— Written by Lyle Jarvis

Don’t Worry, We Won’t Tell You to Live in Silence

It's no secret that live music has long carried a substantial environmental burden (check out this list to see the biggest carbon footprints by genre). Summer concert season, with its surge of festivals and stadium tours is particularly costly, as millions travel and venues operate at peak capacity. But like anything else in the climate conversation, the answer shouldn't just be living in silence, it's about finding a compromise.

And over the past few years, artists, venues, production teams and beyond have begun pioneering efforts to reduce their footprint without compromising what makes shows so special. Among those leading the charge? Coldplay, Dave Matthews, Billie Eilish, Massive Attack, and more!

Breaking Down the Carbon Costs 🌎️ 

When people think of concert waste, they often think of a trash can overflowing with empty beer cups, trash strewn across the lawns, (or in some cases, on stages). And while those are certainly their own problems to be dealt with, they're merely a drop in the bucket of the total carbon emissions from shows.

The largest chunk of a concert’s carbon footprint comes from travel. Perhaps most famously, travel emissions coming from artists (looking at you, Taylor Swift). But while artist travel is often making the headlines, fan travel creates 38x more emissions than travel from the artists, crew, hotel stays, and gear transportation combined, especially when tens of thousands drive in from nearby towns and cities.

Add to that the freight emissions from trucking stage sets, flying in artists and crews, powering high-wattage lighting and sound rigs, plus the energy demands of on-site concessions, and you’ve got a seriously high ticket price to pay in environmental impacts.

Bonus Read (For our Swifty Readers): The Eras Tour Has a Huge Carbon Footprint. What’s a Green Swift Fan To Do?

REVERB is a nonprofit that has spent the last 20+ years working toward a more sustainable music industry. They conducted a study surveying 35,000+ concertgoers across 400+ concerts in over 170 cities in North America to better understand the climate impacts around fan travel. 

The results were clear: concert travel isn't just music’s biggest climate challenge, it's an avenue most ripe for change. While 80% of fans reported driving their personal vehicles to shows, 89% said they were interested in climate-friendly travel options if they became available. 

Alongside their study, REVERB is working directly with several artists to help make their shows more climate-friendly, with a roster including some of music's biggest names: Tyler Childers, Billie Eilish, Dave Matthews Band, Dead and Company and more!

Fun program spotlight: REVERB and Nalgene teamed up to create the #RockNRefill program, which Grist covered at a Dave Matthews show. The partnership gives fans special Nalgenes as an alternative to single-use bottles at concerts and festivals. With a $20 donation, fans can buy their reusable bottle, and are automatically entered into a raffle to win a guitar signed by Dave. The program has raised $5 million for climate and conservation nonprofits and eliminated an estimated 4 million single-use plastic bottles!

Learn more about REVERB and its work here.

Artist Spotlights: A Few Names Leading The Charge 📈 

Coldplay – Their Music of the Spheres tour cut direct emissions by 59% versus their 2016–17 tour, surpassing their 50% target. Their success came from things like solar panels, rechargeable show batteries, kinetic dance floors, sustainable aviation fuel, reusable wristbands, biodegradable confetti, and a pledge to plant a tree for every ticket sold. They’ve also teamed up with MIT to study the industry’s carbon footprint.

Billie Eilish – Billie was a co-funder of the REVERB study we talked about above, and is considered one of the greenest artists in music. She’s integrated sustainable practices like plant-based crew catering, single-use plastic reduction, “Eco-Action Villages” at shows, and guides for fans to choose low-carbon transit. Unfortunately, these new measures haven’t exactly struck a chord with Billie’s fans (booooo, they’ll come around). 

Massive Attack – Their Bristol “Act 1.5” concert replaced diesel generators with solar- and wind-charged batteries, deployed electric buses, encouraged walking and public transit by limiting parking, offered plant-based menus, used compostable materials, and even installed composting toilets.

Check out this article from the New York Times, “Is this Massive Attack Concert the Gold Standard for a Green Gig?”

People are Listening 🎤 

Music venues have become somewhat of a test case for how all live events are run. Looking back to our note in the intro about trash and plastic, you're right: single-use plastics are a huge problem. As they pile up in landfills and oceans, event spaces are turning to food packaging that can be washed and used hundreds of times.

In fact, 200 music venues, stadiums, arenas, zoos and convention centers across the United States are ditching single use plastics for r.World's cups, designed to withstand up to 300 wash cycles before replacement.

To very little surprise, live events in Europe are also changing rapidly – and fast. According to a study by Greener Future, surveying more than 40 festivals across Europe, festival bans on single use plastic foodware rose from 54% in 2022 to 75% in 2023, and almost two thirds (60%) had a reusable cup system last year.

The study also emphasized the impact of travel and transport, but declared food and drink are often the second largest source of emissions.

The bottom line is, while music is definitely a huge source of carbon pollution, it might very well become the catalyst in redefining how we run live events.

👀 Some Stories You Might Have Missed This Week 🗞️📺:

1. Nations around the world met in Geneva to work toward tackling the global plastic pollution crisis. (PBS)

2. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from diverting $4b from grants designed to protect against natural disasters (E&E Politico)

3. Coal plant closure led to major drop in kids’ asthma in Pennsylvania (Inside Climate News)