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More names added as GEI17 programme takes shape

The Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI17) has confirmed more panels and speakers for its upcoming 17th edition.

The leading conference for event sustainability is organised by A Greener Future (AGF) in partnership with the International Live Music Conference (ILMC) and will take place on Tuesday, 25 February 2025 – the day before ILMC – at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel.

With a key theme of Biodiversity, Marie Sabot (We Love Green) and Hortense Serret (CESCO/Nabi Ecology) will offer a window into the work of the French festival and its home city of Paris in dealing with the ecological protection and enhancement at the event’s site and surrounding area.

AGG’s Nikita Coulter will present the National Arenas Association (NAA) Green Guide alongside the NAA, while A Greener Tour Round V session will see representatives from various parts of the live ecosystem look for collaborative solutions for improving the impact of touring.

Plus, Dale Vince (Ecotricity/Forest Green Rovers), Roxy Erickson (Music Climate Pact) and Claire O’Neill (AGF/Grid Faeries) will explore the latest technologies and solutions for power and removing diesel from events and film productions.

“We’re very excited with how the programme is shaping up with such important topics for the 17th edition,” says AGF CEO Claire O’Neill. “We’re looking forward to hosting the inspiring GEI community, including this year’s newcomers.”

GEI17 will be rounded off by the International AGF Awards 2025

In addition, extreme weather-related discussions will focus on water and sanitisation with chair Jane Healy (J Healy Productions/Glastonbury/Boomtown Fair), and potential insurance claims, as Steven Howell (Music Insurance Brokers) provides insight into the landscape and considerations for event organisers to be protected and minimise their risks.

Elsewhere, Gabrielle Austen-Browne (Diversity Alliance) will explain how to meaningfully integrate DEIBA into event consciousness and Sanjoy K. Roy (Teamwork Arts) will share information about the sustainability and social actions of Jaipur Literature Festival in India

Meanwhile, following Act 1.5 Expedition One in Liverpool, UK, GEI will look at the future of event sustainability reporting and communication through the lens of public health.

Other speakers so far confirmed include Sangeeta Waldron (Serendipity PR), Dr. Teresa Moore (AGF), Madame Gandhi (artist/activist, US), and John Robb (artist/author).

The full schedule will include discussions, case studies and showcases, along with networking opportunities and a five-star vegan lunch and closing drinks party, while rounding off GEI17 will be the International AGF Awards 2025, sponsored by Skydiamond.

GEI17 is delighted to be once again supported by platinum sponsor Ecotricity and gold sponsor The O2, with Skydiamond as the International AGF Awards sponsor and EarthPercent as charity partner. Various sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities remain.

 

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A Greener Future launches GEI17 conference

A Greener Future (AGF) has revealed details of the 17th edition of the Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI17).

AGF‘s flagship event, GEI17 is organised in partnership with the International Live Music Conference (ILMC) and will take place on Tuesday, 25 February 2025 – the day before ILMC – at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

The 17th edition of the leading conference for event sustainability will tackle and celebrate the future of green events with a programme of discussions, case studies and showcases, along with networking opportunities and a five-star vegan lunch and closing drinks party.

Last year’s GEI welcomed over 50 speakers including artists Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker and Blaine Harrison (Mystery Jets); climate justice activists Dominique Palmer and Tori Tsui; plus Dale Vince OBE (Ecotricity), Cathy Runciman (EarthPercent), Carol Scott (TAIT), Patricia Yagüe (Live Nation), John Langford (AEG Europe), and Tom Schroeder (Wasserman Music).

“Events and the live sector are feeling the impact of global tensions first hand with growing costs, ethical scrutiny, and uncertainty, and in the worst cases, direct impacts to operations caused by war and climate change,” says AGF CEO and founder Claire O’Neill. “Some are simply moving in the wrong direction, whilst others are taking the most ambitious green actions we’ve ever seen. We’re experiencing significant change, which is sharpening focus, boosting innovation, and inspiring action.”

“The purpose of GEI is to expedite that transition through events and to have fun while doing it”

One of the main topics of discussion will be audience travel, which will include an exclusive deep dive into the TICKET TO RIDE project by The Changency & Crowd Impact together with German rock band AnnenMayKantereit and the impact of business structures and ticketing on fan travel.

In addition, Massive Attack’s Act 1.5 Climate Action Accelerator – which has been hailed as the future of green events – will be presented, in addition to an exclusive panel dedicated to phase 2 of the project. Meanwhile, The Quick-Fire Innovation Round will provide select delegates with the opportunity to pitch their innovative solution. Applications are open here.

“The purpose of GEI is to expedite that transition through events and to have fun while doing it,” adds O’Neill. “We can’t wait to come together again in February.”

The event will conclude with the International AGF Awards 2025, sponsored by Skydiamond (the world’s first carbon-negative certified diamonds made from atmospheric carbon).

Last year saw finalists from 12 countries, with the top accolade – the International Greener Festival Award 2024 – going to Belgium’s Paradise City.

“The climate crisis is no longer something in the future – it’s happening now, and we must act before it’s too late”

In other news, Vision:2025 – a shared vision for a sustainable outdoor events industry – has assembled a cross-industry working group, chaired by LIVE CEO Jon Collins, to produce the third edition of The Show Must Go On state of the industry report.

Set to be published in March 2025, it will focus on creating a climate transition plan for the festival and live outdoor events industry, and making the case to the government for support to unlock potential for a more sustainable festival and outdoor events future.

Specialists are collaborating with Vision: 2025 to review data and information, establish benchmarks, consider trends and opportunities, engage with industry, and shape a vision for 2030.

The industry working group comprises A Greener Future, Attitude is Everything, Association for Independent Festivals, Betternotstop, Cheltenham Festivals, Festival Republic, Hope Solutions, Julie’s Bicycle, LIVE and Norfolk & Norwich Festival.

“The climate crisis is no longer something in the future – it’s happening now, and we must act before it’s too late,” says Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn. “Each event business has its own unique challenges in taking climate action but we can pull together in the same direction as an industry to make the journey easier and more impactful.”

The funding target of £50,000 from industry sources will match funds raised from Arts Council England, EarthPercent, Dixon Foundation and Festival Republic. Click here for information on how to contribute.

 

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GEI16: Brian Eno & Jarvis Cocker keynote report

Music legends Brian Eno and Jarvis Cocker united for a special keynote session to close yesterday’s Green Events and Innovations conference (GEI16).

The hour-long discussion at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel was chaired by Cathy Runciman of EarthPercent — a charity dedicated to linking the music industry to some of the most impactful organisations addressing the climate emergency.

Renowned producer and EarthPercent founder Eno previously headlined the event, which is organised by A Greener Future in partnership with ILMC, alongside Norwegian popstar Aurora and Grammy Award-winning artist and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier.

Eno shared the stage with Pulp frontman Cocker to sound off on the importance of a healthy planet, with the latter gracing the audience with a visual exploration of his “Biophobia”. Here is a selection of highlights from the conversation…

Balancing activism with artistry…
Brian Eno: “I didn’t suddenly want to give up being an artist to solely become a climate campaigner. But I thought, ‘Why don’t I just carry on being an artist, make the money I can make, and give it to the people who are doing the work?’ I’m good at making things and I get paid well for it. They want to make something important too… in this case, they want to save the planet. So, why don’t I just support them?

“There’s a lovely Venn diagram about the Japanese word ‘ikagai’, and it’s how you decide what you’re going to do in your life. The diagram has four circles that intersect and they are: what I love doing, what I can get paid for, what the world needs, and what I’m good at. The intersection of these four things, if you can do it, is your sweet spot. That’s what you ought to be doing.”

“You cannot help being a hypocrite in a system in which you’re entangled”

The fear of hypocrisy…
BE: “Hug your hypocrisy [laughs]. You cannot help being a hypocrite in a system in which you’re entangled. You could say, ‘I’m a real purist, I’m not going anywhere or doing anything because it will involve taking a bus or a train or in some way wearing clothes that have been made somewhere that have been transported via a system that we’re trying to change.’ To some extent, we’re going to be compromised by it, and will hopefully be less compromised as we change. I gave up flying many years ago, and I’ve successfully not flown except twice over the last eight years. It was really hard to do, but it was possible because I don’t tour and because I don’t have any relatives [laughs]!

“However, I understand that it’s not a choice everybody can make. What I recommend is to just do it a little bit better, but don’t do it too often. If you have to go to America, for example, put together as many meetings as possible to avoid repeat flights. It’s such a Daily Mail thing to target someone and make a big story about them after they’ve been photographed with bags of shopping and getting into a car after they’ve complained about fossil fuels. It’s not an important criticism.”

The “difficulty” of making the climate justice movement more inclusive…
BE: “In America, there are over 450,000 different environmental groups. Some may belong to two or three of them, but it’s unlikely that one person will belong to a thousand of them. So there are billions of people just in North America who are somehow grappling with this, and they either may be small groups trying to save a local lake, or a larger group like Friends of the Earth. But the facts are that there are millions, if not billions, of people who are in some way engaged with trying to tackle this important issue. Why don’t we ever hear back from each other?

“In terms of numbers, we significantly outnumber the likes of those climate change deniers over at 55 Tufton Street. Trouble is, we don’t know about each other. There’s a book by American anthropologist Alexei Yurchak called Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More, which is about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the amazingness of being in a system that seemed to be absolutely fixed, set, unchangeable, which suddenly disappeared overnight. And I think this could happen here. I think we could reach a tipping point where everybody realises, ‘Hey, we’re part of this movement!’

“In Yurchak’s book, he says revolutions happen in two phases: the first is when everybody realises that things aren’t working right, and the second is where everybody realises that everybody else realises it. And that’s a critical point, where there’s a sudden coalescence. Everybody is fighting the same fight, so we have to get into that frame of mind. We are the majority, and we have the power. We just have to come together and make use of it.”

“More people were becoming scared of nature, and many of them seemed to believe that nature was turning against mankind”

Being a “biophilic”…
Jarvis Cocker: “I suffer from biophobia, which means I’m frightened of nature. I was probably born in this condition. But having been born in Sheffield, I didn’t become aware of it until later in my life.

“I first realised that this condition was a problem for me when my now ex-wife glued together pages of Mary Motley Kalergis’ illustrated book Giving Birth because I would feel faint at the most explicit images of women giving birth. Before she gave birth to our son, I was seriously worried about passing out or throwing up, but when it actually happened, I was supportive of her and even cut the umbilical cord. I realised at that moment that perhaps biophobia was something I could lose over time if I was prepared to work for it.”

His trip to the North Pole in 2008…
JC: “I went with a small group of fellow artists to the North Pole because we had come to see small icebergs. We were passengers on a voyage around Greenland organised by Cape Farewell, an organisation that took both scientists and artists to polar regions to investigate and react to something which was called climate change. The term was new to me at that point, and it seemed like a more widespread form of biophobia to me. More people were becoming scared of nature, and many of them seemed to believe that nature was turning against mankind.

“We sailed the Arctic Ocean for two weeks, and visited various sites in Greenland. On the very last day, we sailed through a channel to get back to the port we left from a fortnight earlier. I was standing alone at the deck of the ship, and I was looking at this landscape. Suddenly, out of the blue, I started crying. And for the past 15 years, I’ve been trying to find out why that was.”

The myth of a “technological fix”…
JC: “There seems to be a worrying tendency for people to solve the problem of mankind’s effects on the environment by meddling some more. Not very logical. Let me show you this small book called Salmon: A Red Herring, written by the artist duo Cooking Sections which consists of Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe. This book examines the detrimental effects of salmon farming on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and it’s a very good example of what happens when man tries to play God.

“Here’s an extract: when chemicals are ineffective, salmon are splashed with boiling water over short periods of time to remove the lice caused by intensive farming. This is an imprecise method. In 2016 over 175,000 Scottish salmon were boiled alive during a not uncommon accident. Here’s another one: under the weight of accelerated growth, spines curve, tails shorten, and jaws bend. More than 90% of farmed fish are deformed. How much faith does that give you in a technological fix for climate change?”

 

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GEI16 report: Sponsorship and carbon-removed gigs

A host of top names within the live entertainment and environmental sectors gathered for the 16th edition of the Green Events and Innovations (GEI16) conference at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel.

Organised by AGreenerFuture in partnership with ILMC (International Live Music Conference), the leading conference for sustainability was held today as part of ILMC week.

The opening Presenting Ecosystem Collapse: Sponsored by Oil and Gas panel aimed to educate audiences on how to distinguish sponsors’ intentions and ways major music and sporting events can avoid tarnishing their reputations. Moderated by Serendipity PR & Media’s Sangeeta Waldron, the panel’s goal was to emphasise the importance of maintaining values when choosing sponsors.

Citing BP’s sponsorship of a festival in Basingstoke (in which BP Pulse’s EV chargers are advertised for festival-goers with electric cars), Luke Howell of Hope Solutions wondered whether there would be pushback from NGOs and charities towards outdoor events that sign up to such partnerships.

“I would always advocate for avoiding partnerships with such companies, but the fact that it’s such a tough market for events and the music industry these days hasn’t gone unnoticed by oil and gas companies,” he said. “They’re aware that there is a funding deficit, which makes it easier for them to segue into this space.”

GEI16 also saw a conversation about the game-changing potential of The 1975’s recent landmark “carbon-removed” gigs at London’s The O2

Howell reckoned that large-and-small scale music festivals represented the “last bastion of independence” from the clutches of oil and gas companies.

“It’s highly critical to be aware and not fall into the trap of praising BP for offering EV charging stations or Shell for offering HVO fuel, even though in a vacuum, they’re good things,” he said. “But these companies collectively made over £300 billion worth of profit in the last couple of years from extracting fossil fuels from the planet.”

He also referenced a collaborative study between the Guardian and Greenpeace that showed only 0.3% of renewable energy was produced from those sources.

Despite Howell questioned the motivation behind companies using the medium of entertainment to “push themselves into the limelight”. However, he emphasised that open dialogue and transparency between event organisers and potential sponsors — especially when they’ve made billions from the practice of extracting fossil fuels.

GEI16 also saw a conversation about the game-changing potential of The 1975’s recent landmark “carbon-removed” gigs at London’s The O2. Chaired by AEG’s John Langford, the session brought together AEG Europe’s Sam Booth, Mark Stevenson of CUR8, and Claire O’Neill from A Greener Future.

“For us at AEG Europe, a carbon-removed event essentially means measuring everything that goes on in the duration of these events”

“For us at AEG Europe, a carbon-removed event essentially means measuring everything that goes on in the duration of these events,” Booth explained, further elaborating that massive amounts of audience data — including the food & beverage consumed, the merchandise sold, the types of cups used, and the energy & water in the arena — must be collected before the agency can then pay to have the carbon “physically removed” from the atmosphere.

Booth also confirmed that AEG Europe uses the “offsetting” method, which allows them to compensate for their events’ emissions by supporting projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere.

“The plan is to remove an equivalent amount of emissions created by fans heading to The O2, which would equal an estimate of 100 tons per show,” he said.

When quizzed by Langford on providing a snapshot for future carbon-removed gigs, O’Neill suggested it was a “mixed bag”, where responsibilities are divided between different entities.

“In the case of The O2, the venue is responsible for anything to do with electricity and gas within its confines, the food & beverage is on the catering company that brings them to the venue, the performers are responsible for their movements to and from the venue, and so forth,” she said, adding that 90p of the ticket price has gone towards the initiative.

CUR8 is in talks with other acts about incorporating carbon-removed concerts as part of their upcoming tours

“During the ticket process, we talked to [The 1975], who were thankfully on board, and attendees were already notified of this move, so there were no pushbacks from the fans either,” said Booth.

Stevenson also confirmed that CUR8 was in talks with other acts about incorporating carbon-removed concerts as part of their upcoming shows and tours.

“We’ve been in touch with Metallica, and Lars Ulrich is very keen on this,” he shared.

Another innovative concept pored over at GE116 was the use of mycelium as sustainable material for building props and sets for touring acts. Hosted by Louder Than War’s John Robb, the Greening the Stage panel – which featured Stufish Entertainment Architects’ Zarya Vrabcheva, Pauline Bourdon from Team Love, and TAIT’s Carol Scott – highlighted the necessity of sustainable practices in the live entertainment industry.

Bourdon’s Team Love have already explored the use of mycelium panels as an alternative material for creative industries to use. The Arts Council-funded project has Bourdon visualising a “beautiful ecosystem”, given mycelium’s function as a network of fungal threads that help trees survive.

“I think we’re truly the first generation to fully comprehend what sustainability really means”

“In one instance, we mixed a mycelium strand with hemp, and managed to construct panels of a larger size,” she explained.

Vrabcheva’s extravagant set designs were noted, which help to eliminate the notion that stages made from sustainable materials are usually “austere”. Admitting that it was “challenging” to constantly abide by the practices, she said the long-term rewards are worth it.

“We want to keep creating these experiences, but with added focus on educating our audiences of the massive advantages of working with sustainable materials while they’re enjoying themselves too,” said Vrabcheva.

It was a sentiment that’s shared by Scott, who is a firm believer that music is a driving force to help spread the word of sustainable practices.

“I think we’re truly the first generation to fully comprehend what sustainability really means,” she said. “We’re actually a part of nature itself, and we need to understand that sustainability must be a key part of everyone’s life. There’s no music on a dead planet. We’re actually here to create music on a planet that’s alive and thriving, so I am very optimistic that we’re going to make good choices going forward.”

Across GEI, ILMC, and related events on the schedule, over 2,500 professionals will take part at the Royal Lancaster between 27 Feb and 1 March. GEI’s dedicated website is here.

 

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AGF announces first panels for GEI15

A Greener Festival (AGF) has announced the first panels for its Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI 15), slated for 28 February 2023 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

Adapting to a New Climate will bring together Artur Mendes (Boom Festival), Ric Robins (The MET Office) and Jane Healy (Glastonbury/Boomtown) to discuss how events are responding and adapting to the early stages of climate change.

Elsewhere, Rosanna Machado (Zebra/Platinum Jubilee Pageant) will review the sustainability actions put in place at Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant and the takeaways from the iconic event.

And in Carbon Offsets: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Mark Stevenson of CUR8 explains carbon removals using the Platinum Jubilee Pageant as a case study.

The Creative Climate Communication presentation will see Zed Anwar discuss the posters he created for the Greenpeace campaign and also an upcoming campaign he created for WWF featuring major brands and football teams: World Without Nature.

In Carbon Offsets: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Mark Stevenson of CUR8 explains carbon removals

Also announced is a presentation of ACT 1.5 exclusive research, by Mark Donne (ACT1.5/writer & producer) and Carly McLachlan (Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research).

Supported by trip-hop collective Massive Attack and the Arts Council of England, ACT 1.5 is a research project that explores the challenges set out in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research’s Live Music Roadmap.

The research – carried out by Donne and John O’Sullivan in partnership with a multiplicity of super-low carbon providers to the sector, and featuring newly commissioned expert research from Tyndall Centre analysts – explores the practical challenges of addressing Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in the live music sector and how technical innovation and behavioural change can transition touring to a low-carbon future.

In addition, AGF has announced a raft of new speakers for GEI15 including Artur Mendes (Boom Festival), Jane Healy (Glastonbury/Boomtown), Ric Robins (Met Office), Sangeeta Waldron (Serendipity PR), Abena Fairweather (Legacy Marketplace), John Robb (The Membranes) and Jonathan Overend (BBC/NinetyFour19).

GEI is AGF’s flagship event and is organised in partnership with the ILMC, which takes place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel between 28 February and 3 March.

For more information on the conference, or to purchase tickets, click here.

 

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Brian Eno, Jacob Collier lined up for GEI keynote

The 15th edition of the Green Events and Innovations Conference will welcome back Brian Eno for a keynote conversation with Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier.

Titled Music as a Social Synchroniser, the conversation will see the artists explore the social function of music and how it changes us, how it offers us a local counterpoint to the big things happening in the world and why it is so important in a community.

The keynote will also address “the whole question of where music comes from, and how it arises not just from the minds of individuals, but from whole societies, traditions and living ecosystems, is a way to also connect it to the big question of the climate crisis and music’s response to it”.

Eno is a renowned musician, producer, visual artist and activist who first came to international prominence in the early seventies as a founding member of British band, Roxy Music, followed by a series of solo albums and collaborations. He interviewed Norwegian popstar Aurora for GEI’s 2022 keynote.

The keynote will also address “the whole question of where music comes from”

Collier, meanwhile, is a five-time Grammy-award-winning artist that has been featured on songs by UK music icons like Coldplay and Stormzy, and American R&B superstars such as SZA, Kehlani, and Alicia Keys.

In his own projects, Collier has worked with a diverse cast of artistic powerhouses, from Malian singer Oumou Sangaré to John Mayer, T-Pain, Ty Dolla $ign, Daniel Caesar, Tori Kelly and Mahalia.

He has also helped Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer score the recent Boss Baby films and has written for a forthcoming West End musical on the life of opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.

Eno and Collier join a first round of speakers for GEI 15 that includes Dale Vince (Ecotricity), Rosanna Machado, Mark Stevenson (CUR8), Zed Anwar and Andy Cato (Wildfarmed, Groove Armada).

GEI is A Greener Festival’s flagship event and is organised in partnership with the ILMC, which takes place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel between 28 February and 3 March.

The leading gathering for sustainability at live events will take place on 28 February 2023. For more information on the conference, or to purchase tickets, click here.

 

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Billie Eilish to headline Prince William’s climate change event

Billie Eilish is set to headline the second edition of Prince William’s climate change event, the Earthshot Prize awards.

The prize was founded by the Prince in 2020 and is described as “an ambitious global environmental prize which aims to discover and scale the best solutions to help repair our planet within the remainder of this decade”.

Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe x Halle are also slated to perform at the ceremony, scheduled for 2 December at MGM Music Hall in Boston.

Clara Amfo and Daniel Dae Kim will present the ceremony and closing remarks will be delivered by Sir David Attenborough.

Five individuals will win an Earthshot Prize at the ceremony, along with £1 million each to help support and scale their green innovations.

Amfo said in a statement: “What an honour to return for a second time to host The Earthshot Prize awards, this time from America! I was so inspired by last year’s winners, and I’m looking forward to celebrating and sharing the incredible work of the 2022 Finalists with the world.”

Five individuals will win an Earthshot Prize at the ceremony, along with £1 million each

Her co-host Dae Kim added: “I’m honoured to be co-hosting this year’s Earthshot Prize. The ground-breaking, innovative work of the 2022 Finalists leaves me inspired and hopeful that we can solve the significant challenges facing us today. Whether it’s taking care of our planet or healing our communities, each of us can and must step up to do our part. Thank you to this year’s Finalists for leading the way.”

The awards will air on Sunday, 4 December at 5.30 pm GMT on BBC.

Earlier this year, Billie Eilish announced details of Overheated, a multi-day climate-focused event that took place around her multi-night residency at The O2 in London this summer.

Overheated brought together climate activists, musicians and designers at venues across The O2 to “discuss the climate crisis and the work they are doing to make a difference”.

Last week, the first speakers were announced for the Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI 15), set for 28 February 2023 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

For more information on the conference, or to purchase tickets, click here.

 

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AGF announces 15th annual GEI conference

The 15th annual edition of the Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI 15) has been announced by A Greener Festival (AGF) and the International Live Music Conference (ILMC).

The leading conference for sustainability in events will take place on 28 February at a new venue, the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

GEI 15 brings together leaders and innovators in the global live and events sector to network and accelerate environmental and social best practice to make impactful change.

Industry leaders, experts, governments, and cutting-edge organisations will gather to identify, share and implement practical actions and holistic measures to help with this critical transition.

The programme ranges from strategic senior-level commitments, to “how to” case studies and workshops for operational implementation on the ground, and networking opportunities.

Sessions will cover topics such as transport, energy, food, equality and inclusivity, climate justice, reducing and calculating emissions, design and materials usage for circularity, the interface between the sector and politics, carbon removals and more.

“How the live sector moves towards a greener business model is now a critical issue”

The International AGF Awards also return to GEI 15 in 2023, celebrating the most innovative and worthy events, venues, organisations and individuals from events worldwide in the last 12 months.

AGF CEO Claire O’Neill says: “Finally, the status quo is uncomfortable enough for change to happen fast. We have to reduce emissions by more than 50% in the next seven years – a phenomenal task that no single organisation or sector has the answers nor the power to do alone.

“With many aspiring to a zero-carbon future, how the live sector moves towards a greener business model is now a critical issue. We look forward to welcoming the industry once again to GEI to reflect on the years progress, approach the difficult questions, and steer in the right direction for the year ahead.”

GEI is AGF’s flagship event and is organised in partnership with the ILMC, which takes place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel between 28 February and 3 March.

Limited super early bird tickets for GEI are now available here, as well as sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities. Find out more information here.

 

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GEI 14: Brian Eno preaches climate ‘opportunity’

A keynote interview with Brian Eno and Aurora was one of the highlights of the 14th Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI), the leading gathering for sustainability at live events.

The duo sat down with host Love Ssega to discuss ‘Directing the energy of music for the benefit of the planet’ to close this year’s GEI at the Royal Garden Hotel, London last Friday (29 April).

A renowned musician, producer, visual artist and activist, Eno praised Coldplay’s efforts to cut their carbon footprint on their current groundbreaking eco-friendly stadium tour.

“The biggest carbon footprint of touring is generally getting the audience to the shows,” said Eno. “It isn’t getting the band and the equipment to the shows, it’s the audiences. If you’ve got 100,000 people coming to a show and they’re travelling an average of say 30 or 40 miles, that’s a huge huge number of vehicles.

“So Coldplay, for example, are now trying to set up systems where they set up a coach service. And in fact, it sounds a lot more fun to me to be in a coach with 30 or 40 other people going to the same show.”

“I’ve now started thinking in terms of the climate opportunity, rather than the climate emergency”

Eno recently founded Earth Percent, a charity providing a simple way for the music industry to support impactful organisations addressing the climate emergency, and spoke of his desire to tell a “second story” on the issue.

“We all know the first story: we’re on course for disaster,” he said. “The apocalypse is just around the corner and so on. But I’ve now started thinking in terms of the climate opportunity, rather than the climate emergency, because if you think about all the things we would have to do to save the planet… we have to change the way we do all sorts of things. And then when you think about that, you think that would be a much better world anyway.

“It’s not just about trying to save what we have. It’s about trying to make something new with this huge prompt that says, ‘We’ve got to change.’ And if we succeed, we’ll end up in a better place in a better place than we ever imagined.

“The invitation is not just to fight back like the resistance, against this huge force that is coming at us, but to sidestep it and say, ‘We’ll just build a new future.’ And I think this is happening already.”

“As things start to disappear from culture, people suddenly realise that they’re valuable”

Eno pinpointed the expression, “The best is the enemy of the good,” for its growing pertinence to the matter at hand.

“What I see happening a lot is people saying, ‘Well, I can’t do this thing that would be the ideal, so I won’t do anything.’ That is really not an option,” he said. “There is going to be a continuous, endless set of choices and negotiations where we try to prevent another 0.1% temperature rise. And we will do that because we will soon start to realise what happens if we don’t.

“One of the things that always happens as things start to disappear from culture, is that people suddenly realise that they’re valuable… So I’m hoping that because of the good side of mass media, we might actually be a little bit further ahead of the game this time.

“A heroic figure in this is David Attenborough – nobody has been more effective in making people fall in love with the planet than he has, and I think that’s what it takes for people to realise that this is the place to direct their love. I’m an atheist, but if I were going to pray to anything, it would be this place.”

“We have forgotten how to coexist and make room for everything else but ourselves, which is very sad”

Norwegian pop breakthrough Aurora said: “Apathy is the enemy of progress” and shared the relevance of her single The Woman I Am and LP The Gods We Can Touch, released in January.

“This whole album and song… is very in tune with what we’re here to talk about today: how humankind has changed through times and how the way we perceive each other and the earth, and the way we handle it… and how our touch and connection with nature that used to be so obvious in the past, has become less and less prominent within us,” she said.

“I was just wondering why this had happened, why we’d forgot to live organically as a coexisting thing, because we have forgotten how to coexist and make room for everything else but ourselves, which is very sad. I’m constantly moving in between, ‘Every small change matters,’ but also that, sometimes, small change isn’t enough when you know there’s so much we can do.”

The connection between wellbeing, inclusivity, diversity, equity and environmental sustainability was a recurring theme throughout GEI, which was presented by A Greener Festival (AGF) in partnership with the International Live Music Conference (ILMC).

Representatives from AEG, ASM Global, EarthPercent, Forest Green Rovers, Glastonbury, Music Declares Emergency, OVO Arena Wembley, Roskilde Festival, Royal Albert Hall, SEC, Soul Sutras, We Love Green, UWE and Yourope also appeared at the first green events industry physical get-together in over two years.

 

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Full agenda confirmed for GEI 14

The Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI) has unveiled the complete agenda for its upcoming 14th edition.

Taking place at the Royal Garden Hotel, London, on Friday 29 April, the leading gathering for sustainability at live events will include an exclusive keynote from Brian Eno in conversation with Aurora and Love Ssega.

Representatives from AEG, ASM Global, EarthPercent, Forest Green Rovers, Glastonbury, Music Declares Emergency, OVO Arena Wembley, Roskilde Festival, Royal Albert Hall, SEC, Soul Sutras, We Love Green, UWE and Yourope are also confirmed to appear at the first green events industry get-together in over two years.

The full schedule can be viewed here. For the first time, an ILMC delegate pass includes full access to this year’s GEI, which takes place during the main conference programme. The event has historically taken place the day before ILMC, but this one-off move will allow all ILMC delegates full access to the whole of GEI.

Key topics of the conference include:

Confirmed speakers include (in alphabetical order); Andy Lenthall (Festival Insights), Aurora, Brian Eno, Chiara Badiali (Julie’s Bicycle), Claire O’Neill (AGF), Dale Vince OBE (Ecotricity/Forest Green Rovers), Danny Newby (Big Green Coach), Dave Ojay (Naam Festival) Dr Vincent Walsh (Herblabism/Future of Food), Dieter Castelein (Greener Power Solutions), Erik Distler (AEG), Fay Milton (Music Declares Emergency), Gina Périer (Lapee), Glenn Lyons (UWE), Gordon Masson (IQ Magazine), Hannah Jukes (Bodyheat Club Ltd.), Helen Taylor (Ecotricity/Forest Green Rovers), Holger Jan Schmidt (YOUROPE, General Secretary), Jane Healy (J Healy Productions), Jennifer Ennis (Scottish Event Campus (SEC)), John Drury (OVO Arena Wembley), John Robb (Louder Than War / Membranes), Kara Djurhuus (Roskilde Festival), Laura van de Voort (Green Events Netherlands), Linnéa Svensson (Green Operations Europe), Love Ssega, Lucy Noble (NAA/Royal Albert Hall), Lyke Poortvliet (Green Events Netherlands), Marcel Arsand (Ball), Marie Sabot (We Love Green), Martin Thim (DTD Group), Mike Walsh (Serenade), Nora Wigand (Ball), Paul McCrudden (OnePlan Events), Sangeeta Pillai (Soul Sutras), Sangeeta Waldron (Serendipity PR & Media), Steve Sayer (The O2 (AEG Europe), Thomas Grunberg (Gaudina).

The 14th edition of GEI is presented by A Greener Festival and ILMC, with the support of Ecotricity, De La Maison and Ball Corporation.

 

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