Coldplay’s Green Tour: Cutting Concert Emissions by 59%
♨️Live concerts can generate a footprint of 25kg of CO2 equivalent per person for one event. This isn’t far off from one person’s daily CO2 output of activities.
So, what are bands, festival organisers and venues doing? Right now, not a whole lot. There is not one single environmental regulation for the live music industry to follow.
📃The only guidance out there seems to be an initiative taken by the English band, Massive Attack, back in 2021. It published the ‘Super-Low Carbon Live Music road map’ together with the Tyndall Centre. Its aim = to establish some protocol for the UK live-music sector.
But some bands have started to take matters into their own hands.
🎤Coldplay’s Green Tour.
This band has just been on tour to promote their last two albums. They will resume touring in 2027. In total there are set to be 225 concerts in 43 countries.
🌱But the band members are also on another mission. They want to drastically reduce their touring footprint, and spread environmental awareness to the fans!
This is a huge task with massive shows on a global scale set over several years.
Their goal is not to get to net-zero. It is to reduce emissions by half compared to their last tour. Last year they were not yet on track. But this summer Coldplay’s Green Tour + team managed it. They are now at a 59% reduction compared to their last tour.
⭐So, what kinds of things are they doing?
- Plant a tree for every ticket sold = millions.
This in itself doesn’t mean much, but they have a partnership with OneTreePlanted who manages it. If you look up the initiative it looks like the charity is working to recreate the natural forest environment and not randomly planting trees🙌 - LED wristbands to be recycled after each concert = 86% recycle/reuse rate
- In-venue solar
- Kinetic dance floors & power bikes
- Free water refill stations
- Fan awareness
- On the logistical side, they work with the DHL green team to reduce freight impact. But there is a lot that can’t be accounted for, including fan travel. To and from the venue can be by public transport. But where have these fans come from?
🤚Persisting problems
- You simply can’t put on a concert for thousands without massive resources
- Third party connections – the network is just so huge
- Zero regulation. No industry standards to follow. With nothing in place you can’t benchmark, nor easily reduce
🙏Are solutions coming?
- Concerts’ impact is not a new concept. Back in 2007 the English band, Radiohead, already started to measure and action their impact
- Since having published the live-music roadmap, Massive Attack, has adapted its concert format regarding transport, energy, food (vegan) and waste
- And Coldplay’s Green Tour headway to reduce emissions can only mean that others will follow suit
- Concerts and festivals on scale are not ecological. Maybe small-scale is the way forward?
While you are here, have a look at my services to see how I can help you on your eco journey!
Sources: Moeve, Sustainability Coldplay, OneTreePlanted & Coldplay, OneTreePlanted, Tyndall, Tyndall update, Pawprint, Imagine5