SUSTAINABILITY
Making Headway on Our 2030 Roadmap
Through shifts in how we power Black Rock City, we are making strides towards our 2030 goals to:
- Handle waste ecologically
- Be regenerative
- Be carbon negative
Our Year Three Update shared progress toward our 2030 Sustainability Roadmap goals. We released an emissions inventory and convened a Carbon Dioxide Removal Call.
The Man and Man Pavilion were 100% solar powered.
“I remember standing on top of the Man Pavilion. There’s the solar array, and no generator running. lt went off without a hitch — worked immediately and never stopped.”
~ Paul ‘Blue’ Schreer, 20-year Burning Man Project staff member, Recycle Camp lead and Man Pavilion illuminator (Burning since 2001)
We tested a menagerie of solar plus storage systems:
- 42 Baby Wookiee solar trailers powered 32 sites in BRC
- 2 Unicorn solar generators — one powered the Man Pavilion
- Icarus solar plus battery shade structures ran at the 360
- 2 solar battery cubes powered BRC infrastructure
- 1 rooftop solar system took the Black Rock Saloon off fossil fuels
-f.9-
“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic.
~ COLIN POWELL
It takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”
A Dusty Laboratory for Changing the World
The Burning Man community collaborated with staff to implement hundreds of projects that green the way we burn.
Sustainability Trends in BRC
- 40+ electric or human-powered mutant vehicles
- 751 theme camps planned to be solar
- 33% of funded art focused on sustainability
- 112 biofiltration toilets
- 2 carbon dioxide removal projects
Burning Less Art:
Only 4% of art is burned.
Resource Sharing:
96 camps formed 47 HUBS to share resources such as power and water.
Community-led Projects in Black Rock City
- BLAST (Burner Leadership Achieving Sustainable Theme Camps) is a theme camp sustainability rating program
- RAT (Renewables for Artists Team) teaches artists how to implement solar
- IDEATE and Art Support Camp invited camps to bring food waste for composting
- Net Zero BRC hosted community solar builds and alternative energy co-learning
- Black Rock Labs hosted daily talks and tours on sustainability innovation
