EDINBURGH'S festivals have begun to investigate their carbon footprint and take the first tentative steps to cut the environmental impact of the biggest arts gathering in the world.
The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), which was launched last night, will this year see almost 100 musicians with the London Symphony Orchestra travel to the city by train.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival is encouraging authors to
avoid domestic flights. From low-energy light-bulbs to recycling bins for flyers on the Royal Mile, the festivals are burnishing their green credentials.
But with more than 20,000 performers in the Fringe, and 2,000 in the Edinburgh International Festival, they may struggle to do more than "tidy up the edges", one senior figure said yesterday.
FestivalsEdinburgh, the new umbrella group for the festivals, has an environmental working group.
The book festival appears to be leading the charge on the issue, and cites live satellite events with the Melbourne Writers Festival this year as a way of reducing flights.
"We take our environmental policies very seriously," said director Catherine Lockerbie.
But with festivals committed to exploring international issues, they face the "Al Gore paradox" on the environmental cost of flying inspiring speakers long distances, she said.
One festival executive said: "If you are an international organisation, dependent on international visitors and guests, eliminating your carbon footprint is going to be impossible. It's about tidying up the edges, and not being profligate, rather than eliminating it. It's about doing our best.
"The things that will have effect are the price of oil, and whether people can come at all."
The Fringe says it can't control the travel arrangements of performers. Its offices were audited for energy savings in March – it recycles all glass and paper, and it has installed huge recycling bins on the Royal Mile.
The EIF says it is starting close to home with sustainable paper for this year's programme and low-energy light-bulbs in its offices on the hub. One transatlantic flight is said to create about a tonne of carbon dioxide. But Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said the festivals may be unique experiences where people should use their "carbon ration".
"Where a flight is essential, people should offset it, and be very careful to buy offsets that are genuinely beneficial," he said. Recommended offsets would pay for solar oven or energy-efficient light-bulbs and other renewables rather than trees.
