Good Green Fun: Building and testing a model for green live music events

Abstract

Sustainability measures have increasingly been incorporated into all sectors of society, including the events sector. This study used an exploratory overview of practices at green events to build a scorecard that was used to evaluate and rank four green live music event case studies based on the measures that were implemented at each event to reduce environmental impact. The application of the scorecard to the case studies resulted in a green score, or level of greenness, for each event that was based on the environmental impact of the event.

The empirical results of the case studies showed that core stakeholders (mainly artists and promoters) had the most influence in deciding that an event would be a green event. The results also made it possible to identify and refine the internal and external variables affecting the decision of the core stakeholders to make the event a green event. After it is decided to make an event green, the types of environmental measures taken at the event are chosen. Each measure can be classified based on its direct environmental impact. A five-category green measure classification tool was used to classify measures into categories of environmental impact.