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Events and Festivals

The events sector has made significant progress in advancing sustainable practices. The introduction of Nordic Swan Ecolabel criteria and a new tool for calculating natural resource consumption are accelerating this transition. Sustainability pioneers within the field are setting an example for society as a whole in the broader sustainability transformation.

Sofia Koistinen

The societal significance of the events sector has grown considerably over the past decade, including from an economic standpoint. According to an industry study, the sector grew by 28% between 2018 and 2023, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and overall economic uncertainty. In 2025, the turnover of the events sector is expected to exceed three billion euros.

The industry provides full-time employment for approximately 20,000 people and temporary work for 120,000–175,000 individuals. Around 3,500 companies operate solely within the events sector, alongside many partners such as companies providing security and catering services. Event production is a labor-intensive, network-driven form of business, with the largest sustainability challenges relating to audience travel and venue infrastructure.

Audience travel is the main source of emissions associated with events. Arriving and leaving by car or public transport accounts for 40–80% of the climate impact of cultural events and as much as 90% of the emissions from sports events. Other, less significant environmental impacts stem from energy use at venues, flights taken by artists and staff, logistics, and food and beverage services. Event-related emissions can be significantly reduced by influencing audience travel behavior and using renewable energy in production.

The environmental impacts of events extend beyond carbon emissions. The use of virgin natural resources has significant ecological consequences, which must be considered especially in procurement. Events also have cultural power to influence. Engaging visitors and encouraging more sustainable choices contributes to broader societal change. Events can offer audiences concrete ways to pursue ecological sustainability and provide a space for experimentation outside the routines of everyday life.

The Nordic Swan Ecolabel and Natural Resource Footprint Calculator Are on Their Way

Some actors in the events industry have long been actively working to reduce their environmental impact. Until now, these efforts have largely focused on calculating carbon emissions, reducing them, and monitoring progress. Increasingly, however, attention is shifting toward the material and ecological footprints of events. In recent years, broad sustainability projects serving the entire sector have been implemented both nationally and internationally.

In spring 2023, the European festival association Yourope published a comprehensive roadmap for more sustainable cultural events. Alongside the roadmap, an open-access learning portal and toolkit were released to support festival organisers in improving their sustainability practices.

In Finland, the live music sustainability network KEMUT has developed projects that provide knowledge and tools to support more sustainable event production. The Live Music Climate Roadmap (2023) defines shared climate goals for the sector, key actions for achieving them, and the roles of different stakeholders. The main themes of the roadmap are the industry’s most significant emission sources—transportation, energy, and procurement—as well as cultural transformation. Each theme includes targets for 2030 and 2035.

The digital platform Elma.live offers learning materials, a sustainability programme planning tool, a carbon calculator, and a community function for sharing knowledge—serving professionals in the live music and performing arts sectors. The platform is free to use for professionals in Finland, although some content requires registration.

The Nordic Swan Ecolabel is the most recognized environmental certification in the Nordic countries. To receive the label, a product or service must meet strict criteria that are updated every five years. The first set of long-awaited criteria for events is expected in summer 2025. These will cover areas such as energy and water use, food services, transport, waste management, and social sustainability.

The criteria have been developed over several years in close cooperation with Nordic industry actors and informed by relevant research. Partners have included Warner Music and the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, where the criteria were piloted during PMMP’s stadium concerts in August 2024. Preliminary criteria were published in January 2025 for public comment, and the final version will be released in June 2025. After that, event organisers will be able to apply for the certification.

Preliminary criteria were published in January 2025 for public comment, and the final version will be released in June 2025. After that, event organisers will be able to apply for the certification.

The industry will also gain access to a natural resource budgeting and calculation tool designed specifically for event production. The tool enables organisers to plan, track, and reduce environmental impact in a comprehensive way. It was developed through a research project led by Flow Festival, sustainability consultancy D-mat, and software company Tietoevry.

In 2021, Flow Festival and D-mat launched the EU-funded Flow Impacts research project. The goal was to calculate the extended carbon footprint of a large-scale festival—including Scope 3 emissions—for the first time, and to assess its material footprint as well.

In the first phase, the carbon and material footprints of the 2022 edition of Flow Festival were calculated. The results provided new insights into the festival’s environmental impact and helped identify reduction measures. Based on this data, D-mat developed a combined carbon and material footprint budgeting tool for events. The Flow Impacts report was published in March 2023.

In the second phase of the project, Flow Festival and Tietoevry continued developing the tool. Flow has used it in recent years to calculate the festival’s environmental impact, and in 2024 the tool was piloted by other organisers, including Ruisrock. Once finalized, it will be made publicly available for use across the events sector.

In addition to event organisers, many municipalities are also working to support more sustainable local events. The City of Helsinki, for example, has developed a carbon footprint calculator and sustainability guidelines for events as part of its goal to become the world’s most sustainable travel destination. That goal was reached in October 2024 when Helsinki claimed the top spot in the international Global Destination Sustainability Index.

Goals, Resources, and Actions Drive Progress

Climate and environmental considerations must be integrated into every decision and choice related to event planning. Sustainability goals should be ambitious yet realistic. Exploring alternatives and evaluating their environmental impact should take place during the planning phase, when there is the greatest potential to influence the event’s overall sustainability across its lifecycle.

Ecological sustainability work requires concrete goals. These should be set both for individual events and for the organisation’s broader operations over the long term. In practice, this means creating indicators, monitoring data, and regularly reviewing related goals. Goals should be defined either in the event organiser’s strategy or in alignment with the event’s values, and they should apply across the entire production. Clear, mutually supportive goals make sustainability work more manageable and help direct efforts effectively. The most important criterion for any sustainability action is its impact.

Examples of clear goals include hiring a dedicated or shared sustainability coordinator, measuring the event’s or organisation’s carbon footprint, reducing emissions, developing an environmental programme, increasing recycling rates, eliminating animal-based products, and supporting actions that promote biodiversity. Monitoring environmental impacts and implemented measures, raising ambition levels, and expanding sustainability efforts provide a path forward.

Time and resources must be allocated for sustainability work. Especially in the beginning, considering environmental and climate issues requires learning new skills, understanding complex systems, exploring alternatives, and adopting new ways of thinking and working. A determined approach is key: identify the biggest emission sources and environmental impacts, then take action that most effectively reduces the environmental burden.

Event organisers often have limited time and resources for sustainability work, and it is frequently done alongside other duties. There is also a need to strengthen environmental expertise and increase awareness of the sector’s environmental impacts. The short-term, project-based nature of the events industry and reliance on volunteer labour create additional challenges for building sustainability competence.

Organisers should be encouraged and supported in allocating sufficient resources to sustainability work. Employers have a responsibility to ensure that their staff have a foundational understanding of environmental and sustainability issues and to provide orientation on key themes to volunteers. When hiring new staff, sustainability expertise should be considered—and required when relevant to the role.

Education, Collaboration, and Communication Support Cultural Change

The events sector needs structural support to build sustainability competence. There is a clear need for training tailored specifically to address the industry’s sustainability challenges. Continuing education focused on practical examples, high-impact actions, and research-based knowledge could strengthen the sector’s sustainability know-how. Trade unions, employer associations, and industry advocates could also contribute to the planning and delivery of such training. The field would benefit from closer collaboration between event professionals and educational institutions.

Education providers and continuing education organisations should work with climate and environmental experts—such as universities, research institutions, and environmental NGOs—to ensure access to the best available knowledge. Sustainability perspectives should be fully integrated into event sector study programmes.

Collaboration among actors is essential in advancing ecological sustainability in the events sector, which is highly diverse and fragmented. Events range from small gatherings to massive cultural and sports spectacles. There is no single body overseeing climate and environmental efforts across the sector, which consists of thousands of independent operators. This makes the adoption of shared standards more difficult.

The sustainability transition of the events sector could be accelerated by increasing cooperation, requiring greater accountability, and improving sustainability skills across the industry. A national umbrella organisation for sustainable events could be established—or an existing organisation could evolve into a collaborative platform supporting sustainability work. Sustainability can also be demanded: clear goals and concrete actions could be included in a national development agreement for the events industry to strengthen ecological responsibility.

Events have the power to reach large audiences, making them ideal platforms for promoting ecological sustainability. This reach is a major asset that should be used more actively to support ecological literacy, cultural transformation, and the sustainability transition. Highlighting research-based knowledge and sustainable alternatives helps guide audiences toward more ecological choices. It is also important for event organisers to share information—for example, about emissions—with performers and artists so they can understand the environmental impact of their work and make informed decisions.

Pioneers in the events industry and cultural funders could initiate conversations about a more sustainable future for the sector and the transformative potential of events. Communication plays a key role in leveraging this potential. Clear guidelines on sustainability terminology and proper usage would help make sustainability communications more effective. Sustainability efforts in the events sector should also be communicated more broadly—to the public, the industry, and society at large—and knowledge should be shared beyond sector boundaries.

Sustainable Procurement and Mobility on the Agenda

Procurement in the events sector causes significant environmental impacts. A sustainable event makes use of circular economy principles whenever possible: borrowing, renting, repairing, and reusing. Reducing the use of virgin natural resources is a key part of sustainability efforts. The sustainability perspective must be integrated into all procurement processes.

Currently, organisers develop their own scoring systems for tenders because there is no unified procurement system that adequately accounts for environmental responsibility. It is also often difficult to obtain reliable data on the environmental impact of subcontractors. In the future, it will be important to develop systems for sustainable procurement and create scoring or tendering frameworks that allow for comparing the sustainability performance of value chain partners.

Increasing transparency across the value chain and developing responsible scoring criteria would encourage more sustainable practices. Subcontractors should be required to provide better environmental reporting. Responsibility boundaries as defined by the GHG Protocol should be applied more broadly, requiring each actor in the value chain to account for their full share. This would also make Scope 3 emissions accounting easier. In addition, the impact of procurement legislation on the ability to make sustainable choices should be assessed, and changes should be promoted if current regulations hinder sustainability.

The choice of venue has a significant impact on an event’s ecological footprint and on the organiser’s ability to influence it. For example, the absence of renewable electricity, adequate waste management, or recycling infrastructure can present structural barriers—particularly if the venue owner or operator is not willing to collaborate on sustainability issues.

Venue operators and owners should be more actively involved in sustainability efforts. Together with property owners, it is possible to explore sustainable energy solutions. Venues should also be encouraged to provide detailed information about their energy consumption. The goal is to minimise the energy use of event production and to cover what is used with renewable energy, which significantly reduces environmental impact.

In public events, audience travel is almost always the single largest source of emissions. Event organisers need more data on attendee travel habits, including public transport use, to assess and plan for sustainable mobility options. It would be useful to gather this information, for example, during ticket purchases.

Sustainability-oriented planning for mobility and logistics should begin as early as the event planning phase. The choice of venue has a major impact on transport-related emissions: a good location from a sustainability perspective is typically well connected to public transport. Organisers can also promote walking and cycling through practical solutions such as providing bike parking and placing entrances close to it.

Audiences can be encouraged to make sustainable choices through incentives, such as offering discounted or free public transport tickets with event admission. Large-scale events provide good opportunities to pilot such initiatives and assess their emissions impact. Another way to reduce emissions from travel is to organise shared transport, for example from train stations to the event site.

Communication plays a key role in reducing emissions from audience travel. Organisers must clearly communicate low-emission travel options and provide practical information such as schedules, connections, and pricing.