Tomorrowland speaks on reducing carbon footprint

Tomorrowland recently came out with a report on how they intend to reduce their carbon footprint in years to come. The festival speaks out on the obstacles they face to reduce emissions as well as highlights implemented solutions and an internal report being created to help forge a path for the festival moving forward.

Amidst other festivals delving into their own carbon footprint and searching for ways to minimize the impacts festivals have on the environment, such as Ultra Music Festival with their Mission: Home initiative, Tomorrowland is hot on the heels with new ways to decrease environmental impacts. Yahoo reported on August 12, 2023, through Bloomberg on the issues and solutions being slowly introduced by the festival to cut down on emissions caused by the festival and the sea of people that attend each year. This year, the most prevalent introduction of partial solutions came in the form of a tent. This year, Tomorrowland introduced tents created from recycled materials reclaimed from abandoned camp gear. The tents are described as patchwork pieces designed in colorful arrays created to begin scaling back the massive carbon footprint the festival creates through its nearly 400,000 attendees.

Commenting on the overall push to cut down on emissions, Lori Maes, a coordinator of Belgium’s Camp2Camp initiative (which provided the recycled tents to the festival as well as rented out secondhand sleeping bags, air mattresses, and chairs to attendees) had this to say:

“It’s not only about reducing the huge carbon footprint all at once,” said Lori Maes. “It’s about making efforts that, combined together, can make a difference.”

The efforts do not end for Tomorrowland there. This year also saw Tomorrowland increasing the operational electrical grid within the festival in order to cut down on the use of diesel generators for electricity by half. This, paired with partner group Love Tomorrow’s parallel conference of workshops discussing sustainability show the festival’s dedication to reducing emissions not only by their own actions but also the education and motivation of the electronic community as a whole. These are just a few of the many methods already being employed by the festival to slowly move towards decreasing the yearly emissions of the festival.

An internal investigation and report are also being conducted alongside the slow movements for sustainability within the festival. As the festival deals with scrutiny from outside groups such as the Tapio group, Debby Wilmsen, a Tomorrowland spokesperson, has stated that the findings of the Tapio report were drawn without insights from within the festival itself. As such, Wilmenson has let concerned members of the community know that an outside consultancy agency has been brought on by Tomorrowland to investigate the matter internally in order to bring the festival a more comprehensive and robust outlook of the changes that are required by the festival towards moving away from the damaging impact the festival has now.

Image Credit: Tomorrowland