Green Music: What We Can Do
www.austepmusic.com.au
“The power of change lies in knowledge and collaborative action.”
Long Horizons: An Exploration of Art + Climate Change, Julie’s Bicycle
Limit Travel Emissions
The biggest contributor to global warming in the music industry is live music (specifically audience travel). But that doesn’t mean we have to stop performing. Dating back to the first human cultures, live music has always been a part of us and should be celebrated. Additionally, live music has the power to influence culture through leading by example and raising awareness.
But since we are playing live music and generating emissions, there are certain measures we can take to avoid, reduce and offset our impact. There is an increasing wealth of information available on the internet to help bands make their performances green, including the Australian based Sound Emissions website, various reports and studies (mostly from the UK) comissioned by Julie’s Bicycle, and even a few online tools to help bands minimise their carbonfootprints.
Most importantly, audience travel is the biggest GHG emitter in the music industry, so car-pooling (ideally through ticketing websites), using public transport, maximising the efficiency of travel logistics, and building infrastructure (see betterplace.com) must be encouraged.
For music business, “low-carbon communications” should also be encouraged (e.g. teleconferencing can avoid unnecessary flights).
“The best thing the recording industry can do is to start using card CD packaging. When I found this out I contacted a range of printers searching for the best options. I discovered two things; not only did most printers offer affordable card options, but recycled card is not the expensive, chunky, brown-only, product that its made out to be. Our CD cases are made from at least 70% recycled content, yet they’re cheaper than half the non-recycled options around, and look like any other industry standard CD cases”
Asher Christophers, Austep Music.
The second biggest GHG emitter in the music industry is CD lifecycle emissions, primarily because of our use of virgin oil to make plastic cases.
“An individual (plastic) CD album creates at least 1 kg CO2e.”
Consumer Research Study into CD Packaging, Catherine Bottrill and Vishnu Ganglani
Numerous studies have shown that using card packaging instead of plastic cases reduces GHG emissions by 95%. Furthermore, a detailed study carried out by the ERA (Entertainment Retail Association) shows that more than half of music consumers in the UK would actually prefer card to plastic.
“Moving to a pure card option would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 95%... Moving to a combined card and plastic option would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over two-thirds.”
Impacts and Opportunities - Reducing the Carbon Emissions of CD Packaging, February 2009
In our mission to eliminate the use of plastic jewel cases, Austep Music offers a wide range of card packaging options. Taking it a step further, all our cases are printed with 70% recycled stock, and vegetable-based ink.
For more information see our article titled “Eco CD Packaging”.
Minimse Packaging & Marketing Material
Minimise production of packaging and marketing material. When you do print, print on recycled, biodegradable paper. *NB In many cases a finish coat (e.g. “matt cello”) means the paper is no longer recyclable.
Reduce Building Emissions
Greening your office, venue or studio primarily means being energy efficient (e.g. use of natural ventilation/lighting), thus using less electricity and saving money. Simple things like switching off equipment or opening/closing blinds makes a huge impact. Contact Austep Music for a certified energy efficiency assessment, or to find out the cheapest green electricity provider for you. We also offer solar panel and solar hot water installations and the cheapest LED lights in Australia.
Raise Awareness
Raise awareness of positive changes already taking place, not just the problems. You can spread the message directly (e.g. song lyrics or on stage), or simply lead by example.
Whatever you do make sure you practice what you preach. The first step is not to green the whole industry. The first step is to change your own personal habits.
Monitor & Assess Your Impact
Auditing/measuring your energy use and carbon emissions will give you the information and hands-on understanding to take action, as well as providing the industry with crucial statistics.
Support Renewable Energy
Around 85% of our energy comes from fossil fuels. Not only does this harm the environment, but these fuels are running out, and take millions of years to replenish. The solution is renewable energy.
Renewable energy sources are sources that can replenish themselves naturally over short period (EG solar and wind power).
In order to halt our need for fossil fuel generated power, we need to build infrastructure for clean renewable energy. To do this we need to raise awareness of the technology’s already available to us. Because of its unique global voice, the music industry is a great place to do this. When musicians make green decisions, people hear about it.
Most electricity companies now offer the option to source your electricity from accredited green power such as wind and solar. For a small studio that spends $1000/quarter on their power bill, it’s only $100/quarter extra to switch to 100% green energy (based on South Brisbane electricity prices September 2010).
Additionally, Australia happens to be a world leader in solar. Seek out solar powered recording studios, or contact us to install them in your own studio. Solar hot water heating (different to solar panels) is another great way to save energy, as hot water is a major user of electricity.
Engage Your Supply Chain
Suppliers only produce what we as consumers ask for. Purchases we make are almost like democratic votes for what that supplier should be selling. Ask (repeatedly if neccesarry) your suppliers if they can provide you with greener options. If they won't, then go to someone who will.
Offset
Offsetting does not mean you can pollute as much as you want. The first step is to avoid and reduce emissions. But some unavoidable emissions can be offset.
Make sure you choose the right offsetter. Your offset provider should be "Kyoto Additional".
The Power of Collective Curiosity
If you tell someone what to do they probably won’t want to do it. But if you ask them what we can all do, make it relevant to them and spark their curiosity, they come up the answers and are much more likely to act upon them.
Bio-mimicry
Nature could have all the answers we need. Did you know that airports are designed by studying the flight patterns around beehives, or that the idea for Velcro was copied from a plant? Think about how nature does things and see if you can replicate their processes in the music industry.
Written by Austep Music, August 2010
www.austepmusic.com.au
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