This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 15, 2024 - April 21, 2024

Concert tours generate a significant carbon footprint — from the travel of artistes and attendees to waste generated at venues and merchandise sales. Given the large audiences that popular concerts attract, these events also consume a lot of resources and energy.

After the crowd has left, it is not uncommon to see concert venues strewn with rubbish and garbage bins overflowing.

With the increasing focus on sustainability, however, even celebrities are being criticised for enabling such behaviour. Some have taken it upon themselves to change the way their concerts are held.

“When [Malaysia] reopened [its borders] for concerts after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022, one of the first acts [that we hosted] was Billie Eilish. [Her team] were already adapting to sustainability ideas that they imposed on local promoters, ensuring that her fans had drinking stations to reduce the usage of plastic bottles,” says Para Rajagopal, managing director of Live Nation Malaysia, an organiser of live music and entertainment events.

At the concert held at Bukit Jalil National Stadium, food vendors were not encouraged to use single-use plastic for food packaging. Besides that, the organisers also provided colour-coded recycling bins.

However, implementing these practices requires collaboration from all stakeholders involved in concert production, including artists, event organisers, venue operators and attendees.

The initiatives taken during Eilish’s concert did not really make a big impact because most of the fans did not understand the concept of green concerts back then, says Rajagopal.

“We can only control [fans’ behaviour] to an extent, such as encouraging them to bring their own bottles because we prepared [water] refill stations. [Around] 30% of attendees were cooperative by bringing along their own water bottles.”

Even the bring-your-own-bottle initiative has its drawbacks, however. Some attendees may bring water bottles that are made of ceramics and glass, which becomes a security concern if an irresponsible person throws them on the stage.

Regardless, things are changing. Rajagopal thinks that the most successfully held sustainable concert locally was the Coldplay event last year. “[The concert] was successful because the whole tour was designed for sustainability and attendees were actually into [the sustainability initiative].”

The attendees brought their own water bottles and 90% (or 67,500) of them returned their LED wristbands at the end of the concert.

But success does not come cheap.

“For one night with Coldplay alone, we had to spend almost RM250,000 to ensure the sustainable initiatives were able to be implemented. There are some basic things that are lacking in our venues and infrastructure for sustainability [practices],” says Rajagopal.

The outcomes were not perfect either. There was still a lot of rubbish in the form of single-use plastic that could be found at the venue, despite the over 300 bins made available.

How can this happen if the food and beverage vendors were briefed and already met the terms and conditions of a sustainable concert?

Rajagopal says most of the time, there are a lot of illegal vendors who come to the venue or park themselves nearby to sell food and drinks. The event organisers do not have control over them.

“It all comes back to how the venue plays their role in controlling this kind of occurrence because, in the end, we need to pay the cleaning company to even dispose of the illegal vendors’ waste. [At the end of the day] we get the bill,” he says.

In their efforts to promote sustainable practices, concert organisers are increasingly turning to organisations like Zero Waste Malaysia for guidance.

Prioritising waste reduction, Zero Waste Malaysia emphasises the principles of refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot in concert planning, says its director Khor Sue Yee.

With waste prevention in mind, concert organisers should look for greener alternatives for certain activities, such as fireworks, pyrotechnics and other special effects; food and merchandise packaging; and waste management mechanisms.

“Stakeholders need to look into all kinds of activities that are involved with the concert. From there, they are able to identify potential trash, which is anything that will end up in the trash bin and eventually in our landfills,” she says.

“If water bottles are an issue, then making sure that the venue has a water refilling station would be one of the alternatives to reduce or even avoid single-use plastic bottle water.”

Prior to the concert, organisers need to estimate the different types of trash and volume that could be generated from the crowd. This will determine whether or not waste management plans will be executed efficiently, she adds.

Another strategy to hold green concerts is to adopt sustainable procurement practices. This could be ensuring that food is sourced from caterers closer to the event site to reduce carbon emissions, for instance.

“If a local caterer is situated 5km from the event venue, while another caterer is located 100km away, opting for the 5km caterer would result in fewer carbon emissions compared with the 100km caterer,” says Dr Asmahany Ramely, senior lecturer at the School of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management at Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Other solutions include eliminating the use of polystyrene packaging and maximising energy savings by using outdoor venues during the day, which could reduce the use of air-conditioning and lighting, she says.

The easiest approach, of course, is to find an event venue that is already green-certified and has energy-efficient facilities.

“Choose a green-based event venue, prioritise buildings with energy-saving facilities and ensure messages about saving energy are disseminated to all stakeholders during events,” says Asmahany.

Concert organisers must also adopt green marketing tactics, she adds. Traditionally, brochures, flyers, buntings and many other types of marketing materials are the go-to strategy.

But now, organisers can simply disseminate their event information via e-marketing, eliminating the need for hard-copy materials. Communication between stakeholders is also conducted digitally.

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