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This is possibly the most sustainable music festival yet

Words by Smiley Team

In what has been dubbed a “world-first”, a Dutch festival brand – DGTL, which has music, art and sustainability as its pillars – has announced a partnership with SkyNRG, a global leader and pioneer in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), ensuring all artists to and from their events reduce CO2 emissions from flying, by replacing fossil fuel with SAF. 

DGTL does what it can to minimise air travel, but for journeys that are unavoidable, SAF will allow them to reduce their carbon footprint from flying to net zero, by replacing fossil kerosine with SAF. 

Other circular systems at DGTL Festival include: they're completely using renewable energy, going from 16,000 litres of diesel to 0 litres of diesel. They’ve gone from 2.3 kg residual waste to 0kg residual waste per visitor. And they have a 100% plant-based menu. They also have what’s called a “circular sanitation group”, in which DGTL extracts nutrients from urine and faeces, to use them as soil improvers and fertilisers. 

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From pee to tea DGTL’s sustainability coordinator, Mitchell van Dooijeweerd, said: “We feel a responsibility to continuously improve and maintain our social and environmental impact on the globe and we are committed to leave the world a bit better than we found it. 

“That’s why we are always researching and implementing innovative measures to progressively reduce emissions. But we’re looking beyond our own emissions too. Through this partnership with SkyNRG, we reduce CO2 emissions together with our artists and ensure that what we do inspires our surroundings. Replacing fossil kerosine with SAF is a huge step forward for unavoidable flights.”

So, what is SAF?

SAF is fuel for aircrafts that is produced from sustainable resources, instead of being refined from petroleum, like fossil-based aviation fuel. It can significantly reduce CO2 emissions compared to fossil fuel, depending on the technology and feedstock used. 

SkyNRG’s Program Manager, Jef de Vries commented: “Although SAF has been in commercial use since 2011 and over 300,000 flights so far have been powered by it, it still makes up less than 1% of the overall fuel use in aviation. 

“Therefore, SkyNRG scales up supply and demand by building new production capacity and forging partnerships with industry pioneers like DGTL festival.” 

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Explaining how DGTL has collaborated with artists across its multiple global line-ups to drive the SAF initiative, festival booker Jelle Lobbes said: “When we reached out to the artists about this project, we found out most of them were already engaged in more sustainable travel. 

“Agencies already implemented offset programmes for their roster and really thought about their journeys. This showed we’re all on the same page and motivated us to join forces and take the next step forward.” 

Thanks to their work with SkyNRG, more sustainable travel can now be ticked off DGTL’s sustainable ‘to-do’ list, making them true trailblazers in the world’s quest for achievable sustainability. 

This article aligns with the following UN SDGs

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