AN ECO-FRIENDLY FESTIVAL

The mission of the Eurêka! Festival is closely tied to social issues and to the sensitizing of current and future generations to science and technology. 

So it makes sense that eco-friendly practices, respect for nature and ecosystems, awareness of clean technologies, reducing the effects of our activities on the environment, and maximizing benefits to society are at the heart of our programming and the organization of our events.

Here are the actions that L’île du savoir and all its scientific collaborators are taking to minimize the event’s ecological footprint.

 
Note : This symbol ♦ identifies actions that we ask of Eurêka’s scientific collaborators.

Our Eco-friendly Partner :

                                                                       

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WHAT’S NEW IN 2023

• Specialized firm hired to provide onsite composting for both vendors (food trucks) and visitors.

• Food zone featuring local food trucks, offering reusable or compostable containers, organic food, and vegetarian options. 

• Eco-cups provided for suppliers and the Eurêka team.

• Improved food offering backstage to reduce the use of plastic.

• Addition of a second drinking water station.

• Increased marketing and communication efforts to encourage visitors to travel to the Festival by public transit or bicycle. 

Programming

• Every year, choosing social themes that raise awareness and stimulate discussion on issues related to the ecological transition (2019: sustainable mobility; 2022: water; 2023: energy).

• Propose activities that educate and raise awareness on various issues related to the environment and sustainable development.♦

• Use Quebec organizations, artists and stakeholders as much as possible.

• Offer online training to collaborators to avoid non-essential travel.

• Encourage best practices in activities and demonstrations (ex. not distributing promotional material, reducing residual waste, etc.).

 

Transportation

• On the Eurêka! website, provide all the necessary information needed to attend the Festival by public transport.

• Hold the event near a metro station.

• Encourage our partners to use carpooling and public transport.♦

• Encourage visitors to use responsible and active modes of transportation (cycling, BIXI, walking, carpooling, public transit, river shuttles); promote this in our communication tools.♦

 

 

Water Consumption

• Raise awareness and encourage visitors, employees, stakeholders, volunteers and partners to bring a reusable water bottle.

• No sale of plastic water bottles on site.

• Install a drinking water station for filling water bottles to help avoid the use of single-use bottled water.

• Indicate that the water from the water fountains with taps, is safe to drink.

• Totally eliminate the use of polystyrene cups and bottled water in dressing rooms by using rented water dispensers, jugs and reusable cups.

Reducing Paper Consumption 

• Considerably reduce print items, in particular by favouring a very small paper format of the program.

• Post the site plan and show schedules on site and on the Festival website. Encourage festival-goers to photograph them to avoid the distribution of flyers.

• Print paper program on FSC-certified paper made from 100% recycled fibres.♦

• Print double-sided by default.♦

• Make school registration forms available online only.

Waste Reduction

• Install multi-stream recycling stations (waste, recycling) and sort residual materials.

• Green squad on the site to raise public awareness about the sorting stations for residual materials.

• Use compostable or reusable dishes for the food on offer.

• Distribute food surpluses to volunteers, the team, or organizations.

• Encourage students, teachers and families to bring zero waste lunches.

 

Local Consumption

• Opt for local suppliers for equipment rentals.

• Use local, sustainable, organic and vegetarian suppliers as much as possible for the food on offer.

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Signage

• Give a second or even a third life to reusable signage.♦

• Reuse welcome and information kiosks and decor.

• Prioritize rental, rather than purchase, of equipment and decor.♦

Promotional tools 

• Limite distribution of leaflets by our collaborators (by request only) and discourage the distribution of promotional items.♦

• When necessary, adequately estimate quantities of leaflets before printing, and favour a digital format.

• Give priority to reusable or reused, recyclable or recycled activity materials, etc.♦

• Avoid packaging, but if necessary, encourage minimal packaging that is zero waste, reusable or made from recycled materials.♦

• Promote digital media rather than paper materials for our sponsors, in order to offer them more dynamic visibility and easy updates.

Other Eco-friendly Actions

• Analyze purchases in terms of actual needs in order to reduce the consumption of material goods for future editions of the Festival.

• Include an “Environmental Commitment” clause to the letters of agreement with our collaborators.♦

• The offices of L’île du savoir are located in a LEED-BE Silver certified building.

• Provide volunteers with reusable pinnies (rather that t-shirts).

• Engage in training on sustainable development in order to stay abreast of best practices and pursue our efforts to reduce our ecological footprint as much as possible.

• Inform all participants and employees about our eco-friendly measures and post our actions on our website and our social networks before the Festival.

• Contribute to the Fonds Oxygène: by hosting the Festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau, the Société du Parc Jean-Drapeau offsets the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the event; 3% of space rental fees and the cost of parking tickets will go to the Fonds Oxygène, whose goal is to build a healthy and sustainable future for Parc Jean-Drapeau by promoting a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.