With the release of a new toolbox, the Green Deal Circular Festivals (GDCF) shares seven decision trees that support festival and event organisers in making more circular and climate-conscious choices. Covering key impact areas such as materials, energy, mobility, food and water, the decision trees translate sustainability ambition into practical steps that can be applied in real festival contexts.
The toolbox supports festival and event professionals in making informed sustainability choices throughout the organisation of their event. It consists of seven decision trees:
- materials
- merchandise
- textiles
- energy
- travel & transport
- food & drinks
- water & sanitation
Together, these themes cover the main environmental impact areas of festivals, as defined in the GDCF Model, and help guide users through the most important choices across the production and lifecycle of a festival.
Making sustainability choices more practical
Festivals are temporary cities. In just a few days, they bring together energy systems, food chains, material flows, water infrastructure, and large-scale mobility. Making these systems more circular and climate-neutral is complex, especially under time pressure and within existing constraints such as budgets, regulations and site conditions. Organisers are constantly balancing their ambitions with operational and financial reality.
The decision trees are designed to support organisers exactly at this point. They translate broad sustainability ambitions into concrete decision-making steps, helping users understand which options are available and what their implications are. The decision trees guide users through a series of questions. In this way, the decision trees support better choices, while leaving room for context-specific decisions.
Built on collective knowledge
The content of the toolbox is grounded in the collective knowledge developed through the Green Deal Circular Festivals. Since its start in 2019, the GDCF has brought together over 50 festivals from the Netherlands and across Europe, supported by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Within this network, festivals have worked together to:
- define what circularity and climate neutrality mean for events,
- test solutions in real-life festival contexts,
- develop practical tools and guidelines, and
- create methods to measure and monitor impact.
This work resulted in the GDCF Model for a circular and climate neutral festival and the GDCF Monitoring Tool, which help festivals plan, implement and track their sustainability efforts. The decision trees build on this shared foundation and translate it into a hands-on tool that can be used directly in production and procurement processes.
Decision Trees explained
The decision-tree format was first developed by the Dutch festival Into The Great Wide Open, which created an initial decision tree for circular procurement of materials in 2024. This format proved to be a clear and accessible way to share knowledge and support better decision-making.
Decision trees help to:
- visualise complex choices and trade-offs,
- create a shared understanding within teams,
- structure conversations with suppliers and partners, and
- make sustainability part of everyday operational decisions.
Inspired by this approach, the decision-tree format has now been applied to all key themes in this toolbox.
Sustainability in festivals often starts with strong ambition. Translating that ambition into practice, however, is where challenges arise. What is the best material choice in a specific context? When is reuse realistic, or when is recycling the best available option? How far can you push renewable energy, given grid access and location? What does “circular” actually mean when ordering banners, fences, cups, or merchandise?
The decision trees address these questions by breaking them down into logical, transparent steps. Rather than prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions, they help organisers assess their own situation and make better-informed choices within their constraints.
Each decision tree follows a similar logic:
- Start with reduction and smarter use
- Prioritise reuse, sharing, and long lifespans
- Choose circular materials where new production is unavoidable
- Design for repair, return, and end-of-life
- Measure and learn to improve next time
This corresponds with one of the core principles of the circular economy and the GDCF Model: reducing environmental impact while keeping materials, energy, and resources in use for as long as possible.
Extra attention for textiles and merchandise
While the toolbox reflects the five core GDCF themes, it places additional emphasis on textiles, including both merchandise and on-site applications such as banners, flags and crew clothing. Textiles are an important impact category for festivals, but guidance and established best practices are still relatively limited. Production impacts are often high, while reuse and end-of-life options are not always considered early enough in the design phase.
Rounding up
With the release of this toolbox, the Green Deal Circular Festivals shares another part of its collective knowledge with the wider events sector. The decision trees bring together lessons learned from many festivals into a format that is accessible and applicable in different contexts.
We hope this toolbox supports organisers in taking concrete steps towards circular and future-proof festivals, in line with their own context and ambitions.
The full toolbox with all seven decision trees is available for download here.
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