Sustainability: How Green Touring Impacts The Greenbacks

– Michael Martin

As he introduced “Sustainability: How Green Touring Impacts the Greenbacks,” the first panel of Production Live! on Monday, EFFECT Partners Inc. founder Michael Martin alluded to looming climate catastrophe — but quickly noted the panel would be about “solutions and ideas and impact and driving revenue,” not “depressing things.”

The panel’s guiding theme? Implementing green solutions not only helps the environment, but reduces costs and boosts business. Tom Chauncey, Partisan Arts founder and the agent of Jack Johnson, a green leader in the music biz, said eco-friendly initiatives can bolster an artist’s authenticity and even prove a difference-maker in the crowded, homogenous festival sphere. “We talk about the costs involved in doing this,” Chauncey noted, “but think one of the things we don’t necessarily spend as much time on is the value we bring to the equation because we did this.”

The solutions can be daunting, explained REVERB Director of Partnerships Tanner Watt, but they’re worth it. “It’s sort of a green eggs and ham scenario where there’s a lot of fear and hesitation initially,” he said. “But then once you try it, you find out that it’s painless. The fans like it, the venues like it, the festivals like it.” Farid Mosher, Senior Guest Services Manager at C3 Presents, lauded the extent of green innovation in the live sphere in recent years — but, Plastic Pollution Coalition CEO Dianna Cohen added that the industry has a long way to go: “We need a major shift in our thinking around touring and music festivals and venues in moving toward zero waste.”