SXSW goes green

Organisers of South By Southwest have vowed that this year’s festival will be fully eco-friendly, and that any carbon emissions created by the event will be set off by environmental commitments. Those commitments include working with eco-friendly energy company Green Mountain Energy and donating $5000 to the Parks Department of host city Austin for the purchase and maintenance of native trees. The aim is to set off carbon emissions caused by the energy used at the festival’s year round offices and venues used during the convention itself, and the emissions caused by those people traveling to the event.

SXSW MD Roland Swenson explains: “Once we set the goal for SXSW to achieve carbon neutral status, our staff took a very active hand in gathering all the pertinent information about our activities which generate carbon emissions. An important lesson we learned was that any business can achieve this goal with some work and a willingness to invest in new activity. While the amount of carbon emissions generated by SXSW alone is relatively small, if every business took similar steps, it would make a profound difference to our planet’s future”.

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