Kuva: Festivaalin työntekijöitä vastaanottamassa Ekokompassi-sertifikaattia apulaispormestari Anni Sinnemäeltä.
Kuva: Roni Rekomaa

World Village Festival awarded the EcoCompass certificate for the third time

Among 15 other events and companies, World Village Festival received EcoCompass certificate from the Deputy Mayor of the city of Helsinki, Anni Sinnemäki, in October. EcoCompass is a certifying system that focuses especially on practical and concrete environment action. With the certificate, World Village Festival has committed to develop its environmental work continuously.  

In addition to development, EcoCompass criteria includes for example waste reduction, separation, participation of a trained person in charge of the environment and an annually updated environment plan. 

The environmental action taken by the Festival includes for example compensating the flights of the international guests and performers to Finnish environmental organizations, promotion and favouring of locally produced organic vegetarian food and recycling 100% of the waste produced by the Festival.  

– For example, all the disposable dishes used by the Festival’s food vendors are biodegradable, the banners are made of PVC-free, entirely recyclable GeoMesh-fabric and the workers’ T-shirts are made using cloth manufacturers’ textile waste, lists production manager Laura Valoma, who is also responsible for the Festival’s environmental impacts. 

Systematic action for environment is one of the highest priorities at World Village Festival and EcoCompass is only one tool in the environmental toolkit.  

– World Village aims to do its own part in working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Several organizations presenting their work at the Festival area give a great possibility to get to know and choose one’s own way to act for more sustainable future, Valoma continues.  

World Village Festival is one of the first EcoCompass certified events in Finland and it has renewed the certificate in each audition, held every three years.  

Read more about the Festival’s environmental work or contact the production manager to get more information.  

Text: Noora Isomäki