Christopher BarrettInternational events promoter and venue operator AEG Presents has announced the formation of Climate Positive Touring (CPT), which it describes as a team of music industry professionals dedicated to moving the live business towards a greener future.
CPT is comprised of people who work across various business divisions at AEG Presents: Concerts West, Global Touring, International Touring, Marshall Arts, Messina Touring Group, and AEG Global Partnerships.
AEG Presents promotes UK festivals including the 65,000-capacity BST Hyde Park (pictured), All Points East (40,000) and Eden Sessions (6,500).
AEG Presents said the CPT team is focused on reducing tour related carbon emissions to net zero or better, supporting locally led environmental and climate justice programs and creating impact on both the operations side of touring, as well as the experience itself. Artists, fans, crews, and employees are encouraged to actively participate in the dialogue about the many benefits of climate awareness, responsibility, and collective action.
CPT has created and deployed two major initiatives. Their Venue Environmental Survey is a resource to gather reliable data that allow venues, artists and CPT to work together to identify sustainability priorities and solutions.
The promoter said the CPT’s Green Touring Guide is being developed to provide guidance and insights promoters can use in the hope of showing both venues and artists a path forward to net zero or better carbon emissions. The first instalment of the Guide, The Starting Seven, is a compendium of seven actions promoters can take to start to make a positive environmental impact.
AEG Presents CEO and chairman Jay Marciano said, “AEG Presents has the ability and structure to really make a global impact in moving our entire business – which has had a traditionally significant carbon footprint – toward a zero emissions future.
“The company’s reach enables us to execute at every level of the live experience: from clubs and theatres to arenas, global tours, and festivals. I’m looking forward to seeing how the Climate Positive Touring group begins to implement their plans as the business starts to reopen this year.”
Co-headed by Amy Morrison and Nicole Neal, CPT is made up of Jon Baden, Amy Buck, Caroline Burruss, Kelly DiStefano, Kate Lewis, Mike Luba, Ben Martin, Alexandra McArthur, Kate McMahon, David Rappaport, and Connie Shao, and works in collaboration with AEG 1Earth, AEG’s corporate sustainability program.
Morrison said, “With light at the end of the tunnel, we feel it’s the right time to announce CPT and our short-and long-term strategies. We’ve been working on this since the earliest days of the shutdown. Now that live music is coming back, we can put our goals into action. As promoters, we will literally put our message on the road, modelling achievable sustainability, with the power of music in our sails.”