Sustainability

In 2022, Fierté Montréal established its first Green Committee with the mandate to develop a three-year eco-responsibility action plan for all activities of the Festival, the Parade and the Community Days. The first and foremost objective of this process was to draw up a portrait of the eco-responsible measures already in place and to establish a plan for the development and implementation of additional measures.

This action plan is based on the six major ecoresponsibility criteria issued by the Conseil québécois des événements écoresponsables (CQEER) →

• Residual materials management
• Transportation
• Responsible procurement
• Food
• Water and energy management

From these criteria, a list of existing and upcoming measures was compiled. Here are some examples of the measures present at the 2022 →

• Presence of sorting stations
• Presence of a green brigade
• Reduction of printed promotional materials and production and distribution of promotional items
• Residual materials balance sheet
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions report for the Festival
• Offer of vegetarian menus
• Locally sourced food (less than 100 km away)
• Certified organic or fair trade food
• Presence of drinking water stations for refillable bottles
• Social practices

By implementing these measures for the 2022 edition, the Festival Fierté Montréal has significantly increased its ecoresponsibility index, a self-declaration mandated by the Conseil québécois des événements écoresponsables and the Maison du développement durable to obtain the event ecoresponsibility index.

From 2021 to 2022, the Festival's eco-responsibility index has increased by nearly 15%. The measures that will be put in place in the future will allow the event to increase its eco-responsibility index.

As of 2022, with the help of the CQEER, Fierté Montréal has made an initial assessment of the estimated GHG emissions generated during the 2022 edition of its festival.

In order to draw up this balance sheet, the following sources of emissions were considered →

• Public travel
• Travel of the team
• Travel of international artists
• Fuel consumption
• Management of residual materials

Furthermore, Fierté Montréal is prioritizing obtaining the Responsible Event Management certification (BNQ- 9700-253) from the Bureau de normalisation du Québec in order to regularize its processes and maintain its eco-responsible event goals according to the evolution of the measures put in place by the different actors, governmental or others.

Finally, Fierté Montréal aspires to a tangible eco-responsible transition and will count on the support of expert consultants over the next few years in order to improve and concretize its approaches.

Several strategies will be implemented during the next editions of the Festival, allowing for a better analysis of the organization's current festival practices and to produce rigorous assessments that will allow for the implementation of concrete improvements in the face of current environmental issues.