Travel

Blue Action: Promote responsible travel and put necessary infrastructure in place.

Blue Action: Carbon offset talent travel or confirm all talent are local (not taking air transport to attend).

Most travel emissions associated with music events come from fan travel. Explore the Artists section regarding ways to reduce and offset artist travel.

Reduce emissions generated by fan travel:

  1. Promote public transportation.
    1. Post signage at nearby public transportation hubs to promote how to get to the festival.
    2. Emphasize public transport options in the “How to Get Here” section on the event page or website.
    3. Provide EV shuttle buses or partner with shuttle services to get to the festival from public transportation hubs. 
  2. Promote biking.
    1. Have bike racks available on-site.
    2. Provide incentives for fans arriving on bikes, such as entering them into a raffle to earn a bike lock or other concert / festival prizes.
  3. Promote carpooling.
    1. Create a page or platform on your event page for guests to post and arrange car pooling. 
  4. Calculate and offset emissions.
    1. Use Julie’s Bicycles’ carbon calculator tool to determine your footprint.
    2. Use Reverb to identify carbon offset solutions. 
CASE STUDY:

Jack Johnson partnered with local bike organizations to host bike valets at 22 concerts of his most recent tour with over 1100 cyclists biking to the shows.

CASE STUDY:

Reading, Leeds, Download, Boardmasters, Isle of Wight and Creamfields festivals ALL used Big Green Coach to provide shuttles to guests – the largest (and sustainable!) events travel company in the UK .

Carbon Offsetting

After emissions have been reduced through energy production and travel associated with the event, carbon offsetting can help lower your impact for the remaining emissions produced by the event. View carbon offsetting as a last resort to achieve carbon neutrality and focus on upstream emissions reduction throughout your production.

Carbon offsetting is the process of calculating your carbon emissions and investing a related amount in projects that support the sequestration of carbon out of the atmosphere, such as planting mangroves, seaweed, trees or managing food waste, capturing methane from landfills, and other methods. Carbon calculators can identify your carbon footprint, translate this figure into a necessary donation amount, and connect you with relevant projects to achieve carbon neutrality. 

“Blue carbon” or marine ecosystems like seaweed and kelp forests are up to 20 times more efficient at taking CO2 out of the atmosphere than land-based forests. As such, we recommend investing in blue carbon projects to offset carbon emissions associated with the creation and running of music events.

CASE STUDY:

SeaGrass Grow by The Ocean Foundation is a simple way to calculate your carbon footprint and invest in blue carbon projects! 

CASE STUDIES: 
  • The 1975 set up an initiative where they will plant trees across the globe for every ticket sold at their shows, using the One Tree Planted initiative. 
  • By purchasing an offset sticker at Jack Johnson’s concert, 8,643 fans offset over 8.6 By purchasing an offset sticker at Jack Johnson’s concerts, 8,643 fans offset over 8.6 million lbs. of CO2 on the most recent tour.