In practice
Measuring the carbon footprint of
a cultural festival
Entertainment sector
In 2025, the Liège International Comedy Film Festival (FIFCL) carried out its first-ever carbon footprint assessment and initiated a decarbonisation journey. This project was conducted with the support of Slo, in collaboration with LowTech Liège. The project was made possible thanks to the support of the National Lottery and its players.
Context and challenges - understanding and measuring the festival's climate impact
The events sector faces major environmental challenges. Festivals in particular generate significant emissions related to audience and team travel, the energy consumption of temporary infrastructures, and supplier logistics.
For FIFCL, the challenge was twofold: to understand its real environmental impact and to identify concrete and realistic action levers to reduce its emissions, while preserving the quality, accessibility, and attractiveness of the event. As with many cultural organisations, these objectives had to be achieved with limited resources, tight timelines, and sometimes incomplete data.
Our approach - turning available data into actionable climate insights
For this first carbon footprint assessment, we adopted a pragmatic, progressive approach tailored to the realities of cultural events.
The first step consisted of collecting available data from the organisation and its partners (mobility, procurement, energy, logistics), then structuring and completing missing information using estimates based on recognised emission factors.
The ability to work with imperfect data without compromising the robustness of the analysis is essential for temporary events involving a wide variety of stakeholders. Our role was to arbitrate, document, and clarify these methodological choices to produce an inventory that is reliable, consistent, and useful for decision-making.
Once the carbon footprint had been established, we analysed the results to identify the main emission sources and immediate reduction opportunities, while taking into account the operational constraints of the festival.
Results and impact - delivering a clear emissions baseline and priority decarbonisation levers
The festival’s carbon footprint amounts to approximately 734 tonnes of CO₂e, equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 54 Belgian citizens.
Direct emissions (Scope 1 and 2), generated by activities directly controlled by the festival, remain relatively limited: they represent less than 2% of the total footprint. They mainly come from space heating (heat cannons), electricity consumption, and transport linked to internal logistics.
A first concrete decision has already been taken: the removal of heat cannons from the next edition, which will significantly reduce direct emissions in the next footprint update.
Indirect emissions (Scope 3), linked to external actors, represent the vast majority of the festival’s carbon footprint. Festivalgoers’ transport dominates overwhelmingly, accounting for more than 90% of total emissions. This is followed by the procurement of goods and services, artist transport, and, to a lesser extent, volunteer travel.
This distribution clearly highlights that audience mobility is the main climate challenge for this type of event. It also helps prioritise efforts: acting on individual car use will have a far more significant impact than marginal actions on secondary emission sources.
Beyond the figures, this first assessment marks an essential milestone: it gives FIFCL a clear vision of its environmental impact and of the priority levers for action. It also strengthens its credibility with partners and the public by affirming its commitment to the ecological transition and laying the foundations for a realistic and progressive decarbonisation strategy.
Outlook and key learnings - focusing efforts on the most effective climate levers
Beyond the numbers, this first carbon footprint assessment is a true decision-support tool. It allows FIFCL to focus its resources on the most effective levers, rather than pursuing solutions disconnected from its operational reality.
In the short term, the removal of heat cannons illustrates how a carbon footprint assessment can quickly translate into concrete operational decisions.
In the medium term, FIFCL will be able to further explore challenges related to artist and audience mobility by considering options such as carpooling, collective transport solutions, or partnerships aimed at reducing individual car use.
This project demonstrates that a first carbon footprint assessment is accessible even for local cultural organisations. With an adapted approach, it is possible to establish solid foundations without overburdening teams or setting unrealistic targets.
It provides a robust and pragmatic basis to move forward, learn, and progressively improve the festival’s environmental impact.
