Sunrise Celebration and Glastonbury Festival were both among the winners at the coveted 2009 Greener Festival Award.

Now in its third year, the Greener Festival Award is based on a 56 point checklist which covers green office policies, energy use and carbon reduction, travel and transport, support for green initiatives, waste management, recycling, water use and environmental protection and noise pollution and the Awards organisers have a team of environmental auditors who visit festivals to assess environmental good practice and effective green policies.

Here’s what the judges had to say about Sunrise Celebration: ‘Sunrise have sustainability at the core of their planning and festival ethos. Waste, Power and traffic policies all reflect this and there are almost 100% compost toilets too! With ethical stalls scattered all around site it was a really environmentally friendly festival’

And Glastonbury Festival: ‘new targets set for many aspects of the 2009 festival, such as audience travel and on-site transportation, lead to the increased use of bio-diesel fuel in site vehicles as well as generators and the use of many forms of alternative energy including solar, wind and human generated power wherever practicable. Glastonbury’s real strong point is that it works with, supports and actively encourages its audience and staff to go green’

In total, 7 English festivals, 1 Scottish, 1 Italian, 2 American, and 5 Australian events received awards aknoledging their efforts to reduce their environmental impact. Visit the Greener Festival website to find out more about the initiative.

For more information about making festivals greener, visit juliesbicycle.com or read their Industry Green report by clicking here