Glastonbury goes Green

This year’s 175 000-strong Glastonbury Festival has sparked a flurry of activity in the world of environmentally sustainable design, as participants use the event as a showcase for new ideas.

Leading the way is Orange, which is exhibiting a wind-powered mobile phone charger prototype, designed for campers to attach to the top of their tents and small enough to fit into a weekend rucksack.

The charger, designed by Gotwind.org, was created to take into account the unpredictable British climate, while ensuring a constant energy source. The energy created by the wind turbine charges a battery inside your tent, so you can charge your phone whenever you like.

‘The point is that you can’t predict the weather at Glastonbury, and generating your own power is important,’ says Dave Pain at Gotwind.org. ‘People have a lot of portable devices that require energy, so perhaps the next step will be designing a product powered by wind and solar energy, that could provide you with light in your tent and perhaps even charge an iPod – although a rain-powered one might be better.’

Alongside Orange’s Green commercial venture, Glastonbury stalwarts Greenpeace and Christian Aid will be showcasing their own climate-conscious designs with everything from solar showers to ‘tyre gardens’.

Among the items on display in Christian Aid’s Green Garden are ‘rammed earth’ planters, inspired by building projects in Honduras, and multi-storey planters made out of old tyres taken from urban slum areas of Kenya, where water and fertile soil are scarce.

The Greenpeace Field will be featuring its famous carbon-neutral solar showers, along with a skate ramp made from FSC certified wood and a Techno Dome to show visitors the wonders of renewable energy.

Glastonbury Festival takes place at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, from 22-24 June.