SPRING is sustainable

SPRING presents artists who are driven by current societal developments and whose work reflects upon these issues. This calls for a festival organization that is aware of its social responsibility to run a sustainable operation. Since the start of the festival in 2013 we have therefore pursued an active sustainability policy, which won SPRING an International Greener
Event Award in 2017 and 2018.

SPRING's focal points are in the field of transport, travel, accomodation and intensifying partnerships with regard to sustainability by looking at energy consumption, waste processing and working with local suppliers. The annual brochure is printed on wood-free offset silk paper (FSC Mixed). Our flyers, invitations and stationery are also printed in a sustainable way. Did you know that all our international guests travel through Utrecht by bicycle? In addition, they sleep "green" in Hotel Mitland (Green Key Gold) and Stayokay (Ecolabel).

SPRING is sustainable in:
• The program brochure is printed on recycled paper.
• T-shirts for crew are made from 100% recycled materials / organic cotton.
• The crew wind jackets are reused instead of re-made every year.
• The marketing department uses local suppliers and distributors as much as possible.
• For decorations of the city and locations (such as banners, flags and towers), we produce as much reusable material, so that it can be reused over several years and for different SPRING activities.
• The facade banners for the Stadsschouwburg Utrecht and Theater Kikker are reused and, for example, remade into bags.
• Close attention is paid to the numbers of printed material to reduce waste.
• We try to use local suppliers as much as possible for renting materials for performances. When purchasing materials for performances, we try to throw away the materials as little as possible, but to give them a second life. Renting or borrowing is preferred.
• Artists are encouraged to travel by train as much as possible.
• Attempts are made as much as possible to connect the tours of the artists with other festivals in order to limit transport, certainly with performances that come from outside of Europe so that they do not have to fly back and forth all the time.
• Artists are only transported by taxi from and to the station and are only transported by taxi in Utrecht in really necessary cases.
• Artists will all receive a bicycle for transport within Utrecht.
• In the dressing rooms of the artists, reusable water bottles are placed instead of disposable bottles and there is a note that water in the Netherlands is of very good quality and that you can refill the bottle.
• Almost all of the companies / artists sleep in hotels with a Green Key / Green Key gold.
• Companies no longer receive a printed information booklet per person: the tour manager receives a printed booklet and the rest receive it by email.
• For the crew catering, as much as possible is sourced locally and organically and vegetarian meals are cooked.
• Information such as city maps are no longer issued as standard to companies, but can be found at hotels.
• We separate paper and glass from other waste in the office and have a cleaning company that pays attention to sustainability (such as cleaning products, etc.).
• Print paper is recycled.
• We use the BIC ecolutions pen (both in the office and with, for example, the program component for the public "10 minutes 10 questions").
• Almost all the furniture at the SPRING office is second-hand.
• The artistic director has to travel a lot to see performances and uses the train instead of the aircraft wherever possible within Europe.
• We only work with online ticket sales and not with printed tickets.
• We always publish a little bit about sustainability in our program booklet, in the festival script and in the manual for volunteers to inform people that SPRING is actively working on this and at the same time to increase the awareness of visitors / crew.
• We have conversations with our locations, asking them critical questions to increase awareness with regard to sustainability.

 
 

SPRING passe-partout