Yorkshire Sustainability Festival founder hopes event can become biggest in country

The festival was launched by community and events firm The Sustainability Community.

Kate Hutchinson, founder and director of The Sustainability Community, said: “I believe that not everything good has to happen in London, and you can do really good things up North.

“I think one of the things that cannot be replaced is human connection and the need to get people together to drive forward change. One of the things that is so interesting about the return to face-to-face events that has happened since the pandemic and has been so widely well received is the opportunity for business leaders and politicians and public sector leaders to meet together and co-create some of the solutions in person.

“For us in Yorkshire, it's really exciting that we’re starting to see some big events happen, and it's very much our ambition for this event to become one of the biggest sustainability events in the country – and hopefully one of the biggest events in the north of England.

There is so much of this happening in London and not enough of it happeningin the regions, so for me, I thought, if we’re going to do this, I want to concentrate on those forgotten towns and cities that have huge opportunity.”

With previous events based mostly in Leeds, this year's festival will look to spread to other Yorkshire cities and regions.

The festival has this year set a target of hosting 50 fringe events.

Ms Hutchinson said: “Historically, the festival has been very Leeds focussed, but now the word has spread about the festival, so we’re starting to see more events come through in Sheffield and Hull and York and North Yorkshire as well, which is brilliant.”

The festival’s flagship event is its Regeneration Earth conference, which takes place on the 18th and 19th of June at the Royal Armouries, in Leeds.

The event takes place over four stages including The Earth stage, which hosts talks around policy, governance, social norms and values and the Energy Stage, which will host talks around the energy transition.

The event will also include an innovation stage, where discussion around the circular economy and green tech will take place, as well as a skills stage, which will host talks about skills development.

Each of the panels at the festival will feature youth voices, as well as speakers from SMEs and corporate firms.

Ms Hutchinson added: “One of the things that we do that is really special is that we have a youth role on every single one of our panels.

“There wont be a youth panel where you go and listen if you’re interested, they will be embedded into the conversations, sat next to the CEOs. It forces you to hear them and hear their opinion, which is how it should be.”

Alongside talks, the festival will also hold hands-on workshops.

Ms Hutchinson previously worked with The Secret Events Service, which she set up around seven years ago.

The Sustainability Community is also set to host another 10 conferences over the next 18 months.

Speaking on her motivation for setting up the Yorkshire Sustainability Festival, Ms Hutchinson added: “There's a background reality that we have no choice but to do something about the climate crisis.

“My decision in this is to believe in and celebrate the successes of the green economy. If you create an environment where people feel like it's really successful, more people will move towards it and it will make it more exciting.

“That can help to grow the green economy faster than if you lean into the message of ‘the world is burning and things are going to fall apart’.

“I grew up in Barnsley in the 90s. We, of course, lost the mines, and what we got instead was an ASOS factory 20 years or so later.

“So for me, it's also about the fact that we can create a green industrial revolution in these places, but we can only do that if these locations are ready for the jobs when those opportunities come. That was a big motivator for me.”