Ars Electronica Festival has been a certified Green Event for many years. Together with hosts, participants, and visitors we want to reduce the festival’s ecological footprint to a minimum.
With “HOPE – who will turn the tide?” we focus on change makers and real-world solutions in Ars Electronica Festival 2024. Our measures are deeply influenced by circular economy, whether it’s the reusable cups in festival gastronomy or the architecture of all exhibitions. We raise awareness for sustainability among our visitors, involve our partners in our guidelines and partner up with (local) companies to find the most sustainable solutions for the festival. After all, only together can we bring about meaningful change.
In the last years, we have gathered experience and data on how to implement a green event. With this year’s measures, we can intensify exchange and involvement with our partners and find new ways of raising awareness among our visitors. In the long term, we aim continually to optimize all major organizational processes beyond the festival itself in terms of their climate and resource compatibility.
We are guided by the 17 sustainability goals set forth in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Certain fields of action require particular thought, such as mobility, catering & food and event location (which includes energy, water, sanitation, technology and equipment, procurement & waste, social responsibility and communication).
The following measures are implemented in the respective fields of action:
Mobility
- Use of electric vehicles (EV) in production, for passenger and material transport.
- We want to reduce flights wherever possible and included a clause in our contracts for the third year in a row: No short-haul flights of less than 1,500 km and an equivalent of 10 hours train travel; travel on the public rail network within Europe.
- If flights are necessary, we use CO2 compensation for long-haul flights in collaboration with Climate Austria.
- Free use of public transportation within Linz for artists and employees in cooperation with Linz AG.
- To continually improve our future actions, we have created a survey that gathers details on the transportation methods visitors use to travel to the festival.
Photo: Philipp Greindl
Event Location, Event Equipment and Technology
- Almost all event locations provide barrier-free access. POSTCITY provides partial barrier-free accessibility. Barrier-free access areas will be communicated as such.
- Concerning accommodation, we make sure that hotels are within walking distance of the festival site or well connected by public transport. Some of the hotels have climate-friendly certificates.
- Technical devices and equipment are rented from local companies. When renting, we are gradually switching to energy-saving technology in order to reduce energy consumption.
Photo: vog.photo
Energy, Water & Sanitation
- Drinking water in the form of water dispensers will be offered around the festival area and bringing refill bottles will be communicated.
- The aim is to use as little water as possible in production, including raising awareness through team internal as well as external communication.
- In the exhibition area, the event technology and lighting will be switched off outside of exhibition operation.
- Ars Electronica Center as one of the festival locations uses renewable energy.
Photo: vog.photo
Food & Catering
- Culinary offerings during the festival will be mostly meat-free; vegetarian and vegan options will be available. The partners commit themselves to use mainly seasonal and regional food from organic cultivation farming.
- In cooperation with local producers, we offer an open kitchen at the festival, where visitors can enjoy organic fruits and vegetables for free.
- Catering for employees during the festival will take the form of distributing food vouchers and providing snacks and fruit at the workplace.
Photo: vog.photo
Procurement & Waste
- Existing waste separation systems will be used at the festival locations. Additional temporary waste containers will be sorted and recycled by Linz AG after collection, based on the festival’s waste concept.
- We only use compostable or reusable tableware, such as cutlery, cups or dishes.
- Exhibition materials are largely borrowed from cooperation partners and returned in full after the festival.
- Architectural elements will be built from reusable systems; cooperation with Ringer Scaffolding, as well as the use of IBC, a waste product from industry, which will be used temporarily at the festival and subsequently given away to local farms for further use.
- Development of a modular exhibition architecture system that can be stored in a space-saving manner. Thanks to a concept without drilling, the elements can be reused unchanged in the years to come.
- Long-term cooperation with the Linz City Gardens for the greening of the exhibitions and the festival architecture.
- All printed materials will be reduced as much as possible.
- No giveaways or scattered advertising will be used.
- The festival catalog will be produced in small print runs on eco-certified paper and will not be individually packaged.
- Project lettering and prints are standardized and changed to eco-friendly materials (indoor/outdoor).
Photo: Ars Electronica / Martin Hieslmair
Social Responsibility
- A sustainability code of conduct for employees and partners has been developed and is applied.
- Fair Pay is anchored in the corporate structure and is considered in the fees paid to invited protagonists. Ars Electronica also makes sure that the exhibition partner institutions comply with this.
- The Art Thinking Lounge as a physical representation at the center of the Ars Electronica Festival. The sustainability strategy will be communicated on site and sustainability partners will present their solutions. The Lounge will invite discussion and debate on the subject through lectures, workshops and interactive installations.
- The festival website was redesigned to be more sustainable and accessible by reducing the amount of data (volume).
- Sustainability is a core topic of the mediation program. WE GUIDE YOU offers multilingual guided tours in the festival exhibitions, for all ages.
- The opening and award ceremony is simultaneously translated and can be followed bilingually (EN/DE).
- Festival ticket discounts for a wide range of people, as well as free admission up to the age of 19 and for holders of the cultural pass “Hunger auf Kunst und Kultur.” All publicly accessible festival areas and several locations can be experienced without a ticket.
- Designating a contact person for sustainability on the website, so that suggestions and comments can be submitted.
- Making dedicated staff resources available for the further development and evaluation of the sustainability strategy.
- Further projects on the topic of social responsibility can be found in the festival program on the website as well as in the catalog.
Photo: vog.photo
Communication
- Partners have been informed and involved; the individual measures are specified in contractual agreements. Guests and visitors are notified in the invitation about the environmentally friendly orientation of the event and are actively involved.
- Checklist for visitors how they can contribute to making the festival more sustainable (e.g. choosing public transport and bringing refill water bottles)
- Inclusion of sustainability in the employee handbook and team-internal communication and integration in the further development of the fields of action.
- The festival’s sustainability policy communicated and specified in press conferences as well as in several blog articles, press announcements and social media contributions.
- Presentation of the topic “sustainability” as a separate item on the festival website, including an explanation of the measures within the Green Event fields of action.
- After the festival, the findings and results will be summarized in an implementation report and communicated externally.
Photo: Ars Electronica / Martin Hieslmair
Sustainability Report 2022
We share our findings and insights on the planning and implementation of a sustainable festival in an open-access report. It will be integrated in a companywide report on Ars Electronica’s commitment to sustainability and shall serve as inspiration for other fairs and festivals.
You have an idea how we can make the festival even more sustainable?
Let us know:
Sustainability Partner
