Environmental Policy

Waste

We made an important and deliberate decision to employ Devon Contract Waste to deal with the Festival’s waste because we wanted a responsible, eco-friendly waste disposal service. They are the South West’s leading independent commercial waste handling firm. Their zero to landfill solution, which ensures that no waste goes to landfill, was the first of its kind in Devon and the South West.

They are the only “zero to landfill” operator in the region to process waste for recycling, rather than sending it for incineration to energy from waste plants. Their sustainable solution provides materials to the manufacturing industry, creating jobs at all stages of the processing journey. “Zero to landfill” saves resources and energy, reduces the Festival’s carbon footprint and promotes a sustainable business community.

Posh Nosh

Our caterer in the Festival Marquee, do not use plastic serving dishes, cutlery and cups. Rather, they use bamboo cutlery and re-cyclable cardboard boxes, plates and mugs. Their talented and dedicated team pride themselves on using only high quality and local ingredients (minimising food miles).

Drinking Water

In order to reduce plastic bottle use for water, we provide a fresh water tap at the Marquee where people can refill their own water bottles

The Marquee

We use local contractors for the provision of the Marquee, its electric power, lighting and temporary internet connection. The need to travel as few miles as possible makes a big difference to sustainability.

Ticketing

The Festival encourages booking tickets online for its events. We provide an online option for digital tickets on mobile phones and tablets (to assist in reducing the use of printed paper for ticketing).

Plastic

Wherever possible, we use bio-degradable string in preference to plastic ties. Where we use plastic, we make sure we re-use it for as long as possible. For example, with the banners and the roadside advertising signs, we re-use them by applying new labels printed with the dates of the current Festival.

When the roadside signs have reached the point that they are no longer useable, we re-purpose them and do not send any of the old signs to landfill. We have discontinued the use in venues of Festival specific plastic roll-up banners to exhibit the names and logos of our sponsors – they have to be made afresh every year. Rather, we now show our sponsors by putting names and logos on the venue television screens.

Programmes

We have reduced the number of printed paper programmes we produce. We try to encourage people to use the digital programme and information on the Festival website which is set up in a user-friendly way. The printed programmes are as environmentally friendly as possible, utilising FSC certified paper, which ensures that it comes from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits. The inks used for printing are vegetable based, rather than mineral based.

Communication

The Festival uses e-mail and social media as much as possible when communicating with Festival Friends, contacts and people on mailing lists. Email is also used to advise ticket holders of changes to speakers or venues. All this substantially reduces both paper usage and the cost of printing and postage.