Gathering together to share a laugh is important, but we also acknowledge the impacts this has on our planet. That’s why starting in 2023 we’ll be focusing on our green event practices and committing to paving a path to a more sustainable festival in future years. From reducing our carbon footprint to thoughtful planning around waste, manufacturing and operations, we’re curating a comedy experience that also keeps the earth smiling. We pledge to continually evolve our robust green event practices year over year, ensuring that we tread lightly and leave nothing but laughter in our wake. We hope you’ll come along for the ride.
Working with Ostrom Climate Solutions, Canada’s leading carbon management solutions provider, to understand our greenhouse gas emissions and earn a Climate Friendly Event Designation for Vancouver’s festival.
Through Vancouver’s Climate Friendly Event Designation GOCF is supporting Ostrom Climate’s Great Bear Forest Carbon Project. By supporting this project, GOCF has contributed to an Improved Forest Management initiative, which generates emission reductions by protecting forest areas that were previously designated, sanctioned, or approved for commercial logging.
Working with accommodation partners in all four of our festival cities that are leaders in sustainability or Green Key Eco certified.
Promotion of active and eco-friendly transportation for attendees to take advantage of getting to and from the festival venues:
- Working with Lime/Bird Electric Scooters at our Edmonton & Calgary festivals to encourage more environmentally friendly ways for attendees to get to site.
- Offering designated self-service bicycle lock areas at our Calgary & Vancouver festivals.
- Partnering with Mobi by Shaw Go in Vancouver to promote bike share to commute, run errands, visit friends or ride along the Seawall to the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival at Stanley Park! The nearest Mobi by Shaw Go station is located right behind the main stage – a 1 minute walk to the entrances.
Only certified compostable containers + cutlery distributed on site from our Vancouver food trucks.
Working with our crew caterers on menus that are as local and sustainable as possible at all our festival venues to cut down on emissions and water consumption.
Partnering with Coca-Cola to provide reusable water bottles for all Staff, Volunteers + Artists at our Vancouver festival in order to cut down on single use plastic waste.
Water Refill Stations provided at key back-of-house locations where possible for Staff, Volunteers & Artists, encouraging the use of reusable water bottles.
Working with Growing City & HireGood at our festival venues to build out a robust waste management plan in order to increase our waste diversion rate.
Developing robust internal and external communications + marketing plans around sustainability in order to educate and encourage our sponsors, attendees and production suppliers to join us on this journey!
GOCF is proud to be partnering with BrandLIVE’s Green Effect Consultancy on enhancing sustainability at our festivals. With the support of BrandLIVE’s team we are able to assess our current green event practices and work towards improving them year over year.