The twelfth edition of Festival Estéreo Picnic arrived not only with four days of live music and the participation of top-tier artists, but with revolutionary ideas to turn conventional events into sustainable ones.
Páramo presented its new sustainability division, “Páramo impacta,” which, in search of actions and mechanisms to help achieve sustainability, reached out to CarbonBox.
We were very excited to work with the Páramo team on measuring the carbon savings from the festival’s sustainable activities. So we defined the workflow and the actions we would follow in advance.
As one of the most important music festivals in Latin America was about to begin, we got down to work; the first objective was to measure the carbon impact of recovering PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles. This type of plastic is used to bottle beverages and to manufacture containers and textiles.
How would we do it at the event?
Páramo impacta and sponsors set up around 150 stations with white, black, and green bins to make it easier to correctly separate solid waste, along with the presence of eco-guardians who played an important educational role with attendees who didn’t know how to dispose of their waste.
The waste was collected throughout the day by waste-picker workers who were responsible for taking it to any of the event’s four collection points.
The next thing that happened behind the scenes was the weighing of the recyclable material, which would serve two important purposes:
First, to determine the earnings based on the number of kilograms of recyclable material delivered to the recycling company’s truck, and second, to measure the savings in terms of CO2 eq emissions from recycling that same quantity of bottles — and this was the task handled by the CarbonBox team.
To obtain the measurement, we used the CarbonBox impact measurement module, where we built a problem scenario for the PET value chain, including the resin manufacturing process, transportation, and the manufacturing of bottles from virgin resins.
Against this, we set out the solution scenario, which includes the activities involved in recovering PET, among them the transportation of recycled material, processing, and the manufacturing of plastic resins that would be used to make fibers for textiles, bottles, and more.
We obtained daily weighing data over the four days of the festival, and thanks to the commitment of attendees and workers we achieved weights that led us to satisfying results.
On the first day alone, 672 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 eq) had already been saved, which is equivalent to avoiding the production of half a bus full of new PET bottles.
All our results were displayed on the screens of the Johnnie Walker stage, to raise awareness among the audience and encourage sustainable practices such as waste separation.
By the last day, we had already collected 665 kg of PET, which is equivalent to a saving of 3,093 tonnes of CO2 eq, reflected in avoiding the production of an amount equal to three buses full of PET bottles.
Following the workflow, the next measurement consisted of determining the greenhouse gas emissions savings from the use of reusable cups in the 2023 edition of Estéreo Picnic.
By using these reusable cups, thousands of disposable cups are no longer used. In addition to being attractive and an excellent FEP souvenir, this cup is made of thick polypropylene plastic, reusable and with a clip that let you carry your cup everywhere and ask to have it filled with water, beer, juice, soda, and other beverages at the different stations and bars set up throughout the festival.
Once again, using the CarbonBox impact module, we established a problem baseline of the manufacturing and transportation of the disposable cups typically used in previous editions of this event, compared against the solution baseline in which we measure the manufacturing of 1 reusable FEP-edition cup for every 20 disposable cups that would no longer be used in the problem scenario.
We obtained surprising figures with this measurement: for every cup sold, 9.4 tonnes of CO2 eq were avoided, which is equivalent to planting 3.48 [trees] per person.
The calculation keeps adding up if we continue reusing the cup we bought at the festival at other events or even at home, with the intention of reducing the use of disposable or single-use plastics.
Definitely, FEP was very special this year in terms of sustainability. We concluded with very positive figures. Each year we join efforts and, while the challenges are greater, so is our determination to make a CHANGE.
You might also be interested in: How carbon impact measurement can transform your company toward a sustainable future