Partying sustainably at clubs and festivals

Sustainability is being taken increasingly seriously in the club scene too. Katharina Wolf has made sustainability her personal goal: she is responsible for “Clubtopia” and “Zukunft Feiern!”, two cooperative projects run by the non-profit organisations BUND Berlin e.V. and Clubliebe e.V. For the past eleven years, the geoecologist has been campaigning for more sustainability in German clubs and at festivals. 

Ms Wolf, why is sustainability important in the club scene? 
During the course of one weekend, a club consumes as much electricity as a one-person household does in an entire year. Given that a year has 52 weekends, that’s an awful lot of electricity. There are also other issues, such as heating. Clubs have a very high level of resource consumption and need - just like other areas of life - to become more sustainable if they want to be fit for the future. 

What can clubs do to become more sustainable?
Many things. It also isn’t always necessary to invest big sums of money to achieve sustainability goals. One quite simple yet very effective step is to switch to using green electricity. That allows carbon emissions to be reduced by 80 percent. LEDs can be used for lighting and more efficient use can be made of cooling systems To reduce their water consumption, clubs should switch to waterless urinals or smaller toilet cisterns. Another option is to book DJs and acts from the local region rather than flying people in. In the “Clubtopia” project we offer free energy advice and can spend up to one year supporting clubs with implementing energy efficiency measures.  

In the “Zukunft Feiern!” project you have drawn up a code of conduct - a kind of voluntary commitment. How many clubs have signed up? 
There are now more than 50 Germany-wide, including well-known venues such as Uebel & Gefährlich in Hamburg, Tresor in Berlin and Gloria in Cologne. 25 festivals are also on board. Of course, making such changes always involves a certain amount of work and cost. So what I would like to see is some financial support from the state in future to help clubs in their efforts to become more sustainable.