A festival with over 100,000 attendees decided to estimate its carbon footprint from start to finish. What it discovered applies to any corporate event, conference, or trade show. Here are the key lessons from our latest blog post.
Why Estimate the Carbon Footprint of an Event?
If you organize events — from a 200-person conference to a massive festival — you have probably been asked: what is the environmental impact of your event? And if you have not been asked yet, you will be soon. Corporate clients, sponsors, and local regulators are demanding concrete data, not vague promises.
The Estéreo Picnic Festival, produced by Páramo Presenta at Bogotá’s Simón Bolívar Park (the first carbon-neutral park in Latin America), made that decision. Together with CarbonBox, it estimated its carbon footprint. Unlike a corporate carbon footprint — which is quantified by scopes 1, 2, and 3 under the GHG Protocol [1] — an event’s footprint is estimated using a life-cycle assessment approach, dividing emissions into the stages of its execution: planning, setup, execution, and teardown [2]. This approach allows precise identification of where emissions concentrate during the event and enables targeted action.
If you want to understand how this approach works in depth, our blog post Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): A Practical Guide 2025 explains the methodology step by step and how to apply it in different contexts. The result was not just a number: it was a map of opportunities to reduce costs, improve supplier relationships, and stand out in an industry where sustainability is no longer optional.
Lesson 1: Estimation Starts BEFORE the Event
One of the most common mistakes is thinking that carbon footprint estimation happens at the end, using data from the event day. At the festival, CarbonBox worked hand in hand with the production team from the planning stage, identifying GHG emission sources for each subsequent stage: setup, execution, and teardown [2].
What does this mean for you? If you wait until after the event to estimate, you lose the chance to make decisions that reduce emissions before they happen: choosing a renewable energy provider, optimizing transport routes, or replacing single-use materials.
Lesson 2: Suppliers Are Your Biggest Source of Data (and Emissions)
In an event estimated under the life-cycle approach, indirect emissions associated with the supply chain typically represent more than 70% of the total footprint [3]. These emissions are distributed across all stages (setup, execution, and teardown) and include attendee transportation, food production, stage energy, and even bottled water. Understanding which GHGs are generated and how they affect an organization’s operations is a fundamental first step; in our blog Greenhouse Gases: Can They Impact Your Business Success? we address this in detail.
The festival team learned that requesting data from suppliers is not asking for a favor — it is building a more transparent relationship. CarbonBox designed tailored forms for each type of supplier (gas, water, energy, food, logistics), to gather exactly the right information without overwhelming them, with clear questions.
A practical tip for data collection: start with your 5 main suppliers (energy, catering, transport, infrastructure, waste). If you get data from those five, you already have 80% of your estimated footprint.
Lesson 3: Offsetting Does Not Replace Reduction
The festival offset its carbon footprint by supporting verified community projects, including reforestation initiatives with organizations like The Community Forest [4]. But the CarbonBox team was clear: offsetting is the last step, not the first.
Before purchasing carbon credits, the festival implemented concrete measures during the setup and execution stages: a stage powered by 100% renewable energy (the Coke Studio, with solar panels and storage batteries), dry toilets that reduced water consumption, and waste management systems with traceability [3]. If you are considering purchasing credits, we recommend first reading our blog Carbon Credits: What You Need to Know Before Buying, where we explain how to evaluate credit quality and exercise due diligence.
Organizing corporate events? Before thinking about offsetting, ask yourself: Can I reduce the venue’s energy consumption? Can I negotiate lower-footprint menus with my catering provider? Can I offer shared transportation for attendees?
What Can Your Company Do Today? 5 Steps to Get Started
| Step | Without footprint estimation | With CarbonBox |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Identify emission sources by stage | Intuitive estimates, no real data or stage separation | Complete map by event stage (planning, setup, execution, teardown) with life-cycle approach [2] |
| 2. Collect supplier data | Scattered emails, incomplete data | Sector-tailored forms with direct support |
| 3. Calculate the footprint | Manual spreadsheets, no traceability | Digital platform with automated calculations and verifiable reports |
| 4. Define reduction plan | Generic actions without prioritization | Roadmap prioritized by impact and economic feasibility |
| 5. Offset and communicate | Buying credits without criteria, greenwashing risk | Verified carbon credits + public report with full transparency [4] |
Carbon Footprint Estimation in Events Is a Competitive Advantage
The Estéreo Picnic Festival demonstrated that estimating an event’s carbon footprint is not just an exercise in responsibility: it is a management tool that improves supplier negotiations, reduces operational costs, and builds a more credible brand for sponsors and attendees alike.
It does not matter if your event has 200 or 200,000 attendees. The questions are the same: at which stage of the event are your emissions concentrated? What can you change? And how do you prove it?
Organizing events and want to estimate your carbon footprint?
At CarbonBox we guide you from start to finish.
Schedule your free consultation →
References
- World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development, The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, rev. ed., 2004. Available: ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard
- ISO 14040:2006, Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Principles and framework, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 2006.
- Páramo Presenta and Ideartes, Sustainability Report Festival Estéreo Picnic 2024, Bogotá, 2024.
- The Community Forest, Verified community reforestation projects under VCS standards. Available: thecommunityforest.org