On the 19th September onboard:earth became new name for our charity on its mission to support the live events industry to tackle the impacts of travel – typically the greatest carbon impact at UK outdoor events. Here our CEO, Chris Johnson, shares his thoughts on the evolution and what the future holds for the next chapter – plus thank yous for everyone who has made exciting shift possible.
“In 2015, the charity was founded by the festival industry to share the journey of tackling the industry’s largest emissions contributor – transport and travel. 10 years on, I’m proud that we’ve worked with organisations across the sector, developed and shared best practices, published resources, and built tools that have been used by hundreds of people and organisations, from individual artists to multinational event promoters. Collectively we have invested £659,000 in our future, planted over 65,800 trees, protected over 21,700 acres of threatened rainforest and invested in 10 community-scale renewable energy projects.
This is an exciting moment. The move to onboard:earth represents a deliberate shift towards working with partners that integrate ecological, socio-economic, and cultural perspectives. Channelling donations from the live events industry to support projects that address ecosystem protection and regeneration in a holistic way.
The perpetual benefit model of the charity remains at the heart of our mission – as we raise funds, and build momentum, we support more change, for nature, people and the sector. We are scaling up, with new research underway supported by Arts Council England, a partnership with the UK’s largest traffic management company for live events, Tracsis, and working with partners across the sector, supported by our new Partnerships Lead.
We are also excited to share that we are developing our free members tools. The current Audience Travel Reporting Tool, Artists and Supplier Log sheets have been amalgamated to provide a tool in which events can collate all travel data (scopes 1-3), and generate analysis. We aim to have this with members by the end of October, and in 2025 launch a web-based reporting tool that provides postcode analysis and enhanced reporting features.
All of this is only possible with the steadfast support of our trustees, and a network of partners and supporters; Mackman, who developed the beautiful new brand, Tracsis, Digitwell (App developer) and Lewis Silkins, legal support. Meet all of our members, industry supporters and environmental project partners.