Using Dancers' Body Heat to Power a Club | S5 E4
Hannah George, Sustainability Coordinator at SWG3 joins Earth Care for episode 4 of the Sustainability in the Live Music Industry series.
SWG3 is one of Scotland’s busiest venues and welcomes 250,000 guests yearly. In 2021, SWG3 began their substantial shift towards net-zero. With the help of Stance, they began measuring the carbon footprint from their operation to better understand their environmental impact. The team then used that data to develop a baseline that allows them to continuously move the sustainability needle.
In 2022, SWG3 introduced a form of renewable energy that no other venue had tapped into, BODYHEAT. Since then, SWG3 has been powering music gigs and live events thanks to energy generated by all of the venue’s visitors.
The venue’s mission to keep dancing, keep working, keep creating, while operating in a responsible way that recognizes the seriousness of the climate crisis.
In this episode, Hannah discusses the venue's journey to becoming net-zero and the various sustainability initiatives SWG3 has implemented. She explains the BODYHEAT technology and shares how long it took the venue to create it. We also learn about SWG3’s reusable cup system, the circular swap shop, the active travel initiative, and their plans for reducing touring emissions. Hannah emphasizes the importance of collaboration and communication within the live music industry to drive sustainability efforts.
Episode Transcription:
Sarah Christie
Hannah George, Sustainability Coordinator over at SWG3. Thank you so much for being on Earth Care. I'm so excited to talk to you and talk about all of the sustainability initiatives that have been implemented at the venue. How are you doing?
Hannah
I'm good thanks, yeah, how are you?
Sarah Christie
I'm great. I'm like I said, so excited, beyond excited to be talking with you right now. Can you tell me as we get into it, just to kick it all off, you know, the backstory on SWG3 deciding to kickstart the journey to going to net zero.
Hannah
Yeah, so back in 2021, SWG3 hosted the New York Times Climate Hub during COP26. So that was a really big turning point for us. We began to ask ourselves the question, are we doing enough for the environment? Yes, we're recycling. Yes, we're trying to be energy efficient. But is that enough? And I think the truth is we could always be doing more.
So that's when we decided to start our journey to going net zero and just looking at all aspects of sustainability across the venue and across our events.
Sarah Christie
What is the capacity of the venue?
Hannah
So we have four different venues within our venue. So the largest is around 1500 and the smallest is around 125. So we can put on a huge kind of range of events and there's a really big diversity in the kind of events that we get at the venue.
Sarah Christie
Wow. And a lot of potential for waste for a venue that size. That's a large number, right? So when you're thinking about this transition, I'm wondering what were some of the roadblocks that or the hurdles that you had to overcome to really start chipping away at this mission?
Hannah
Yeah, I think anyone who's tried to implement change will probably agree that one of the biggest hurdles is behaviour change. So it can be difficult to kind of get people on board with change, with sustainable change. You know, that's kind of different to business as usual or what they have expected when they've been to the venue before or other venues. So, yeah, whether that's like a different recycling system or reusable cup system, it all kind of takes...level of communication. But I think there's definitely like a slow but certain change in people's attitudes towards environmental issues and people are being more open to these changes as they become more common in other venues around the place as well. So yeah, definitely starting to see a shift in that.
Sarah Christie
Right. And communication plays such a major role and you think about it for an event space, right? You have to be communicating with your entire team, but also the guests who are then coming and letting them know about all of the new projects you have in place like BODYHEAT which was implemented in 2022. Can you walk me through this technology? How, what is it? How does it work?
Hannah
Yeah, definitely. So yeah, BODYHEAT is a thermal heating and cooling system. And basically it allows us to harness body heat from club and gig goers and guests attending our events. So essentially the heat from our venues is transported using a carrier fluid through a closed network of pipes to heat pumps in a plant room. And then that heat is then stored 200 meters underground in our 12 boreholes. And then when that energy is ready to be used, it can travel back to the heat pumps where it's upgraded to a suitable temperature and then it's emitted back into our spaces. So that was a very brief rundown, but I hope that makes sense.
Sarah Christie
Dancing is encouraged, sweaty is sustainable, you know, the sweatier the better, is that what you're saying
Hannah
anyone who's been to a club will know how hot it gets in there. And so we yeah, we just thought, let's see what we can do. How do we harness that? How do we use it?
Sarah Christie
I was laughing when I was doing some prep for this interview because I read that you often get asked, does it smell? And does it?
Hannah
Yeah.
Nope it doesn't, so all we're capturing is the heat, we're not capturing the sweat or the smell or anything like that so yeah, thankfully it doesn't smell.
Sarah Christie
How long did this take to install? Because this sounds like a major project.
Hannah
Yeah, it was. So I wasn't actually here when BODYHEAT was being implemented, but as a rough timeline, I think it took around two years from kind of the initial idea to the installation. And this is very much a project that began during lockdown when the venue wasn't able to operate. So, you know, we were thinking, what can we do with this time? How can we work towards our sustainability goals? And it was kind of like a perfect opportunity to focus on a much bigger project like this and that required that time and resource.
Sarah Christie
Wow, turning lemons into lemonade for sure. Was this the first of its kind? I've never read about anything like this.
Hannah
Yeah, as far as we know, this is the first of this kind of system that's been implemented in a venue. And the interesting thing is that it does use kind of off the shelf technology. So it uses heat pumps and it uses the kind of technology from geothermal storage to store that energy. So kind of putting different pieces of the puzzle together to create something new.
Sarah Christie
Now you also touched on the reusable cup system that you have in place and you know, for a venue of your size, I imagine there's a lot of upkeep. So what is that like for SWG3?
Hannah
Yeah, so our Reusable Cup system only kicked off in December of last year, so it's pretty new. But we've partnered with an amazing company called Stack Cup, who basically help us with the logistics of the system. So they've also implemented a similar system in the Hydro, which is a neighbouring venue with 14 ,000 capacity. So they definitely know what they're doing. And yeah, I think a lot of it comes down to communicating again how the system works with our visitors through social media and posters and also making sure we have an effective cup collection system at the end of the night so we're gathering them all back in to be reused.
Sarah Christie
So this is for everything. You go up to the bar, you order your drink, whether it's whatever, beer, cocktail, water, and then it's given to the guest in a reusable cup.
Hannah
Yep, exactly. Yeah.
Sarah Christie
And are you guys looking after washing it or is it then given back to your partner that you mentioned?
Hannah
So yes, Stack Cup will at the end of the night take all the cups away and wash them and return them. So, and they're locally based. So yeah, it was a really great kind of partnership.
Sarah Christie
Right. So then you're working within the economy too for green initiatives, which is so important.
Hannah
Yeah.
Sarah Christie
What is the circular swap shop? How does that work?
Hannah
Yeah, so that's another recent one. So we're not just a venue at SWG3, we also have 23 artist studios on site. We kind of wanted to create a platform for our resident artists to be able to like donate and swap and sell items. So they have a lot of art supplies, books and materials. So yeah, it's just an online platform that we've created for them to kind of be able to share things, reduce waste and also kind of contribute to the circular economy.
Sarah Christie
which it sounds like the venue is just leading in that conversation of a circular economy. What about the Active Travel Initiative? What's that?
Hannah
Yeah, so our active travel initiative is a strategy that we're kind of in the process of developing to encourage our staff and audiences to travel to the venue more sustainably. So it kind of began back in 2022 when we carried out an audit of how our staff travel to the venue and what those behaviour patterns look like and kind of asked them what would they like to see, what would encourage them to travel to the venue more sustainably. And a lot of that was to do with facilities. So this year we're getting...much more cycle parking facilities installed and also looking at ways to engage staff with cycling such as proficiency lessons and bike maintenance workshops. And then hopefully, if the staff program is successful, we can start to expand some of these initiatives with our audiences as well.
Sarah Christie
It really sounds like you're just part of such a bigger conversation and, leading in so many ways, which is just really encouraging and hopeful to you're on this journey to be net zero by 2050. What are the goals? Do I have that correct 2050 still?
Hannah
So 2030 is our goal, that's kind of aligned with the Glasgow City Net Zero target, so that's what we're aiming for.
Sarah Christie
So one of the other goals by 2030 is to be working with their touring emissions. Has that started yet? Have you had come to you in that aspect?
Hannah
We definitely are hearing more artists coming to us and asking what our sustainability credentials are like, what are we doing? But I think there's still a long way to go with that. One of the things that we're doing this year is we've put together a Green Events Guide, which is being distributed to every single artist and event organizer that comes into the venue. So essentially this sets out the key environmental consideration. So like waste, energy, food, production and kind of giving them tips on ways that they can reduce their environmental impact.
Sarah Christie
How do you handle the rider situation?
Hannah
Yeah, so this is kind of our first step in that. It's not something we're mandating. It's just suggestions starting that conversation because I think that's what needs to happen first. And then eventually we'll maybe look at including that in more of a formal rider for artists.
Sarah Christie
Have you had other clubs reach out to you and other venues reach out to you trying to follow suit?
Hannah
Yeah, so we are really kind of connected with other venues in the Glasgow scene, I guess. So we work quite closely with DF Concerts, who put on a huge range of concerts and events and have their own sustainability strategy. So looking for ways to, you know, align those things to link up with promoters and other venues and event organizers to find ways that we can collaborate on this. Because I think that's what this issue needs. It needs kind of that cross sector collaboration.
Sarah Christie
Yeah, all hands on deck. And now that you've had time to really spend in the sustainability space and see it be successful, what do you hope to see more of moving forward from the live music industry?
Hannah
Yeah, I think more artists communicating with their audiences. I think artists have such an influence. There's only so much we can do as a venue, but I think if artists are communicating these issues to their audiences, that could have a huge kind of ripple effect. So yeah, I'd love to work with more artists to see what we can do to make change in the industry.
Sarah Christie
If I ever find myself in Glasgow SWG3 is going to be the first stop on the travel bucket list. Hannah George, thank you so much for sharing your time with Earth Care. It's been such a pleasure chatting with you.
Hannah
Thank you.
FINISHED.
