Tallinn’s story of a zero-waste Song and Dance Celebration has won the ITB Earth Award 2025 at the Green Destinations Top 100 Story Awards competition, one of the world’s largest tourism fairs held in Berlin. The award highlights Tallinn’s innovation and commitment to sustainability as a tourism destination.
“Tallinn is an innovative city where bold ideas become reality. Using only reusable dishes for an event as large as the Song and Dance Celebration once seemed impossible, but Tallinn made it happen. International recognition serves as inspiration for cities worldwide—if major events can be organized in an environmentally friendly way, then many other things are possible as well,” said Tallinn Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski.
Tallinn’s Tourism Department submitted the story “From the Singing Revolution to a Revolution Against Waste: How We Made Our National Celebration Zero Waste” to the Green Destinations Top 100 Story Awards. The story highlights the efforts to make the Song and Dance Celebration more environmentally friendly. Destinations worldwide participate in this competition to enhance their visibility among sustainability-focused travelers and industry professionals. Tallinn is also in the process of applying for a sustainable destination certification.
Winning the ITB Earth Award 2025 is a significant achievement not only for the City of Tallinn but also for the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration Foundation, partner companies, event volunteers, performers, and audiences. Their collective efforts helped turn the celebration into a globally recognized example of a sustainable event.
“Our achievement demonstrates that major events and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, conscious planning and collaboration make remarkable results possible. Tallinn’s Song and Dance Celebration is a perfect example of this, and we plan to continue on this path,” said Margus Toomla, manager of the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration Foundation.
The vision, action plan, and communication strategy for reusable tableware at the celebration were developed in collaboration with Acento, an event sustainability consultancy, and implemented together with the City of Tallinn, which was the 2023 European Green Capital. Thanks to successful partnerships with Acento and Eesti Pandipakend, more than half a million single-use items were avoided, preventing the generation of over 3.5 tons of plastic waste.
This year’s Song and Dance Celebration “Iseoma” will also be organized following sustainable principles.
Source: tallinn.ee