudes and values towards sustainability whilst at the event.
The aim of my research is to create a value segmentation framework that groups attendees based on their values whilst they are at festivals, rather than demographics. Segmentation frameworks that focus on values and attitudes towards sustainability in daily life already exist and have been used to inform policy and decision making.
This framework aims to help festival organisers to design sustainability interventions to negate the detrimental environmental impacts of future festivals. The popular live music industry makes such an important contribution to the UK economy, but it also has a damaging impact on the environment. It’s critical for us to understand the attitudes of festival attendees at these events, so festival organisers can combat the negative environmental effects.
How Clare’s research is changing environmental attitudes
Clare: My research with Dr. Ed Little has informed the strategy of Boomtown Fair, a themed music festival set in the faux city of ‘Boomtown’. The story of ‘Boomtown’ is communicated to festivalgoers at each ‘chapter’ of the annual festival through an interactive alternate reality game (ARG) set within the ‘alternate reality’ of ‘Boomtown’.
In 2019, the organisers used the ARG to urge festivalgoers to take action to mitigate climate change. They communicated this call to action through a pre-festival digital version of the ARG and on site at the festival.
Some students and I participated in the ARG to understand if and how festivalgoers received and interpreted the festival’s warning. I used the understanding we gained to develop a post-festival questionnaire which was sent out to all festivalgoers.
Our research findings confirm that ARG players received the festival’s call to action. We also found that participating in the ARG increased players’ environmental awareness and made them want to adopt more environmentally responsible behaviours. This may have influenced their behaviour at the festival, as we found participation in the ARG contributed to players’ environmentally responsible behaviours on site. The ARG therefore helped to reduce the festival’s environmental impact.
The importance of the environment to festivalgoers, and their eco-friendly behaviours in their everyday lives, were also found to predict their behaviour on site. Our findings are important as they suggest the ARG’s climate communication will benefit the festival in future years and generate societal value by contributing to sustainability beyond its perimeters.
How Briony and Clare are educating the next generation of event planners
Briony: As the Programme Leader on UWE Bristol’s BA(Hons) Business and Events Management, I bring my passion for sustainability to all elements of my teaching. I’ve embedded key sustainability topics throughout each year of the course, to ensure it’s a continual theme for my students.
In the first year, we initially focus on theoretical concepts like herd behaviour and escapism that impact festival sustainability. Then in the second year, we’ll explore the practical tools we can use to create more sustainable events, such as carbon footprint calculators and offsetting.
When students progress to their final year, they’ll have the chance to run their own events, where they’ll need to consider and evaluate the sustainability of their plans.
“By the time our students graduate, I know they’ll join the events industry with a solid understanding of the importance of sustainability to apply to the real world.”
Clare: Events management should now be sustainable as standard, so it’s important that sustainability is an integrated element of events degrees. In the first semester of our MSc Events Management, we introduce the students to sustainability in the context of events.
We build on this through a focus on how to mitigate negative environmental impacts in practice, and how to monitor and evaluate event impacts. The students then have an opportunity to apply their learning to strategically design, plan, market, stage and evaluate a sustainable event.
We know virtual events can significantly reduce the environmental impact of events through eliminating the need to travel, while also being more inclusive. Given the prevalence of virtual events since the pandemic, our students will also gain experience of running a virtual event during their studies, from design to evaluation.
“Sustainability is a core value embedded throughout our MSc Events Management, which aims to cultivate responsible, strategic, and reflective events graduates who are ready for industry.”
Three ways we can all make festivals and events more sustainable
- Invest in good quality festival gear that you’ll use and enjoy for a long time to come.
- Use public transport and remember to take a reusable water bottle with you.
- After the event, make sure you take all your belongings home with you and reuse and recycle as much as possible.
Find out more on UWE Bristol’s Change the world with us webpage.