SEPTEMBER | COVER FEATURE

Coldplay to design the huge stage power battery system .”

Howell says Coldplay recognised that solutions could be found to make the tour low impact , such as using alternative fuels , but they wanted something that the audience could physically engage with : “ We do a lot in terms of telling people what ’ s happening but if you can ’ t see , touch and feel it , how do you contextualise it ? We wanted to find something that would have a meaningful energy generation capacity that gave people a chance to engage .

“ The zone is having a really positive impact on audience attitude and behaviour , it is making people more engaged with the wider topic . At the end of the night the stadium floors are far clearer of waste than we have seen on previous tours .”

With a focus on reducing the impact of audience travel , the tour app was developed in partnership with SAP . It recommends low-impact travel options and provides fans with the opportunity to get discounts on the band ’ s merch if they choose to travel to a show via low carbon transportation . The journey planner is coupled with a carbon calculator that clearly shows the impact of each travel choice .

Howell says ,“ Through the preliminary data we are collecting from the app we are seeing a trend towards a much more engaged audience that are trying to either use public transport or

Tim Benson

arrive in bigger groups . In pretty much every territory we ’ ve been to we have been able to link up with local transport authorities to offer and incentivise the use of public transport .

“ From a carbon accounting and sustainability perspective , it is hard to get good quality data on audience travel . The app is allowing us to really get a granular level of detail on that .”

Aside from seeing the ideas and new technology come to life on the tour , Howell says another highlight has been experiencing the level of engagement from the entire Coldplay team , including promoters Live Nation , suppliers and the production crew .

He says , “ Arman ’ s team and I are in constant liaison with the Live Nation team around things like implementing our sustainability rider , making sure venues are engaged , and in territories where not everything can happen the way we would like it ’ s about how we can go to the next best solution .

“ What has been really exciting about the whole exercise , for the last couple of years , is the level of engagement from all the different stakeholders including production manager Jake Berry and his team . They ’ ve really bought into it , and they bring decades ’ worth of knowledge and experience in the operation and logistics of a major international tour . It ’ s been amazing to see how wholeheartedly people have embraced it .”

With everything on track to achieve the target 50 % cut in tour emissions , Coldplay ’ s team is planning to compensate for the residual footprint with a drawdown of more CO2 than the tour produces by supporting projects focused on positive action such as reforestation , rewilding , conservation and carbon capture .

Says Howell , “ The band ’ s intention is to go beyond Net Zero and into the realms of climate positivity . That can be a nebulous term sometimes but what we mean by that is we will overcompensate for the bit that we can ’ t physically reduce right now .”

“ There are things that we ’ ve learned that can be applied to any level of tour , like principles of energy efficiency and the use of less vehicles . Our intention is to share the learnings from this project with colleagues in the wider industry , so we will create a report summarising them . We will also highlight some of the challenges , so it will also act as a call out to the wider industry to find solutions .”

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