Massive Attack commissioned the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research to carry out a study investigating the environmental impact of their own live shows, with the aim of providing concrete solutions to the music industry to reduce its environmental footprint.
Just days after Coldplay's announcement that they intend to give up live concerts until they can make them as sustainable as possible, a new initiative has arrived from Massive Attack.
The electronic music band, active for nearly thirty years, has commissioned the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester to carry out a study to quantify and investigate the environmental impact of their own live shows. The aim is to develop a genuine method for optimising resources and to provide tangible solutions on how the entire music industry can reduce its environmental footprint: real sector-wide recommendations and guidelines to achieve fully carbon-free live shows by 2050.
The Tyndall Centre is an institution that brings together researchers from various countries, drawn from different fields of social, natural and engineering sciences, and develops and offers responses to climate change, providing detailed reviews of the environmental impact of decisions to governments, industries and entrepreneurs.
In this case, scientists will collect and examine all emissions data from the band's upcoming concerts, focusing in particular on the three key macro-areas in which the greatest CO2 emissions are generated in the large-scale live concert sector: the band's travel and production-related transport, audience travel, and the ecological footprint on each individual venue chosen. The results will be published and shared with all organisers of live productions, promoters, and festival and venue owners, to encourage a rapid and significant reduction in emissions.
The Bristol band has always been at the forefront of environmental issues: among other things, they have worked with and supported the climate civil disobedience movement Extinction Rebellion. As Robert del Naja of Massive Attack has himself acknowledged, there has recently been a great deal of discussion about the climate emergency, thanks above all to student strikes around the world, the arrests of activists, and the large-scale debate sparked by public figures, including those in the music world.
In an article in the Guardian, the band's founding member stated: "The music industry has a large impact on the environment (…) As a band that has toured around the world for several years, we've had good reason to reflect for a long time on our environmental impact and, more broadly, on the ecological footprint of the entire music sector."
Like many other bands, Massive Attack have also implemented what del Naja himself describes as "unilateral" initiatives to offset their emissions: they have planted trees, banned the use of single-use plastic at their concerts, and travelled by train wherever possible.
But del Naja added: "As important as these initiatives are, studies show that the most polluting factors are others: audience travel and the impact on individual concert locations account for up to ninety-three percent of all CO2 emissions generated by major music events," and entrusting the Tyndall Centre with mapping the ecological footprint of their own tour represents for the band a concrete step towards genuine systemic change.
"Every sector has different degrees of carbon impact to address and we need partnerships like this to try to reduce carbon emissions across the board," said Tyndall Centre researcher Chris Jones, while centre director Carly McLachlan stated: "Every sector needs to be part of the transition to a low-carbon economy."
According to the centre, live concerts generate 405,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year from touring and concert productions alone. Of this figure, 33 percent is linked to audiences travelling to and from the venue.
This new approach to organising their concerts will begin straight away: Massive Attack have indeed announced a major show to be held in the city of Liverpool that will be "super-low carbon". The exact date has not yet been revealed, but it will take place next summer. This first concert will mark the first phase of the partnership with the Tyndall Centre, and the group will work closely with the city's institutions to produce a pioneering event. The concert will offer the opportunity to test an initial range of solutions presented in the Tyndall Centre's commissioned report.
On their Twitter profile, Massive Attack stated that they are grateful for the extraordinarily positive response they have received from the entire music industry, and that they look forward to exploring the social and scientific solutions to the challenges ahead in response to the imperative of decarbonisation.
