ROCKING THE DAISIES
MUSIC AND LIFESTYLE FESTIVAL
GREENING STRATEGY
LAST UPDATE: 9 SEPTEMBER 2015
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
Greening Strategy
1 Introduction:
Rocking the Daisies is an environmentally sustainable event that aims to reduce the impact on
the environment to the best of its ability under the motto of ‘Play hard, tread lightly’. As a result,
the festival incorporates event greening principles and practices into all aspects of the event to
ensure that the festival is hosted responsibly.
The Greening Strategy for 2015 is the overarching document that pulls together the various
policies and action plan for the event from a strategic perspective. It makes reference to the
lessons learnt from the 2014 eco audit.
It includes reference to the following supporting documents (available on request):
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Environmental Policy with summary of Green Goals
Environmental Management Program (EMP), with a focus on waste management, water
conservation and the natural environment
Eco Procurement Policy, with a focus on purchase of goods and service
Transport Policy, including all forms of transport
Greening guidelines for Heartbreak Motel
Greening guidelines for Contractors
Greening guidelines for Sponsors
Health and Safety Policy
Waste Management Plan
Service Level Agreements(SLAs)with various service providers
2 Key challenges, insights and recommendations from 2014 Eco Audit
The following provides the key recommendations based on the 2014 Eco Audit Report, with
actions for implementation during the 2015 event.
2.1 Awareness and taking responsibility:
2014 Recommendation:
“The event organisers went to a lot of effort to implement a green event, but still the festivalgoers don’t take responsibility for their own actions, as is clearly indicated by the amount of
litter left behind. Emphasis was placed on communicating the greening efforts, but still the
message did not seem to sink in. Despite all the information already provided on-line and via
social media, there was still a high level of apathy, and the events team needs to continue to
get the message across.”
2015 initiatives:
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Greening press release covering green initiatives over past ten years and for 2015
Video created utilising Anton Taylor celebrity and issues around waste last year to get
across the message that festival goers must contribute to keeping the festival clean and
being a ‘good’ festival goer.
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
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Call to action for greening suggestions from festival goers at the end of the video
Social media campaign that highlights key ‘green issues’ from RTD plan
Social media campaign based on the building blocks of the green infographic – also to
be released on the website
Improved waste signage to encourage participation
Comprehensive info on the festival app
Highlight awards better – show credibility
Brendan Murray on stage
Green Brigade in camp site improved and expanded – partnership with Hotel Verde
utilising their staff and volunteers
Greenpop to manage the Green Village and trees planting campaigns
Trees for tickets:
Greenpop will be managing the set up and monitoring of the GivenGain tree-raising accounts
and platforms, communicating with and managing on an ongoing basis, the individuals raising
trees to encourage, give tips and general assistance. They will be promoting the programme
through newsletters and across social media platforms and all community networks.
A total of 8 trees will need to be raised for individuals to raise money for a Rocking the Daisies
ticket, with a target of 504 trees being set as the ultimate goal for 2015.
Trees for prizes:
In addition to trees for tickets, Greenpop and Rocking the Daisies are raising awareness and
incentivizing the public to plant more trees and offset the carbon footprint of the festival by
giving prizes in a competition for participants who plant the most trees. The total target for the
combined tree planting is 1000 trees.
Competition mechanic:
Already have your RTD ticket? Raise 5 trees to upgrade your ticket to Daisies Plus.
Now let's get competitive! Anybody can get involved in tree-raising to raise the most trees in a
month and win some pretty epic prizes for the top 9 tree-raisers by 25 September:
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Most trees raised overall - Two (2) backstage bar passes
2nd most trees raised overall - Four (4) pit passes to watch your favourite artist for the first
3 songs of their set
3rd most trees raised overall - Two (2) pit passes to watch favourite artist for the first 3
songs of their set
4th most trees raised overall - Upgrade to Daisies Plus
5th most trees raised overall - One-night stay for two at Hotel Verde, Cape Town (with
breakfast)
6th most trees raised overall - One-night stay for two at Hotel Verde, Cape Town (with
breakfast)
7th most trees raised overall - Two (2) Tickets to Greenpop's Platbos Reforest Fest 2016
8th most trees raised overall - Two (2) Tickets to Greenpop's Cool as Folk festival 2016
9th most trees raised overall - Two (2) Tickets to (XX) Seed Events
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
Bridges for Music
Industry Comps and dedicated stage – all proceeds of these ticket types go to Bridges for
Music as well as a dedicated stage to give exposure to the organisation.
Live For Daisies wishing well
There will be a collection well for small change when people exit the festival. Proceeds will be
split between Bridges for Music and Greenpop tree planting.
Expanded Green Village
Situated in the Electro Dome Arena, next to a key entrance / exit point to both General
Camping and Heartbreak Motel Camping, The Green Village at Rocking the Daisies 2015
collectively will engage attendees with an environmental and community action message
integrated into the music festival space. Through creative activations and collaborations,
thoughtful and creative speaker presentations and workshops, festival attendees will be
engaged and shown ways how greening can be easy, accessible and popular.
The Green Village features the solar-powered Hemp Stage with an epic line-up;
environmentally-conscious vendors, including Hemporium and HoopFlowLove; a TedxCT stage
showcasing featured Tedx video presentations; creative activations, like voting with your trash
and a live art installation; and a series of holistic and earth-friendly workshops and talks, from
yoga to up-cycling to eating vegan.
Independent Green Audit
It will be the seventh time than an independent green audit is done for Daisies, and provides a
comprehensive overview of the different activities and the impact of the event. It includes a
full carbon footprint and recommendations for off-setting this.
2.2 Service Level Agreements:
2014 Recommendation:
“This was raised previously, but should be emphasized, as there were still many service providers
that did not comply with the requirements. Effort has been placed on compiling various
policies and guidelines, but the service providers also need to understand why it is important
and what is expected from them. Clear service level agreements need to be compiled, with
penalties for non-compliance.”
2015 plan:
All contractors, traders, sub-contractors and sponsors are to receive a service level agreement
to sign, accompanied by policy documents and guidelines with potential penalties for noncompliance. This aims to provide clarity on what is expected from the different parties.
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
2.3
EcoProcurement:
2014 Recommendation:
“The principles of eco procurement need to be implemented based on the procurement
policy but it needs to be promoted more actively so that vendors and suppliers understand it
better.”
2015 plan:
All contractors, traders, sub-contractors and sponsors are to receive a service level agreement
to sign, accompanied by policy documents and guidelines with potential penalties for noncompliance.
2.4 Waste Management:
2014 Recommendation:
“It is critical that a comprehensive waste management strategy be compiled to address the
increased numbers of attending the festival, including a review of the bin allocation and
signage to ensure maximum impact. An awareness campaign needs to be implemented in
the campsite again in the future to encourage better participation. A specific awareness
campaign needs to be implemented to encourage the collection of cigarette butts. Vendors
need to understand why the only selling of bottled water is from the PETCO supports supplier. A
composting campaign needs to be implemented next year again back of house for the
vendors, while a concerted effort should also be put into diverting the compostable containers
from landfill. Provision needs to be made for the safe disposal of hazardous waste such as
broken compact fluorescent lights (CFLs).”
2015 Waste Management plan:
A waste management plan has been compiled to ensure an overview of the different roles and
responsibilities, as well as an outline of the flow of the waste:
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Provide more bins, with separation at source
Partnership with PETCO to promote awareness
Composting and plant day
There will be a composting system for the vendors at RTD in an effort to manage the organic
food waste onsite. Vendors will receive 20-litre (airtight) bins for all their food waste. After the
composting process is complete the RTD team will use this for planting of trees and / or
vegetables, as was done last year.
Campaign signage:
Improved ‘awareness’ signage will be provided on site as part of the ‘do your bit pick up your
shit’ campaign.
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
Green Brigade:
A clean up team called the Green Brigade, led by the employees of the Hotel Verde, Brendon
Murray, Heavenly Earth and volunteers will be available during Friday, Saturday and Sunday
morning creating a procession through the campsite encouraging campers to clean up their
waste.
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Schedule and numbers – loud and very noticeable
Signage
Pre-campaign with Anton Taylor and Brendan Murray
Brendan Murray on stage
Tuffy Rubbish bags sponsorship – rubbish bags readily available for free to the public
Hotel Verde
Post event shots of clean campsite on Monday up on facebook
CFLs disposal (provide suitable containers for CFL disposal, which is hazardous waste)
Contractor obligations – SLA clear upfront
Awareness campaign – do your bit pick up your shit
Trashback:
A Trashback campaign will be implemented onsite in 2-3 locations at the festival. Each station
will be manned by the Hotel Verde team representatives on a shift basis, with at least two
people from 10am until 5pm on Friday and Saturday and from 9am – 3pm on Sunday.
Trashback stations will be well marked and visually appealing, including information on being
responsible with waste, as well as, the Verdino concept; a Hotel Currency rewarded to guests
for being more sustainable.
Instead of using actual Verdino’s Hotel Verde will work together with a community centre in
order to create recycled Verdinos out of bottle caps, which will be pressed with the “Verde”
signature branded V marked on it. Each time someone hands in correctly sorted waste to the
Trashback they will receive a Verdino to claim their reward and go into grand prize draw.
Other ideas being explored:
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Incentive campaign for clean campsites
Introducing Bar cups that are re-usable and that the festival goers pay for
Pocket ashtrays
Leave your trash in a bag by your campsite for collection – volunteer teams to hand out
bags on Sunday Morning
Campaign to festival goers to avoid bringing non-recycled items such as expanded
polystyrene or tetrapack
Way more emphasis on the walk and cycle events. Video on the screens and pre- and
post event
2.5 Water Conservation:
2014 Recommendation:
“Water points are a major concern every year and although more points have been made
available over time, it is strongly recommended that additional water points be made available
for drinking water. This needs to be increased due to the fact that no bottled water is sold
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
onsite and because it can become very hot. Water points should also be provided inside the
bar areas where people go to get their drinks. Messaging should be displayed to encourage
festival-goers to use water with care and why bottled water is not sold. It is strongly
recommended that a permanent holding tank for the grey water and sewerage should be
considered at the Daisy Den.”
2015 plan for bottled drinking water:
While bottled water was not allowed to be sold over the previous few years, this year bottled
drinking water will be procured for resale through a pre-approved water supplier mandated by
RTD that meets strict bottling and production practices. This supplier (Aquabella
http://www.aquabella.co.za/about/our-environmental-commitment/)is an approved PETCO service
provider and the waste generated will be fully recycled. PETCO will implement an awareness
campaign via social media.
Free Drinking Water:
Rocking the Daisies will be supplying free drinking water alongside the bottled water for safety
reasons due to the potential heat, as was experienced last year. Water points providing clean
spring drinking water will be situated at the following areas:
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Back of House
Front of House in the main festival arena
General Campsite
Daisy Den
Campsite Traders
Rocking the WCs
Heart Break Motel
Daisies Plus Camping Area
6 x water tanks 16,000 litre
Showers and toilets:
Free showers are provided across the festival, with premium paid options at selected points. All
showers use low flow taps in order to conserve water usage and the water temperature is
turned down in order to discourage over usage.
Regulated hours to control usage are from 06h00 to 10h00 and 16h00 to 21h00.
In addition recirculation chemical toilets (formaldehyde free) are being used in the Rocking
WC’s as opposed to fresh flush
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40x General campsite
10x New campsite
10x Daisies plus
10x Daisy Den
10x Compounds
4x VIPs
10x Crew
18x Rocking WCs
36x HBM General
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
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11 HMB Memphis
2.6 Energy Efficiency:
2014 Recommendation:
“All service providers need to be required to use energy efficiency lights, preferably LEDs
instead of incandescent, halogen or fluorescent lights. In future the solar stage should be
expanded and biodiesel should be used in the generators. A total of 32 Renewable Energy
Certificates (RECs) be purchased to offset the carbon emissions relating to the energy used
during the event in 2014.”
2015 plan:
Eight REC’s have already been purchased, while the remainder will be procured after the
event based on the actual consumption
Bio-diesel mix will be provided in 11 out of 22 generators (50%)
The Green Village and Hemp Stage will run off solar power, with a minimum of 12 solar
panels of 345 watts each, providing a total of 4,14kWp that is stored in 12 x100Ah/12volt
batteries.
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2.7 Transport:
2014 Recommendation:
“While the transport policy was implemented, it needs to be promoted more effectively. Although the
uptake on the bus has been slow, it should be implemented as an effort to reduce the overall carbon
footprint. Initiatives such as walking and cycling, as well as preferential parking for lift-sharing. That a total
of 981 trees be planted to offset the emissions relating to the overall transport.”
2015 plan:
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Bussing the Daisies – Busses to and from Cape Town and the Airport
Walking the Daisies
Cycling the Daisies
Car Pooling incentives – 2000 priority parking bays for cars with 4 people or more
Greenpop Trees for Tickets campaign
Calculation and offsetting of overall carbon footprint based on information provided by
the different service providers, artists and sponsors
2.8 Social and economic development:
2014 Recommendation:
“More emphasis needs to be placed on development of partnerships with local community
partners to encourage local economic development. As an example, the local Spar can be
asked to run a small convenience store and provide traders with some daily necessities such as
fresh bread. Social development projects need to be supported in the future, but more
specific indicators are needed around the impact. The added value from the GreenVillage
team and Red Frogs is recognised, but more focus needs to be placed on education around
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
safe use of drugs, potentially linking up with an organisation such as Rave Safe
(http://www.ravesafe.org.za/).”
2015 plan:
The following is currently being explored
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Bridges for Music - stage and fund raising
Greenpop – stage and fundraising
Clothes donations – local community donations of clothes left behind or donated by
festival goers – Luke CM to provide all information
Veggie garden plant - local community – Luke CM to provide all information once
finalised
Beach clean ups – as part of Walking the Daisies
Live For Daisies – Mike Rose-Innes to provide final information
Expanded Green Village
Red Frogs
Lions Club donations
Darling Police Station donation to be used for community benefit such as the trauma
centre refurbishment
Convenience kiosk (done) see below
2.9 Communication:
2014 Recommendation:
“It is recommended that information about event greening be included into future apps so that
the environmental message is available on all the media channels. Clear communication
needs to be provided to sponsors on how their decisions impact on the environmental footprint
of the event.
The Green Village was well received and it is proposed that this be expanded in the future to
include more local environmental NGOs, as well as traders that sell eco friendly products and
services. It should be a practical showcase of how people can implement eco friendly
principles at their homes. Eco-friendly camping products (such as biodegradable soap) should
also be sold at the Green Village as part of the campaign to promote responsible awareness.
Mechanisms need to be explored to get the sponsors and artists more actively involved in
promoting the environmental message.”
2015 plan:
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Festival app highlighting ALL greening initiatives
Greenpop app integration with festival app
Service level agreement to all sponsors, traders, contractors and sub-contractors
Green Village marketing campaign and releases / features about all activities
Big Screens to be used to convey key messaging pulled from the infographic
Green e-mailer to all ticket holders with infographic and links to download all supporting
documentation
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
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Website to host all green documentation and infographic. Full transparency on all policy
documents and audits etc.
Full impactful Social Media campaign specifically around the environmental aspects of
the festival
Improved signage at the festival and green messaging from RTD and partners
2.10 Monitoring:
Based on the feedback received during the interviews, the following recommendations were
made in the eco audit report, with the response for 2015 plan in bold.
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That more bins be provided, specifically at the campsite. Done
That an awareness campaign be implemented again to encourage people to clean up
their own litter and be given refuse bags on arrival. Done
That more water points should be provided and that water should be provided inside the
bars. Done
That specific focus should be placed on the safe disposal of cigarette butts. Done Stompie collection with Hotel Verde Trashback. Also more sand bucket ashtrays from
RTD. Disposable ashtrays to be provided on bar counters. Done
That a convenience kiosk be set up to sell basic goods. Done
That more shade be provided for festival goers. Done
That more points be made available where phones can be charged. TBC
That more effort be placed on cleaning the toilets. Done
Solutions should be considered for reusable cups instead of disposable cups. Done - we
will be implementing a re-usable cup system
That a mentality of “leave no trace” be encouraged, as is done at African Burn. Done as
part of our communications plan.
That water drinking bottles be made available for free or at a nominal cost. We will be
selling reusable water bottles in the merchandise tents. Festival goers will be able to use
the water bottles purchased at the bars to refill from the free drinking points provided
That the Green Village be expanded. Done.
That continued effort should be put on hosting RTD as a green event.
That continued effort should be put onto encouraging lift sharing and that people be
encouraged to offset their flights and local transport through GreenPop during the
festival. Done.
The following Survey Monkey questionnaires have been compiled for data gathering this year:
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Walking and Cycling the Daisies (before getting their tickets)
Vendors and Traders (before getting their access pass)
3 A Greener Festival
The following key points need to be addressed if ‘A Greener Festival’ submission is done:
9. Has an environmental and biodiversity impact assessment been undertaken for the festival
on this site prior to the event, with high risk areas identified? YES – Grace will have this from
2014. It will need to be done pre event this year again as per each year.
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)
13. Have per person CO2 emissions reduced since previous event? Please describe how
reductions were achieved. PROVIDE COPIES OF MEASURED DATA AFTER THE EVENT. Grace to
compare but unlikely as event is growing(note that it can potentially drop per person, even if
there are more people, but that depends on the overall international flights).
21. Are there incentives to reduce artist travel emissions where possible? We are looking at
ideas moving forward with Greenpop but not for this year. We will be focusing on trees for
tickets to offset.
27. Does the event have a mandatory requirement for products such as teas & coffees to be
organic / fair trade onsite and is this effectively enforced / practised on site? Encouraged but
not mandatory. All traders, contractors, sub contractors and sponsors get policy documents
and guidelines from which to work. They need to sign an SLA acknowledging these practices.
28. Are all caterers asked to use local, fair trade, organic, free range products where possible
and is this effectively enforced / practised on site? Encouraged but not mandatory. All traders,
contractors, sub contractors and sponsors get policy documents and guidelines from which to
work. They need to sign an SLA acknowledging these practices
29. Does the event have a local market where traders can replenish dairy / bread /
vegetables etc. onsite? Or does the event facilitate use of local produce through distributing
supplier lists etc.?
YES, a list of local suppliers (Darling and Malmesbury) is distributed prior to the event and the
procurement policy addresses this. For example the water is procured from this region as part
of these policies.
33. Have per person waste levels reduced since previous years? Grace / Vicky to compare
and provide
37. Does the event use compost toilets? If so how many compared with other types?
GreenPop will be trialling it this year. We also have a composting shower to provide warm
water shower.
Note that A Greener Festival will not be running during 2015, but SEED can compile the application and
submit it early 2016 for consideration.
Thank you in advance.
Rocking the Daisies Team
Rocking the Daisies 2015 – Greening Strategy (Sept 2015)