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COOLER PLANET, COOLER CULTURE
Music festivals, rock concerts and other events have the power
to inspire huge audiences towards taking positive action in the
fight against climate change. At the same time, those events
themselves can leave a considerable carbon footprint, as they
often involve flying artists to the venue, powering high-voltage
lighting and visual effects, and dealing with the food, drink and
waste needs of thousands of fans.
So a growing number of cultural events are embracing the
climate neutral concept. It may be an easy slogan to describe
your event as climate neutral, but it presents tough choices
about where to “draw the line” around your own impacts,
and how far to go with really greening the event itself, rather
than relying on offsets to compensate for an energy-intensive
spectacle.
Live Earth, one of the original “green” music events, is a
participant of the Climate Neutral Network. The organization
has continued to stage events and advise others, following
on from the worldwide series of synchronized concerts in
July 2007. That event, inspired by former US Vice-President
Al Gore and music producer Kevin Wall, involved concerts in
11 locations on all seven continents, and was broadcast in 132
countries, making it the most watched online entertainment
event ever.
Since action against climate change was the rationale for
the event itself, clearly the exercise of climate neutrality has
been an important priority for Live Earth. It has produced a
set of Green Event Guidelines that provide a practical guide
to minimizing and offsetting climate impacts for other event
organizers, and these have been updated to include athletic
events as well as concerts.
Live Earth’s general manager, Catherine Geanuracos, says a
key challenge is to work out where the boundaries are drawn
around the impact of the event itself, to avoid making claims
that cannot be substantiated.
“Carbon neutrality can only be implemented in those areas
where the event has direct impact, such as audience and artist
transportation, energy use, waste creation, and water usage,”
says Geanuracos. “Full carbon neutrality is a difficult concept
to achieve, as the purchasing impacts of events are profound,
and until every product used comes with its own impact
assessment, it will still be difficult to understand and account
for the full carbon impact of purchased goods,” she adds.
But Geanuracos says the real impact of events like Live Earth
must also be measured in the positive effect they can have on
the subsequent behaviour of their audiences: “We’ve seen
repeatedly that participating in Live Earth events has inspired
people to change their lives at home, work and school, to be
more sustainable. In particular, we’ve heard from our audience
that they’ve made changes in their transportation habits,
buying habits, and recycling behaviour after participating in
our events.”
“We’ve heard from our audience that
they’ve made changes in their trans-
portation habits, buying habits, and
recycling behaviour after participat-
ing in our events.”
—Catherine Geanuracos, General Manager,
Live Earth
The ability to inspire audiences to make long-term changes is
at the heart of the rapidly growing Greenfest event in Brisbane,
Australia. Originally inspired by the Live Earth concerts of 2007,
it is a three-day festival of music and a showcase for practical
measures for greater sustainability—the June 2009 event
attracted 60,000 people.
According to Greenfest’s founder Colman Ridge, “The purpose
of Greenfest is to promote a ‘Cooler Planet Culture’. Carbon
neutrality is expected of us. Our ability to network our 200
plus exhibitors and a broader network to help each other
and others reduce their footprint has become a year-round
opportunity for us to assist acceleration of the lower carbon
economy.”