FINLAND: Flow not only uses existing models of environmental leadership, but also actively develops new ones with several partners.
In 2009, Flow was one of the first carbon neutral festivals. And in 2012, Flow was the first event to be granted the Eco Compass certificate in Finland. This year Flow will pilot a model of ecological food, and continue its successful environmental collaboration initiatives.
Flow encourages food vendors at the festival as well as other events to serve ecological dishes by piloting the Sustainable Meal directions created by Aalto University students, GreenEvent Oy and Osuuskunta Visia. The food partners of the festival will be supported with sustainable instructions for food sales and an evaluation form, which focuses on, for instance, the origins and ethics of raw materials, as well as packaging materials. With the instructions Flow’s partners can add a special option marked with the Sustainable Meal symbol.
Flow Festival continues its success in collaborating for sustainability
Flow continues its successful collaborations in sustainability such as making use of bio fuels with the aid of Neste and working together with the Helsinki Region Transport (HSL). With Sita (a part of Suez Environment) Flow has developed recycling and waste management to the extent that all waste is either recycled or reused. In 2014 the reuse of waste reached 100%, which means nothing was taken to garbage dumps.
The collaboration with Neste makes it possible to generate all the festival’s energy with renewable fuels. Neste supports Flow’s environmental targets by delivering NEXBTL diesel to the festival – NEXBTL is produced 100% from renewable raw materials, and it is used to produce electricity with generators. In 2014 Flow succeeded in lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from previous years by using NEXBTL. Flow encourages Neste to increase waste-based raw materials and to decrease the use of palm oil. The fuel used in Suvilahti does not include palm oil.
Helsinki Regional Transport, HSL, will provide a special parking area for bicycles, and naturally also gets people to the festival with public transport. Neste also supports the festival weekend’s traffic by giving people rides between the festival and the central railway station (Rautatientori) with their shuttle service that runs on NEXBTL renewable diesel. Because Flow is centrally situated in Helsinki, people easily get there by foot, bike and public transport. There is no parking space arranged for festival visitors, so festival guests do not drive to Flow.
Read more about Flow Festival’s environmental work: www.flowfestival.com/en/environment
