Music Sustainability Summit Reveals Speakers & Programming For February Event

Katie Bain
·6 min read
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In less than two months, the-ever first North American music industry climate summit will happen at the USC Campus in Los Angeles. Today (Dec. 14), the event is announcing a robust list of speakers and programming for the day-long event.

Happening Feb. 5, the Summit will feature speakers including Lindsay Arell, head of sustainability at ASM, Maggie Baird the founder of Support + Feed, John Fernandez, the director of the Environmental Solutions Initiative at MIT, Adam Gardner, the co-founder and Co-Director of REVERB (and also the guitarist and vocalist for Guster), Garrett Keraga, the senior manager of sustainability, policy & advisory at ClimeCo, Cassie Lee, the CEO of Sound Future, Michael Martin, the CEO and founder of r.World & Effect Partners, Amy Morrison, the president & co-founder of the the Music Sustainability Alliance, Lesley Olenik the vice president of touring at Live Nation and Jake Perry, the director of operations at C3 Presents.

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Other speakers will represent companies including TAIT, CES, Coca Cola, Overdrive Energy Solutions and Rock-it Global. Additional speakers will be added before the event. Panels will be moderated by GreenBiz Chairman & Co-founder Joel Makower and address climate-related problems specific to the music economy including carbon emissions from fan travel, waste management, clean energy options and much more. See the complete Summit program below.

The Music Sustainability Summit is being produced by The Music Sustainability Alliance, an organization that provide science-based solutions, business case analyses, best practices, and tools for operational change across the industry. Tickets for the event — running 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. — are available on a sliding scale between $25 and $200 and are available now.

“We welcome all, the climate curious and the climate experts,” Music Sustainability Alliance co-founder and president Morrison said upon the Summit’s announcement. “There will be something for everybody.”

Music Sustainability Summit 2024 Program

Our Place in the World, Welcome from the MSA: Get grounded in space in time with Amy Morrison and Michael Martin, co-founders of the MSA, and Joel Makower, founder of GreenBiz – the most vital resource for greening the economy on the planet.

What’s the Problem?, The New Music Sustainability Basics: Emissions and waste are hard to measure, so we’ve gotten the experts to do it for us. MIT presents an overview of the music industry decision makers from a sustainability lens, showing us where to place our emphasis – ClimeCo brings a holistic picture of the problems we face, based on interviews from players across the music landscape. Finally, Cassie Lee from Sound Future shows us how to leverage the power of live events as a catalyst for climate innovation.

The Artist-Activist Spectrum, Artist Discussion: You’re small, you’re huge. You’re an activist first, you’re an artist first. Most likely, you’re somewhere in between. Join artists from all over the spectrum as they speak openly about the challenges, anxieties, and joys of climate action. And learn how to most effectively support them in their quest for impact.

What We Eat Matters, Food, Carbon, and Equity: “Plant-based eating is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on the earth.” – Univ. of Oxford. This conversation will explore how the music business can set precedent for other industries. From catering, to concessions, to community outreach, we will shine a light on how to eat more sustainably for the planet and each other. This conversation will show the opportunities artists and the music industry have, to shift to a more equitable food system and how they can impact local communities.

That’s Trashy!, Waste Management: It’s the most visible problem in the live music industry: millions of plastic cups, food containers, and pounds of food waste. No one likes it, it’s expensive, and there’s a solution. Join the people engineering the future of zero waste venues, and hear directly from waste haulers and concessionaires about the pain points of the transition.

Dark Days for Diesel, New Horizons for Power: Diesel generators are like the gas-powered leaf blower of the music industry: dirty, loud, and carbon-polluting… but familiar and reliable. As clean energy technologies become more widely available, festivals are leading the way in innovative power solutions to shift the industry away from fossil fuels. Meet the experts battery-powering the revolution and learn how you can hop on the train before it leaves the (solar-powered) station.

Haul it All, Freight, Trucking, Logistics, and Shipping: Whether you’re touring with a convoy of 18-wheelers, a fleet of cargo planes, ocean freight or just an acoustic guitar, getting all your gear from place to place is top-of-mind from an emissions perspective. Learn how to design cleaner, less-wasteful touring from the ground up and what artists and tours are doing today to reduce their environmental and social impact.

The Elephant in the Car, Fan Travel: It sucks, and no one wants to talk about it: anywhere from 50 – 90% of the music industry’s emission problems come from fan transportation. Like it or not, we generate the demand, and that means we’re responsible for the planes, trains, and automobiles that get people to the show. How do we even get started? From shuttle programs, to incentivizing mass transit, to lobbying for clean energy, it’s time to bite the bullet and build a livable future for our fans and ourselves.

Our Voice, Our power, Climate Communications and Fan Engagement: We’re musicians and music business professionals, not scientists. So let’s learn how to use our best weapons – our voices – to fight climate change. Learn from climate communication experts about the most effective ways for musicians and their teams to talk about climate – without fear of getting canceled.

Processing: What Just Happened?, Moderated Group Discussion: Joel Makower of GreenBiz leads us in conversation. Now that you’ve got the lay of the land, it’s time to put it all together. Meet with your new (and old) partners on the journey. Ask questions about your place on the road to zero emissions. If you’ve got questions, chances are, you’re not the only one. In this session, the audience has a chance to join the discussion and inform what’s next.

Where do we go from here?, Onwards and upwards with the MSA: Learn what’s next for the MSA and others in the industry, including plans for getting together to help each other along, and shared resources for maintaining a high level of impact.

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