Sustainability On Stage At Pollstar Live! & Music Sustainability Summit

A little over a week before Earth Day 2026, music executives will come together in Los Angeles to address how to make the industry more sustainable with the Music Sustainability Alliance hosting its third annual Music Sustainability Summit and Pollstar Live! devoting multiple panels to the topic.

Music Sustainability Summit (MSS26) takes place April 14 at Solotech Studios in Hollywood, California, featuring leaders from across the music business with a focus on addressing practical solutions for reducing the industry’s environmental impact.

The programming will feature a mix of keynote conversations, expert panels, lightning talks and networking sessions with speakers including artists, promoters, venues, labels, touring professionals, sustainability experts, and technology leaders.

“This year’s Music Sustainability Summit brings the music industry together around the theme of turning ideas into action,” Amy Morrison, CEO and co-founder of the Music Sustainability Alliance, told Pollstar. “The MSS26 program showcases the leaders and solutions making sustainable practices the operational standard, with actions that individuals and organizations can adopt today. We are moving from proof-of-concept to real adoption—not just imagining a greener future but building it.”

MSA was co-founded in 2021 by Morrison, who was formerly the SVP Marketing at Concerts West and co-led AEG Presents Climate Positive Touring team, and Michael Martin, the founder/CEO of reuse platform r.World and CEO/founder of boutique consultancy Effect Partners, with a goal of empowering the music business to “leverage its platform to tackle the climate crisis,” as well as providing a “hub for the industry and artists to learn, innovate, and collaborate.”

An announcement from MSA notes that the 2026 summit will “explore actionable strategies across fan travel, live production, food systems, materials, logistics, measurement, and cultural influence.”

Kristen Fulmer, who serves as Global Head of Sustainability at GOAL and Oak View Group (Pollstar’s parent company) will take part in the panel “Taking Stock: The Road Ahead for Live.” The panel will provide an assessment of where the live music sector stands, looking at current initiatives, emerging solutions and the collective steps still needed to meaningfully reduce the environmental footprint of touring, festivals and concerts. Other speakers on the panel include Lindsay Arell, Chief Sustainability Officer, Legends Global; Lucy August-Perna, Senior Director, Global Sustainability, Live Nation; Erik Distler, SVP Sustainability, AEG; and Hanna Grahn, Head of Sustainability, Spotify.

More than three dozen speakers are confirmed to take part in additional panels at MSS including Maggie Baird of Support+Feed, David Beame of Global Citizen, Kelly Brennan-Kleyn of KBK Management, Jamal Chalabi of Backlash Productions, Mary Conde of Another Planet, Adam Gardner of REVERB and Guster, Hanna Grahn of Spotify, Cheryl Liguori of Z2 Entertainment, Lesley Olenik of Live Nation, Scott Paul of Taylor Guitars, Carol Scott of TAIT and Dylan Siegler of UMG.

As part of its programming April 14, MSA will host the inaugural MSA Bobby Weir Sustainability Awards, a new annual honor to recognize individuals and organizations in music advancing environmental responsibility and climate action. Weir, the co-founder and guitarist of the Grateful Dead who died in January at age 78, spent decades advocating for the environment. Weir, who partnered with nonprofits including HeadCount and REVERB, also co-founded the Furthur Foundation, to support environmental protection, regenerative agriculture, and community resilience.

The MSA Bobby Weir Sustainability Awards are being presented with the support of his family and will celebrate leaders in the live industry who are helping the music business reduce its environmental footprint and expand its positive impact.

Pollstar Live! is set for April 14-16 at Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, expanding to a third full day, with the first day of Pollstar Live! running alongside Production Live! and with a commitment not to program specific sustainability content on April 14, the day that overlaps with Music Sustainability Summit.

That said, OVG/GOAL’s Fulmer points out that sustainability conversations will happen in panels that aren’t explicitly about sustainability. One example is the Production Live! panel “Venue/Tour Relations: Beyond The Rider,” which will include a look at how venues incorporated sustainability into their operations when hosting Billie Eilish shows.

“You don’t need to have ‘sustainability’ in your title to understand the value,” Fulmer says. “Big businesses have lots of other priorities but have found ways to prioritize sustainability.” Programming on April 15 includes a Town Hall on Sustainability focused on Greening F&B, led by OVG Hospitality’s Ariela Gildenson, Senior Manager, Sustainability, along with a Rainmaker conversation with Adam Gardner, guitarist/vocalist for rock band Guster and co-founder and co-executive director of nonprofit REVERB, that will be led by Fulmer.

The conversation will be an opportunity to hear directly from the artist’s perspective on sustainability including challenges, trends and solutions, as well as the latest from REVERB.

“This feels like a moment where the music industry is ready to go further. Starting with my experiences on the road with my band Guster and more than 20 years making the music industry more sustainable through my nonprofit REVERB, I’m excited to share how we can make an even greater impact together as a community,” Gardner tells Pollstar.

The final day of Pollstar Live! will include the panel “Before, During, After The Show: Whose Responsibility is Sustainability?,” moderated by OVG’s Emily Lindhal, Director of Sustainability, with speakers including Alycia Gilde, Chief Strategy Officer for Climate Action Partnerships at Los Angeles County Internal Services Department; Hanna Grahn, Head of Sustainability & Climate Action at Spotify; Anders Rahm, co-founder of Raw Cereal; and Dylan Siegler, SVP, Head of Sustainability at Universal Music Group.

“A lot of the industry’s focus has been on what happens on the road, and that’s critical, but decisions at the top of an album or tour campaign shape everything downstream: how itineraries are built, how merch is designed, how partners are selected, how fans are engaged, and how sustainability shows up creatively in the artist’s world. A few smart choices early can help artists use their influence to drive outsized impact. And after load-out, it’s about carrying the story forward through partnerships, consistent content, and integrating an artist’s passions and values authentically into their work,” Siegler told Pollstar ahead of the conference.

Fulmer adds, “Of course the headline will end up being sustainability is everyone’s role, but [the panel is a chance] to call out the fact that it’s actually really hard to define those roles and responsibilities and oftentimes it falls on the people who are the loudest as opposed to the ones that can do the most.”

Finally, Pollstar Live! will also give out a few awards to celebrate sustainability in the live business. The Billie Eilish Award for Sustainability will honor one venue and one individual in the live business, with Eilish’s team helping select the honoree. The awards will be announced during the Pollstar Awards, held April 15 at Loews Hollywood Hotel. Mike Sciortino of UBS Arena in New York and Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena were honored in 2025.