Continue to assess and revise the materials that we use within our costume making
The Open Road Carnival
The carnival that's making a difference...
Responsible. Aware. Sustainable.
An overarching aim for New Carnival is our commitment to becoming more environmentally responsible. For several years, we have been looking at how we could make changes to our business so that we can work more sustainably. We are now at a stage where we want to develop a new visual style for our carnival production to show a clear action against our aims. As an example, we would like for our Mardi Gras parade to embody this shift, to be a best practise event. We will work with schools and community groups to enable the entire parade to become environmentally responsible.
For the last two years, as one of the steps towards becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly, we have removed all diesel and petrol vehicles from the parade and worked with participants to consider new ways to transport sound systems and creatively experiment with performance alternatives. One school, teamed up with a local organisation, Keert and substituted a sound truck for an electric cargo bike which was a welcome addition to the parade and inspired our ‘Ballan’ bike entry for Merry and Bright 2022.
Our key environmental commitments
Set minimum environmental standards depending on product type
Keep accurate records of our energy use within our building
Work to ensure our events are increasingly environmentally responsible
Our Greening-Up Credentials
Green Impact Toolkit - Silver Award
Last year (2024) New Carnival signed up to take part in the Green Impact Toolkit and achieved a Silver Award. The programme is run by Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS) in partnership with the Isle of Wight Council.
Green Impact is a sustainability and social responsibility engagement and awards scheme designed to support businesses across the Isle of Wight to improve their environmental performance and reduce operational costs, whilst making the Island a cleaner greener and more attractive place to live, work, and do business.
The Green Impact toolkit supports organisations to take simple, tangible actions, which help them to become more eco-friendly, ethical and environmentally aware. The New Carnival team worked hard to collect evidence for all the little things we already do to be more sustainable, and to make changes and improvements in lots of areas too. We are looking forward to taking part again for 2025 and hopefully achieving Gold Award this year!
Towards a Greener Carnival, Bristol
In 2020 just days before the Covid 19 Lockdown, New Carnival presented a two-day conference in Bristol, looking at sustainable practice in carnival arts. The conference was hosted by Carnival Network South and was a great opportunity for delegates to learn from experienced industry professionals, take part in practical workshops and share ideas to inspire future work.
New Carnival: Greener Carnivals
Building on learning from running Towards a Greener Carnival conference in 2020, in 2021 NC ran Making Carnival Costumes Sustainably, an Adult and Community Learning course. The course explored materials, their sustainability, where changes and conscious choices could be made. Following the conference and lockdown zooms, NC established a ‘Sustainable Carnival Alliance’ to continue developing and sharing improved environmental practices. Changes made to carnivals run by NC since include reduced use of plastezote foam (derived from plastic), increased use of cardboard, using only electric vehicles for the 2022 parade, increasing the proportion of costumes made with sustainable materials, and increasing both recycling and material re-use.