The CBS Sustainability Platform and cbsCSR at Roskilde Festival 2013

From Rio to Roskilde – How sustainable can we become?

The Rio+20 conference did perhaps not achieve all its goals, but everyone agreed that we face enormous challenges and if we do not act now the consequences will also be enormous. So how does CBS react to this challenge? We turn the Roskilde Festival into a science lab for sustainability.

Sustainability covers many different aspects of our daily lives. When is the last time you considered the amount of food going to waste in your fridge? In a supermarket? Or at a restaurant? The cbsCSR Center, in close collaboration with Roskilde Festival and other partners, has embarked on a mission to find out how much food goes to waste during the Festival and based on these findings, how the Festival can become more sustainable.

Monday, July 1, was kick off day where CBS researchers visited food stands at the Roskilde Festival interviewing the staff about planning of food purchase, production, demand and much more. Obviously, it is not easy to plan consumption as many factors influence when and how much food the over 130.000 people visiting the Festival consume. Weather and location of the food stand seem to play important roles as well the experience of the staff. Most of the employees at each food stand are volunteers, so it requires skilled planning to foresee production and minimize spill from production to consumption. Excess food is to the extend possible donated to organizations in Roskilde who support homeless people.

The Rio to Roskilde project is co-funded by the Sustainability Platform and also focuses on temporary housing and waste. Visit www.riotilroskilde.dk for daily news, video updates, blogs, and background information, and follow the project every day on Facebook.