Hebridean Celtic Festival has received an award from the Carbon Trust, Scotland’s Carbon Management programme for its green initiatives.

(HebCelt festival director Caroline MacLennan receives the award from Energy Minister Fergus Ewing with Paul Wedgwood, general manager at Carbon Trust Scotland, looking on.) 

HebCelt, celebrates its 18th anniversary this year and is committed to decreasing its carbon emissions by 14 per cent by 2017 which will reduce its environmental impact and cut costs.

Caroline MacLennan, the festival director, received a certificate to mark the graduation from Energy Minister Fergus Ewing at a ceremony earlier this month.

She said: “Our carbon management plan has provided us with an opportunity to put formal measures in place to seek to reduce our impact on the environment. We also recognise it makes good business sense so we have committed to a practical target of a 14 per cent reduction in our carbon emissions by 2017.

“We have already introduced measures to meet this target including establishing a green team to implement our policies and recycling waste. Longer term we will be seeking to reduce road mileage by sourcing facilities closer to the festival location and reducing wastewater consumption.”

HebCelt was one of 50 small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland to graduate from the programme which is designed to help organisations make energy saving and carbon reductions by establishing their current baseline CO2 emissions, assessing the risks and opportunities posed by climate change and developing a robust strategy to reduce carbon footprints over a five to ten year period.

The programme was rolled out to the private sector in 2011 due to its success since 2006 within the public sector.

Fergus Ewing said the 50 companies graduating this year can expect to see a collective financial saving of more than £14 million over a five year period.

Paul Wedgwood, general manager at Carbon Trust Scotland, said: “The Carbon Trust Scotland has a strong track record in helping both companies and public sector organisations make significant carbon and financial savings by implementing energy saving projects.

“The Carbon Management programme is an excellent vehicle to achieve savings, which will not only benefit the environment but makes excellent business sense too.”

This year’s HebCelt, which will be held from 17-20 July in Stornoway in the island of Lewis, will be headlined by Van Morrison, Dougie MacLean, Capercaillie, The Battlefield Band and the Red Hot Chilli Pipe

It attracts interest from across the world and was recently selected as one of the Top 10 UK summer festivals by influential music publication Songlines for the third successive year.

Tickets have already been snapped up by fans across the UK and Ireland, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America.

The line-up also includes Karine Polwart, Darrell Scott, Pete Roe, Paddy Callaghan, and local artists Iain Morrison, The Boy who Trapped the Sun and Face the West, as well as Dundee’s Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher; Lau, voted ‘Best Group’ at this year’s Radio Two Folk Awards; Orcadian eight-piece The Chair; The Hot Seats, from Virginia; Manchester outfit The Travelling Band; Welsh band Rusty Shackle; Fatherson and The Dirty Beggars, from Glasgow and Rose Parade, a four-piece from Ayr.

The Hebridean Celtic Festival Trust has drawn up a series of long-term aims to help minimise the event’s impact on the environment. This includes the sustainable use of resources, reducing emissions and raising awareness of environmental matters among employees, suppliers, contractors, artists and festival goers.