Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is internationally acclaimed for hosting world-class artists and providing a weekend escape for millions of music fans from every corner of the globe. The festival has received many awards over the years, including DJ Magazine’s World’s Best Festival and the International Dance Music Awards’ Best Festival. This year, UMF adds another achievement to its already impressive resume, the Sustainability Team Award!
The World Sustainability Awards is an international contest recognizing companies for their sustainable practices and environmental consciousness. The fierce competition had industry leaders select 13 different category winners from a pool of over 220 applicants that included major organizations like AT&T, Heineken, and HP. The Sustainability Team Award recognizes a high-performing team that “shares a clear purpose, drives progress, and effects change.” Ultra Music Festival staked its claim as a global environmental leader winning the 2023 Sustainability Team Award over multinational corporations including Paramount, Stryker, TELUS, and others.
Sustainability is no new topic for the organizers of Ultra. Since the creation of Mission: Home in 2019, the four-woman team has taken a collaborative approach to sustainability, relying heavily on communication between vendors, staff, partners, and attendees to embrace each of their roles in sustainability. The result of this approach speaks for itself with over 184,000 pounds of trash diverted from landfills, an 88% reduction in single-use plastics, and 7,500 pounds of food donations redistributed to local homeless shelters to supply over 6,200 meals to families in need.
“This speaks volumes about the power of music and the arts to call on collective action, and what better purpose than protecting our planet.”
–Vivian Belzaguy Hunter, Director of Sustainability, Ultra Music Festival
The Mission: Home program will return to Bayfront Park for its 4th iteration at the festival on March 22, 23, and 24, 2024. The sustainability team plans to continue amplifying its impact with new initiatives aimed at Waste Reduction, Pollution Prevention, Nature Preservation, Community Engagement, and Climate Action. Stay updated here.
