Over the past five years, Weeztix and Trees for All have helped festival visitors raise more than €100,000 for global reforestation projects. What started as a simple opt-in donation at ticket checkout has grown into more than 20,000 trees planted across projects in the Netherlands, Bolivia, Mexico, Indonesia and Vietnam. Together, we proved that small, well-placed nudges in the ticket flow can add up to real environmental impact.

Now, together with sustainability platform Go ZERO, the partnership is entering its next phase: Dance for Trees. The aim is to give event organisers a practical, measurable and accessible route to more sustainable events by combining three things that usually live in separate corners of the industry: ticketing technology, climate expertise and data-driven sustainability insights.

To that end, we’ve collaborated on this practical guide designed to support organisers on their journey towards more sustainable events and production.

1. Measuring and reducing your footprint

Getting to a climate-neutral event sounds tricky, but all big goals start with a small step. And the first step is to take your first measurement. Just do it; no matter how detailed or not it is. Even a messy first report is better than no report at all.

Start small, then dive deeper and deeper

Especially the first year can be overwhelming. You want to make your festival more sustainable, but where to begin? The good news is that you can just start anywhere and don’t need to feel too stressed if you have some blind spots. The nice thing about festivals and events is that they probably occur every year. After your first year, you know where to improve, and you can focus on those areas.

You could start by gathering data and talking with your suppliers. Consider using a simple form to gather input from your suppliers. 

Do some research on emission factors or frameworks

“Emission factors” are how much CO2 something emits. For example, diesel emits more than typical gasoline. The sum of all emissions of your festival or event is fairly simple: emission factor x volume/length/pieces x amount of it being used. However, getting those volumes and amounts is the tricky part. For emission factors, we always advise you to do your own research. co2emissiefactoren.nl (in Dutch) has a really nice library of emission factors you can use to get started with building a framework.

A “framework” sounds complex, but it doesn’t have to be. You can start with some basic categories, such as “Transport”, “Water usage”, and “Food & drinks”. We see that even our biggest clients use categories like these, and they work perfectly fine. Other frameworks you can check out include GHG and the Green Deal Circular Festivals.

Make input as easy as possible

In sustainability, you’ll work with a lot of data. For example, ALL visitor travel, or ALL crew travel, or ALL meals sold.

Try to use your existing tools as much as possible. If you work with Weeztix, you could easily add a question such as, “Where are you travelling from?” to the checkout process. This way, you’ll receive valuable information from all visitors, without needing to email them a second time. 

Chances are, you already have valuable data about your CO2 emissions lying around. Here are some examples:

• Visitor transportation (via Weeztix)

• Crew transportation (via your accreditation system)

• Artist transportation (via your artist advancing)

• Production transports (via your accreditation data)

• Types of food sold (data via your caterers)

If you don’t have this data, try setting up a form and sending it out. This will result in a well-structured spreadsheet, rather than a messy e-mail inbox. Once you’ve created your system, you’ll notice that exporting that data from your tools into your sustainability tools will start to feel exhausting. Then it’s time for the next step: sending that data straight into your sustainability tool. That’s what Go ZERO specialises in.

Finish, learn, repeat

Now that you have your first sustainability report, take a good look at it. Check with your team and some experts; what have we done correctly, and what can we improve? If the result is visual (e.g., nice graphs), this will help everyone understand it quickly.

If there are some areas that have a high impact on your emissions. You could discuss and explore how to minimise that; offer shared mobility solutions, review the food you offer at your festival, and assess how you power your festival. Other conclusions could be that you simply don’t have enough data in certain areas, and you could brainstorm ways to collect it: implementing questions in the right steps in your tools.

Actionable steps:

• Pick a framework (GHG, Green Deal Circular Festivals, or build your own with 3–5 categories)

• Send a supplier form before chasing emails

• Export what you already have: ticketing, accreditation, catering data

• Write a first report, but don’t aim for perfect

Climate contribution & reforestation

Planting trees is a tangible way for event organisations to increase their positive impact. Every tree makes a measurable difference: for the climate, nature and the world we live in.

Clean air

Beyond storing CO2, trees help us breathe cleaner air. A single mature tree produces more than 100 kilograms of oxygen per year and filters harmful substances, such as nitrogen and fine particulate matter, from the air.

Biodiversity 

Trees and forests are home to millions of (endangered) plants and animals, including birds, butterflies, monkeys, deer and foxes. A single native English oak can support more than 400 species of insects. By planting trees and restoring forests, we expand their habitat and help preserve biodiversity.

Cooling

Trees are just as essential to people. On warm days, they can lower the temperature by up to 10 degrees. And during heavy rainfall, they help capture and drain water: a single tree can process hundreds of litres of water and significantly reduce flooding. At outdoor event venues in particular, trees can make a real difference.

More forest is more urgent than ever

It is essential that we plant more trees and forests worldwide and protect the ones we have, especially since more forests are still being lost than are growing back.

Triple impact: climate, nature and people

The communities living in project areas also benefit directly from the forests. Trees create employment, generate income, enrich the soil for growing food and improve water availability. By contributing to tree planting and reforestation worldwide, event organisations create triple impact: for the climate, for nature and for people.

One simple way to do this is by adding an opt-in to your ticketing. This gives visitors the opportunity to directly contribute to planting trees around the world. A low-barrier way to give something back to nature, together with your audience.

With the toolkit that we created, especially for event organisers, you can easily promote this initiative through your website, social media, and event communications. Inspiring even more visitors to plant a tree. Because every tree counts.

You can download the toolkit here, and it is also available in the Weeztix dashboard in the App Library section.

In addition to creating a positive impact, measuring and understanding emissions is essential for making long-term improvements.

Actionable steps:

• Activate the donation opt-in in your Weeztix dashboard

• Download the Trees for All toolkit (App Library)

• Communicate why it’s important: visitors give more when they know where it goes

• Report back after the event: how many trees, where they were planted

3. Smart ticketing & data-driven sustainability

Ticketing is one of the first touchpoints between an event and its visitors, making it an important place to introduce sustainable choices in a simple, accessible way.

Through the “Make this order sustainable” feature, organisers can give visitors the option to contribute directly to reforestation projects during checkout. What may feel like a small contribution on an individual level can have a significant collective impact. Over the past five years, thousands of visitors from events such as Paaspop, Soenda, Solar, Verknipt Festival and Extrema Outdoor Belgium have contributed through this feature, helping fund more than 20,000 newly planted trees worldwide.

Beyond donations, ticketing data can also play an important role in helping organisers better understand and reduce their environmental footprint.

For example, organisers can:

• Add questions about visitor travel behaviour directly in the ticket flow

• Gather location data to better estimate transport emissions

• Measure participation in sustainable initiatives

• Use customer insights to improve mobility and communication strategies

By integrating sustainability into existing workflows, organisers can lower the barrier for both visitors and internal teams, without creating additional friction during the ticket-buying experience.

Small optimisations within the ticket journey can already make a measurable difference:

• Clear communication around sustainability initiatives

• Transparent explanations of where contributions go

• Low-threshold opt-in mechanics

• Simple, well-timed checkout messaging

Sustainability becomes significantly more effective when it feels easy, visible and collaborative.

While Weeztix focuses on engaging visitors and collecting meaningful data, Trees for All helps organisers translate those contributions into tangible environmental impact.

Actionable steps:

• Add a travel question to your checkout flow

• Use location data to estimate transport emissions

• Keep sustainability messaging low-friction: one line, well-timed

• Feed ticketing insights back into next year's planning

Join the Dance for Trees movement

Sustainability becomes far more impactful when it is embedded throughout an organisation rather than treated as a standalone initiative. From production and mobility to catering and ticketing, meaningful progress happens when teams work together towards shared goals.

With Dance for Trees, Weeztix, Trees for All, and Go ZERO aim to make sustainable event organising more accessible and actionable for events of every size.

By enabling sustainability features in your ticket flow, measuring your footprint, and actively engaging your audience, every event can take meaningful steps to reduce its impact. Whether you are organising a local community gathering or a large-scale festival, every ticket sold creates an opportunity to contribute to a greener future.

By activating the sustainability feature in your Weeztix dashboard, you can:

• Offer your visitors a simple way to contribute

• Strengthen your event’s sustainability positioning

• Become part of a growing network of conscious organisers

In addition, Trees for All provides a dedicated campaign toolkit to help you communicate your participation and engage your audience effectively, available here and in the Weeztix dashboard under the App Library section.

By following the steps laid out above, event organisers can directly connect their audience to the impact they're making, turning every ticket into a concrete contribution to a greener world.

Together, Weeztix, Trees for All and Go ZERO are happy to support you with any questions, each from their own area of expertise, and help you take the next step towards a more sustainable event.

If you have any questions about how we can help make your event more sustainable, please reach out to your account manager or contact us via info@weeztix.com.