Environmentally friendly public events

According to Statistics Estonia (2015) information there are 6800 events festivals and public events in Estonia in a year, attended by about 1 433 000 people. When organising and attending these events we expend resources and contribute to waste. Just one festival or a large public event can leave a very large ecological footprint, but with our choices we can minimise the effects on the environment extensively.

There are many fields in which we as an organiser can be more environmentally friendly. For example, location, transport (both attendees as well as organisers, speakers), catering, use of water and energy, different flyers, waste products. As the organiser, it is important to prioritise and make a judicious calculation in which areas it is feasible to make environmentally friendly decisions.

The question is not even WHY we should hold environmentally friendly public events, but rather WHEN to start and HOW. As of today, the biggest festivals in the world have made enormous efforts to minimise the economical footprint that comes with organising such an event. Soon this will become a normality and organisers who haven’t caught up with the times will not be able to compete.

Presentations from seminars

In November 2018 Tartu Nature House hosted a seminar “Environmentally Friendly Public Events”, which brought together festival organisers from all over Estonia. In the first half of the seminar Tartu Nature House introduced a manual for environmentally friendly event planning and a discussion on how to manage an event with the least damage on the environment took place. Viljandi Folk Music Festival, I Land Sound, Surfilaager as well as Tallinn and Tartu Street Food Festival all shared their experiences on the topic.

In March 2019 the foundation of the Estonian Museum of Natural History hosted a seminar on biodegradable materials. As time goes on the topic of replacing disposable plastic products with biodegradable and compostable products. The Ministry of the Environment invited organisers of large events, waste handlers and importers of said products to sit down in order to have a discussion in person. Prior to the discussion there were presentations from Kristel Murumaa from the Ministry of the Environment and Mait Kriipsalu from the Estonian University of Life Sciences.

Signs for disposing waste materials by class

Create a thoutful waste disposal system by class for your festival, conference, office or even your home. Download and print out signs from the “Environmentally friendly public events” project. If you don’t know how to create a system for smart and economically friendly waste management, you can find helpful advice on Estonian Green Movement-FoE.

Activities contributing to environmental awareness

Frames and covers for sorting different types of waste

Tartu Nature House has 12 frames and covers for collecting five different types of waste – packaging, deposit bottles, biowaste, compostable dishes, municipal waste. In case we aren’t using them, we rent them out. We have three of each cover, so of you are planning on collecting deposit bottles and mixed recycling, we can offer 3 frames and covers for deposit bottles and another 3 for mixed recycling. Your only responsibility is to buy 200l bin bags. For mixed recycling it’s advisable to use yellow bags, which you can buy from RagnSells, for other types of waste there are translucent bags sold by Puhastusimport.

The covers are 62 cm x 62 cm and the waste frames are around 1 m, with the lower diameter of about 80 cm.

Ask for more information: Eeva Kirsipuu-Vadi, tel. 5213881, eeva.vadi@gmail.com

Waste frames and covers were purchased with the help of Estonian-Latvian joint collaboration and KIK.

Interactive exhibition “Protecting our paradise”

The exhibition offers different technological solutions for participants to consider the relationship between people and the environment. The main purpose is to analyse how to maintain the paradise where we live. The visitors get an overview on a varitey of topics: the force and beauty of nature, the effects of our actions on the environment in daily life, rationality or needlessness of disposable products and environmentally friendly lifestyles. This interactive tour offers an overview of the daily life choices of well known Estonian and Latvian personalities via augmented reality.

Electricity producing bicycle renting

Tartu Nature House collaborated with the Estonian Green Movement-FoE to create two electricity producing bicycles with Estonian and Latvian co-project “Environmentally friendly public events” as a sponsor. The bicycle is primarily meant to be used by children and youths (the frame being more appropriate). Bicycles can be used to create energy to power a phone charger, an electric kettle or a coffee machine. At the same time you can see how much electricity is being created.

In addition to the two bicycles in Tartu Nature House, we also had the  University of Tartu Academic Sports Club perfect our six generator bicycles which were built a few years ago by the Nagavatt project.

Would you like to organise an environmentally friendly public event?

Contact us and find out more:

• consultation
• training
• project management

Eeva Kirsipuu-Vadi
Tartu Nature House
eeva.vadi@gmail.com
+372 5213881

Eliisa Saksing (lapsehoolduspuhkusel)
Estonian Green Movement-FoE
Eliisa@roheline.ee
+372 53646060