On your bike

M Magazine, M25, September 2007

Jazz Summers on why the music industry has to pay attention to climate change.

Just before Christmas I watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. For the first time the phrase ‘climate change’ meant something to me personally. The heroic efforts of early pioneers like James Lovelock had passed me by, but this film transformed the world and my place in it.

Since the film, a lot of people have woken up to the implications of climate change. But the rush of energy and urgency that I felt straight afterwards didn’t have an obvious place to go. I couldn’t find clear, authoritative answers to the simplest questions. How should I change myself, my business, and help my industry to reduce energy consumption radically without destroying our livelihoods? I didn’t know where to start; despite all the websites, news reports and government rhetoric. Nobody was talking to me, my business, or my industry. I bought a hybrid car, recycled with renewed commitment and changed my energy supplier. But obviously that was not enough; the scale of the challenge demanded a bigger effort than just my own.

Then six months ago I got a call from Al Tickell (whom I had known on the Music Business Forum) who wanted to form a charity focusing on climate change and the music industry. The idea was to develop a strategy to help the industry to practically reduce emissions. We set up Julie’s Bicycle, a not-for-profit company and appointed a focused board of Directors representing different music sectors.

The first thing we have done is to commission research by the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, into our industry’s current emissions so we can set some of our own reduction targets. We are also launching a programme to support people in the science and management of climate change at work, including sole traders, Indies and not-for-profits.

Once the Climate Bill is passed we’ll be required to reduce our emissions by law: we want to be ahead of the game. Acting to reduce the music industry’s impact on the environment will also save money in all sorts of ways - not just by reducing our energy bills, but by keeping abreast of business changes. Maintaining business as usual is the easy thing to do, but sooner or later this will not be good for business. So why not start now?

The music industry needs to be seen to be acting because there is already growing concern and agitation amongst artists and listeners. The business is part of that creative force that finds its way into lyrics and sometimes stimulates profound change. But as an industry we can only talk the talk when we have walked the walk.

‘the music industry must take a lead on climate change now’

Travel is a huge issue for the music industry. As I write this I am travelling - three European cities and three US cities. That’s over 15,000 miles and a staggering 3.35 tonnes of carbon. This is not easily justified or sustainable. I can reduce my travel, but I can’t stop it. Our industry, including our audiences and festival goers, relies on travel for its lifeblood.

But off-setting is neither a long-term solution nor an adequate response: it maintains the status quo and feels like a voluntary guilt tax. To help, we set up the Julie’s Bicycle Trust Fund, a mechanism whereby we can contribute the equivalent of an off- set to the Trust. This money will be re-invested back into the industry in the form of grants to companies and individuals who can’t afford to green their activities. The emphasis is on not-for-profit companies, community and education programmes, and freelancers who can’t afford a solar panel, or a hybrid car or a change of light bulbs. This helps the whole industry, including the 60% of sole traders and small companies, to achieve our collective reduction targets.

There is an enormous amount already being done. The deadline for Kyoto is 2012 and the Climate Bill requires that the UK reduce its emissions by 60% by 2050. The UK is ahead of the rest of the world in having a Climate Bill at all, but it is not enough. By 2050 we will be in big trouble. It’s still too little too late.

The music industry can take a lead on this now. If we come together and act collectively we can get our views in front of ministers and ensure that the policy framework takes us and our achievements into full account. And, just as importantly, we can match the aspirations of artists and listeners with a trusted industry infrastructure that might surprise them all.

I’m learning all the time and I don’t claim to have the big solutions but I do want to make a difference, and be part of an industry that is prepared to change itself and leave a legacy of positive action for future generations that musicians have, so often, prompted in the past.

If you want to do something, ask Julie’s Bicycle to do an audit. They work.

Jazz Summers chairs the Music Managers’ Forum and Julie’s Bicycle www.juliesbicycle.com