Understand the Carbon Footprint of Travelling to a Concert | S5 E3
Avigail Kohn from SkyNRG joins Earth Care for episode 3 of the Sustainability in the Live Music Industry series.
SkyNRG is one of the five partners who collectively created The Climate Gig, a tool that allows both artists and fans to understand and address the carbon footprint of traveling to live music events. SkyNRG approaches this conversation as the global leader in Sustainable Aviation Fuel since 2010. The company’s mission is to significantly reduce the industry’s environmental impact by creating enough SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) capacity for aviation to meet the net-zero by 2050 commitment. In 2011, SkyNRG became the first in the world to supply SAF on a commercial flight!
The Climate Gig is born out of the Dutch music scene and is also powered by DGTL, Revolution Foundation, Bye Bye Plastic Foundation and CHOOOSE ™. Collectively, their goal is to take action on the carbon footprint of live events, without compromising on that live event experience.
In this episode, Avigail discusses The Climate Gig tool and its role in reducing emissions in the live music industry. She also shares how sustainable aviation fuel is a key component of the lowering the impact of aviation, reducing emissions by approximately 80% and potentially even 100% in the future. This conversation emphasizes the importance of climate action and education in the music industry to create a more sustainable future.
Contact Avigail: info@theclimategig.com
Episode Transcription:
Sarah Christie
Avi, product manager at SkyNRG where one of the tools you've created is the Climate Gig. Thank you so much for being on Earth Care and joining this conversation about sustainability in the live music industry. How are you doing?
Avi
I'm doing well. Thank you. Thank you for having me on this podcast. How are you?
Sarah Christie
I'm great. I've been so eager to have this conversation because I think the Climate Gig is tackling what I can only imagine is one of the hardest areas to tackle about the live music industry. Can you give me a bit of a backstory on how the team got together and started creating the Climate Gig?
Avi
Yeah, definitely. So I think, you know, the team got together and it's a group of Dutch music industry experts and they got together because they realized that aviation emissions were really one of the largest emissions that both artists, venues and fans face when they're traveling to live music events. As you can imagine, you know, people are coming in from different countries and they may have to fly to do that. So they really realized that this was an issue within the industry and they wanted to tackle it. And as you may know, tackling aviation
emissions isn't always the easiest thing to do because there are limited solutions and so they decided to make the Climate Gig to make it easy and accessible for people to actually be able to reduce their emissions from flying.
Sarah Christie
So you offer two perspectives with the Climate Gig, one for fans and one for industry professionals. How does the tool work differently for those sides?
Avi
Yeah, definitely. So essentially what we do is we help both of the groups to reduce their travel emissions, but we have different solutions for both. So for fans, we have a carbon calculator on our website where fans can put in the details of their flights, calculate the emissions of those individual flights, and then choose themselves what kind of CO2 reduction they would like to have. So in the calculator itself, there's a little kind of trigger and they can choose what percentage they would like to reduce their emissions by.
For artists and venues, they can also of course use the calculator, but we also have a portal solution for them where they can input a larger amount of CO2 emissions directly and then they can also choose what kind of projects they want to contribute to. And the projects that we have on our tool are either sustainable aviation fuel, which is a renewable alternative to fossil jet fuel or other carbon climate certified projects.
Sarah Christie
I'm going to bounce around here for a second because I want to go back to the fan perspective. I swear I'm not about to jump on a bandwagon of Taylor Swift just because she's everywhere in every headline right now, but it is a really great example. Being here in Canada, it took her forever to announce Canadian tour dates. So many people I know actually were booking or were trying to get tickets across the pond. They were going to Paris, across the border in America and traveling for the show. So that really is you know, something to think about as a fan. So when you say there's options or suggestions on how to offset, what would a fan see?
Avi
Yeah, so it's actually very straightforward. So they would just put in the details. For example, if they're going from Canada to London to try and catch the Taylor Swift concert, they just put in the airports that they would be flying to and from. And then it will show them the journey and basically it will make a calculation on the back end of how many emissions that trip would result in. And then once they've made that calculation, they're just able to see this overview of how much they can reduce their emissions by so they can choose themselves. You know, do they want to go mainly for a sustainable aviation Fuel, would they like to do a combination of sustainable aviation fuel and offsets or just fully offsets and then they'll just be able to pick which option they want to reduce their emissions.
Sarah Christie
That is so cool. I think really important just to understand, we can do things, we can live our life, but it is important to know what impact the choices we make have. Then you've mentioned sustainable aviation fuel a few times. This is fascinating. How does that compare with carbon emissions from regular fuel, like booking a regular flight?
Avi
Yeah, so as I said before, I think sustainable aviation fuel is a renewable alternative to fossil jet fuel and it can reduce emissions by around 80%. That's kind of the figures that we've been seeing from our own fuel sales. And the way that it does this is that it reduces the emissions across the overall life cycle of the fuel because we're using waste products to actually create that fuel. So it reabsorbs the carbon that's actually emitted during a flight. So in that way, you're actually able to reduce your overall emissions. And at the moment, that figure stands at approximately 80 percent but in the future we do actually expect to see it go up to 100 percent if we use different technologies which use feedstocks like CO2. So it's a really exciting sphere to be in because there's a lot of potential for the future and it's just yeah a really exciting tool to use for the aviation industry.
Sarah Christie
Absolutely. And the overarching thing about this conversation that keeps popping up in my mind is, you know, we need music. Touring and going to a concert just brings so much community together, which, you know, it helps the economy. So are there ways that, you know, those emissions can be brought down? And it sounds like this is an incredibly powerful tool. How do you know if your flight is using sustainable aviation fuel?
Avi
So when you select SAF, your chosen volume is actually entered into an airport closest to the SAF production facility. And we, on our back end, have a very strong system of certification and auditing, which ensures that it is going into the nearest airport. So on our back end, every year we go through this audit, which makes sure that all the SAF that has been purchased is actually really delivered to an airport.
And while your plane might not necessarily fly on SAF, because you've purchased those kind of green claims and green reductions, you are then able to say, okay, I've reduced my emission from that particular flight.
Sarah Christie
Right. Balance there. Now, there is so much talk in the news about private jets. And I'm curious to know if you can kind of paint the picture. And sorry, when I say talk about private jets, the environmental damage that they have and the impact that they have. So can you kind of paint the picture of the footprint or the argument reducing the use of private jets versus a flight?
Avi
The emissions that you have from a private jet will be much higher than you have from a public airline because you have many different people who are using that airline. And so the emissions are kind of spread out throughout those different customers. So I would say that there's really quite a strong argument for moving away from private jets and trying to move more towards commercial airlines. You know, there's still business class options. Of course, I do understand that in some cases, if people are very famous or they have security concerns, it's something that they might continue to do. But I think if those people are able to afford to, you know, to fly, with private jets, then it's also a good solution for them to actually look at purchasing SAF as well because they're the ones who can actually do something to reduce their impact. So I would say that that's a really good point for them to focus on as well.
Sarah Christie
Right. And so I was going to ask as a follow -up, you know, how have certain artists been alleviating that? But it sounds like that's the option too. If you're going to continue to use the private jet, then here's what you can do. Or are there other ways to alleviate it as well?
Avi
Yeah, I mean, in general, there are other ways to travel, right? So I think we should always look at ways that we can reduce our flying habits. So you can take the train, you could take a bus, you could, you know, online travel. But for those flights that really we aren't able to replace with other ways, I would look at alternative sustainable solutions, which for now are really the sustainable aviation fuel. And in the future, we might have different types of aircraft, which are a bit more sustainable as well. But for now, those aren't really on the market. So SAF is really one of the key solutions for people who would be looking to reduce their impact.
Sarah Christie
Have you read the book, The Carbon Footprint of Everything?
Avi
No, I haven't actually.
Sarah Christie
Okay, so I read that this past year and it's a really fascinating book. It basically breaks down the carbon footprint of everything. Now, interesting when they were talking about flights, they did mention that Canada has one electric airplane. But also, and from my understanding, because you mentioned, you know, there is economy class, there's business class. Essentially, if there's 100 people on the plane versus five people on the private jet, you know, those 100 people are now all sharing the carbon footprint versus those five people.
Am I following along properly?
Avi
Yeah, essentially. So with a commercial jet, what you can do is you can transport a lot more people from one place to another. So it's essentially more sustainable because the CO2 is divided across all of those people. When you're using a private jet, it's much more CO2 intensive because you're only transporting one or two people to the same place.
Sarah Christie
So from the fan perspective, what can fans do to be conscious of their footprint as well?
Avi
Yeah, so same thing goes for fans. I would say, you know, if you're going to a concert that is a little bit further away and that you would normally fly to, first of all, look at the alternative travel options that are there. You know, you might be able to take an overnight train, for example, or something like that to get to your festival. But if you are going to fly, then just being aware of the impact of that flight is a really good place to start. So seeing how much it is and then if you are able to, then reducing the CO2 emissions of that flight is the next best step, I would say. And another thing that fans do is also encourage the artists and venues that they're going to to offer these sustainable solutions. So the Climate Gig can actually be integrated into the ticket booking website of an artist or a venue and then fans can just choose to reduce their emissions when they're also buying their tickets. So that's an additional way that you can kind of stimulate this green incentive.
Sarah Christie
When everyone involved in creating the Climate Gig, you know, you sit down and are thinking about the future. What do you want to see more of from the music industry from the live music industry?
Avi
I think we would really love to see just more climate action and education from the music industry. So like I said, potentially integrating green solutions into their ticket flows, educating their customers on the impact that their travel does have when they come to see a live music event, and also educating them in general on the solutions that they do have available to them. I think that's a really important part of the puzzle because a lot of the times people just don't know that these solutions are out there. So if we can all work on this together and really get everyone talking about these solutions, and then contributing to them, I think we can have a much more sustainable music and event industry.
Sarah Christie
One conversation that always pops up into my head that I have, you know, my own back and forth on, and I'm so curious your take on this. Do you think there's ever a world where these major touring artists, so even thinking of the stadium tours that within the past year, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Pink, Ed Sheeran, major stadium tours, do you think there's ever a world where they do a stripped down version of that? Because that means a lot more tractor trailers, that means, you know, transport trucks, a lot more buses and flights.
Do you think there's a world where they do a stripped down version of it and just lean more on the communication aspect of, hey guys, I'm trying to reduce my footprint. So you're not going to see all the bells and whistles this tour, but here's why.
Avi
I think I don't have too much experience of the music industry myself, but it could be a really great way to kind of approach concerts in the future. I think that people are really there to see the artists themselves and to hear their music. And of course, it's amazing if you have a big show around it as well. But I think if you're if you just want to enjoy the music and support the artists, people would also be open to that, especially if the artists explained why they were doing it. So I think it would be exciting to see if, you know, that's something that we could see in the future. I would personally go to a concert like that.
Sarah Christie
if they told me that that's what they're doing, I would buy a ticket in a heartbeat. I'm biased. I mean, obviously, but I really think that could be an interesting take and also a way to reduce tickets because ticket prices in Canada are outrageous and that's a whole other conversation. But it has been such a pleasure having you on Earth Care and it truly is just so exciting and encouraging to learn about the Climate Gig and all the options that are available for the fan perspective, for the industry perspective to just be more aware of their impact.
Avi
Definitely, and thank you so much for giving me a platform to talk about this. I think it's a really important topic and hopefully the next time that someone goes to a festival, they'll try to look at the Climate Gig as a solution for it.
FINISHED.
