A green Christmas for the music industry

From Music Week, Monday December 3, 2007. By Robert Ashton

Music Week backs environmental campaign to encourage a greener approach across the music industry

Music Week has thrown its weight behind an extensive campaign aimed at encouraging the music industry to go green. Over the next few months Music Week will link with the industry’s foremost environmental pressure group Julie’s Bicycle to highlight the key issues.

The record business has already proved itself to be a leader in this field by becoming the first industry sector to take on a wholesale environmental audit currently being undertaken by the Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. But activity will now be stepped up over the coming months under the A Greener Music Industry banner with Music Week and Julie’s Bicycle planning to build on this important research project by focusing on the ways the industry can improve energy use, cut waste and search for alternative methods of transport.

This will come as part of attempts by the UK to reach the 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 targeted by the Climate Change Bill.

Al Tickell, co-founder and director of Julie’s Bicycle, says, “In a competitive industry, typically like the music business, everyone is used to behaving competitively. But this is one subject they agree on. In the spirit of enterprise let’s look at what affects us all and let’s see if we can structure the new business to meet those needs. By working together we can be bigger and more effective than the sum of our parts.”

This week’s magazine puts the spotlight on Julie’s Bicycle, which boasts an impressive array of directors including Big Life’s Jazz Summers, Universal’s David Joseph, Chrysalis Group’s Jeremy Lascelles, former Live Nation UK managing director Stuart Galbraith and agreenerfestival.com’s Ben Challis, as it launches the first of a series of new initiatives to help beat climate change in

the industry. This is a programme to manage energy in 15 small companies – from labels to recording studios. ECI researcher Catherin Bottrill explains that the group wanted to focus initially on small companies and creatives working in the business because “they are kind of under the radar as far as energy management.

They can’t afford energy consultants, but we can help with savings”. The A Greener Music Industry campaign will also follow the ECI’s progress as it audits the industry and prepares a coordinated response to climate change, which it expects to deliver at a conference next spring. It will also identify some of the greenest individuals, companies and trade associations in the sector and use case studies to show how they are reducing their carbon footprints and how much an effective green programme can save a music company each year.

Julie’s Bicycle was established in July with an aim to create an industry-wide consensus on emission reduction targets and low-energy use, from the creative process through to the music consumer, as well as promoting industry leadership on the issue.