Why measure energy use impacts?
The development and operation of events may result in many different types of energy use. This might be in terms of energy used in the construction of venues, energy consumed by spectators travelling to an event, or energy used in running event venues. Critical here is that a proportion of this energy is developed through the use of fossil fuels i.e. petrol and diesel in cars, or coal and gas burned in power stations. At one level fossil fuels are a scarce and diminishing resource that needs to be used carefully. These resources are typically connected to long term rising costs in real terms. At another level the use of fossil fuels creates harmful emissions, and has been connected to climate change processes. So it is of interest to event managers to understand the processes through which events lever energy use both directly and indirectly.
Basic Measures
The basic energy measures focus on the presence of energy use plans. This represents at the very least movement towards developing more complex energy measures. The presence of energy plans reveals objectives in controlling energy use and shows that event managers have started to engage with the environmental impact agenda, and are thinking about how events leverage energy use. Furthermore, public and private sector sponsors may seek assurance in the presence of these energy-use plans and systems. Finally, the process of planning will alert event managers to the opportunities to develop intermediate and advanced energy measures.
Basic measures would include:
- An energy management plan for the event.
Intermediate measures
Intermediate measures relating to energy use will typically require quantitative measurement and assessment. Potential energy measures include:
- Energy consumption per event-related visitor
- Energy consumption of event organisation and hosting
- Proportion of energy sourced from renewables or purchased through energy providers’ green power programme
- Biodiesel used to power generators
Critically here, real savings can be made where tools to assess patterns of visitor travel and travel modes are dovetailed into tools to estimate energy use. Similarly, survey tools used to establish where visitors stayed during their visit can be used to gain inference on the energy used during their stay period. If the event lasts several days, it may be important to know how many nights visitors stayed in overnight accommodation and in which locations (if staying in multiple locations).