Auditing and awarding at the Amgueddfa Cymru Food Festival

The Sustainable Sidekicks are excited to have been commissioned to work with the Amgueddfa Cymru Food Festival for the second year. This September we will be building on the learnings from the action plan and audit we produced with them in 2023, to further reduce the carbon footprint and impacts of the event and increase the inspiration and learnings from the food traders who are producing local produce whilst reducing their environmental and carbon footprints.

Identifying actions and gathering baseline data 

In 2023, the Sustainable Sidekicks (SSK) worked with the Event Manager, Ffion Rhisiart, to develop an action plan and targets for the Food Festival to reduce its waste, travel and energy impacts. SSK also supported the team to gather travel, energy and food sales to compile their carbon footprint on the TRACE software.

Qualifying commitments  

As part of the trader application process, The Festival had started asking sustainability questions and requiring minimum standards around single-use plastics. To qualify the traders answers, the Sustainable Sidekicks followed up with onsite questionnaires and advised people to remove prohibited items such as bottled water, as the site had just installed water fountains.

The vetting process identified that some terms like ‘local suppliers’ were open to interpretation. Whilst most were using local markets some were buying from the local cash and carry. This insight led to a tightening up of the 2024 application process with multiple choice options.  

It also led to the festival commissioning SSK to deliver a sustainability policy workshop for food traders. Within the two hour session they worked through all the key points, following a template and getting inspiration from fellow food producers.

Celebrating committed producers

The onsite audits also identified a number of food producers who were committed to reducing their environmental impacts – from those who were 100% energy self-sufficient to those applying for B-corp certification. This led to the recommendation for a food trader award in 2024, and to platform those who are prioritising sustainability to further inspire other food producers, street food traders and local people, expanding the impact of the event. 

The plan is to announce these at the end of the event on Sunday 8th September.

Visit the event 

The Food Festival is at St.Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff on 7th and 8th September. It is free to attend and as well as delicious food stalls, Welsh food producers, there is also music, kids entertainment, a mini fairground and upcycling workshops.

Are your sustainable event ambitions going to plan?

If you have an upcoming event that needs sustainable event consultancy support or an audit to check your food traders and contractors are meeting your requirements, book a call to discuss your project.