Coldplay announced this week that they are not going to tour until they can figure out a climate neutral or climate positive way to do so. Touring has a massive CO2 output. U2‘s 2009 tour is said to have produced the CO2 equivalent of flying to Mars and back (or the annual waste produced by 6,500 British people, or the same as leaving a lightbulb running for 159,000 years, or flying 90,000 people at one of their stadium shows from London to Dublin – pick your favourite).
What are the implications? A single flight from London to Dublin produces about 100kg of CO2 per passenger, depending on the airline. Now consider this: “Each kg of CO2 ultimately melts about 650 kg of glacial ice.” Times 100, times 90,000. And that’s just for this one band, in perhaps the most polluting tour ever.
However, it’s audience travel that is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in music. Oft-quoted research by Julie’s Bicycle, published in 2008, estimates audience travel accounts for 43% of the UK music industry’s greenhouse gas output.
The Guardian article about U2 that I linked above, ends with a quote of a review by Mark Reed:
“The carbon footprint of this might be quite large, but the spiritual rewards to the audience of this are those that enhance a life. If all life were bread and water, then there would be nothing to lift mankind above the amoeba.”
I personally dislike how dismissive the quote sounds, especially when it’s used to conclude an article about an important problem. Mankind has a much worse chance of surviving catastrophic climate change than amoeba after all. However, the author does touch upon something important. The experiences that the music business provides are important (so important that it’s moved someone to describe a U2 concert as a spiritual experience). So what drives me are the following two questions:
- How can we continue to provide these experiences?
- How can we use these experiences to inspire a better world?
What comes to mind is a quote by Sammy Bananas, founder of DJs for Climate Action. Talking to Stuart Swift in an article on Stamp the Wax, the example of transitioning from plastic straws to paper comes up:
“While Sammy admits its impact on the climate is negligible, it “may have a much greater effect on making people wonder why the venue took the effort to make the switch.” This creates a snowball effect where “individuals want to learn more and engage.””
Alright. I hope the doom and gloom in the paragraphs above is enough of a motivator. Let’s look at actionable steps players in the industry can take to reduce our impact and inspire a better world.
Measure
Whether it’s understanding energy use of a venue or festival, waste produced, or the audience’s footprint, the first step to tackling a problem is to start mapping it. This makes it easier to research and identify areas of high impact and not get distracted by working on things which have negligible impact.
Few venues have an accurate idea of the energy consumption of everything inside. Sure, stage lighting and audio is often well-considered and engineered, but what about cooling systems, lighting in other spaces of the venue, heating, etc.
Do artists know their CO2 footprints? Understanding better what the environmental cost of a tour or a gig is, can help identify ways to address or mitigate that cost.
Then there’s festivals and the audience that travels to them. In considering audience travel, the main question is often a logistical one: how do we get everyone on-site in a decent timeframe? Is there enough road and public transport capacity? As audience travel constitutes a majority of a festival’s greenhouse gas footprint (Dr Jillian Anable & Julie’s Bicycle put it at two thirds), it’s worth tracking the problem and mapping it out.
Audience travel
The problem of audience travel emissions is important to approach within its specific contexts. What type of event are people traveling for? What are their modes of transportation? What type of (public transport) infrastructure exists?
Festivals may consider offering discounted combined entrance & public transport tickets, organising events closer to urban areas, and offering camping equipment rental and supply sales on-site. The latter is an important why people choose to travel by car to multi-day festivals.
In general, organisers should make sure public transportation services are mentioned in event communications, as audiences are often not aware of these options.
Energy use at events
Paul Schurink, co-founder of Green Events Netherlands, is an expert in the field of temporary energy supply and as such has worked with countless festivals to improve their energy use. In an interview with Clubbing TV, he explains some of the basics. Some takeaways:
- Smart power plans for festivals take about 3 years to build. The first year you go for the quick wins, and in following years you get a feedback loop of expertise and new practices. After 3 years, festivals can save 40% of their power per edition.
- If a festival uses forty thousand liters of fuel for generating power, they’d need fifteen thousand liters less. Financially, that’s at least fifteen thousand euros saved. It also means less generators to rent, less generators and fuel to transport, less transport costs.
- If you use less power, you’re more sustainable. Using less power also makes it easier to make use of sustainable energy sources like solar panels.
Live events as testing grounds
Duncan Stutterheim, founder of dance event organisation ID&T and the legendary Thunderdome events, set up Open House a few years ago. Akin to a startup incubator, they helped partner innovative young companies with events and NGOs. Together, they could find out more about topics like how the same innovative energy solutions used at festivals can be used for humanitarian aid, and also looked into circular use of waste.
An organisation called Innofest matches innovative startups with festivals to test their solutions out in the real world. Since their website is completely in Dutch, I’ll highlight some of their cases:
- Ditching single use rain ponchos (15 minutes of use, 500 years to decompose): a startup called Weather Underground did a test at Noorderzon festival with ponchos that can be repurposed as a bag and are biodegradable (video in English).
- Building tables of festival waste: Futuretable made tables from recycled waste at Welcome to The Village festival. By communicating that these tables were made of waste, they successfully encouraged people to recycle more because they could see and try out what their waste would turn into.
- E-waste Arcade tested better waste separation by making it fun through sound-producing garbage disposal units at Eurosonic Noorderslag.
- Plantjebandje is a compostable festival wristband that’s biodegrable and filled with plant seeds. Take the wristband off at home, plant it and see what sprouts. (article in English)
- &Cricket tested what it takes to get people to eat insect-based food as a sustainable alternative to meat (a major contributor to greenhouse gases). Their cricket fries sold out.
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If you are professionally active in the music industry or sustainability and collaborate with creative sectors, please drop me a short email introducing yourself — I’d like to invite you to the Music Tech Network Slack. I’ve set up a #sustainability channel and I want it to be a place to exchange knowledge, experience, and build connections. Reach me at bas@musicxtechxfuture.com