Charter

Approach

Download Festival measures its carbon footprint annually, and in 2019 received four out of five stars in the Julie’s Bicycle Creative Green Certification.

We employ a dedicated sustainability team who work as an integral part of the festival planning process, developing a sustainability action plan for the festival and ensuring these actions are undertaken on site.

We know that we cannot tackle climate change alone, and as such we support climate positive initiatives in the broader music industry. Download Festival is part of Vision 2025, contributed to the The Show Must Go On Reports in 2020 and 2015, and has signed up to Music Declares Emergency.

Climate Change

Download Festival is working towards a target of 50% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. This is in line with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, which we are still committed to despite the national pledges at COP26 being forecast to exceed this level of warming. We will review our progress annually in step with a science-based approach.

We support North West Leicestershire Council’s Net Zero Carbon Roadmap and Derbyshire County Council’s Climate Change Strategy and will work in partnership to help reach their goal of achieving net zero carbon district (NW Leicestershire) & County (Derbyshire) by 2050.

Energy Reduction

We monitor fuel consumption annually, to determine the potential to reduce generator sizes and related fuel volumes.
We require that LED festoon and tower lights are used to reduce energy consumption, and that onsite suppliers plan power distribution efficiently.
Replace with Renewable Energy

Our aim is to use 100% renewable energy from either biofuel or mains supply by 2030, and this year we are fuelling Download with 100% Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), from a 7% share of total fuel in 2019.
HVO is a renewable biodiesel made from used cooking oil, which emits 90% less carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) when compared to using regular white diesel.

We use the mains power that is available on site to power our production offices.

We assess our biofuel’s provenance, endeavouring to use European sources that are from a second-generation waste product such as used vegetable oil, not palm derived.

Battery storage solutions and solar hybrid generators are utilised at Download Festival in suitable areas, such as the Rock Retreat, and we calculate the emissions savings they generate.

Travel

We strongly recommend and promote low-carbon travel options to get to Download Festival.

We partner with national coach provider Big Green Coach,  and provide shuttle buses from Derby train station to provide lower-carbon alternatives to single-occupant car travel. All car parking passes at the Festival include a £1 donation to Trees For Cities to fund local tree planting projects and we encourage car sharing.

In 2018 and 2019, we balanced emissions equivalent to 733 tonnes of carbon equivalent with Ecolibrium, donating a half of the solar panel installation costs at Redlands Community Primary School in Leicestershire via Solar for Schools.

The Heavy Metal Truants are a charity bike ride who cycle to Download from London every year since 2012, raising money for Nordoff Robbins, Childline, Teenage Cancer Trust, Save the Children and others.

Resource Efficiency

We are committed to implementing closed-loop waste management systems at Download and work to support the development of a circular economy.

We apply the following waste hierarchy, as set out in the Waste Regulations 2011:

• Waste Reduction
• Reuse
• Recycling
• Energy Recovery
• Disposal

Plastic Reduction

To mitigate the environmental impacts of plastic pollution, Download Festival does not sell any virgin single-use plastic. This includes sampling containers, cutlery, plates, cups, bottles, serve-ware, sachets, stirrers and straws. We implement a sourcing policy that prioritises:

• Reuse over single-use.
• Renewable over finite resources.
• Products with the highest recycled content available, including at least 30% where alternatives are not available.
• Download Festival has implemented the following measures to reduce single use plastic at the festival:
• We partnered with Liquid Death meaning that all water is served in cans.
• All soft drinks are also in cans We provide water refill stations across site, and encourage fans, staff, and artists to use reusable bottles. These are also available for purchase onsite.
• No pre bottled water is provided as standard to crew or artists.
• All our bar cups are made from paper.
• We operate soft drink post-mix outlets and bars are required to decant mixers from multi-serving bottles to reduce the number of bottles.
• Plastic cutlery and straws have been banned since 2009, and only EN 13432 certified compostable materials are permitted for food service containers.
• Bulk condiment bottles are required to be used instead of single-use sachets.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

We aim to achieve at least a 50% recycling rate by 2030, and to go beyond North-West Leicestershire and Derby County Council’s recycling rate. Download Festival is zero waste to landfill, as all festival waste is either recycled, composted, or used to generate energy from waste.

Download Festival has tracked our waste and recycling since 2009 and receive annual reports from the recycling facility.

We recruit a passionate Green Team to help spread the word about our recycling initiatives, including:

• Our recycling reward scheme, offering customers prizes for recycling in the campsites.
• The three-bin system we implement site-wide, allowing separation of recyclable, non-recyclable, and compostable waste.
• Our deposit return scheme on cups and water bottles, incentivising recycling in the arena.
• Every Can Counts promote can recycling in the campsites, with games and rewards.
• Campsite recycling points and bags distributed to campers, allowing them to collect and dispose of their waste and recycling.
• Engagement campaigns to encourage campers to take pledges for the environment such as taking their tents home.
• Collaborations with charities and not-for-profit groups including local scouts, guides, the Salvation Army, Help for Refugees, Melbourne Festival, Beyond Belief, Whistlewood Common, Wigston College and others to repurpose tents and camping equipment that campers do not reuse themselves.
• Since 2018 Download has hosted an Ecocamp, home to 1000+ eco-conscious Downloaders who leave no trace and camp with a conscience. In 2022 we added a pre pitched Circular Camping option from upcycled tents.

Water & Wastewater

We measure the amount of water consumed at Download Festival.
Self-stopping taps are in operation at the Festival to minimise water wastage.

Food

We advise our food vendors and caterers to follow minimum standards with regards to food sourcing.

Eggs to be free range, fish sourced according to the MSC Good Fish Guide, and meat to be Red Tractor.

We encourage using vendors local to the festival and ensure a number of dedicated vegetarian and vegan options are available to festivalgoers.

We are committed to developing awareness of the carbon footprint of food.

We are reducing the carbon footprint of food consumed by our crew by not serving high-carbon food and having at least one meat-free day per week in crew catering.

We are committed to collecting and redistributing any surplus food from the festival, and have worked with the Trussel Trust to help us do this.

Engagement & Local Impacts

We are committed to engaging with our customers, staff and artists on environmental issues, and to collaborate with local and national environmental causes and organisations.  Projects include:

Pledges of positive action for the environment taken by festivalgoers, artists and staff.

Giving a platform to climate change campaign groups including Greenpeace, Every Can Counts and Music Declares Emergency.
Empowering our staff and artists to play their part in improving the sustainability of the festival, by educating them on the initiatives we put in place across site.

Local Impacts & Biodiversity

Our annual donation to Trees For Cities is directed to funding tree planting projects near to Download, in both Derbyshire and Leicestershire, giving back to the local area that our festival calls home each year. In 2023 1500 trees were planted in Kirkby-In-Ashfield and in 2024 we  raised £22k for Tree For Cities to plant trees locally .