Sunset Events is committed to the environment and the development of sustainable festivals.  So we’re extremely proud to re-introduce EcoBound – the Southbound Music, Camping and Art Festival’s very own environmental program.

EcoBound is about keeping Southbound environmentally sustainable – to leave no trace. Sunset Events has developed some key initiatives to educate patrons in innovative ways about environmental awareness and keep WA’s very own Southbound the most eco-friendly major festival in the state. In fact, Southbound recently picked up the 2008 International Greener Festival Award!

Our EcoBound commitments are designed to make the festival Carbon Neutral and include: a Tree-per-Ticket policy, an Optional Green Fee, making the festival completely Carbon Neutral, re-introducing Green Money, keeping Southbound beautiful with assistance from Keep Australia Beautiful, utilising Bio-Diesel and Green Energy, reintroducing the Green Team, expanding on our Recycling Stations, purchasing carbon credits to offset our carbon footprint, facilitating and encouraging Car Pooling and Bus Transport, offering Solar Powered Mobile Phone Recharge Stations, facilitating a wide-variety of Environmental Groups with Eco Stalls, exhibiting art made from recycled goods and more! We’ll also be employing Eco Productions to conduct a full audit of the 2009 festival.

A Greener Festival Award

We’re delighted to announce that 2008’s Southbound Festival was awarded the 2008 International Greener Festival Award.

A Greener Festival Ltd. is a not-for-profit company, based in the UK, committed to helping music and arts events and festivals around the world adopt environmentally efficient practices through providing information, education resources and swapping ideas. Only four Australian Festivals received the 2008 International Greener Festival Award out of 24 worldwide, two of them going to Sunset Events for the Southbound and West Coast Blues n Roots Festivals. Head to www.agreenerfestival.com for more information.

Carbon Neutral

Southbound 2009 is aiming to be completely carbon neutral. Sunset Events employed the services of Eco Productions to conduct a full environmental evaluation of the festival and its operations in 2008, including a comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions audit. This audit has helped identify areas for potential energy and water savings, to be adopted in future EcoBound initiatives. We will work with Greening Australia in tree planting programs by purchasing carbon credits designed to neutralise our carbon emissions, which is estimated to be in excess of one thousand tonnes.

Furthermore for Southbound 2009, Sunset Events have committed to offsetting all carbon emissions produced by the event, including artist, crew and patron travel, the event’s power requirements, onsite operations and pre-event planning. Sunset Events will purchase verified carbon credits to offset all carbon emissions through Greening Australia.

Tree-per-Ticket

For the second year running Greening Australia will implement the tree-per-ticket policy for the EcoBound - Southbound event.

Mr Hamish Jolly - CEO Greening Australia (WA) is excited about the partnership with Sunset Events and the opportunity to showcase what Greening Australia is doing to transform our landscapes. This year the tree per ticket activity will focus on restoration in the Gondwana Link project, a large-scale re-vegetation project in an internationally recognized ‘biodiversity hotspot' that is helping to restore the ecological link stretching from Kalgoorlie to the Karri in Western Australia.

For this coming planting season Greening Australia will plant an additional100 hectares of biodiverse revegetation on its Peniup property in the Gondwana Link. The Sunset Events funding will contribute to this planting together with other funding sources.

Justin Jonson, the Restoration Manager for Greening Australia's on ground works in the Gondwana Link project, has just completed a 250 hectare ecological restoration project at the Peniup property. Working through the winter season, 100,000 seedlings and 65kg of locally sourced native seed were used to re-create 9 different plant communities, matching plant species to appropriate soil types.

Peniup Creek is a property of approximately 2,406 ha of which 890 ha is bush. Spring is an absolute delight in this bushland. The tall yate woodlands lead into granite mallee heaths that turn purple with Calytrix and then pink with Verticordia. A boulder strewn gully leads to the main creek where pools and waterbirds persist despite high silt loads from the farmland. The property's soils are diverse and change often, paying testament  to the biodiversity hotspot in which it lives. Over 240 plant species have been identified on the property, with many more to be found and ‘keyed out'.  Located at the top of the catchment, this property sits on the interface of the dry inland and moist coastal systems.

Conservation Outcomes

The property advances Gondwana Link 9.5 km from the top of Peniup to north-east of Dowsett's. It is the largest piece of bush in the Jerramungup end of the link, but one which was still deteriorating due to current management. The property supports at least four Functional Landscape Plan targets (Yate woodland, creek systems, mallet and moort woodlands and freshwater systems) and probably one others (Tammar and Black Gloved wallabies). The rare and endangered Red Tailed Wambenger has been seen in she-oak habitat on the property.

Optional Green Fee

For an additional $3 on the normal ticket price, an Optional Green Fee is the basic peace of mind that patrons have more than covered their own carbon footprint.  We are very pleased that more than 30% of patrons who purchased tickets for 2009 Southbound took the opportunity to offset their own travel emissions to and from the festival by taking up an Optional Green Fee. This shows a vast number of our audience is as committed to the environment as we are. Patrons can also donate the Green fee onsite at the Eco Village if they forgot to take up when they purchased their ticket.

Solar Power Music Tree

Sunset Events is proud to present the one and only solar powered music tree! Created by local industrial design and electronics creative's Vince Austin and Katie Cochrane, and powered by clean renewable energy, the music tree is an interactive electronic sculpture on which multiple punters can play music. Be sure to drop by and break out some jams with your mates!

Bio Diesel

All generators onsite will be utilizing a 20 percent bio-diesel fuel blend to power the festival.

Green Team and Recycling Stations

We welcome back our very own eco-warriors, The Green Team. These environmental crusaders will be out in full force to educate and assist with all onsite EcoBound initiatives at the festival, primarily targeting onsite recycling and composting.

At Southbound 2008 we were able to recycle 61% of festival waste compared to 41% in 2007. The biggest area which let us down in 2008, in terms of recycling, were the camping grounds at the end of the festival. In 2009 there will be a strong campaign to ensure campers ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ and leave the grounds in good condition and improve our recycling targets.

Recycling stations will be located throughout the festival site to help achieve our aim of zero waste for the festival.

Green Money

We are re-introducing Green Money - the festival’s DIY recycling program that rewards patrons for recycling! Patrons simply need to drop by the Recycling Stations or Campsite Pods at the festival and grab a biodegradable recycling bag, fill the bag with crushed empty cans or water bottles and by returning it they get a clear conscience plus a $5 Green Money Voucher to spend at the festival.

Keep Australia Beautiful

Southbounders – please keep Busselton beautiful. Let’s ‘do the right thing’ on highways, roadsides, beaches, Busselton township, the festival site and the farmer’s paddock we park on. Keep your litter with you until you find an appropriate place to dispose of it. We are thrilled to announce we have received a Keep Australia Beautiful Litter Prevention Grant to help keep Southbound beautiful!

 

 

 

Environment Groups

There will also be a host of Eco Stalls on site with representatives from Environmental organisations who’ll have plenty of information and eco friendly wares for you. Take the opportunity to catch up on all the latest environment news from the sources that lead the way and keep informed.

Environmentally Friendly Packaging: Cups, Plates, Cutlery and Bags

Southbound’s aim is to use as little packaging as possible – and where packaging is used to ensure that it is biodegradable and compostable.

We have an Environmental Packaging Policy for Stallholders whereby it is mandatory to use biodegrable and compostable packaging, including biodegradable pseudo-plastic. Our preferred supplier is Dzolv, who have a range of EFGLO (Environmentally Friendly Greener Living Options) products which are 100% biodegrable and 100% compostable and include cutlery, plates, straws, cups and more!

All beverages served in cups purchased from any of the bars at the festival, as well as all recycling bags, have been provided by our good buddies at Dzolv. All the plates, food boxes and cutlery are compostable and biodegradable and will be combined with your food waste and some locally sourced green waste before being mulched and composted.

Composting

Southbound will be composting all food waste and packaging together. Patrons will be encouraged to put their food scraps and packaging in dedicated bins located throughout the festival. The bins are then taken to our Recycling Depot and then offsite for processing. Any non-biodegradable packaging will contaminate the mulch and take hundreds of years to break down.

Solar Power Mobile Phone Recharge Stations

With the continued support of the good folk at Solarwest in Nannup, we have gone from one Solar Power Phone Charge station in the eco-village to two, with another in the Base Camp for all your recharging needs. If you have an unusual phone charger we recommend bringing your own labelled one from home.

Car Pooling/Transport

If you are planning to drive to Southbound please get a group together and car pool to reduce your carbon emissions and share costs! Our survey results from Southbound 2008 indicate of those who drove to the festival over 80% had 2-3+ passengers, which is a great result for car pooling.

Please visit websites such as www.thecarpool.com.au or www.ecarpool.com.au for more information about carpooling or to register that you need a lift or have a spare seat!

We also have a host of bus services including buses from local areas such as Margaret River, Yallingup and Bunbury to get patrons to and from the festival. We also offer shuttle buses for campers in and out of Busselton, and there are trains and bus services available from Perth to Busselton and back. Please visit the Travel Info Page of Southbound website for more information.

Printing

All posters, flyers and programs created for the festival have been printed on 55% recycled paper and 45% FSC certified virgin fiber by our Green Stamped printer. We ask anyone that has a flyer, poster or program to please recycle it after the festival.

Ciggie Butt Litter

Did you know that cigarette butt litter is the world’s greatest litter problem? Globally, approximately 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year. It can take up to twelve years for a cigarette butt to break down and they can leach poisonous chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into our marine environment within an hour of contact with water. Smokers, only you can help us stop this. Make sure you grab your personal ashtray and help keep our south-west beautiful.

Sunset Events will be distributing thousands of free personal ashtrays made from recycled products. Smokers are urged to take one from the Info Point, Base Camp or Eco Village and dispose of your cigarette butts in a responsible way for the other patrons, the paddock, our beautiful State and the planet.

Recycled Art

Building on the huge success of the recycling sculptures from 2008, local artists Rob Watt and Eliot Money are once again creating Rodin from rubbish with some new, bigger and more exciting recycling sculptures popping up around the place.

The recycled sculptures are initially ‘empty’ wire sculptures that ‘grow’ during the festival with the addition of recycled aluminum cans. The sculptures are filled up by patrons throughout the festival, in an enjoyable and participative process which also assists with the recycling at the festival. The end result are huge, full colourful recycled sculptures made by multiple festival patrons. This year the sculptures will include mythical and endangered sea creatures. Don't be surprised if you spot the Loch Ness Monster...