The 2024 Sustainability Report for Hayden Homes Amphitehater
Amplifying Sustainability One Note At A Time:
Since 2002, the Hayden Homes Amphitheater, with its 8,000-person capacity, has led the local outdoor live music scene. Situated along the Deschutes River in scenic Bend, Oregon, the amphitheater’s location within a sensitive riparian ecosystem creates a unique experience for concertgoers and performers alike. However, without intentional management of concert season activities, human impact on the surrounding ecosystem can be damaging. As stewards of this ecosystem, we are purposeful in our approach to protect precious resources such as water, soil, and wildlife. This report details our efforts to reduce waste, reuse materials, support the local community, and protect the land we call home.
The amphitheater launched its sustainability program in 2017, initially focusing on waste management within the venue. Over the years, the program has become a core part of our operations, with the Green Team now recognized as a leading example for venues nationwide. In 2022, the venue diverted 76.85% of its waste from the landfill—equivalent to approximately 24 tons of material—a rate that increased to 78% in 2023. Continuing this upward trend, waste diversion in the summer of 2024 surged to 87%.
Since the program’s inception, we have received multiple awards, including Live Nation’s 3rd Highest Landfill Diversion Rate in 2023, the Jack Johnson All at Once Sustainability Award (2019, 2024), and the Visit Central Oregon Sustainability Award in 2023. We look forward to the possibility of additional honors as 2024 comes to a close. Looking ahead, we’ve set even more ambitious sustainability goals, including achieving a 90% waste diversion rate by 2025.
Mission and Values:
At Hayden Homes Amphitheater, we uphold values of kindness, compassion and a commitment to excellence. This means going the extra mile to ensure every visitor who walks through our gates has the best possible experience. We provide patrons with a world-class fan experience, and our staff prioritizes patrons’ enjoyment above all else, regardless of the artist, show size or attendance.
We maintain a standard of excellence in all our work, including roles not directly customer-facing. This commitment is the driving force behind our Green Team, which has become one of the nation’s leading venue sustainability programs. Our primary goal extends beyond basic environmental compliance to active stewardship of our planet. We approach waste management as a critical environmental challenge, emphasizing the importance of utilizing existing materials rather than consuming finite raw resources. The Green Team actively explores innovative waste diversion solutions, rejecting the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality that has traditionally dominated venue operations.
By caring for our immediate community and ecosystem, we foster a relationship of mutual benefit and support. This symbiotic relationship fuels the Green Team’s commitment to environmental stewardship and embodies the venue’s ethos. We recognize that caring for one another on a human level creates lasting partnerships that strengthen both our venue and our community.
Measuring Progress:
Our sustainability efforts have shown consistent improvement despite increasing operational demands. Over the past three years, we’ve tracked two key metrics: the number of concerts hosted and our landfill diversion rate. A landfill diversion rate measures the percentage of waste successfully redirected from landfills into alternative streams such as composting, recycling and material reuse.
While our concert schedule has grown from 52 shows in 2022 to 56 shows in 2024, our diversion rate has risen even more dramatically—from 76.85% to 87%. This improvement demonstrates that increased venue activity can coexist with stronger environmental stewardship. Each percentage point represents tons of material kept out of landfills through careful sorting, innovative reuse solutions and partnership with local recycling facilities.
The data reveals a clear positive trend in both programming and sustainability performance:
2024 At A Glance:
In 2024, we collaborated with various partners to reach an impressive 87% waste diversion rate, a 9% improvement over last year. This accomplishment involved redirecting a wide range of materials from landfills, including compost, glass, scrap wood, cardboard, and aluminium cans. Additional items such as mixed recyclables, lost and found items, Ball Cups, and scrap metal were also successfully diverted. The chart below illustrates each waste stream’s contribution to our total diversion efforts, with compost and recycling streams leading the way.
Notable 2024 Improvement
This season, we took a meaningful step to support a full-circle approach to sustainability. Instead of using compostable cups that would ultimately end up in the landfill, we transitioned to durable, reusable Ball Cups that are dishwasher-safe. This shift means that, once they reach the end of their life, these cups can now be recycled and repurposed into new materials right here in Central Oregon.
Dave Matthews Band 99 Percent Diversion Rate:
For more than 30 years Dave Matthews Band has been a staple in the live music scene, and with extensive touring often comes incredible waste. New in 2024, his tour decided to require a 90% diversion rate from each venue at each stop on tour. To support this goal, the Hayden Homes Amphitheater replaced food vendor serving ware with compostable options accepted at Deschutes County’s Knott Landfill. Palm leaf plates, bowls and bamboo utensils were introduced, enabling the venue to divert 99% of concert waste from the landfill. Only 1% of waste— paper towels, popcorn boxes and compostable forks—went to the landfill, equivalent to a single shot glass of trash per attendee.
Social Sustainability:
At Hayden Homes Amphitheater, we employ more than 800 local staff each summer, providing them with meaningful seasonal income. Of these, about 80 are local high school students. Each fall, the amphitheater donates $1 for every hour worked by a student directly to their school. Since launching this initiative in 2022, we’ve contributed more than $75,000 to regional schools!
We collaborate with local thrift shops, food banks and non-profits supporting underprivileged communities in Bend. Our Green Team touches every item discarded at every show, ensuring that lost and found items are washed and donated to thrift stores such as Bethlehem Inn, the Humane Society of Central Oregon and Goodwill. Other items around the venue, including umbrellas, chairs, fridges, and carpets, are sent to Habitat for Humanity ReStore, listed on Facebook Marketplace or offered to local businesses for reuse. These efforts not only help the environment but support our local community’s sustainability.
Beyond recycling and reusing, we’ve embraced upcycling with our “banners to bags” initiative. In partnership with a local maker, concert banners were transformed into 59 unique tote bags for staff to use. This added step reduces waste and strengthens our local connections by repurposing materials that would otherwise be discarded.
Donations to International Vision Volunteers
In addition to our environmental impact, we made meaningful social contributions. Through one of our team member’s connections, we identified a unique opportunity to support the vital work of International Vision Volunteers (IVV), a non-profit that deploys volunteer nurses, optometrists and other eye care professionals to perform thousands of life-changing cataract surgeries across Africa each year. After these delicate procedures, patients require sunglasses to protect their eyes during the crucial healing process. By donating our accumulated lost and found sunglasses to IVV, we’re able to directly assist their mission and improve outcomes for their patients.
This initiative not only diverts usable materials from landfills, but also has a tangible, positive impact on communities worldwide. Our sustainability program is about more than just environmental stewardship - it’s a holistic effort to leverage our resources and community partnerships for the greater good.
Bike Friendly Amphitheater:
Last year, with the help of Visit Central Oregon and our official sustainability partner, OnPoint Community Credit Union, we transformed our transportation infrastructure by installing more than 300 bike racks. Our commitment to reducing both individual and venue carbon footprints comes with a bonus—cyclists enjoy the best parking spots at the venue!
The Green Team tracks bicycle usage at every concert, allowing us to measure the impact of this program. During the 2024 season, 7,876 patrons chose to cycle to our events. Using conservative estimates—an average round-trip distance of 3 miles and 404 grams of CO2 emissions per mile typically produced by vehicles—these cyclists prevented 19.08 metric tons of carbon emissions from entering our atmosphere.
Beyond the environmental benefits, our bike-friendly initiative supports Bend’s outdoor-oriented culture. Premium bike parking locations also reward sustainable transportation choices, while reducing vehicle congestion around the venue.
Vision for the Future:
This sustainability report reflects on our achievements in 2024 while setting ambitious goals for 2025 and beyond. Our record-breaking 87% diversion rate has demonstrated what’s possible within our venue and inspired an even bolder vision for waste management.
For 2025, we’re implementing a comprehensive zero-waste strategy. This includes replacing all landfill bound products with alternatives that can be processed through existing local waste streams. Specific initiatives include replacing wax-coated popcorn boxes with compostable alternatives, eliminating single-use plastic packaging from concession items, and implementing stricter requirements for food service materials. Through these targeted changes, we aim to achieve and maintain a 90% or better diversion rate throughout the entire 2025 season.
Education and community engagement are crucial to our success. We’re enhancing our patron education program through clear, intuitive signage at waste sorting stations, digital communications before and during events, and trained Green Team ambassadors to assist with proper waste sorting. By empowering our patrons to participate in these initiatives, we strengthen both our program and our community’s commitment to sustainability.
Conclusion:
The 2024 season marks a milestone in our sustainability journey. While Live Nation set our baseline goal at 70% landfill diversion, we challenged ourselves to reach 80%, with an ambitious stretch goal of 90%. Our achievement of an 87% diversion rate not only surpassed Live Nation’s expectation but nearly reached our stretch goal, positioning us among the nation’s leading sustainable venues.
This success reflects the dedication of our Green Team, the support of our community partners and the enthusiastic participation of our patrons. From expanding our bicycle infrastructure to forming innovative regional partnerships, we’ve demonstrated that venue operations can simultaneously grow and become more sustainable.
Looking ahead to 2025, we’re building on this momentum with ambitious new targets for waste diversion, enhanced patron education and expanded community partnerships. As stewards of this unique riverside venue, we remain committed to protecting our environment while creating world-class experiences for our community. Together, we’re proving that sustainability and entertainment can work in harmony to create positive change.
Thank you!
We want to thank the dedicated supporters of our Green Team: OnPoint Community Credit Union, Hayden Homes Amphitheater staff and management, Live Nation, Visit Central Oregon, and all patrons who have enthusiastically embraced our vision of an environmentally friendly venue in an industry often associated with excess. The Green Team’s achievements refl ect a collective commitment to sustainability, demonstrating what’s possible when an entire community works together toward a common goal.
