For many musicians, studios and home offices are where we spend most of our time, making music and career plans. So it makes sense to green your working space and make sure your business decisions align with your values.
From your partnerships to your bank account, many of your business and administrative decisions can help contribute towards a healthier living planet.
If we want to stop new mines, like Adani, we have to cut off their supply of cash. And that’s an area where we all have influence. Did you know that the ‘Big Four’ banks in Australia (ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB, Westpac) actively invest large amounts of money in fossil fuel projects? Some of the smaller ones do, too. At the end of the day, it doesn’t make much sense for us to be dreaming and working towards a greener future while the money in our bank accounts and super funds is propping up the kinds of projects we want stopped.
Market Forces believes the institutions looking after our money should use it to protect, not harm, our environment. They expose the institutions that are financing environmentally destructive projects and help Australians hold them accountable. Head to the Market Forces website, find a greener bank that doesn’t invest in fossil fuels. Once you’ve done that, check your super fund too. It’s easy to switch, and it makes a big difference.
Pop artist Monnie isn’t just making music; she’s making a statement with her finances. Already banking ethically with a credit union, she turned her attention to her superannuation where she discovered her provider invested in fossil fuels.
Using the Market Forces comparison tool, she moved to an ethical superannuation fund. “Making the switch was really easy, it only took about 30 minutes of my time,” she explains.
The decision to move her money wasn't just about aligning her finances with her values; it was about taking a stand against fossil fuels, and exploitative business with poor labour practices.
"There is so much power in knowing what your money is funding," Monnie emphasises. “Imagine the message we could send by collectively organising and switching financial providers.”
As an artist you work closely with your team and they represent you in the world, so it’s important to know they respect your values and will help advocate for the things you care about.
Before you sign with a new manager, booking agent, record label or publisher, ask if they have a sustainability policy — or are open to adopting one. Make sure they’re supportive of your efforts to reduce your footprint and be an advocate for change. You might even follow the actions of In Hearts Wake and consider a sustainability clause in your artist contract. It’s a great way to spread the conversation through the industry. Imagine the ripple effect if we all took that simple step.
To power-up your impact, talk to others you work with and share your enthusiasm, your practices, and your learnings to bring them on this journey with you.
In the world of business and creativity, every decision we make sends a message. Just as we carefully curate our sound and style, it’s important our partnerships and contracts echo our principles.
Consider this: every endorsement deal, every sponsored post, every contract signed is a reflection of who we are and what we stand for. Make sure your partnerships consider environmental impact and reflect your perspective on the world.
Gotye refuses to sync his music onto commercial ads and monetise his music on YouTube for this very reason. He explains, “I don’t mind synching my music with creative projects like TV or film. I’ve got my own set of rules I made. If a student film wants to use my music, I say yes across the board. If someone wants to use it commercially, I look at what the budget is and the creativity of the project. I generally never want to sync my music for products [on ads].”
When selling tickets, consider adding a sustainability surcharge or diverting a small portion of sales to your favourite environmental group, like Green Music Australia, or towards a carbon emissions offset program, like TreeCreds. Two groups who help make this process easy are FEAT.Live Solar Slice and Plus 1. We can also help out, just get in touch.
And consider working with non-profit ticketing providers like Humanitix who put their profits towards sustainable projects, like literacy programs for young women.
From your stationary, to your instruments, to your marketing materials, opt to purchase second-hand or from ethical suppliers. You might want to look at Supply Nation for First Nations businesses, or check out our Fashion & Merch chapter to learn more about sustainable merchandise options.
More and more advertising companies are offering greener alternatives. Rock Posters offer an outdoor green poster made from post consumer waste and printed using vegetable-based ink. Enviro-Print sells 100% recycled corflute signs. Corex also offers recycled and carbon neutral options that you can return to their facility to be recycled at their end of life. Bailey Print Group upcycle event banners into tote bags.
As always, remember it's better to reduce your use before recycling - so consider reducing what you need to print in the first place.
The internet has an enormous environmental footprint. There, we said it. While it’s invisible to us as we surf, meet or share, the reality is that all that data needs to be processed and stored somewhere. That’s why the world has millions of data centres – picture enormous banks of powerful computers in climate-controlled rooms that draw immense amounts of power – reportedly responsible for about 2% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, nearly equal to the airline industry.
And our online lives are becoming ever more data hungry. Think about the ways your internet experience has changed in the last few years: more images and video, more music and tv streaming, faster speeds, larger files, more impressive experiences. It all takes data, which requires energy. While some of the energy demand of increasing internet traffic is offset by improvements in efficiency, it’s still an epic, and growing, area of climate concern.
So what do we do? Most modern music careers wouldn’t work without the internet – it’s how we connect, share and sell our craft. We’re not suggesting you go offline. Instead, we recommend the same basic approach as in every section of this guide:
You’ll want to use the internet to share your music and communicate with your fans. To make that greener, ideally we’ll all find creative ways to share smaller files, less frequently. Low-Tech Magazine’s blog offers us one radical example of what that can look like. They embrace online minimalism to simplify fonts, avoid video, reduce colour ranges and image sizes to bring their website size down. And it’s even hosted on their own solar-powered server, which goes offline on very cloudy days! Even if you don’t want to go that far, we could all learn a lot from them. Reducing our energy demands like this, though, is actually just one side of the ‘greener choices’ coin. The other side is making the energy we do use as green as possible.
If you're arranging hosting for your own website, get one hosted on a server powered with renewable energy. Look for cloud service providers who have committed to 100% renewable energy or carbon neutral targets, such as: Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Apple iCloud and Microsoft Azure - though these are often achieved with offsets, so reducing your demand on them is the best first step. Store things locally on your device where you can. If you're storing files on a server or online, periodically delete files you no longer need.
This is a tricky space, so don't aim for perfection. Also, sometimes doing things online is the greenest option. COVID-19 showed us all what’s possible on the web; from online gigs, to interviews and music collabs. If you can use the internet to avoid a flight or minimise other emissions, go for it. It’s quite possible the ideal model in future will be a hybrid of online and in-person gatherings to reduce emissions while still reaching remote communities and fans in all corners of the globe.
Here’s a list of actions you can take today to make your studio and workspace lovely, clean and green. Improving the environmental impact of your space is not only good for the planet, but can also help reduce costs, like energy bills, at the same time!
Green your energy use:
Green Your Power
The electricity sector is the largest source of greenhouse emissions in Australia, with about 60% still coming from coal and gas. That’s changing. But we need to use our influence as consumers and apply pressure as citizens if we want a renewable future faster.
On Kabi Kabi Country in the Sunshine Coast, Yama-Nui Studios was built with sustainability at its core, inviting recording musicians to connect deeply with nature.
The studio and adjacent home was constructed over two years using salvaged wood from the land’s required firebreak. Using an eco-architect and sustainable design principles, the studio was positioned to minimise heating and cooling needs, reducing the energy consumption needed all year round.
Recycled and salvaged materials were used throughout the construction process, from repurposing old windows and roofing to create chicken coops, to sourcing top quality soundproofing foam offcuts for the studio.
Beyond its construction, co-owner OJ Newcomb undertook a permaculture course, creating a flourishing garden and food forest next to the studio. “We often have artists who come to the studio asking about the gardens and set up,” says OJ. “We walk them around, teach them about permaculture and encourage them in their downtime to get out into the garden, lend a hand, or pick some food for their session.”
Ziggy Alberts is just one of the many artists who has been inspired by the studio’s environmental practices. His managers at Commonfolk Records explain, “The team at Yama Nui have been a great friend and colleague to us. Ziggy Alberts recorded two of his albums there with the talented Paulie Bromley as producer.”
“The entire team, including OJ Newcomb, Paulie Bromley, Ange Newcomb, and Steve Summers, are not only fantastic creatives and musicians, but innovators in sustainable studio practices. Their collective efforts at Yama Nui inspire artists to create music they are proud of and in ways that value our environment.”
Ziggy Alberts recording at Yama-Nui Photo: Janneke Storm
Yama-Nui Studios Photo: Betty Bird (Rebekah Joan)
