CCB Magazine

The vast majority of CO₂ emissions from cultural events are caused by the arrival and departure of the audience. What is the easiest way to calculate this and what does it take to do that? Laura Kleber and Julian Vogels from Crowd Impact have developed an app for the iPad that enables standardized and simple querying of mobility data - and have been awarded the title of Cultural and Creative Pilots by the German government. How does it all work? 

INTERVIEW  Boris Messing    

CCB Magazine: Hello Laura, you have developed an app for the iPad that records the mobility emissions of audience travel. The biggest CO₂ emitter at an event is mobility, i.e. the audience's travel to and from the event, which accounts for 80 to 90 percent of an event's total CO₂ emissions on average. Who is your app aimed at, event organizers or the audience?    

Laura Kleber: The app is aimed at event organizers of all kinds. Let's say, for example, a band that wants to take stock of its summer tour. They can use the app to determine the level of emissions and the travel behavior of the audience in order to draw conclusions for the planning of their next tour. All it takes is a mobile team to operate the app and ask the audience about their journey at the entrance, for example - about their chosen mode of transport and the distance they have traveled. That would be a classic case. But our app can also be used by museums, opera houses, theaters and other cultural venues, as well as sporting events and conferences. So basically anyone who has a certain number of visitors and needs the data for their carbon footprint.

CCB Magazine:How long does an on-site survey like this take? Is it cumbersome?

Laura Kleber:It's really quick. You don't have to interview every single person, but instead take a representative sample and then extrapolate the figures. A survey like this takes no longer than a minute per participant.

For event organizers, it is first important to know who travels and how, and how many emissions this causes, so that they can enter this into their carbon footprint. Then you can see where you have the greatest leverage to make a difference

CCB Magazine:And how large must the sample be so that the travel emissions can be extrapolated to the entire audience?

Laura Kleber:For example: If 10,000 people attend an event, that would be around 370 people. The app is designed to show you exactly how many people you need to survey in order to obtain representative data. We solved this with a simple visual representation. You also have to take into account things like seasonality and different demographics for different event formats and entrances. 

CCB Magazine:You developed your app for the iPad. Why only for the iPad? 

Laura Kleber:Because it's easier to use and because we have expertise in this area, i.e. we were able to develop the app ourselves. The graphic buttons are easy to see on a large screen and the audience has more fun with a larger view and is thus encouraged to participate. So there are simply pragmatic and aesthetic reasons for this. If everything goes well, there is nothing to stop us developing it for other tablets. We are currently working on a web-based version. If you don't have an iPad, we recommend renting one for the survey - you only need it for a few days a year.

And this is how it looks like...

CCB Magazine:How did you come up with the idea of Crowd Impact in the first place? How long did it take to develop the tool/app?

Laura Kleber:Julian and I have known each other since 2021 and we both volunteer for Music Declares Emergency, an initiative that promotes sustainability in the music industry. Julian is also a sustainability consultant and has already gained a lot of experience with the carbon footprint of cultural enterprises. When it comes to mobility, however, the problem has always been that the data could only be estimated or people tried to record it with pen and paper and calculate it in Excel. That was quite time-consuming, so at some point we came up with the idea of Crowd Impact. We wanted to simplify and standardize things. In the summer of 2022, we got to work on implementing it and then officially founded it six months later. We've been working full-time on our project since last summer - thanks in part to ProNTI funding from Investitionsbank Berlin-Brandenburg (IBB).

CCB Magazine:Can you explain in more detail how you created the app? What key parameters were you able to identify with regard to the audience travel? How did you standardize the emissions analysis in your tool?

Laura Kleber:Basically, the query is always about: Where did you come from and by which means of transport, where did you change if necessary. In the case of traveling by car, there is also the question of vehicle size, what fuel was used and how many passengers were in the car. 

The app does not currently offer automated suggestions for measures to reduce emissions. But we are considering integrating such a feature in the future. Until then, you can find lots of tips for sustainable mobility concepts on our website

CCB Magazine:And this is how the exact emissions are determined?

Laura Kleber:As accurately as possible. This is how it works: the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) publishes emission factors for various mobility uses, which are constantly updated. The distance traveled multiplied by this emission factor gives the CO2 equivalents produced. There is always a certain factor for each mode of transport, an average value that reflects the emissions of a particular mode of transport. No subtle differences are made as to which make of car was used, etc. - that would not be practicable for the survey, and factors such as driving style and traffic volume have a greater influence than the make of car anyway. Our long-term plan is that at some point we will be able to use the data collected from various event formats such as museums, festivals or concerts to carry out location assessments. In other words, an evaluation of the location with regard to the arrival and departure of the audience, so that we know before the event starts which individual measures can be used to incentivize a more sustainable journey.

CCB Magazine:What happens once the mobility data of an event has been recorded with your app? Does the app also offer suggestions on what measures can be taken to avoid emissions?

Laura Kleber:First of all, it's important for event organizers to know who is travelling and how, and how many emissions this causes, so that they can include this in their carbon footprint assessment. You can also see where you have the greatest leverage to make a change. For example, if I as a festival see that I have a lot of people arriving by car and that a lot of visitors are coming from Berlin, a shuttle bus connection can save a lot of emissions next year. That and communication with the public is a key option here. Another important lever is, for example, working with local authorities to develop a better mobility concept. The app does not yet offer automated suggestions for measures. But we are considering integrating such a feature in the future. Until then, you can find lots of tips for sustainable mobility concepts on our website.

CCB Magazine:Crowd Impact works as a subscription model. What options are there?

Laura Kleber:We earn our money through an annual subscription fee that varies depending on the number of visitors - starting at just over 250 euros for 10,000 visitors and going up to 671 euros net for over 150,000 visitors. We wanted to offer a fair price and not put small event organizers at a disadvantage, which is why using the app costs more for larger audiences. We offer a discount of thirty percent for associations and non-profit organizations.

CCB Magazine:Where and how is the app already being used? Can you give us some numbers or names? Do you already have a well-known band on board?

Laura Kleber:We only "officially" launched in November last year, since then the app has mainly been used in concert halls and clubs. Before that, we did a lot of runs with the beta version, for example at re:publica, Breminale, SNTTG Festival, Superbloom, Splash and Feel Festival. Together with The Changency, we also took stock of AnnenMayKantereit's summer tour in the "Ticket To Ride" project.

CCB Magazine:You have just been recognized for your work as cultural and creative pilots. What's next for you?

Laura Kleber:It's super cool that we're now getting nationwide attention. That gives us a completely different standing. We also received a year's mentoring from the u-Institut, who organize and run the program. So they will be with us for a whole year and support us. We are also in close contact with the other winners, who face similar challenges as founders as we do. I find this networking extremely valuable and helpful.