Stefan Lohmann in an interview with FestForum on the topic of sustainable events
FestForums was born out of the desire to create cooperation between festival producers and suppliers in the food, drink, music and film sectors. It is the most important contact point in the USA for all event producers and leading representatives of the entertainment industry. FestForums' experts provide guidance and expertise on emerging issues and the ever-changing festival trends.
FestForums:
Tell us about your background. Why sustainable events?
Stefan:
I am a Talent Buyer and Artist Relations Manager. I book artists for my clients. E.g. for the German Sustainability Award or for a festival in a stadium with 58,000 90s fans (official world record), or for the Leipzig Opera Ball, for corporate events for Samsung. Back then, when I started my own company, I wanted to make a change. I changed sides: from talent buyer with an international artist list to artist agent and event conceptioner for my clients. Now I create live entertainment concepts with international stars, orchestras, drone shows, aerial performances and keynote speakers.
Sustainability has always been important to me privately. Working for the German Sustainability Award has inspired me to find solutions for my own company, especially in the area of sustainable events.
I have transformed my company into a sustainable enterprise. I founded a sustainable orchestra and created the Sustainability Rider with a free checklist for the event industry. With Sustainable Event Solutions I created an online platform where event organizers and artists can find all providers of sustainable events. To organize sustainable events with a positive impact.
My goal is that all events are not only environmentally friendly but also sustainable with additional positive effects on nature and society. Events can change the world! We should all be more aware of this.
Here is an example. What happens when fans can't buy tickets, only win? In order to win a ticket, you would have to apply: with an action that does something good! The Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg did that. The reaction? About 750,000 actions, which do something good with about 100 million Euros for charities and NGOs. That is an enormous impact, I would say - I said it before - events can change the world!
FestForums:
What kind of lasting impact can your checklist and rider achieve?
Stefan:
It helps to plan sustainable events because it is easy to understand, short and gives an overview. If you have the Sustainability Rider and the Checklist uses, you are guided through the most important topics to create sustainable events.
But it all depends on the organizers and artists. They are the key players in the events industry with the most power to make a difference. They can ask the right questions, and they can decide which vendors, locations and caterers to choose. When you choose a sustainable supplier, you have a lot of additional benefits besides an environmentally friendly event. Sustainable suppliers do much more than just their job. They usually support NGOs, organisations and invest in new environmentally friendly technologies. In Germany, for example, we work together with Greenpeace Energy. They receive much more than just CO2-free energy. Greenpeace invests your money in environmentally friendly new technologies.
FestForums:
Who uses the Rider and how can you share this information?
Stefan:
In January we started to publish our website. More and more trade journals are now writing about the Sustainability Rider and the checklist, which is great. The ZMF festival wrote to me that they use it as a great overview to check where they can do more and maybe find better solutions. An event agency wrote me that Microsoft is now using it. Another event agency asked me to help them transform their business into a sustainable one. With a full sustainability chain for their future events. I have received requests from companies that are sustainable to support them with sustainable live entertainment for their corporate events.
FestForums:
Who is Sustainable Event Solutions for?
Stefan:
I wrote the Rider and the Checklist for all event organisers and artists to help them organise sustainable events and tours. In addition, we are working on Sustainable Event Solutions, a platform and database to give visibility to sustainable suppliers in the event industry to create a sustainable supply chain for events of all sizes.
FestForums:
What else should we know about sustainability?
Stefan:
It's not as complicated as it looks, and there's no reason to wait. Start now! Download the Sustainability Rider and Checklist. Switch to environmentally friendly energy companies. Avoid, reduce and offset unavoidable CO2 emissions. Pay fair wages, avoid non-recyclable waste plastics, reduce, avoid and recycle unavoidable waste.
Everyone can start today and make a difference. You can find more information on this website.
