Take Your Footprint Into Your Own Hands

Here at the Supernatural Amphitheatre we have a deep and abiding love for the land and our contribution to ecological sustainability. In each decision involved in staging the festival, we consider how we can look after the environment on which life depends and increase the total quality of life, now and in the future. We don’t make a song and dance about it because it’s the way things should be, and, one of the best ways we can look after ourselves, each other and our natural environment. We’re proud that every year we are more ecologically responsible than the year before and now more than two decades since the first One we’ve really been able to quietly chip away at it.

We began by recycling and reusing everything we could. Every scrap of litter at the festivals is collected, sorted on site and assigned to its rightful stream (You help by using the appropriate coloured rubbish bag and the appropriate bin).

Uncle Doug’s site works program has helped reduce our transport emissions, including hired equipment to and from the site, as well as significant natural resource saving and ‘back to the land’ programs. Uncle Doug has built 218 permanent composting toilets which use 100% less water than the temporary toilets they replaced (they also don’t require the transport to and from The Sup’). He processes all the toilet waste on-site (which means it isn’t transported anywhere) and then re-uses it on the land. Uncle Doug also built 32 permanent showers and harvests all the water on-site (including over 70,000 litres from the roofs of the shower blocks into the tanks beside them) and then he re-uses all the grey shower water on-site. The showers use approximately 50% less water than the previous temporary shower blocks, they obviously don’t require transport to and from the site, and the water they use comes from the site. They’re also stocked with biodegradable soaps and shampoos. Uncle Doug has installed solar power systems across the site and a campsite lighting system to reduce hired portable light towers. Uncle Doug installed many large water tanks across the site to encourage refilling water bottles and re-using bulk water bottles at campsites. He also built a staff kitchen so we can provide healthy food for the crew during bump in and bump out to save them travelling in and out of town every day for lunch and dinner (a 26km round trip).

We’re proud of our new eco and fair trade Gift Shoppe range and more responsible alternatives are increasingly available.

We think before we print, and when we print we choose recycled stock. We reduce our travel during our planning by tapping into online conference facilities.

The caterers use biodegradable products and separate their food scraps for compost. Any food left over is donated to a very clever organisation who collects it and delivers it to people in need across Victoria. The (now very) few polystyrene boxes used are collected and shared between our neighbours to grow strawberries and other marvellous things. We’re working towards wiping out single-use water containers on site from water bottles to milk bottles to pink grapefruit juice.

Many of You have contributed by ‘buying a better tent’ and looking after your furniture to help reduce cheap tents, torn tarps, broken gazebos, camp chairs and sodden couches which would otherwise end up as land fill after one use. This is important because we still collect over 60T of rubbish = 0.01 t CO2e per person. And many of You have contributed by organising chartered buses or booking our Supernatural Express bus service since we redesigned Reception to accommodate larger vehicles, thanks very much for using these services. Transport to The Sup’ and back from Melbourne (for example) = approximately 0.025 t CO2e per person. So between waste and transport each person is responsible for approximately 0.035 t CO2e. This year you can contribute to Uncle Doug’s native tree planting project to help offset your transport and waste generation emissions. It’s part of our carbon neutral program and voluntary contributions from $3 can be made when you purchase your tickets online. In addition to our own projects to reduce our footprint, we will match your contribution to reduce yours dollar for dollar. That means for every $3 contribution there will be two additional native trees planted at The Sup’.