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After debuting this past February, the Music Sustainability Summit has announced the date for its second conference in Los Angeles. Focused on creating solutions to the climate crisis within the music industry, the Summit will happen on Monday, February 5. Like this year’s event, the Summit will happen the day after the Grammy awards. A […]
More than 50 members of the music industry have joined an advisory committee to help guide an ongoing study by MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative.
The report, expected to be released this fall, is designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the relationship between live music and climate change, to identify areas where the industry and concertgoers can make improvements to reduce emissions and create positive environmental outcomes, and to analyze the latest sustainable technology and systems that can be adopted in the live events space and other areas of the industry.
The ultimate goal of the study is to determine sector-specific and industry-wide decarbonization solutions.
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The new advisory board includes Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino along with other Live Nation execs; Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl; and reps from companies including Wasserman Music, WME, Atlantic Records, Upstaging, Inc., Farm Aid, Projects Tait, Global Motion Ltd., Women of Qolor Entertainment and many more.
On the artist side, the committee includes Ellie Goulding, Adam Met of AJR and representatives from the live and touring teams of artists including Billie Eilish, FINNEAS, Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes, Fred again.., Jack Johnson and Coldplay.
Participants also include reps from nonprofits and NGOs like Reverb, Support+Feed, Julie’s Bicycle, Global Citizen and Client Earth. See the complete list of participants here. Anyone can submit data to the report by emailing p1lm@mit.edu.
The MIT study is being executed with the support of Coldplay, Warner Music Group, Live Nation and consulting firm Hope Solutions.
“With the participation of the advisory committee and contributions of data from various sources, we are well on our way to producing a significant contribution to knowledge that can support meaningful actions to address climate change,” said Prof. John E. Fernandez, director of MIT’s environmental solutions initiative, in a statement.
“I would characterize the music industry as risk-averse,” Fernandez told Billboard in March of working within the industry. “It’s a business, and artists are trying to make a living, so we’ve seen an enormous amount of concern over the risk entailed with making a commitment to reduce emissions.”
Scan the ground after any given concert or music festival and one thing you’re almost certain to see is a scattering of empty plastic cups. According to a 2024 report by environmental advocacy agency Upstream, the live-event industry creates over 4 billion single-use cups that end up in landfills every year in North America alone.
It doesn’t have to be this way — and reuse company r.World wants to lead the change. The Minneapolis-based company provides reusable serveware — cups, food containers and more — for mass gatherings, with these products designed to mitigate the persistent single-use plastic waste problem in the live music industry and beyond.
“Other than reducing [carbon emissions from] fan travel, reuse is the number one thing venues can do to reduce environmental impact,” r.World founder Michael Martin says. “And artists and fans are asking for it.”
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Founded in 2017, r.World provides reusable plastic cups and other serveware to more than 200 venues across the U.S., along with festivals like Long Beach’s 20,000 capacity Cali Vibes and San Francisco’s 30,000-capacity Portola. In late May, the company partnered with Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, home of the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers, and Peacock Theater to launch a full-time reusable cup program in each venue.
But the mission extends far beyond concerts and sports, with r.World aiming to build the infrastructure for a national reuse economy that would extend to airlines, consumer packaged goods, restaurants and more, ultimately becoming “a one-stop national solution,” Martin says. “The music industry has essentially launched and is leading the reuse movement in the country, and it’s inspiring universities, corporate campuses, quick-service restaurants and others.”
At the center of this movement is the plastic cup itself. Good for 300 uses, r.Cups are made of thick plastic designed and manufactured to r.World specifications that Martin says “overhauled” the manufacturing process of a standard single use cup. Made in the United States to minimize carbon emissions from shipping, each cup is slapped with the words “please return our cup to an r.cup bin,” and when a cup reaches its maximum number of uses, it’s upcycled into other r.World products.
The sweeping project started 10 years ago, when Martin’s other company, the climate solutions-focused Effects Partners, was hired to analyze operations at Live Nation and create a sustainability strategy. While assembling a five-year plan for the live-events behemoth, Martin realized “the recycling and composting efforts at the venues were never going to work,” given that most everything ultimately just ended up in landfills. The realization made him “depressed for, like, six months,” until he considered the reuse programs he’d seen in European venues — and then developed r.World.
r.World reusable products
Courtesy of r.World
Through connections to U2, Martin suggested the band try reuse on their 2017 tour. It was a success, and r.World was soon working with 13 acts, including the Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews Band, Bon Jovi, Radiohead and Maggie Rogers, all of whom gave Martin permission to go to venues on their behalf and request that the venue try reuse during their show.
The first r.Cup cups were branded with band logos, until the team realized fans were just keeping them as souvenirs. In 2019, the model morphed into “an ugly cup” people were less inclined to take home.
Cups are collected in yellow bins that sit alongside garbage cans and recycling containers at venues, then brought to an r.World-owned wash hub facility. These hubs are built in economically depressed areas of any given city to help spur the economy, and are where cups are washed and inspected, largely staffed by people living in halfway houses or who are getting back on their feet after getting out of prison.
These local facilities are crucial because, as Martin says, “you can’t prioritize the environment if you’re shipping cups great distances across the country” due to the carbon emissions created by such transport. r.World plans to establish wash hubs and reuse solutions in the top 20-30 U.S. markets, having already launched in seven. The company expects to add another one or two cities in the coming months and is in conversation with officials from nearly every city they are targeting. “We know the demand and need is there,” says Martin. While the majority of r.World’s current business is cups, Martin cites “exploding” demand for food containers at venues, festivals, schools and corporate campuses.
r.Cup typically launches in a venue after a facility or concession manager reaches out to ask about reuse. (Martin notes that they have a 99% client retention rate, and the one venue that did let go of the program was having financial issues.) With an operational design developed via focus groups with national concessionaires like Levy Restaurants, Aramark and Sodexo US, r.World provides everything from cups and collection bins to signage, employee training materials and social media content to educate guests, offering “a complete turnkey solution so it’s a no brainer for the operators,” says Martin. Venues are also provided with environmental impact reporting that uses EPA guidelines to consider everything from the sourcing and shipping of cups to the temperature of the water used to clean them. (Martin says the company is “sort of obsessive” about these protocols, which he attributes to “being a numbers geek.)
Cost of implementation is based on the number of single use items required by a venue and varies by how much of their service is packaged drinks versus draft or fountain drinks. Martin says the biggest arenas that serve draft and fountain beverages go through 1.5 million-2.5 million single use cups per year. While upfront costs of r.World products are higher than single use, the cost over time is generally less given that venues must keep buying the reusable plastic cups that get thrown away after each event.
r.World reusable products
Jesse Roberson
Some venues embed this added expense into the drink price, while others allow guests to opt out and get a single use cup for a slightly lower cost. (Over r.World’s millions of transactions, Martin has heard about “two or three” people opting out.) Drink servers are also into r.Cup, he says, “because they felt bad giving out all that single use waste, and cups are a conversation starter with guests.” Beyond the price differentials, Martin says the biggest hesitation venues and events have about adopting reusable cups is an “imagination gap,” along with other factors like existing vendor contracts, venue infrastructure and apathy and misinformation, such as thinking single-use aluminum or compostable cups are good for the environment.
To wit, reusable cups are alternatives to frequently-used compostable cups, which have a dicey record of being composted and behave as a regular single use plastic cup if they end up in a landfill. Aluminum cups and bottles also often end up in landfills given that recycling sorting at events can be spotty. A 2023 Upstream report states that “single-use aluminum cups are the worst option for the climate by far,” as they use 47% more energy over their life cycle and create 86% more carbon dioxide than other single-use plastic options.
r.World reusable products
Courtesy of r.World
As sustainability initiatives become more common and more in-demand across the industry and culture at large, more than 150 national reuse companies have launched since the pandemic. In 2022, Live Nation invested in Turn Systems, a program that provides reusable cups, collection bins and mobile washing systems at venues and festivals. As such, r.World is partnered with Live Nation competitors including AEG, ASM and NIVA, and provides product washing for other reuse companies.
Beyond venues and events, r.World clients include the Coca-Cola Company, which is widely cited as one of the world’s leading single-use plastic waste producers. Coca-Cola has made a commitment to incorporating 25% reusable products by 2030 and is working with r.World to provide reuse services for Coca-Cola clients like music venues, movie theaters, the Olympics, the World Cup and wherever else Coca-Cola wants to implement reuse. r.World has also been selected by the EPA and the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality to help raise national awareness of reuse.
Martin says that while an industry has developed to help solve the single use plastic problem, many waste management and consumer packaged goods companies would rather not see a large-scale shift to reuse happen. And despite the explosive growth in the sector, Martin says r.World’s biggest competitors are still single-use cups and serveware, whether plastic, compostable or aluminum.
This is where artists and fans can flex their power by requesting reuse programs in their riders and spending money at venues with reuse programs given, Martin says, that “businesses will give back what consumers are asking for.”
GOAL — a sustainability program developed by founding members Oak View Group, State Farm Arena and its NBA sports tenant the Atlanta Hawks, Fenway Sports Group and green building expert Jason F. McLennan — has released a report outlining the impact of its first year of work.
The group’s 2024 Impact Report reflects data from 40 U.S., Canada and U.K. venues, including large-scale facilities that regularly host music programming like Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, Southern California’s Acrisure Arena and Austin’s Moody Center. GOAL (which stands for Green Operations & Advanced Leadership) sets out to collect data and build a roadmap for a more sustainable live event and venue industry. The report laid out current member performance and identified what future benchmarks could mean for the environment.
The report states that member venues diverted 32% of waste through reusing, composting and recycling over the last year. If that diversion rate reached 90% for all GOAL members, they could avoid emissions “equal to driving to the moon and back 75 times in a standard gas-powered car,” according to the report.
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The average member venue used 14.48 million gallons of water over the year. If each member reduced their water usage by 5%, it would be enough water for every citizen in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. to have one glass of water.
“The sports and entertainment industry has historically prioritized marketing over positive environmental impact, with venues making declarative statements about sustainability without necessarily following up with concerted action,” said McLennan in the report. “As we move forward, venues must hold themselves and each other accountable, and a consistent rubric for evaluation is essential to build confidence and drive continuous improvement.”
The report also outlines individual efforts at various member venues, with Tampa’s Amalie Arena installing an on-site central energy plant in 2022 to generate electric energy on site, a project that brought the arena’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions (direct greenhouse emissions that occur from sources controlled or owned by an organization and indirect greenhouse emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, steam, heat or cooling down, respectively) to 51% less than the average NHL arena. New Jersey’s Prudential Center purchased two electric Zambonis, while Atlanta’s State Farm Arena is in the process of quantifying all of its natural gas emissions so they can be offset. The average NBA Arena currently produces 1,611 metric tons of Scope 1 carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, three GOAL Members — State Farm Arena, Climate Pledge Arena and UBS Arena in New York — have achieved the U.S. Green Building Council’s TRUE Zero Waste Certification, which means they send at least 90% of their total waste to recycling, compost, donation or for reuse.
“I love GOAL. It’s the most important thing we’ve done toward sustainability,” OVG chairman/CEO Tim Leiweke told Billboard in March. “It’s hugely important that we get other people in the industry committed to GOAL. That’s one of [OVG’s] highest priorities.”
Find the complete report here.
Many songs from across the musical canon feature the sound of ocean waves, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, bird calls and other sounds of nature. Now, nature itself is being recognized as an artist for these contributions in an initiative to raise money for global conservation efforts.
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This new projects, Sounds Right, includes “Nature” getting an artist page on Spotify, with this page populated by new music and older songs remixed to “Feat. NATURE” by artists including David Bowie with Brian Eno, Ellie Goulding, U.K. electronic outfit London Grammar, neo-soul and folk artist UMI with V of BTS, Indian artist Anuv Jain, Norwegian singer Aurora and many more.
These songs will also be available on all major streaming platforms, with royalties going to Sounds Right. The project is projected to raise more than $40 million for conservation efforts from more than 600 million individual listeners in its first four years.
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Launched Tuesday (April 18), the Spotify playlist currently features 15 tracks, with more to be added as Sounds Right grows. Currently available songs include a “Nature Remix” of Goulding’s 2020 song “Brightest Blue” that now incorporates sounds of the Colombian rainforest. The 1995 Eno and Bowie collab “Get Real” features the sounds of hyenas, rooks and wild pigs, while Jain’s “Baarishein” includes the sound of an Indian rainfall.
Revenue will be collected by conservation nonprofit EarthPercent, then allotted to biodiversity conservation and restoration projects in threatened ecosystems around the world. The Sounds Right Expert Advisory Panel, a group of established biologists, environmental activists, representatives of Indigenous Peoples and experts in conservation funding, will advise on how funding should be dispersed.
“It’s been fantastic to see so many brilliant artists excited to engage creatively with the sounds of nature and supportive of Sounds Right’s core objective to see that nature is fairly compensated for her musical contributions,” EarthPercent’s Co-Executive Director Cathy Runciman said in a statement. “We know that many artists care deeply about protecting and restoring nature, and it’s a privilege to launch these collaborations via the Feat. NATURE playlist and together generate positive impact for biodiversity.”
Sounds Right was developed by the Museum for the United Nations and UN Live, Copenhagen-based organizations that use culture to crate local action and global change, in collaboration with a variety of climate-focused partners.
On Feb. 5, 300 workers from North America’s music industry gathered at the inaugural Music Sustainability Summit to discuss the impact of climate change on their business. “People were always asking where to start, what to do and how to do it,” says Amy Morrison, co-founder and president of the Music Sustainability Alliance, which organized the symposium. “We saw a need to bring people together in order to not duplicate work, to share best practices and to spotlight the good work everyone is doing.”
Morrison formed the 501(c)(3) nonprofit MSA with co-founder Mike Martin during the pandemic and near the end of her 23-year run as senior vp of marketing at Concerts West/AEG. While semiretired, she still consults for the company and continues running tour marketing for The Rolling Stones, including their North American Hackney Diamonds trek this summer. The touring shutdown enabled her to complete a certificate program in sustainability at Presidio Graduate School, and she now dedicates most of her working hours to the MSA. (The alliance is currently collaborating with a nonprofit fundraising consultant to raise money to pay staff.)
The MSA’s mandate is the creation of “climate-focused professional resources and community,” Morrison explains. “It’s a relatively simple concept, but nobody ever saw the need for it. The downtime we had to reflect during COVID was helpful, and the timing now couldn’t be better to accelerate and lift everyone up together to do this.”
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The Music Sustainability Summit will be an annual gathering that takes place in Los Angeles — where the MSA, like Morrison, is based — on the day after the Grammy Awards, and MSA will organize a number of year-round initiatives and track environmental regulations that will affect the industry, with the two most pertinent being truck emissions and phasing out single-use plastics. It also offers a music-industry resource guide.
“It still blows my mind that I get to work with the Stones,” Morrison says. “Living in L.A., this poster beautifully marries the SoCal vibe and the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world.”
Maggie Shannon
By mid-April, the MSA plans to have three to five working groups dedicated to promoting sustainability practices in the industry. Each will share solutions and actionable recommendations. In collaboration with the Eller College of Management, MSA is also conducting an analysis of the economic impacts of extreme weather on the live industry and how environmental regulations will affect touring practices. Morrison is also a member of the advisory group for the Sustainable Production in Entertainment Certification, which is being developed by the U.S. Green Building Council-Los Angeles in partnership with experts to develop SPEC’s green certification program for workers across the entertainment industry.
Beginning in May, MSA will hold a series of webinars that will focus on merchandise, food choice impact, easy ways to green events, regulations and incentives, among other topics. Plans are also underway to launch quarterly member happy hours in L.A. and New York.
“I oversimplify things a lot, which I think is a gift and a curse,” Morrison says, “but it makes me not scared and it motivates me to try things because it’s like, ‘We can do this.’”
It’s often said that despite the music industry having a very small impact on climate change, it has an outsize influence on the culture that can be leveraged. What are your thoughts on that?
I agree as a general statement. I feel it’s really important, though, that we have our house in order and that the industry can walk the walk, speak with confidence and be legit and authentic in getting that message out. I think that supports artists who want to speak out as well because they have the confidence that the industry is behind them.
The MSA wants to create that confidence. The mission is to have a net-zero music industry by 2050 [with] lots of milestones along the way.
“This clock commemorates The Concert of a Lifetime, Simon & Garfunkel’s 1993 residency at [what is now] The Theater at Madison Square Garden. I grew up listening to them, and being a part of this historic reunion was a career highlight.”
Maggie Shannon
What initiatives is the MSA working on?
We’ve been working on a Get Out the Vote working group. There’s a lot of interest, and it involves everything from message targeting, deciding on markets and the intention of activating younger people to vote [with consideration for] the climate. We’re also talking about how to use the channels we have: What can a venue do to get the word out? What can a promoter do? Then the campaign needs to be created for them to actually have something to share. It could even be picking a city that needs the impact and finding a local artist there [to get involved] who could be just as meaningful as getting a superstar to do it. We’re working with folks that create campaigns, along with political experts.
You work in the touring industry. What initiatives do you have in that sector?
In the next couple of months, we’re launching a campaign for [tours] to have one less truck. It’s about flipping the narrative that [the goal] is no longer having the biggest tours with the most trucks — it’s about still putting on a beautiful show, but with fewer trucks. That’s something we can measure over time. It’s a ways down the road from launching. We’re also working on courses for worker education on how to be green, like a certification you get in how to do your job in a green way. We need operational change, and it only comes from education.
“Running the marketing for a festival of this magnitude with these artists was an incredible experience. I got to draw on my touring experience while learning new things.”
Maggie Shannon
What would a curriculum like that teach?
It could be how to set up composting backstage, or how to go down your supply chain and source items, or how to measure energy use. Really basic stuff, starting on the production side.
Because production has the biggest impact?
Yeah, and it’s easier to adopt. It’s important for systemic change that the people who are doing the work, who are really making operations hum, understand the work. And if their bosses or management see the value in funding this type of program, then it’s also coming from the top.
How do you see the music industry generally becoming greener?
I see it in the expansion of departments, with more people being hired and more resources getting put behind it. [Live Nation’s touring program] Green Nation is starting to really empower its production teams to lead in the green space, and they’re putting green coordinators out on the road. It’s not like, “The runner or the [production assistant] can do it.” There has been a shift in the acknowledgment that this is actually a job.
The MSA is working with big companies that compete with each other. What has that been like?
We’ve found that in the production vendor world, it’s a no-brainer. They’re all game to be on the same calls and do things together. At the summit, the panel with the [sustainability leads from AEG, Live Nation, ASM Global and Oak View Group] was a good start. A secret mission of mine is to find a project for the four of them to work on. Maybe to find a city where they all have a property — I’m sure there’s more than one — and work on [climate-minded] infrastructure together. It can be a small thing to do as proof of concept. I think the working groups will bring some of that because a lot of our role is to facilitate, convene and set the table for people.
A friend gifted Morrison this Al Hirschfeld drawing of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. “As a longtime Deadhead and Hirschfeld fan, it makes me smile to see Jerry doing what he loves.”
Maggie Shannon
I think part of the road map for us is to come up with some science-based, peer-reviewed recommendation to take to the C suite and say, “Here are a couple of projects that maybe if all the venues work together on, this is the impact it could have, and all it will cost you is X, Y or Z.”
I can see how having such options would be useful for busy people who don’t know where to start.
Maybe I’m dreaming, but they really should all work together on this, and I think they will, with the right projects and the right impact.
Climate change can feel so overwhelming. How do you avoid existential dread and stay in a place of progress and optimism?
I’m a half-full gal. I am optimistic, and I’m fed by support, good work and successes. The summit was amazing. I couldn’t have dreamed of it to be any better. And everyone still showed up during a crazy rainstorm. There were a lot of years of banging the head against the wall around all this, but change is happening. So I’m not driven by fear — I’m driven by making a difference.
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
In early September 2022, organizers of the Harvest Moon festival in Miramar, Fla., were forced to cancel their three-day country music event for an unusual reason: They could not find affordable cancellation insurance for the festival, which was scheduled to take place Oct. 27-29, little more than a month away.
Executives with destination-festival producer Topeka thought they had a policy in place when they announced Harvest Moon — which was to feature headliners Eric Church and the Turnpike Troubadours — and had had no problem getting coverage in the past; the festival fell outside the official hurricane season. But approximately six weeks before the event, weather forecasts indicated that Miramar could be in the path of two developing superstorms. As a result, sources close to the festival tell Billboard that Harvest Moon promoters were suddenly being quoted prohibitively high prices that led to the decision to scrap the event and refund buyers, despite being 70% sold.
While these circumstances are rare, the incident underscores how the liabilities posed by inclement weather and climate change have significantly increased financial risk for independent promoters.The event business used to be much more competitive, which meant much lower prices for the policyholders. But a substantial increase in the number of festivals taking place yearly in North America, coupled with an increase in adverse weather, has caused event cancellation insurance premiums to triple and deductibles to balloon in recent years.
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For much of the last decade, event cancellation insurance enabled promoters to insure their expenses and forecast profits for about 80 cents per $100. So, for example, a promoter that booked an artist for $500,000 could purchase a $4,000 policy covering that expense in the event of an adverse weather cancellation.
But policy prices have risen exponentially now that “insurance companies are increasingly relying on historic data about regional weather patterns and spending more time trying to identify the statistical risk based on location and time of year,” says Paul Bassman, a broker with Dallas event coverage firm Higginbotham.
Tim Epstein, an attorney for independent festivals in North America, says rising premium costs are first felt by indie promoters and organizers. While Live Nation and AEG have begun reducing payouts for festivals that cancel 60 to 30 days in advance, prompting some artists to carry their own policies, indie promoters can’t often stipulate similar terms for their acts, and, as a result, “people are becoming more cognizant of the risks they face from weather,” he says.
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
This past Monday (Feb. 5), roughly 300 people across music industry sectors gathered at The Novo theater in downtown Los Angeles for the first -ever North American music industry climate summit. Outside, sheets of rain came down during unusually heavy storms in Southern California, adding a sense of urgency – and purpose – to an event meant to catalyze the music industry into taking meaningful action on the issue.
Organized by the Music Sustainability Alliance (MSA) – a neutral body that functions as a sustainability convener and resource for the entire industry – the Music Sustainability Summit featured eight hours of panels on climate-related topics, from carbon emissions related to fan travel to environmentally responsible food sourcing at events. Attendees were encouraged to (and did) bring their own water bottles and lanyards, with reusable cups on hand and a plant-based lunch served with bamboo plates and cutlery.
The event was a watershed moment for the music industry’s relationship with climate change, marking the first-time leaders of all sectors of the industry came together to discuss the issue and commit to creating systemic change. Enthusiasm around the event – which had to move to a larger venue to accommodate interest and drew a big crowd even in inclement weather – demonstrated that the industry is eager, even desperate, to become more sustainable and use the platform of music to inspire and catalyze a cultural movement for climate action.
Beyond knowledge sharing, the summit succeeded in bringing together stakeholders in the music industry’s fight against climate change, solidifying and expanding this community and shoring up the collective knowledge base. The summit was hosted by Joel Makower, a business sustainability expert and journalist whose depth of knowledge on the subject was matched by a thoughtful, often funny demeanor that brought levity to an often very existential seeming problem.
“The good news we don’t hear enough about is that we already have the solutions to climate change that work and are affordable,” noted one panelist. “How do I know this? Because we’ve scienced the s— out of it.”
(The summit was held under the Chatham House Rule, which advises that anyone who comes to a meeting is free to use information from that meeting, but is not allowed to reveal who made any particular comment. This rule was enacted so that summit attendees could speak freely in order to allow the event to have the highest impact. Billboard was the media sponsor of the Summit and agreed to abide by this Rule.)
Representatives for the MSA tell Billboard that following the summit, the plan is to keep momentum going through the formation of working groups. The MSA — lead by president and co-founder Amy Morrison, director Eleanor Anderson, co-founder and board member Michael Martin and board member Kurt Langer — will function as admin for these groups, helping bring people together, organize meetings and take notes to ensure conversations turn into action.
The MSA will also host monthly webinars to focus on specific issues. The first one next month will include a vote on how the industry can use its platforms to encourage audiences to be climate-minded voters. The summit will become an annual event, scheduled to happen annually on the day after the Grammys. Additionally, the MSA is working on accessible online content including an updated resource guide and other educational materials.
Music Sustainability Alliance staff Kurt Langer, Amy Morrison, Eleanor Anderson, and Michael Martin
Gilbert Flores
A crucial part of the plan is to have employees from competing companies engage with each other in a pre-competitive environment to share information and take steps that will be necessary for all companies to enact to meaningfully address climate change. The summit demonstrated that these precompetitive conversations are possible, with one panel featuring chief sustainability officers from Live Nation, AEG, ASM Global and Oak View Group, who told the audience they were all friendly with each other anyway.
Here are a few of the many things learned at the inaugural event.
The Music Industry Has Oversized Influence On The Issue
While it’s not yet clear just how much carbon emissions the music industry is responsible for, it’s likely that this number is relatively small in comparison to other industries. But the influence the industry has on climate change is massive, with many speakers emphasizing that because music affects culture — and the hearts, minds and motivations of listeners — the effect the industry can have on the issue is tremendous.
“Music makes culture,” one speaker observed, and thus determines “what things in culture become normalized.”
Artists Can Do a Lot, But They Can’t Do It All
There were many conversations about the effect artists can have in terms of educating their audiences on climate change and motivating fans to take action. These conversations observed that authenticity is the key to successful initiatives and that fans find it most inspiring when artists take action with them. Billie Eilish’s sustainability efforts were cited many times throughout the day, including a statistic that 130,000 fan actions resulted from Eilish’s climate change initiatives during her last tour.
These discussions advised, however, that artists cannot take on the burden of responsibility alone, with everyone in the industry responsible for initiating action, while also working with legislators.
Practical Solutions Are Available Now
A presentation on waste management noted that four billion single use cups are thrown away at live events every year. But the music industry is leading the re-use movement in the United States through a company called r.Cup — which provides reusable cups in venues and at festivals and which has eliminated 43 tons of plastic so far. Both AEG and Live Nation have employed successful reusable cup programs at various events.
Emissions: Fan Travel Is The Leading Issue
In terms of energy use, a panel on diesel fuel noted that the quickest way to decarbonize the music industry would be to remove diesel generators from event sites. While this measure is currently cost prohibitive and not yet possible, as most legacy rental companies would need a massive infrastructure upgrade to make it happen, the panel emphasized that it’s likely the technology to make this happen is forthcoming.
This conversation also included the use of HVOs (renewable diesel) that reduces CO2 emissions by 90%, along with talk about the option for currently available batteries to replace diesel generators in ancillary uses like parking lots and site lighting, etc. The hybrid use of batteries and generators was also discussed.
During the panel, it was noted that fan travel contributes to 50-80% of music industry carbon emissions, an acute issue given that many festivals happen in far-flung locations and that even many cities connected to the grid don’t offer public transportation. This conversation illustrated the need for promoters, venues, festival producers, fans, artists and municipalities to work together.
Food Is a Crucial Piece of Puzzle — And Action On It Can Happen Now
With animal agriculture being a major contributor to climate change, deforestation and air and water pollution, a food-focused panel demonstrated that the industry – from massive arena concerts to video shoots to award shows and meetings – can impact this in a positive way through plant-based catering and concessions.
It was suggested that even large venues that get food from large, national distributors could open up one plant-based concession stand to a local business or allow this business to park a food truck outside. Changing menus to include plant-based options is doable now, and a good place to start in terms of action that has the potential to change people’s everyday food choices.
Support And Feed, an organization founded by Eilish and Finneas’ mother Maggie Baird that works to mitigate climate change and increase food security by driving global demand, acceptance, and accessibility of plant-based food, is considered a leader in this space. The food panel also cited that roughly 8.8 million gallons of water were saved thanks to Eilish’s last tour switching to plant-based catering.
In Warner Music Group‘s sprawling 2023 ESG report, released Tuesday (Jan. 30), the label outlined plans and goals for its workforce, artists and environmental impact.
“We are determined to transform our business and spur industry change to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis,” the report states in an expansive section on sustainability practices. “This includes measuring and understanding WMG’s environmental footprint, setting science-based targets to reduce emissions…and leveraging our scale, experience and partnerships to foster cross-industry cooperation to minimize the environmental impacts of making and distributing music.”
For the company, these changes start with the company’s brick-and-mortar spaces, with the goal that “WMG will source 100% renewable energy for our operations” by 2030.
The plan is to first implement this initiative in WMG’s global offices and workspaces before rolling it out to WMG-owned and operated facilities. The company also plans to decarbonize its workplaces through 100% renewable energy-based power by 2030.
The report cites WMG joining with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group in 2023 to establish the Music Industry Climate Collective. The first initiative of this working group has been supporting the development and implementation of sector-specific guidelines for calculating Scope 3 GHG emissions within the recorded music industry. “Scope 3” refers to indirect emissions that occur in the value chain, such as those from product manufacturing, distribution and licensing.
The company also noted a previously announced partnership with MIT, Live Nation, Coldplay and Hope Solutions to understand and mitigate the environmental impact of the live events.
The company cites a goal of increasing public transportation utilization by 20% at Warner Music live events. This effort has already resulted in a partnership between Warner Music Finland Live and Helsinki City Public Transportation, which has provided fans with free public transportation included in their concert tickets.
With its environmental impact data independently reviewed and assured by a third-party auditor for the first time in 2023, WMG reports that in the past year, it has made “significant strides” in its Scope 1 and 2 data collection, analysis and methodology. (Scope 1 and 2 refers to emissions that are owned or controlled by the company and indirect emissions that result from activities of the company.)
“Despite our return to office,” the report says, its efforts “have led to an overall decrease in our reported Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions for 2023.”
The report also cites successful employee-driven initiatives, including its U.K. Wrights Lane office eliminating single-use plastic and switching to reusable cutlery and serveware. The WMG office in France has eliminated paper cups and improved waste management to increase recycling.
Regarding sustainable products and merchandise, the company outlines “an industry-first method” of creating vinyl albums using PVC alternatives. Says the report: “We are delivering these changes in partnership with our artists and songwriters, many of whom are increasingly looking for ways to share music with their fans in a sustainable way.”
Read the full report here.
As the music industry prepares to gather next week in Los Angeles for discussions on how to address climate change within the sector, a new initiative to better understand the scope of the challenge is underway.
On Monday (Jan. 29), MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative announced that it’s launching a comprehensive study of the live music industry’s carbon footprint. Co-funded and supported by Warner Music Group, Live Nation and Coldplay, the report will suggest solutions to reduce the environmental impact of live music events across all venue sizes, from, a statement says, “pubs and clubs to stadiums.”
Focused on the U.S. and U.K. markets, the partnership will begin with an initial research phase, with the resulting Assessment Report of Live Music and Climate Change expected to be complete by this July.
The report aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the relationship between live music and climate change, to identify key areas where the industry and concertgoers can make tangible improvements to reduce emissions, to foster positive outcomes and to provide a detailed analysis of the latest developments in green technology and sustainable practices.
“I’m delighted that we will be working with our partners to co-create recommendations for a sustainable future in music,” says Professor John E. Fernandez, director of the ESI at MIT. “As well as jointly funding the research, I applaud the spirit of openness and collaboration that will allow us to identify specific challenges in areas such as live event production, freight and audience travel, and recommend solutions that can be implemented across the entire industry to address climate change.”
Coldplay has also committed to manufacturing all physical records for their forthcoming 2024 album from recycled plastic bottles, which a statement claims is the first initiative of its kind.
Coldplay is a longtime sustainability leader, with the band saying last June that its Music Of The Spheres tour has so far produced 47% fewer CO2e emissions than its previous tour and that it’s planted five million trees to date.
With fan travel being one of the biggest carbon emissions drivers in the music industry, in 2022 the band partnered with Live Nation and major public transportation providers to offer fans free or discounted rides to foster more sustainable travel. A study found that this initiative fostered a 59% average increase in public transport ridership on show days across four U.S. cities.