In a world first, Dutch festival brand DGTL announced a partnership with SkyNRG, a global leader and pioneer in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), ensuring all artists to and from their international events reduce CO2 emissions from flying, by replacing fossil fuel with SAF.
DGTL does everything it can to minimize 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. This innovation is the final piece in DGTL’s overall sustainability puzzle, with the organizers having already solved sustainability issues around energy, water & sanitation, food and commodities (waste) at their events. Tackling and unraveling the problem of mobility – often deemed a problem too far – means DGTL now has a firm handle on every aspect of their sustainability cycle. Working with SkyNRG, DGTL’s sustainability model once again provides a groundbreaking blueprint for other promoters and large-scale event organizers.
Other circular systems at DGTL Festival (Amsterdam)
Energy: Completely on renewable energy, from 16,000 litres of diesel to 0 litres of diesel
Resources (formerly called ‘waste’): From 2.3 kg residual waste to 0kg residual waste per visitor
Food court: 100% plant-based menu
Sanitation: Circular sanitation group, in which DGTL extracts nutrients from urine and faeces, to use them as soil improvers and fertilizers. From pee to tea
DGTL’s Sustainability Coordinator Mitchell van Dooijeweerd commented: “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. Furthermore, it is a scalable solution that can reduce air travel emissions for other events too where air travel may be unavoidable. DGTL’s festivals have a huge reach, which is why it is important we lead by example and plant the seed for change.”
SAF is fuel for aircrafts that is produced from sustainable resources, instead of being refined from petroleum, like fossil-based aviation fuel. SAF 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.”
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 programs 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.”
SkyNRG uses a system for supplying SAF to DGTL called Book & Claim. With this system, SAF is not used on the aircrafts the artists fly with, but rather tanked into the fuel system of an airport close to the SAF production facility. The SAF produced and supplied is continuously tracked and the corresponding carbon emission reductions are then allocated to DGTL and the artists. The benefits of this system are that it reduces carbon emissions from fuel transport and uses existing supply chains. This system is also commonly used when purchasing green electricity. Green electricity is added to the overall grid by the person paying for it, without it being delivered to that specific person’s home, for example, thereby improving the overall sustainability of the grid.
The overall aim of the DGTL-SkyNRG partnership is to show the industry and all music fans – many of whom regularly use air travel – how they can reduce their own CO2 footprint by using SAF. To that end, DGTL and SkyNRG, together with climate tech builder CHOOOSE, will soon launch a leading-edge carbon emissions calculator that both the industry and general public can use to evaluate and reduce their CO2 footprint.
Thanks to their work with SkyNRG, more sustainable travel can now finally be ticked off DGTL’s sustainable ‘to-do’ list, making them true trailblazers in the world’s quest for achievable sustainability.
Featured Image Credit by: Kirsten van Santen
