All our eco-friendly actions in detail

Together WE LOVE GREEN & ECOSIA have planted 80,000 trees – that’s the equivalent of one for each festivalgoer. The Jane Goodall Institute planted 40,000 trees in Uganda to help restore the natural habitat for the last of the country’s chimpanzees. A further 20,000 trees have been planted respectively by the Eden Reforestation Projects in Madagascar and the Masarang Foundation in Borneo.  Every tree planted captures an average of 50kg of CO2, which means this partnership shall ensure around 4,000 tonnes of CO2 is captured. Why trees? Trees store carbon, restore ecosystems and contribute to climate control.

CO2 calculator (all rights reserved):

We’ve created an online carbon calculator available via our website. Festivalgoers and music acts can calculate their carbon footprint caused by travelling to the festival, and offset emissions by financing ecosystem restoration projects with PURProjet. Calculate your journey’s carbon footprint HERE. 

We’re always looking to improve, and so every year the festival carries out a carbon accounting report which can be read HERE. Ekodev developed an easy-to-use calculating tool to help us record our greenhouse gas emissions (energy, food services, transportation, stage design, waste, etc.). The tool helps us effectively analyse and manage our processes and the choices we make.

During the 7th ADE Green conference, Stientje van Valdhoven, the Dutch Minister for Infrastructure and Water Management, and Green Events International launched the Green Deal Circular Festivals. Around 20 international festivals (including We Love Green, DGTL, Roskilde Festival, Shambala Festival, Amsterdam Open Air…) signed an agreement to adopt a sustainable, circular economy. The aim is to strive for 100% circularity by 2025, developing solutions that can be put into practice by other festivals worldwide.   

We set up an online recycling platform with CO-RECYCLAGE for sharing and sourcing materials for the festival and its set design, and putting them back into the circular economy once the festival is over. In 2019, we reclaimed: 2 palettes of compostable cutlery and plates, small household items (jugs, brushes, scrapers, bins), packaging (12 tubes of foam, bubble wrap, isolation, non-woven fabrics), screens, wooden partitions and set design material (1 disco ball, 1 record player, 20 solar-powered spot lights). Do you organise events or run a venue? Do you need to get rid of your old set design materials and decorations, signs or raw materials? Why not donate your wood, fabrics, materials, office furniture, paint and material off-cuts HERE, to help us build the festival’s set design.

We Love Green is powered 100% by renewable energy. We have tested out several energy innovations on the festival:

• French biofuel: generators powered by rapeseed oil and recycled used cooking oils.
• Trialled a clean hydrogen-powered prototype generator identified using blockchain-enable networks (electricity from the Fântânele wind farm).
• The Think Tank stage, the Startup Incubator and the Kids’ Area are all powered by solar panels.
• Trialled flexible solar panels on one festival stage to increase the amount of solar energy powering the stage.

95% of the festival is fitted with energy-saving light bulbs/LED, including the stages, the food stands and even the set design features.

In partnership with Eau de Paris, we installed 100 free, push-button timer water taps across the festival site, so you can refill your bottles and reusable eco-cups.

We saved 280,174 plastic bottles in 2019 thanks to our eco-cup deposit scheme and by providing music acts and Think Tank speakers with reusable bottles and jugs backstage. 

Composting toilets throughout the festival:
The festival is fully fitted with composting toilets that reduce water consumption and the use of chemical products. In 2019, we saved 2.1 million litres of water and 52,500 litres of chemical products that normal toilets would have produced.

Female urinals:
The festival featured five female urinals to help reduce waiting time at the toilets for female festivalgoers!

The festival set up a recycling centre for 10 different types of waste: household waste, recyclables, compostable materials, toilet waste, wood, glass, cooking oils, bulky waste, batteries & light bulbs and cigarette butts. Thanks to our onsite recycling centre, the festival was able to recycle 81% of its waste in 2019 (compared to 74% in 2018), with help from a team of 110 volunteers from the Brigade Verte. Let’s make waste a resource!

To achieve our 2021 circular economy goal, we’re extending our zero single-use plastics policy to the backstage areas and the music acts. We’ll also raise awareness of circular economy solutions and plastic alternatives.

Innovations fostering reusing and circularity in the public festival zones:

• 100 water taps free to use.
• Technicians and artists given reusable water bottles.
• Compostable bio-plastic bottles from Eau de Paris.

We installed fun and quirky ashtrays across the festival site. All cigarette butts collected on the festival were sent to Brest, France, to the first French factory that recycles cigarette butts. The highly toxic cellulose acetate filter is cleaned and transformed into items like ashtrays, pencil pots or even furniture. So that means 15,000 cigarette butts won’t end up in the countryside!

The festival opened up its scenography workshop to a group of selected artists. During the two-week residency, the winning artists received funding for their projects, recycled materials and a creative workshop alongside a team of specialists, to bring the festival’s eco-designed scenography to life. During last year’s festival, the workshop resulted in six artistic pavilions created using reclaimed materials, as well as the festival’s signature artwork made using 400kg of recycled plastic.

We used the toilet waste from our composting toilets to generate compost, and turned urine into agricultural fertiliser (Standard NFU 44-095). These composts were then distributed to local farmers.

In 2019, we created 22,000 litres of compost from 65,000 litres of waste from our composting toilets, and 28,000 litres of urine was transformed into agricultural fertiliser.

All our restaurateurs served their meals on compostable plates, bowls, cutlery and napkins made from 100% recycled materials. The festival has been composting a large majority of its waste since 2015. And since 2018, the festival’s bio-waste has been methanised (a process which generates renewable energy) via an initiative from the 12th arrondissement’s Mairie (town hall). 

For the past three years, We Love Green has been working with the charity Linkee to redistribute unsold food to charities. In 2019, we distributed 2,600 meals to charities such as Les Restos du Coeur, La Chorba and Emmaüs Solidarité, helping to avoid throwing away 3.1 tonnes of food waste.

The festival pools together refrigerator lorry resources to reduce energy consumption. In 2019, our 51 restaurateurs used only five lorries instead of 51. 

We Love Green made the active decision to offer sustainable, healthy, well-cooked and fair food services. We champion production methods and principles devised by CERVIA and SLOWFOOD that respect the environment, as well as recommendations from the French Ministry of Agriculture. Concrete is not a fatality but an opportunity. Local borders are shifting. Urban culture is merging with an optimistic vision of farming. WE LOVE GREEN has created a map pinpointing our farmers, producers and providers, to help the festival’s restaurateurs source their produce. Check it out HERE. Thank you Paris for feeding us!

The festival served up dishes prepared using unsold food from Rungis market, as well as produce from farmers and producers in the Île de France region, as shown on our interactive map locating producers. In 2018, solidary restaurateurs Freegan Pony cooked up 1,500 meals using only unsold produce.

One artists’ charter: Each act scheduled to play signed our eco-friendly Green Policy charter, which was integrated into their contract and outlines sustainably developed actions to adopt (carbon offsetting travel, no single-use plastics backstage, recycling waste, carbon neutral goal…).

One restaurateurs’ charter: to respect the 15 food services criteria (traceability, certified, packaging…) and pass Ecotable’s rigorous checks.

One volunteers’ charter: to respect recycling and water/energy-saving instructions (800 volunteers per day and 200 for set up/take down).

One partners’ charter: partners’ teams are committed to respecting recycling and water/energy-saving instructions.

One service providers’ charter: service providers (toilets, bars, technicians) are committed to respecting recycling and water/energy-saving instructions.

When you purchase your festival ticket, you can choose to make a donation to an NGO of your choice.

In 2019, we raised €11,000 for the following charities: Surfrider Foundation Europe, Greenpeace France, Emmaüs Solidarité, Utopia 56, Singa France and Nature Rights. 

Our partner NGOs are visible throughout the festival to help raise awareness on sustainability and promote their actions.

We Love Green supports green transport methods:

• No car parking facilities available.
• Bike park facilities available.
• Champion public transport options via our festival website, as well as new, eco-friendly alternatives such as electric-powered mobility solutions!

Zero car parks

Located right in the heart of Bois de Vincennes woods, the festival is accessible via public transport: metro, bus, RER trains, Vélib rental bikes, bikes or even a shared taxi!