onboard:earth is the new name for the UK live industry charity inspiring change on travel, the largest source of emissions in the in the live events industry. The new name and brand better reflects its mission to ‘move low-carbon travel into the heart of live event culture’ and its aim to unite the whole sector in raising funds for environmental restoration.
Founding festival members of the industry-founded charity include; Shambala, Boomtown and Kendal Calling, and to date they have worked with 160 live industry organisations, including 2000Trees, Greenman, End of the Road, Sunbelt Rentals, Universal Music, EMI, TheTicketSellers, Big Green Coach, Tracsis Events, and You.Smart.Thing. Members have collectively raised over £659,000 for environmental restoration project partners.
Chris Johnson, CEO of onboard:earth comments:
“This industry-founded charity was created to share insights on how to reduce travel emissions, and build resources. The move to onboard:earth represents a new energy to tackle the climate crisis, and shift towards working with more partners that focus on regeneration of ecosystems, and represents a commitment to acting urgently, as we expand the team and resources we offer.”
The charity’s onward journey involves new collaboration with industry partners to develop online travel carbon measurement and reporting tools with greater scope and accuracy. The environmental restoration programmes funded by onboard:earth members will continue to go beyond carbon offsetting, recognising the climate crisis as a social and political problem, as well as an environmental one and working with a wider range of community-benefit projects. Updated communication guidance will support a wider diversity of events to confidently share the positive impact of donations raised for people and nature and engage their networks in positive behaviour change and climate action.
Ben Robinson, Festival Founder of Kendal Calling, Company Director of From the Fields and onboard:earth Trustee said:
“Sometimes it’s hard to see the wood for the trees, when it comes to making a difference to a global-scale issue, and it’s even harder to know where to start. What we’ve carved out with onboard:earth is a straightforward way for events and attendees to come together and have an impact bigger than the sum of their parts.
To date, the charity has already funded the protection of an area of rainforest 32-times the size of Kendal Calling Festival and funded the planting of 65,000 trees, and we are only just getting started!
We invite festivals and partners to jump onboard as we continue this journey together and support our ecosystems to flourish for generations to come.”
