UK: Energy Revolution, the sustainability charity helping to tackle the environmental impact from fossil fuel travel to events, has partnered with the Solar for Schools project.
In 2018, Energy Revolution helped its members – encompassing festivals, suppliers and touring artists – to balance or ‘offset’ the carbon emissions from over three million average car miles – the equivalent of 962,274 kg CO2e.
One hundred percent of balancing donations from 2018 will to go to Solar for Schools, an initiative that puts solar panels on the roofs of schools in the UK, allowing them to produce low-cost clean electricity while also educating children about the importance of a low carbon future.
New Energy Revolution members in 2018 included Download and Reading festivals, which donated £1 from every car-parking pass sold to Energy Revolution. Musician Novo Amor joined the charity in 2018 to balance the CO2 from his 2018 European and North American tour travel. Festival travel provider, Tuned in Travel also joined last year, balancing 100% of the CO2 from passenger travel to its events. Ticket agent, The TicketSellers, which has worked with the charity from the start, has continued to support the project by introducing its clients to travel-balancing and making it simple for them to join by embedding a travel carbon calculator into the ticket buying process.
Since it was founded in 2015, Energy Revolution has supported its members to balance over 8.4 million average car miles – more than 2.6 million kg CO2e – with donations in previous years supporting reforestation and wind turbines in India as well as community owned solar and wind projects in the UK.
Energy Revolution’s original aim was to help its members balance 10 million travel miles by 2020, but with growing commitment from the industry and more festivals, suppliers and artists joining the movement, they are on track to reach the goal ahead of schedule this year. Ultimately the charity aims to create a grant-making legacy fund, which can support ongoing work to reduce carbon emissions created by the festival and touring sector.
