At Manchester International Festival we are doing everything we can to develop a festival where artistic excellence goes hand in hand with sustainability. We want to maximise the positive effects of the Festival on local communities, economies and the environment, whilst reducing its negative impacts.

In 2007 we were involved in the development of the British Standard in Sustainable Event Management, BS8901 and as a result we introduced ways to make MIF more sustainable year on year.

What’s new for 2009?

To help strengthen our links with local communities we launched MIF Creative, a programme of creative learning opportunities for local groups to get involved with major MIF commissions as well as providing professional development opportunities for emerging producers.

Some of our key 2009 commissions look at critical environmental issues. In Flailing Trees, iconic visual artist Gustav Metzger is creating a piece of public art that, to quote the artist, is ‘a tragic statement on the world – a violent image on how we are destroying the planet – a symbol of a world gone mad, turned on its head’.

Alongside this, and in partnership with the Guardian, The Manchester Report is a major symposium about the environment staged at the Festival, in the paper and online with the aim of inspiring thought, discussion and debate amongst our audiences.

We also continue to work on ways to make our festival greener by reducing waste and increasing reuse and recycling opportunities, such as:

• composting as much food and packaging waste as possible from the Festival site in partnership with TEG Environmental
• recycling our promotional banners into unique bags, which you can find out about here
• reusing or donating herbs and flowers from the Festival site post-event
• sourcing local and seasonal produce for our catering on Albert Square
• using recycled and sustainably sourced paper for our print material.

As an International Festival tasked with bringing international artists and visitors to Manchester we know we can’t escape our carbon footprint. To help compensate for what we can’t avoid, we’re supporting Foundation, a North West Climate Change Fund, with a donation towards local carbon reduction projects. If you are also keen to compensate for your travel to the Festival you could also donate to Foundation, though please try to get to us in the most sustainable way possible. For details on travel options please go to the Visiting Manchester section of our website and for more information and details of how to donate please visit the Foundation website.

We are taking small but genuine steps forward and we know we have lots of room to improve. If you would like more information about our sustainability aims please download our guidelines and policy here. If you would like to suggest ideas on how we could improve sustainability at the Festival we would love to hear from you; contact us at sustainability@mif.co.uk.