Sustainability

Our aim is for ESFF to be ISO 20121 compliant and to adhere to Environmental Agency and local government regulations. We aim to make ESFF as sustainable as possible for the local community, the team and attendees.

Guest travel

• Offset emissions for guests travel.
• Use of electric taxis.
• All volunteers’ bus/tram fares will be covered.
• The team will continue to travel to the other venues (Glasgow) by train and use public transport.

Education and information

• Newsletters and briefing of the team, sponsors, suppliers and other festival participants about sustainability aims and policy.

Venue and accessibility

• All venues are accessible by public transport – you can find these instructions on the further on in this document.
• Promoting routes that minimize disruption of local community.
• Promoting the use of car-share on our platforms:
  • https://liftshare.com/uk/how-it-works
  • https://liftshare.com/uk/community/edinburgh
• Almost all the parking venues have parking fees (the details relating to each venue is relayed further on in this document. Please consider using public transport or car sharing.
• Provide an online alternative of events.

Waste

• Become paperless:
• Develop online presence of marketing, ticketing, registration, agenda and other information, as well as an online feedback survey.
• Create an app – information and administrative purposes.
• Leaflets and information packs given out only on request, and to be returned and reused.
• Make sure gifts are intelligent – useful, reusable, made from sustainable materials and are recyclable.
• Recycling:
• Ensure presence of clearly labelled recycling, compost and general waste bins at venue.
• Recycle paper leaflets, tickets, rubbish etc.
• Post-festival work with the community by using platforms like e-Bay, Gumtree, Meadowshare to recycle items that are not needed (can be obtained that way too).
• Adhere to local Edinburgh Council waste and recycling regulations
• Ensure any and all uniforms are returned and re-used.
• Use 100% free-trade organic cotton for the t-shirts.

Catering

• Make sure the products are locally sourced; Fairtrade and suppliers have environmental/sustainable purchasing policies.
• Charge for reusable packaging, plates and cups, etc. (thus encouraging people to bring their own), with this charge being refunded upon return / avoid packaging, opt for reusable packaging and crockery e.g., Glass, plastic Tupperware.
• Use fresh, seasonal produce.
• Meal sign-up to minimize waste.
• Leftover food to be donated 

Food Sourcing and Donations

• Food donation organisations. Most places accept only non-opened, non-perishable items. We would have to take the food to local food banks. 
  • https://fareshare.org.uk/scotland/
  • https://edinburghfoodproject.org/foodbank/
  • https://www.trusselltrust.org/ 

Sources of food:

• Black hoof (https://theblackhoof.co.uk/) – all meats sourced from family-owned Jamon Iberico producers, who are from the 4 regions that are renowned for producing the best Jamon in the world; Extremadura, Guijuelo, Jabugo and Valle de los Pedroches.
• Malvarosa (https://www.malvarosa.co.uk/about-us/) – Elaborated from scratch our food enjoys the mixture of organic, Spanish and high-quality products locally sourced where possible to make sure that the real flavours of Spain are delivered at the highest standards