Several arenas and venues across the UK and Europe have earned A Greener Future (AGF) certification by demonstrating their commitment to sustainability in 2024.

These include London’s The O2 (cap. 20,000), Glasgow’s OVO Hydro (14,300), Hamburg’s Barclays Arena (15,000), Leeds’ first direct arena (13,781), Berlin’s Uber Arena (17,000) and Uber Eats Music Hall (4,500) and ABBA Voyage London (3,000).

The certification is awarded by A Greener Festival (AGF), a not-for-profit company and sustainability expert, dedicated to helping events, festivals, and venues around the world to become more sustainable.

“We’re really happy to see the increasing uptake of venues aspiring to be greener. What is most important are the actions these venues are taking to improve touring and their impacts on the local and global environment,” says AGF CEO Claire O’Neill.

“These venues have a significant platform which can influence and speed up the green transition of the event sector, something that we so urgently need to do.”

AGF Certification is the world’s first and most comprehensive standard for sustainability in the live events sector, for festivals, events and arenas, reducing waste, emissions, and enhancing equality and biodiversity.

The 5,147-capacity New Lawn Stadium in Gloucestershire, which primarily plays host to the Forest Green Rovers football club, reclaimed its ‘outstanding’ certification and staked its claim as the only venue to earn the distinction.

“Finding sustainable ways to execute live events is essential to the future of our industry”

“Forest Green Rovers are pleased to have once again achieved Outstanding in our annual AGF certification – which is surely the toughest standard in the world today. We were the first to achieve this level and are still the only one – we encourage all other arenas to up their game and join us in the stratosphere of greenness,” says Dale Vince, chairman of the club.

OVO Hydro and The O2 both earned ‘commended’ certifications, with the London arena having a bumper year full of new initiatives from pioneering carbon-removal events to optimising energy efficiency and improving waste management programmes.

“Finding sustainable ways to execute live events, that don’t compromise on the fan or artist experience, is essential to the future of our industry,” says Sam Booth, AEG Europe director of sustainability. “AEG Europe has made huge strides in driving the sustainability agenda in the live industry forward on a global scale, from hosting the world’s first carbon-removed arena events at The O2, to rolling out an in-house reusable cup system across our three German venues.

“We’re so proud to have our achievements across London’s The O2, Berlin’s Uber Arena and Uber Eats Music Hall, and Hamburg’s Barclays Arena recognised by A Greener Future, and are committed to innovating and building on this work as we continue on our path to net zero,” he adds.

“We can’t wait to get further initiatives in place in 2025 to help towards a more sustainable future”

Five venues took home the ‘improver’ certification: ABBA Voyage London, Barclays Arena, first direct arena, Uber Arena, and Uber Eats Music Hall.

“It has been a hugely rewarding process working through AGF’s A Greener Arena certification,” says Kerryn Duckworth, head of operations at first direct arena. “The detailed application process has helped all teams within the arena evaluate our approach to environmental sustainability. It has provided us with a better understanding of what we do well and what areas we can focus on to reduce our emissions and waste further. We can’t wait to get further initiatives in place in 2025 to help towards a more sustainable future.”

To be certified, venues undertake a thorough assessment based upon the AGF Framework, including self-assessment, site visits, and post-event evidence and data submitted to AGF assessors for an independent auditors’ report.

The AGF Framework includes 11 key themes, including local environments & community, travel, food, energy, water, waste, EDI, and governance.

Accolades were recently rolled out for events, with the UK’s Green Gathering, Norway’s Øya Festival, Belgium’s Paradise City, and France’s We Love Green awarded the highest honours.

The International AGF Awards, where certified events across a range of green categories will be crowned, will return on 25 February in London. The awards take place directly after the Green Events & Innovations (GEI17) conference, held in partnership with the ILMC.

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Bring Me The Horizon (BMTH) reduced their tour emissions by 38% during their six-date arena run in the UK, according to sustainability experts A Greener Festival (AGF).

The ‘Post Human Tour’ reportedly achieved the reduction through using renewable fuel for trucks, plant-based meals, food waste reduction and energy-efficient equipment among other initiatives.

More than 27 tonnes of CO2e were avoided, 22 tonnes avoided by switching trucking fuel to HVO Renewable Diesel and 3,322 plastic bottles were prevented, according to a new report from AGF.

The September 2021 tour, promoted by Kilimanjaro Live’s rock arm Action! Presents, is said to be the first arena run in the UK since the pandemic.

The six-date run comprised shows at The Bonus Arena in Hull, The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield, Utilita Arena in Birmingham and the O2 in London.

“These results are undeniable evidence that we can take huge strides to reduce emissions and protect ecosystems immediately”

AGF says that the tour was the first to achieve the aspirational reductions of touring thanks to “unprecedented collaboration between stakeholders”.

Raw Power Management, United Talent Agency (UTA), Kilimanjaro, and the O2 Arena shared the cost of sustainability implementation advice and tour impact audit.

AGF joined the tour to provide advice and consultancy, to implement and report upon proposed mitigation actions producing the Greener Tour Report and CO2 Analysis.

The resulting report is intended to not only provide insight for the internal BMTH touring team to monitor achievements, areas for improvement, and required emissions removals, but also as a resource for other touring productions to use as another step on the road towards A Greener Tour.

Matt Ash, Raw Power Management, says: “Working with an artist in BMTH and a tour production team that was fully behind the approach to sustainable touring was something that we absolutely endorsed and are keen to implement on all future touring whenever possible.”

“Their vision from the start was to produce the tour as environmentally friendly as possible”

Claire O’Neill, CEO at AGF, adds: “During the pandemic, the touring music industry came together on the important topic of sustainability. We’re so happy with the results from walking the talk with the first UK arena tour off the mark. The report shows a direct link between well-being, stress, and environmental sustainability. Culture change and industry restructuring are essential to achieve a green future for artist touring. There is much still to be done, but these results are undeniable evidence that we can take huge strides to reduce emissions and protect ecosystems immediately. There’s no excuse to delay.”

Alan Day, promoter at Kilimanjaro/Action!, comments: “Bring Me The Horizon were the first band in the UK, possibly the world, to complete a full non-rescheduled arena tour after the height of the pandemic. Their vision from the start was to produce the tour as environmentally friendly as possible, whilst still giving the audience the best spectacle achievable. From savings in plastic waste, to transport, to accommodation, to stage production and more, I am proud to have produced such a landmark tour and hopefully an example for the future”.

Steve Sayer, VP & GM of The O2, says: “The O2 were delighted to collaborate with all the other partners on this important project to build back a more sustainable touring and live music industry. Venues are a big part of the live ecosystem and we are keen to learn how we can further reduce our footprint as we develop our plans to get to net zero; and support the tours do the same. Credit to BMTH for taking the lead on this and showing us the way.”

AGF recently announced the first speakers for its 2022 Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI),  the leading gathering for sustainability at live events.

The 14th edition of GEI, in partnership with the International Live Music Conference (ILMC), will take place at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London on Friday 29 April. Click here for tickets and more information.

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