A Greener Future honors Europe's sustainable venues
A Greener Future (AGF) has once again awarded the “A Greener Arena Certification” in 2024. Venues from across Europe have been honored, recognizing their commitment to sustainability based on eleven key environmental and social themes.
AGF (A Greener Future) is an organization that has developed a comprehensive sustainability certification for the live events and entertainment industries. The AGF Certification recognizes venues, festivals, and events for their efforts in reducing environmental impacts across areas such as waste, carbon emissions, energy, water use, and promoting diversity and inclusion. In 2024, several Venues were awarded.
The company announced that arenas from across the UK and Europe have demonstrated their commitment to sustainability and successfully certified events in 2024. These include ABBA Voyage London and The 02 in London, Glasgows' OVO Hydro, Uber Arena in Berlin and Forest Green Rovers Football Club.
AGF CEO, Claire O'Neill said: “We're really happy to see the increasing uptake of venues aspiring to be greener. What is most important are the actions these venues are taking to improve touring and their impacts on the local and global environment. These venues have a significant platform which can influence and speed up the green transition of the event sector, something that we so urgently need to do.”
To be certified, venues undertake a thorough assessment based upon the AGF Framework, including self-assessment, site visits, and post-event evidence and data submitted to AGF assessors for an independent auditors' report. The AGF Framework includes eleven key themes, including local environments & community, travel, food, energy, water, waste, EDI, and governance.
Dale Vince, Chairman of Forest Green Rovers commented: “Forest Green Rovers are pleased to have once again achieved Outstanding in our annual AGF certification - which is surely the toughest standard in the world today. We were the first to achieve this level and are still the only one - we encourage all other arenas to up their game and join us in the stratosphere of greenness...”
Sam Booth, Director of Sustainability at AEG Europe added: “Finding sustainable ways to execute live events, that don't compromise on the fan or artist experience, is essential to the future of our industry. AEG Europe has made huge strides in driving the sustainability agenda in the live industry forward on a global scale, from hosting the world's first carbon removed arena events at The 02, to rolling out an in-house reusable cup system across our three German venues. We're so proud to have our achievements across London's The O2, Berlin's Uber Arena and Uber Eats Music Hall, and Hamburg's Barclays Arena recognised by A Greener Future, and are committed to innovating and building on this work as we continue on our path to net zero."
Kerryn Duckworth, Head of Operations, first direct Arena ends: “It has been a hugely rewarding process working through AGF's A Greener Arena certification. The detailed application process has helped all teams within the arena evaluate our approach to environmental sustainability. It has provided us with a better understanding of what we do well and what areas we can focus on to reduce our emissions and waste further. We can't wait to get further initiatives in place in 2025 to help towards a more sustainable future.” (stadiaworld, 04.02.2025)
