We’re gearing up for a productive year ahead with a soon to be released green guide for music and merch products, and Party With The Planet continuing its series of festival sustainability webinars. Plus, we’re working on a new emissions calculator to collect data on audience travel. Read on for more on our activities and upcoming events & opportunities
SUSTAINABLE MUSIC & MERCH ALLIANCE
The Sustainable Music & Merch Alliance (SMMA) is a group we formed to research and educate industry, artists and fans on the environmental impact of physical music and merch.
We’re currently putting together a complete guide to sustainable music and merch, due to be released in March. We will promote this work through a series of webinars and roundtables for members of the alliance. If you work at a record label, merch company, manufacturer, retailer, or distributor and are interested in joining the SMMA – reach out to Luke.
PARTY WITH THE PLANET
We’re looking forward to continuing the Party With The Planet alliance this year with a new series of Festival Sustainability webinars in Autumn.
These webinars are open to all festival workers, and in 2026 we will tackle topics such as funding sustainability, reusable cups and crockery, as well as positive waste and energy transition stories. Stay tuned for the webinar announcement dates – and if you’re interested in joining the alliance (it’s free!), fill out the EOI form here.
AUDIENCE TRAVEL EMISSIONS CALCULATOR
We’ve been working on a new audience calculator which calculates audience travel emissions at events. We piloted it with audience members at Party In The Paddock this month and it was a great success with over 350 users completing the survey. Using this data, we will be advocating for and helping festivals to encourage their audiences to travel more lightly, as well as getting vital information to help us understand the environmental impact of our live events sector.
We’re excited to share the final product with you soon. If you’re interested in using the audience calculator at your festival or event, reply to this email to get in touch with Emma.
UPCOMING EVENTS
🌿 Applications for our 2026 Artist Leadership Retreat are open for NSW-based artists, who are looking to deepen their climate knowledge and gain critical skills on how to use music to shift the story of our time.
🎤 Join Emma Bosworth on 3 March 12:30pm - 1pm for “No Events On A Dead Planet” – a LinkedIn Live conversation series, with some incredibly insightful, probably a little scary, but most importantly motivating conversations. Event link to come via UNEND.
🌏 The Planet Talks is WOMADelaide's three-day ecological and conversational forum presented in Frome Park Pavilion, 7-9 March, featuring some of the world’s foremost thinkers, activists, scientists and leaders in engaging and thought-provoking discussions about issues and solutions that affect our lives on the blue planet. View the program here.
🎭 Congrats to the team at Perth Festival for their stellar climate-related programming showcasing the impacts of extreme weather and providing space for First Nations storytelling - including Scenes from the Climate Era, Floodland, poetic futures, and Biomass. Perth Festival is running from 6 February - 1 March, view the program here.
OTHER OPPORTUNITIES AND GRANTS
🛠️ Applications for Sound NSW’s Venue Upgrade Grants for live music venues have been extended to 23 Feb, 11am AEDT. Grants up to $150,000 (ex GST) will support the purchase of production equipment, and a range of infrastructure development works such as: soundproofing, ventilation, accessibility, and energy efficiency improvements.
🍃 Creative Australia is running a Climate Leadership Accelerator: Into the Arena Scholarship – an immersive journey to deepen your understanding of climate systems and develop a framework for climate action. Applications close Tuesday 17 March, 3pm AEDT.
📝 Australian Festival Association are calling on operators, suppliers, service providers and festival workers to fill out a short survey, gathering practical input from those on the ground to help shape more consistent and best practices for running festivals.
For other upcoming grants, bookmark our business grant resource. We do our best to keep it up to date.
Thank you for your ongoing support of Green Music Australia, and remember you can always keep up with us on our socials:
Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | TikTok
Thank you to the Australian Government through Music Australia and the NSW Government through Sound NSW for their support with our programs: Party With The Planet, Sound Country, and The Sustainable Music & Merch Alliance. The Sustainable Music & Merch Alliance is also supported by the City of Sydney through its Innovation & Ideas Grant.
