The environmental charity onboard:earth has launched its Green Travel Toolkit for Events in Wales at the Welsh Festivals Summit in Cardiff, aimed at helping event organisers to measure and reduce the carbon footprint associated with attendee and production travel.
The new special-edition guide and toolkit was funded by the Event Wales Sustainable Events Accelerator project. Chris Johnson, CEO of onboard:earth, shared the resources with delegates at the Summit, which was presented by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) and the British Arts Festivals Association (BAFA).
The Green Travel Toolkit is designed to help organisations measure and reduce travel impacts based on recent research and best-practice strategies. It provides two main guides: The Green Travel Guide for Welsh Events, and A Quick Guide to Collecting Quality Travel Data.
In addition to the guides, the toolkit includes practical resources, including; spreadsheets for accurately recording and understanding vehicle miles and emissions; off-the-shelf surveys to collect quality travel data from event stakeholders, policy templates to formalise commitments with stakeholders; and action plans ready to be deployed by event teams.
The main guide summarises key findings from Welsh and UK Government policy reports, detailing how upcoming changes may affect event organisers. This includes insights from the Welsh Government’s policy document, ‘Decarbonising Wales Transport System while connecting people and places’ (March 2024), alongside updates on Welsh Public Transport Infrastructure.
New case studies in the guide showcase successful low-carbon initiatives implemented across a variety of Welsh events, spanning music festivals, mass participation sporting events, and venues. These examples include Hay Festival, Green Man Festival, Ourea Events, Live Nation’s Chepstow Summer Sessions, Run4Wales’ Cardiff Half Marathon, and The International Conference Centre Wales.
These successes demonstrate that tackling travel challenges is achievable and often requires partnership working. They illustrate how events are successfully collaborating directly with transport providers like Transport for Wales, First Bus, and Great Western Railway to make low-carbon travel more accessible for audiences.
Lucy Scrase, Project Manager at onboard:earth and Green Travel Toolkit lead, said:
“Thanks to funding from the Welsh Government’s Event Wales Sector Development Fund, and the policy insights and knowledge shared by our partners, we’ve been able to tailor our best-practice tools and advice on green travel and transport to support events in Wales. We hope this guide charts a clear, actionable path for the continual rise of low-carbon event travel across the country.”
Download the Green Travel for Welsh Events Toolkit
