Our actions

Here you will find a listing of our actions, divided into several categories.

You can also read more on our project page.

Energy

• we have eliminated all diesel generators in the city center (8 of them) since 2019
  • we keep an energy limit on locations: what technical plan is possible with this power that is available?
  • we have added connections to the city powergrid in cooperation with the municipality to replace generators, which can also be used for other events
• At an early stage, we used a battery as an alternative to a generator at the Oosterpoort location (2020)
• We actively encourage the municipality and Safety Region to see the battery as a fully-fledged alternative to generators. We do this through knowledge sharing and constant contact about developments and bottlenecks.
• we actively encourage the municipality to use green hydrogen on location as an alternative to the aggregate. In 2023 we placed an active hydrogen aggregate on the Grote Markt, in the middle of the city center. In 2024 we placed an active hydrogen generator at our artist village.
• we generate our energy fossil-free: All fixed voltage is dark green, other uses, such as stoves, run on HVO.
• to learn more about HVO: Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, and set up a small expedition with partners and suppliers to the factory in 2023.

Material and waste

• We switched in 2019 to hardcups for our own catering, including at Eurosonic Air, the free-to-air program at the Grote Markt
• We promoted and facilitated a pilot in 2019 with the venue Oosterpoort, which also switched to hard cups after the pilot
• we have been reusing our stage images and venue designations for years in modular form
• we have been reusing our banners for years. Different campaign images can hang side by side.
• we use a multi-year campaign in design in order to be able to reuse signage.
• After research and consultation, we chose to do limited separation on site, due to the waste separation factory. With transportation of different streams scattered across the city this seemed to be a less sustainable choice.
• we were curious about the process of the wastestreams. In cooperation with the municipality we set up an expedition to the waste separation factory with partners and other local businesses.

Transport

• we started the Solidarity Eco Tax in 2022: an added tax on the ticket price through which we pass on the real price for the impact of visitors' travel movement.
• we started Green Tour Support in 2022 to help artists experience sustainable touring. This project had an update in 2024 to support more artist in experiencing sustainable travel.
• we drive our on site transport with HVO in collaboration with our partner Pieter Smit with our own transport for both materials and people
• Started in 2019 we systematically switch to local suppliers for our needs.
• we have introduced efficient transport by 2022: we drive a truck on HVO along various suppliers across the country to combine smaller freights in one efficient route. By 2024 we managed to get all smaller freights by local suppliers and this idea became obsolete.
• we have been using a Transport Hub just outside the city since 2019: we collect materials outside the city and create one combined package per venue in the city. We drive the packages by location out through the city center to minimize transport movements. We can maximize efficiency and control the use of HVO for the last mile in the cityby using the Transport Hub
• We have partnered with Choo Choo since 2023 and offer European train transportation at low cost as a service for our visitors. This service has also been made available, and has been adapted by other festivals.
• Because we cannot get all our visitors off the plane, we purchase Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

Food and Beverage

• we started a systematic switch to vegetarian catering in 2019, starting with backstage catering and office catering
• from 2023 all our catering, frontstage and backstage, will be vegetarian
• we partnered with The Fork Ranger in 2023. Together we have built a training course to help organisations make sustainable food choices. This service has also been made available for other festivals in 2024.
• we encourage restaurants in Groningen to make ESNS day snacks vegetarian in line with our catering
• we actively monitor and adjust our crew catering numbers and in doing so have drastically reduced our food waste
• we have had a system in place since 2020 that allows ingredients and meals to be (re)used for several consecutive days, which has further reduced our food waste
• Sodahotel, at artist village and crew catering we have a syrup station for soda’s, this is more sustainable that soda drinks (https://frisdrankkartel.nl/)

Water

• We limit the use of bottled water on site and promote the use of local tap water.
• We uses existing water infrastructure at the venues that we cooperate with.
• We are still looking into our options to reduce our water usage, but found out we could do more impact on water reduction by focussing on our food and materials first.
• We have tested twice over with Semilla Sanitation Hub for urine treatment.

Strategy

• since edition 2018 a sustainability coordinator has been appointed as a permanent position
• we work with an internal sustainability working group to get different departments to work together on this theme
• we are an active member of the Green Deal Circular Festivals since its inception in 2019.
• we developed our own Roadmap Canvas in 2021 to help us build a multi-year plan (and have been helping other events with this since 2022).
• we co-fouded GROENN in 2023. A organisation to share knowledge about sustainability practises with other local organisations. This is done in collaboration with Paradigm, Noorderzon and Bevrijdingsfestival Groningen.
• we are one of the initiators of Innofest and we have been using our event as a testing ground for innovations by entrepreneurs since 2016.
• we did a zero-measurement assesment of our impact in 2018 and have been actively monitoring our emissions since then.
• collaborating with municipalities and universities in our Energy Tech & Tunes Programme.
• We take time to support students in research projects on sustainability.