Green policy | KIFF - Kerry International Film Festival

KIFF Green policy

View KIFF’s Sustainability Policy here.

At the Kerry International Film Festival, we are committed to hosting a world-class cultural event with minimal environmental impact. Sustainability is woven into every aspect of our planning and operations — from how we choose our venues to the way we celebrate at our social events.

In 2020, KIFF celebrated its 21st birthday. As a gift to itself and the planet, we decided to go as green as possible. We do this by trying to implement the following small but considered policies. Sometimes it simply isn’t possible, mainly due to budgetary restraints, but KIFF strives to have the lowest impact on the environment when it is in their power to do so. We are also working with a Green Film Consultancy agency to see how our carbon footprint might be calculated so that we can offset this in a real and tangible way in the future.

VENUE SELECTION

When considering venues for KIFF events, the relative location to public transportation is a factor. This includes:
Public Transportation: Train and bus.
Bicycling: Safe bike parking
Walking: Local restaurants and amenities within walking distance.

GUEST TRAVEL

KIFF shows a commitment to hotels who pride themselves on their green policy. We are working on securing electric cars to bring guests to and from the airport.

SPECIAL EVENTS

We all love a party! Our team works hard to ensure that our social events have minimum environmental impact. These are the rules we live by:

Local & sustainable: Food, beer & wine are provided by local, green-minded suppliers.
Plastic-free! No plastic serving ware or utensils are allowed. Everything must be 100% biodegradable.
Zero landfill: Everything must be either composted or recycled.
Zero food waste: Leftover food is taken home by team members or donated locally.
No plastic bottled water: We either provide glass bottles or water stations are provided with delicious tap water.

All our volunteers sign up to this initiative so the vision of a greener Festival is preserved at ground level.

KIFF support REFILL IRELAND

Refill Ireland is an environmental project aiming to make Irish towns and cities tap water refill friendly for everyone while on the go (like the old days!). We locate and encourage the creation of locations where filling your reusable water bottle for FREE from an increasing number of refill stations becomes an easy to do everyday habit helping hydration and ultimately protecting our environment from bottle waste.

https://www.refill.ie/

We hope to secure more Killarney pins on their Tap Map through the work of KIFF volunteers but Killarney House, a KIFF venue, and Lir Cafe, a KIFF Recommends, are currently two of the three refill stations in Killarney.

MARKETING MATERIALS

We keep our use of paper materials to a minimum. Where we do have to have these, they are printed locally using recycled paper and soy-based inks (where possible). Materials such as guest passes, signage and décor are reused from one year to the next. For example, printing Festival vinyl banners and pop-ups without specific dates means they are evergreen and can be reused each year. We encourage sponsors and partners to spread their messages through our electronic materials and on-screen at the events to reduce the need for paper promotional materials.

DIGITAL FILMS

We use a digital film entry process, eliminating the need for paper forms, DVD materials, and entry shipping. Each year we receive 600+ films entries electronically, and our 3-person screening committee does all viewing and reviewing entirely online.

This extends to our film screenings where, whenever possible, we project digital versions of the films. This removes the need for toxic celluloid or other film materials and the heavy carbon footprint of shipping films around the world (A film print is usually shipped on six to eight reels in two cans and weighs 50 to 80 pounds).

FESTIVAL OFFICE

The Festival office implements many green practices by not having an office! We all work from home, largely in digital format.

We take many measures to be a paper-free Festival. For example, using paperless processes for electronic surveys, film submissions and judging, volunteer applications, event invitations, ticket sales, as well as creating paperless presentations and reports.

VOLUNTEER T-SHIRTS:

We source volunteer T-Shirts that are organic and fairtrade.