Features / bars and pubs
Bristol venues choose climate over corporate greed
Music venues and pubs in Bristol have taken the planet’s future into their own hands and now the city’s festivals are following suit.
Shambala, the brainchild of Kambe Events, is building on its foundation of environmental action by embracing a radical economic redesign.
The new model has just one thing at its core: booze.
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Pioneering climate conscious spirits brand Evrythng returns all its profits to projects working to restore nature and repair the environment.
Its ‘smash the system’ ethos is aligned with a generation increasingly moving away from a big business mentality, employing slogans such as ‘giving all your money to millionaires is weird’ and ‘it’s like tapping a champagne fountain at a billionaire’s party and using it to water a community garden’.
The brand is already the stockist of choice of Small Bar, the Plough, the Canteen and Lost Horizon, and this summer it’s added the Full Moon to its list as well as Shambala which takes place in Northamptonshire in August.
“Sustainable progress is crucial for our future, but by definition it can only sustain the current state of our ecosystems when what we really need is an active process of repair,” said Chris Johnson, co-founder of Shambala.
“If we’re serious about tackling the climate and nature crises, we need to find ways of moving more resources towards the organisations already delivering solutions, such as redesigning the way our supply chains work so that environmental restoration is built into everyday spending.”
Shambala has been world-leading in demonstrating how festivals can dramatically reduce their carbon footprint without compromising on event quality or attendee experience – photo: Ania Shrimpton
The 25-year-old music festival has put its eco-minded principles into action including banning single use plastics in 2013 and meat in 2016. It uses 100 per cent renewable energy and has reduced its carbon footprint by 90 per cent.
Now it’s turned its attention to the lofty ambition of ‘disrupting the capitalist supply chain to prove live events can actively fund environmental repair’ by replacing global Diageo brands Smirnoff, Gordon’s and Captain Morgan with Evrythng which uses a closed-loop production method to eliminate landfill waste.
With the support of Feeder Road-based bar managers Refresh West, all Evrythng items will be either cleaned and stored for use at the festival next year or taken back to the distillery for reuse, eliminating landfill as well as the need for the recycling phase.
And 100 per cent of profits from the gin, rum and vodka served at its eight bars this year will go directly towards Kettering Nature Group, Roots & Shoots and Avon Needs Trees.
Evrythng use radical transparency, with their accounts publicly accessible online to show they are not funding shareholder or squandering funds on luxury items – photo: Evrythng
With around 20,000 people attending, the festival and the brand are hopeful this will create significant revenue for the eco-projects.
“A typical summer festival season generates millions of pounds of profit for beer, wine and spirits brands,” said James Law, Evrythng’s founder.
“Most of that money leaves the festival ecosystem and disappears up the chain. We’re asking a simple question: what if those profits were used to fund environmental repair instead?
“Festivals have spent years reducing their environmental footprint. The next step is using their economic footprint to create positive change.”
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The Full Moon on Stokes Croft is the latest bar in the city to choose to stock Evrythng.
Reportedly the South West’s biggest single account for beer and spirits, the pub has swapped its house pours to Evrythng, with customers currently voting on profit distribution between Sims Hill market garden, Avon Needs Trees and Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership.
“Swapping to Evrythng was an easy choice for us at the Full Moon,” said the bar’s Cat Hounsell.
“Their gin, rum and vodka is some of the best we’ve tried and their mission to reboot the way the world drinks so that 100 per cent of the profit is used to fund local climate and nature initiatives is a no-brainer”.
Main image: George Harrison
Read next:
- Nature-boosting booze brand launches in Bristol
- Review: Shambala – ‘A beacon of festival sustainability’
- ‘Be more mushroom’ – Nine things we learnt at Shambala 2024
- Is a climate-friendly future for live music possible?
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