Festival Republic has announced that Reading & Leeds Festivals have each achieved a three star Industry Green rating for the 2013 events, the highest possible achievement for Industry Green. Reading & Leeds Festivals are two of only a small number of festivals in the UK to have ever achieved this excellent three star rating and the first dual site festivals in the UK to accomplish this distinction.

The Industry Green certification is the leading mark of achievement on environmental sustainability within the creative industries and is administered by Julie’s Bicycle, an independent, not for profit organisation. The rating covers four criteria of commitment, understanding, improvement, and communication. In order to be certified, an organisation must at least have an active environmental policy in place and be measuring its key environmental impacts such as energy, waste, water usage and audience travel, which is then assessed by Julie’s Bicycle.

Reading Festival has maintained the prestigious three star rating first awarded for the 2012 event, while Leeds Festival has improved on last year’s grading to achieve the excellent three star rating for the first time. In addition to this, Latitude has maintained three star ratings across three of the four assessment criteria: commitment, understanding and communication.

Festival Republic is committed to minimising the environmental impact of its festivals and works carefully throughout the year to ensure that all events are as environmentally sustainable as possible. Key sources of potential environmental impact are identified and addressed by the Sustainability Coordinator Laura Pando, who sets clear targets for each event and works with all employees and contractors to achieve these. Environmental best practice and new initiatives are communicated clearly and concisely to all employees and contractors, and festival audiences are kept up to date through the festival websites, social media channels and on site volunteers.

Sustainability initiatives implemented at Reading & Leeds have included encouraging attendees to cut costs and carbon emissions by sharing their car journeys to the festival; distributing Camper’s Waste Kits to festival goers to encourage recycling; minimising the amount of waste going to landfill by increasing composting and recycling; operating cup and water bottle deposit schemes; making the use of compostable food packaging mandatory for all food traders; increasing the use of biodiesel onsite and operating donation points for festival goers to donate unwanted unopened non-perishable food and unwanted camping gear at the end of the festivals.

These initiatives helped Reading & Leeds Festivals to achieve impressive reductions in their total relative emissions from energy use, water use, sewerage and waste, with Reading Festival reducing emissions by 11% between 2012 - 2013 and by 26% since 2009.

Festival Republic would like to thank all those people who have contributed to making our festivals sustainable and promises to continue investing in green initiatives for future events.

Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic said: “I am proud and delighted that both Reading & Leeds Festivals have achieved three star Industry Green certification this year. Festival Republic takes sustainability very seriously and we are committed to minimising the environmental impact of all our festivals. We hope to build on our achievements this season, with the whole team working in conjunction with Julie’s Bicycle to make our 2014 events as green as possible.”

Alison Tickell, Founding Director of Julie’s Bicycle said: “Festival Republic has, once again, delivered outstanding 3 star Industry Green results for two of its festivals. For the second consecutive year Reading Festival has significantly reduced its carbon footprint and its waste, and has also driven forward green procurement policies and communications across the supply chain. And this year Leeds, for the first time, has been awarded 3 stars for outstanding practice. These festivals have shown that it is possible to transform working culture in two of the bigger, louder and audience-led festival environments. The focused and pragmatic leadership of Melvin Benn and his team led by Laura Pando, has already been inspiring others across the music industry. I am absolutely thrilled that Julie's Bicycle can publicly acknowledge and support their exceptional achievements.