The Big Day Out announces that it will be "carbon neutral" for the first time in 2007.
Organisers Viv Lees and Ken West have posted on their website that for some time they have been uncomfortable with the amount of carbon emissions a huge festival like theirs is inevitably responsible for. They have approached Greenhouse Gas Abatement Auditor CO2 Australia Limited to provide them with an analysis of their emissions.They conducted two audits during 2006 with the view to offset their emissions via a Malee Eucalyptus tree plantation. They stated that a tree plantation was chosen because "it creates jobs, has sound conservation benefits, reduces soil salinity and improves farm viability in marginal areas as well as converting Greenhouse gas CO2 to oxygen for us to breath (sic) and hopefully slowing down the polar meltdown amongst other things."
This action runs in line with the current renaissance of environmental awareness in Australia, where the populace is increasingly concerned with water and electricity usage due to the drought and governmental suggestions of a future switch to nuclear power. We await the response from all the other festivals that have sprung up over the last year.
