How Shambala UK Uses Economic Footprint To Reduce Environmental Footprint

Shambala, one of the pioneering festivals when it comes to sustainability, has announced ambitious plans to disrupt the capitalist supply chain and prove live events can actively fund environmental repair.

The team, which jointly owns the festival, wants “to address the economic systems that continue to drive environmental decline. Its latest move seeks to go beyond sustainability and direct more money towards the actual repair of nature,” according to today’s press announcement.

The next move in this process has been to enlist Evrythng, a Welsh not-for-profit spirits company, to supply the gin, rum and vodka served across all eight festival bars. Evrythng, by its own admission, returns 100% of its distributable profit to projects tackling the climate and nature crises.

This year – Shambala returns to the beautiful Kelmarsh Hall and Gardens in Northamptonshire, England, Aug. 27-30 – Evrythng’s profits will be distributed among three charities, with a Shambala audience vote to determine the distribution: Kettering Nature Group, Roots and Shoots and Avon Needs Trees. Voting is now open at: https://www.shambalafestival.org/meet-our-rad-new-spirits-supplier-evrythng/

As well as supplying all their products under this not-for-profit model, Evrythng are using a closed-loop, zero waste and zero recycling system, which sees every item of packaging that comes into the festival is either cleaned, stored and reused the following year, or taken back to the distillery for reuse.

Shambala’s wider supply chain is built around a myriad of other organizations actively driving change, from staffing partnerships with Oxfam and MyCause, to FGH Security as one of the UK’s few Living Wage security providers, to working exclusively with sustainable food and drinks partners. On-site systems such as Compoost Toilets return festivalgoers’ waste to the land, while Clean Sheet (toilet paper) channels 100% of its profits into organizations fighting for system change in the UK.

Elsewhere across food and drink, the festival works exclusively with sustainable partners, including Freedom Brewery, Bau Cocktails and local ale providers, as well as organic, local and foraged food traders such as Hedgerow Drinks, Radek’s Chocolate and the NOSH Community Cafe, a volunteer-run initiative raising money for hard-to-fund projects in three local villages.

Other food & drink suppliers dedicated to waste reduction include Refill Revolution, a local packaging-free retailer, and Wild & Furrow, which supplies over 5,000 liters of oat milk to Shambala annually in reusable glass bottles and bulk drums.

See: Shambala Becomes UK’s First Employee-Owned Festival

Comments:

Chris Johnson, Co-founder and MD of Shambala, “Sustainable progress is crucial for our future, but by definition it can only sustain the current state of our ecosystems when what we really need is an active process of repair. If we’re serious about tackling the climate and nature crises, we need to find ways of moving more resources towards the organisations already delivering solutions, such as redesigning the way our supply chains work so that environmental restoration is built into everyday spending.”

James Law, founder of Evrythng, “A typical summer festival season generates millions of pounds of profit for beer, wine and spirits brands. Most of that money leaves the festival ecosystem and disappears up the chain. We’re asking a simple question: what if those profits were used to fund environmental repair instead? Festivals have spent years reducing their environmental footprint. The next step is using their economic footprint to create positive change.”

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