Guest blog written by our partners,ECOTRICITY.
The music industry and artists have a proud history of activism and being on the right side of history. Whether it was Nina Simone stirring souls during the civil rights era, The Clash clashing with conservative ideologies in punk’s heyday or Public Enemy pushing back with powerful, provocative protest rap, musicians have been more than minstrels; they’ve been messengers and mobilisers.
As we will see at the Music Summit of this year’s Earthfest, the climate crisis is the latest frontier where the music industry has been using its immense reach and power to share important messaging. We believe there is here a natural alignment between the music industry and us at Ecotricity. This is why, as well as supporting the wider Earthfest event, we will be at the heart of conversations at the event’s Music Summit.
Since becoming the world’s first green energy company when we were founded by Dale Vince OBE in 1995, we have been pioneering ways to eliminate fossil fuels from every single sector – including the world of live music.
To achieve our aim of moving the world on from fossil fuels, we are not-for-dividend. That means that, as well as being a supplier of 100% renewable electricity and carbon neutralised gas for homes and businesses across the UK, we use any excess profits from our customers’ bills to build new sources of green energy – as we like to call it, ‘bills into mills’.
To put into practice our belief that music should be powered by passion, not fossil fuels, we have been working with A Greener Future to pioneer our Grid Faeries batteries for live music events. Last summer, these batteries were used to power stages at Glastonbury, WOMAD and Massive Attack’s Act 1.5 Climate Action Accelerator show on Bristol’s Clifton Downs. Research into the Act 1.5 event by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research has found that its use of renewable-powered batteries rather than diesel generators led to it producing 98% less power emissions than comparable shows.
Elsewhere, our ambitions for decarbonising the live music sector include the Live Events Energy Scheme (LEES). This collaboration with the industry body LIVE, The Music Venues Trust and A Greener Future is a pioneering initiative designed to help live music venues access affordable, 100% renewable energy.
The LEES uses the energy basket model. Energy can often be a large overhead for live music venues, but by pooling the energy needs of multiple sites into a single purchasing group, participants benefit from the economies of scale that come with buying energy collectively. This approach not only brings together venues of all sizes, it also unlocks lower rates that would typically only be available to much larger individual consumers.
The collaborative nature of the LEES and our other initiatives for ending fossil fuels in the live music sector show our belief in the power of joining forces to spark green activity in music. That is why we are looking forward to playing a part in this year’s Earthfest Music Summit. We are excited to hear about all the ways that artists and the wider music industry are using their influence to bring about change in the industry.
To work with us on our mission to end fossil fuels in the live music sector or find out more about LEES, get in touch with our energy innovating team: lees@ecotricity.co.uk.