Ultra Music Festival’s award-winning sustainability program, ‘Mission: Home’ was honored with the SUNsational Award in the Sustainability Program category at the 30th annual Florida Festivals and Events Association (FFEA) Convention & Expo at the Renaissance Sea World Resort in Orlando, FL.

The FFEA, a leading statewide resource whose mission is to promote and strengthen the festival and events industry in Florida, celebrated exceptional innovation and creativity at their recent FFEA Convention & Expo. With a network of over 5,500 events, the FFEA recognized 50 organizations as SUNsational Award winners, including Ultra Music Festival‘s Mission: Home‘ program for its outstanding contributions to sustainability.

Competing against over 500 submissions in 20 different categories, the program received 1st Place in Sustainability Program, underscoring Ultra‘s commitment to environmental responsibility and its impactful role in the festival community. This year’s award will mark ‘Mission: Home’s fourth recognition from the FFEA, following its impressive performance at the 2022 annual conference where it secured 1st place in Volunteer Program, 2nd place in Education Program, and tied for 2nd place in Sustainability Program, only surpassed by events solely dedicated to sustainability.

Since ‘Mission: Home’s inaugural program in 2019 – where their collective efforts achieved a remarkable 100% acceptance rate for recycling loads at local facilities, successfully implemented 20 initiatives, and reached over 2.7 million people globally – Ultra Music Festival has implemented significant changes among vendors, staff, crew, employees, and attendees, resulting in a substantial reduction of environmental impact within and beyond the festival.

By 2024, ‘Mission: Home’ had grown the program to 50 initiatives and won four Florida and international awards, including the prestigious Sustainability Team Award at last year’s World Sustainability Awards ceremony. ‘Mission: Home’ was also a finalist at the 2024 World Sustainability Awards’ for its Sustainability Excellence Award, which recognizes organizations leading the way in environmental and social sustainability on a global scale.

This year’s program achieved a significant milestone with 50% waste diversion, showcasing Ultra‘s dedication to rescuing, repurposing, and recycling while setting a new standard for the festival’s waste management operations. Since its inception in 2019, ‘Mission: Home’ has diverted over 293,000 pounds of waste from landfills—equivalent to the weight of an average-sized blue whale, the largest animal on Earth. Alongside recycling and composting efforts, ‘Mission: Home’ introduced or expanded several additional waste diversion streams in 2024, bringing the total to seven.

At this year’s festival, a new waste diversion initiative introduced a wood rescue and recycling program, giving over 19,600 pounds of post-construction materials a second life. This success was achieved through a partnership with Recreate Miami, a creative reuse network that connects Miami artists and artisans with materials via the Recreate Miami app. This platform effectively diverts materials from landfills while supporting local creators. Additionally, any wood not selected for reuse was diverted from landfills by Florida Wood Recycling, which mulches the wood for redistribution in local landscaping projects.

‘Mission: Home’ further demonstrated its commitment to supporting the local community by rescuing and donating over 19,400 pounds of food and beverages to The Caring Place –  a homeless outreach center that has been providing services, including meals and shelter, in Miami and Broward since 1922. According to Miami Rescue Mission’s Food Service Manager, Anthony Perrone, “The food and beverages rescued from this event allow us to serve the men, women and children of the Miami area, who struggle to find their next meal – on average we serve 1,200 meals a day.”

Ultra‘s waste management partner Clean Vibes, a nationally recognized expert in festival waste diversion, once again achieved 100% acceptance of recyclables at the local facility. They also expanded the compost program in partnership with Renuable and maintained exceptionally clean grounds, even despite heavy rain and flooding. ‘Mission: Home’ maintained its partnership with Replenysh, a fully traceable circularity platform, ensuring over 161,300 pounds of recyclables remained in the regional domestic supply chain over the past two years. Furthermore, ‘Mission: Home’ sustained its cooking oil recycling program and introduced a new initiative to recycle soft plastics in collaboration with local grassroots recycling experts, Lady Green Recycling.

The 2024 festival also reinstated its long-standing waste reduction initiatives, including expanded water refill stations, bans on Styrofoam, and single-use plastic-free food and general admission bar service. Since ‘Mission: Home’s inception, over 2.1 million plastic items have been eliminated from entering the waste stream or environment. Collaboratively, event bar operations and food vendors have achieved an impressive 88% reduction in various types of single-use plastics, such as cups, straws, plates, cutlery, and other food service items.

Ultra continued its commitment to Pollution Prevention and Nature Preservation through its Leave No Trace campaign, starting with online messaging to educate attendees before the event; on-site activities like staff and crew training; physical and digital signage; responsible cigarette disposal; wildlife and vegetation protection; on-site wildlife experts; spillage and runoff protocols; bans on confetti and loose glitter; “Connect to Nature” displays to educate attendees about Bayfront Park’s natural elements and Biscayne Bay’s delicate ecosystems; and storm drain covers installed by ocean pollution prevention company SOP Technologies.

“Biscayne Bay is not just the backdrop of our event, it is the heartbeat of our city,” said Emily Milton, who is a marine ecologist, ‘Mission: Home’s resident scientist and Ultra’s Sustainability Program Manager.

‘Mission: Home’ also boasts widespread Community Engagement efforts to inspire its audience, offering actionable steps and empowering future leaders. Ultra joined forces with eighteen student volunteers and thirty-one partners to participate in multiple program initiatives. At the festival’s Eco Village, its 165,000 weekend attendees were able to participate in educational activations from local environmental organizations present onsite. Millions of Ultranauts worldwide also learned about ‘Mission: Home’ virtually through the festival’s social media channels and the #ULTRALIVE stream.

For ‘Mission: Home’s fourth annual pre-event shoreline cleanup “Sound: ON”, it partnered with various local organizations such as Clean Miami Beach, Debris Free Oceans, Love the Everglades Movement, Clean This Beach Up, Bye Bye Plastic Foundation and Miami-Dade County Sea Turtle Conservation Program, in order to encourage community action in taking care of our city’s coast and educate attendees on how everyday materials end up in Miami’s waterways. Cumulatively, this partnership has removed 2,850 pounds of marine debris from Bayfront Park’s shoreline.

‘Mission: Home’s vision is to “expand the environmental consciousness of everyone our programs reach, positively shifting behavior both on and off festival grounds.” Since 2019, ‘Mission: Home’ has reached over 7.4 million people online, or more than 136 festivals worth of daily attendees.

Several of the 50 initiatives within ‘Mission: Home’ also support climate health. For example, ‘Mission: Home’s Climate Action objective involves internal assessments and strategies to understand and reduce the event’s climate impact. This year, the event’s power supplier, CES Power, in collaboration with internationally renowned sustainable power experts at ZAP Concepts, expanded their power assessment to encompass the entire festival grounds. This year’s power infrastructure already included a reduction in generator use in certain production aspects, and with new insights, the team is now better equipped to implement future strategies to further reduce reliance on generators, the traditional standard for live event power.

Additionally, ‘Mission: Home’ is enhancing the event’s baseline carbon emission assessment protocol, generating annual internal reports to guide its climate action strategy. This year, Ultra is partnering with We Are Neutral to support Florida nature-based offsetting opportunities, while steadfastly maintaining its commitment to emission reduction.

In 2022, ‘Mission: Home’ was verified by environmental experts as “the most extensive sustainability program across America’s leading electronic music festivals,” and it has expanded in both reach and impact since that time both locally and globally. As Ultra prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, ‘Mission: Home’ will return for its fifth iteration to continue its mission of “protecting our home, reducing our environmental impact and inspiring our community to respect the planet.”

“Each year, we see this message come to life in lights on our stages in front of 55,000 attendees and millions watching online. While its importance is obvious, the fact that it exists at all speaks volumes, as the power of Ultra’s platform sets an example not only for the entire music festival industry, but for our audiences across the globe.” – Vivian Belzaguy Hunter, Sustainability Director, Ultra Music Festival

Press Release

The post Ultra’s ‘Mission: Home’ Sustainability Program Wins the Blue Ribbon appeared first on EDM | Electronic Music | EDM Music | EDM Festivals | EDM Events.

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By: Editorial Staff
Title: Ultra’s ‘Mission: Home’ Sustainability Program Wins the Blue Ribbon
Sourced From: thatdrop.com/ultras-mission-home-sustainability-program-wins-the-blue-ribbon/
Published Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2024 20:41:46 +0000

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