Bord Bia Bloom confirmed leader in event sustainability
Bord Bia’s festival of gardening, food and sustainable living becomes the first event in Ireland to achieve the ISO 20121: 2024 Event Sustainability standard
Wednesday, July 30th 2025: Bord Bia is proud to announce that Bord Bia Bloom, Ireland’s favourite festival of gardening, food, and sustainable living, has become the first event in Ireland to achieve ISO 20121: 2024 certification. The certification, which measures event sustainability management systems, has been awarded to the festival following a comprehensive, independent audit of Bloom’s event operations and educational content by global certification body, SGS.
The accreditation marks an important milestone in Bloom’s ongoing journey to be a global leader in event sustainability. “Since Bord Bia Bloom’s inception in 2007, Bord Bia and the festival’s event management team have been working diligently to minimise the event’s carbon footprint, continuously researching and implementing new measures to lower emissions, reduce waste, and operate sustainably,” says Bord Bia CEO, Jim O’Toole.
“In tandem with these initiatives, we have significantly grown the educational content each year, starting with our Show Gardens and developing a multifaceted programme of talks, workshops, and activations that demonstrate how we can all play our part in safeguarding the environment. While achieving ISO 20121: 2024 status is tremendous recognition for our team and partners, it also encourages us to continue on our path to build a festival which is a beacon for sustainability and a guiding force for change.”
A celebration of nature
Originally conceived as a promotional vehicle to support Ireland’s horticulture industry, over the last two decades Bord Bia Bloom has blossomed into a celebration of nature in all its forms, with sustainability at the core of all operations and content.
The festival’s flagship Show Gardens are designed and built to demonstrate best practice in sustainable garden design and designers and sponsors are encouraged to rehome the gardens or reuse plants and materials after the festival. (Read about the plans for 2025’s Show Gardens here.) More sustainable inspiration can be found in the Postcard Gardens and Botanical Hub, while influential horticulturists and garden designers share knowledge each year on the highly informative Garden Stage.
Bloom’s dedicated Conservation Area provides an empowering space where visitors can engage in conversations with experts from leading conservation, biodiversity, and environmental protection organisations and learn how we can all take steps to improve the world around us. Within this area, the Sustainable Living Stage hosts an inspiring programme of talks from key environmentalists and stakeholders who share ideas for actionable change.
Bord Bia Bloom’s bustling Food Village showcases the fare of more than 100 sustainable Irish food and drink producers, all of whom are verified members of Bord Bia’s pioneering Origin Green programme, the only national food and drink sustainability programme in the world. Meanwhile, junior environmentalists are encouraged to nurture nature in the Budding Bloomers’ Children’s Area, which includes fun, educational entertainment and activities teaching everything from sowing seeds to tracing Ireland’s food journey.
Operational efficiencies
Along with growing the educational content of the festival, Bord Bia Bloom’s organisers have worked hard to improve efficiencies and reduce emissions each year. This includes switching to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) to power Bloom’s generators and free shuttle buses, thereby reducing the event’s carbon emissions by 89%; segregating and recycling or regenerating all waste; installing low-energy lighting solutions; directing food vendors and caterers to use compostable packaging and serving materials; and encouraging retailers to use biodegradable bags and containers.
Visitors are also actively encouraged to reduce their footprint by making sustainable choices at the festival. This year visitors took over 20,000 trips on Bloom’s free shuttle bus; parked more than 1,600 bikes at the festival; donated over 13,000 cans and bottles to charity via Re-turn; and refilled their bottles with 23,500-plus litres of water at Bloom’s many Hydration Stations.
By binning their waste appropriately, visitors allowed organisers to process nearly 1,500kg of food waste through Bloom’s two on-site biodigesters. An additional 1,350kg of food was rescued from caterers and donated to charity by FoodCloud and three tonnes of coffee grounds were collected and donated to the Office of Public Works (OPW) for use as fertiliser.
Strong commitment
The Bloom team’s mission to improve the sustainability of the festival has been recognised by the auditors, SGS. “The strong commitment to environmental and social sustainability is evident from the early days of Bord Bia Bloom and the almost 20-year journey that the festival has been on is phenomenal. The senior management team has implemented ISO 20121: 2024 in a very short period with the support of consultants from Business Information Group. The organisers were open to the SGS audit, providing access to the front-of-house and back-of-house areas and facilitating interviews with key stakeholders over the two-day audit of the live event,” says SGS Lead Auditor, Becky Toal.
Ms Toal’s report noted: “The strong focus on increasing waste stream separation, use of HVO for generators and shuttle buses, and encouraging visitors to arrive by public transport is to be applauded. The support to many local Irish-based, small to medium-sized enterprises and charities is also worth noting and the community impact of Bloom in terms of legacy and education about nature and environment is highly commended. The financial impact of the event has also been documented and is significant to the tourism of Dublin.”
Continuous improvement
While the team is proud to achieve the ISO 20121: 2024 certification, the festival is committed to raising standards further in future, notes Laura Douglas, Head of Bord Bia Bloom and Brand Partnerships at Bord Bia. “As part of the ISO accreditation, the festival will be audited every year, and we will continuously strive to improve all aspects of sustainability across all touchpoints. Visitors, stakeholders, sponsors, and participants can be assured that Bloom is planned and implemented in a sustainable manner with the utmost care for the environment,” she explains.
“Credit must be given to our partners on this journey who have helped us to raise our standards and reduce our environmental impact, including our event management team, Garden Events Ltd; the Phoenix Park’s custodians, the Office of Public Works; our HVO suppliers, Certa; our waste partners, My Waste, Harp Renewables and FoodCloud; our many sponsors, show garden designers, landscapers and contractors; and everyone who has helped us grow the content and reduce the environmental footprint of the festival,” continues Ms Douglas. “We are also hugely grateful to our visitors who make sustainable choices when visiting Bloom, including the 20,000-plus visitors who travelled to the festival by public transport in 2025. It is with our visitors buy-in and support that we can continue to improve the sustainability of Bloom each year.”
Be part of the success of Bloom
Environmentally conscious brands, organisations and designers are invited to join Bord Bia Bloom on the next step of its sustainable journey as the festival prepares to celebrate 20 years in 2026. To learn more about participating in Bloom, please visit bordbiabloom.com/participate.
About Bord Bia Bloom
Owned and operated by Bord Bia – Irish Food Board, Bord Bia Bloom is a world-class, uplifting and innovative horticulture, food, and drink experience with nature and sustainable living at its heart. The festival is held in the Phoenix Park, Dublin each June bank holiday weekend and will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2026.
Bord Bia is committed to improving the sustainability of the festival each year. We do this by reducing our impact on the environment, empowering visitors to make more sustainable choices when visiting the festival and providing advice on how to live more sustainably at home. For more information on Bloom, please visit bordbiabloom.com.
About ISO 2012: 2024
ISO 2012: 2024 is a beacon for sustainable event management, guiding organisations to seamlessly integrate sustainability into every facet of their event planning and execution. This standard applies to events of all types and sizes, encouraging organisations to manage social, economic, and environmental impacts responsibly. More information can be found on iso.org.
