The Glasshouse

This blog post is written by Scott, Environmental Responsibility Lead at The Glasshouse.

On Earth Day, 22 April, I took a train to Manchester.

The old stone and brick buildings of Manchester are beautiful reminders of the world-changing power of the Industrial Revolution and the wealth it brought to the city. They looked bright and solid in the cold light of the spring morning. But they’re also reminders of the actions that set us on the course we’re on today. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased around 50% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, contributing to environmental disasters around the globe and the current climate crisis.

The Royal Northern College of Music invited The Glasshouse to their ‘Earth Day: A Call to Action’ event. I was there to join a panel discussing sustainable touring. I spoke alongside the classical music agency Askonas Holt, Swedish cellist Jakub Koryani (who no longer flies, and who had travelled from Stockholm to Manchester by train), local string quartet Vulva Voce, and Manchester’s Reform Radio.

Touring is the lifeblood of the music industry. It has the potential to create brilliant moments of connection and lasting traces of cultural exchange. But it’s also one of the music industry’s biggest sources of carbon emissions. And all too often, it’s done in a way that harms the planet, relying on polluting air travel, freight deliveries and exhausting schedules.

Discussions at the Earth Day event were interspersed with performances across the College. Pieces with titles like Fractal Hold of Rain (Gabriella Smith), Water Night (Eric Whitacre) and Earth Song (Rachel Portman) were performed by students, offering different ways to experience nature and the climate crisis.

Travel is the main source of emissions relating to touring – both how artists travel when they’re on tour and how audiences travel to concerts. During the panel, Askonas Holt described their recent efforts to plan a tour of North America and Canada entirely by land travel, when it had always been done by air travel before. Flights can produce 10-20 times the carbon emissions of a coach, so this was a major improvement.

Cellist Jakub talked about how and why he stopped flying – a bold move for a cellist working in a business that depends on aviation – and how he now runs a sustainable chamber music festival in Sweden. He stayed on to do some teaching at the College for a few days, to make the most of his long journey. I shared how, at The Glasshouse, our orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, which always prioritises coaches and trains for touring around the North East and the UK, has also been working on carbon budgets to set meaningful emissions limits for international touring. We’re thinking of ways we can work with the audiences and artists who visit us to reduce the impact of their travel. We’re still figuring things out, and some of the questions we’re tackling are really tough. We’re on a journey and don’t have all the answers yet.

One thing that really got me thinking was how much importance we place on touring internationally in the music world. It’s like a badge of honour for many artists. But while we’re not going to stop touring or bringing international talent to our stage, we need to acknowledge that it has a big impact on the environment. We need to rethink what success looks like in our industry. Can we find new ways to be successful that don’t harm the planet as much? Maybe we can focus on slower travel, spending more time in one place, and connecting with local audiences instead of constantly flying around the world.

In the meantime, there are lots of practical steps we can take. Travel more slowly, by land wherever possible. Where we still need to fly, take direct, economy flights. Business class seats produce two to four times as much carbon as economy, and they’re often the standard for successful musicians (and sometimes even their instruments!). There’s lots of small improvements we can make along the way. We don’t have to be perfect to be better.

Perhaps the most memorable moment was a contribution on another panel by contemporary musician Trees.R.Good. A trained scientist, they’re now focusing their efforts on communicating through their jazz-inspired musical project. We know the science, they said. Most people haven’t and won’t change because of the science. They need to shift their view on how they relate to nature and the planet. They’ll change because of a feeling. And music can give us that.