The Downtown Victoria Business Association is proud to share that the first Downtown Victoria Buskers Festival was a Carbon Neutral Event. Emissions were measured by local carbon accountants at Synergy Enterprises and offset with Offsetters in Vancouver.
“Through the planning process, our festival team was thoughtful about the lasting impacts of the festival,” says Kerri Milton, Executive Director of the DVBA. “This kind of leadership and long-term thinking is needed in our larger scale events.”
The six-day festival had local and international buskers performing at seven Pitch Stop locations across downtown Victoria with the main stage at Ship Point which included an event stage, food trucks, and waste collection.
The festival also featured a zero-emission bicycle-powered sound system in Market Square, which was powered by 700 kilometres of cycling.
“The Downtown Victoria Buskers Festival was more than a carbon neutral event,” says Kayli Anderson, Managing Partner of Synergy Enterprises. “Downtown Victoria showed great leadership by setting goals and tackling challenges faced by all event organizers including; single-use plastics (no bottled water!), energy consumption, waste and more.”
In total, emissions for the 2017 Downtown Victoria Buskers Festival came to 19.5 tCO2e, about the same as five cars on the road for one year. The footprint included diesel for food truck generators, purchased electricity, landfill waste, stationery, and all performers’ flights to and from Victoria. The DVBA has purchased offsets for these emissions making the 2017 Downtown Victoria Buskers Festival a Carbon Neutral event.
Other metrics for the event include:
- No bottled water sold (1,900 water bottles saved)
- 70% waste diversion rate
- Local, sustainable, zero-waste vendors
- 38% of attendees arrived by sustainable transportation
The DVBA is currently working on a free Festival and Events Green Guide which will help events to take steps to become more environmentally aware and address the impact festivals have on community resources.
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Media Contacts:
Kerri Milton
Executive Director, DVBA
kerri@dvba.cldevs.org
Kayli Anderson
Managing Partner, Synergy Enterprises
kayli@synergyenterprises.ca
