A greener way – what the naughty step taught us
As Glasgow hosts the United Nations Climate Change Conference and world leaders discuss taking action towards the Paris Agreement , A Greener Festival ’ s Claire O ’ Neill says the UK live music industry is finally making substantial environmental progress
Does anyone else feel like they were floating in liquid in a blender for 18 months and then , in late summer 2021 , someone switched it on full blast … or is that just me ?
Be it a bumpy ride , our industry is finally emerging from being grounded on the naughty step for 18 months .
Why were we on the naughty step ? Perhaps it is because for the past few centuries we ’ ve dominated the rest of the natural environment instead of caring for it , and caused disease to spread between species . Mother nature in all her loving fury gave us some time out to think about what we ’ re doing , who we are , what ’ s important and where we ’ re heading . So , have we learned our lesson ?
There have been many HGV loads of discussion about building back better and the new green future of our industry during the past 18 months . The live music industry has been united through LIVE Green . The LIVE Green Declaration for the UK live industry to reduce emissions and reach Net Zero by 2030 was launched at the Green Events & Innovations Conference on 16 September .
Meanwhile , Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Studies launched its research into the
Claire O ’ Neill
impact of touring commissioned by Massive Attack .
Live Nation and AEG launched yet more initiatives that commit their global operations to sustainability targets .
Agents have come together following a reach out from Paradigm Agency to collaborate on sustainability . Coldplay just announced their greener tour actions , whilst the AGF Greener Tour Certification and Greener Arena Certification is being adopted by the industry , including the home of COP26 – the Scottish Event Campus . Organisations such as Earth Percent have been established to help fund the music industry ’ s green actions .
What I am so happy to experience is that the talk is truly becoming the walk . There are certainly varying degrees of engagement and action , but the writing is on the wall and there is no looking away . We ’ re all in .
Our industry putting egos aside and getting its house in order couldn ’ t have come at a better time , aside from obviously 30 or more years ago . The EU has made clear that legislatively all businesses will have to cut energy consumption by 50 % in less than 10 years . If a business is not green it will not exist . In the UK the DCMS is consulting on the inclusion of green requirements within event licensing . There is no getting away from sustainability being an essential and integral part of everything that we do going forwards , period .
What we need to do now is work closely with each other , with all suppliers , sponsors , partners and stakeholders to improve our operations and have a more positive impact on the people we reach . When we hit walls or ceilings where we can ’ t find a solution , we need to present this coherently and collectively as a united industry voice to governments and policy makers , to create changes to our national infrastructure and so on .
Furthermore , we need to ensure that the voices leading the conversation represent all diverse parts of humanity , including the deepest sustainable knowledge on this planet – indigenous communities .
Becoming a sustainable society is going to take policy and system change . We need governments to make infrastructural changes , which need business ( us and our suppliers ), and it is going to take cultural change for which governments desperately need us . The power of movement is the people . We all have a shared responsibility and an important role to play .
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