This past April, the biggest topic in the cultural world was, without question, "Coldplay's" concert in Korea. The concerts of global stars—into which enormous human and material resources are poured and which move large fandoms—also stir controversy for generating large-scale carbon emissions. Yet world-class artists are each realizing ESG in their own original ways, presenting sustainable-development models in the music industry. Let us look at the ESG cases pursued by the British alternative-rock band "Coldplay," which drew attention with its recent visit to Korea; the American singer-songwriter "Billie Eilish," who performed last year; and the Korean girl group "BLACKPINK," which is set for a world tour this year.
[Coldplay's Chris Martin singing his heart out during a concert ©Live Nation Korea]
A "Sustainable Concert" Completed Through Fans' Participation: Coldplay
As Coldplay's Korea visit drew near, a new campaign began online. It called for making Korea the No. 1 country in return rate by all returning the "Xylo Bands (LED wristbands)" handed out at Coldplay's venues. Coldplay is famous for collecting the wristbands provided at each concert—recycling these glow-stick-function wristbands to reduce resource consumption—and disclosing the return rate. The fandoms of the countries Coldplay visits compete on this indicator, and the previous record high was 97%, set by a concert in Japan. The April Korea concert recorded a 99% return rate—the highest of all Coldplay's concerts—responding to the band's goal of "delivering a concert with no carbon emissions."
Including the wristband recycling, Coldplay's exceptional consciousness for sustainability was revealed in various elements of the venue and surprised people. First, once a fan who has decided to attend a Coldplay concert buys a ticket, they are automatically enrolled in "One Ticket, One Tree," a forest-restoration campaign that plants one tree per ticket. Fans who enter the venue participate in producing energy for the concert using the "Kinetic Dance Floor," which creates stage energy directly, and the "Power Bikes," which are bicycle generators. It is a fan-participation eco-friendly energy-production idea that turns the synergy generated when fans and stars meet into physical energy. Part of the power uses solar energy. In addition, Coldplay transparently discloses its tour goals and outcomes and donates 10% of its revenue to a social-contribution fund, creating a special, sustainable concert culture together with fans.
[Billie Eilish communicating with fans during a concert ©Brent Ben Hordijk/shutterstock]
A Carbon Footprint Reduced Together with the Audience: Billie Eilish
The popular pop star "Billie Eilish"—familiar to us as well through exchanges with Korean artists—has been running "Action Village," in partnership with the environmental and social-movement organization "REVERB," at the venues of the world tour she has been holding since last year. Action Village is a space where the audience visiting the venue can directly reflect on and take part in climate action and climate justice. Billie Eilish asked audiences coming to her concerts to join in low-carbonization when traveling, separately providing services such as public-transport and walking guidance linked with Google Maps. She also encouraged the use of tumblers and installed facilities providing drinking water at venues, cutting consumption of about 87,000 plastic water bottles. In this way, Billie Eilish induced fans to practice actions that directly reduce their carbon footprint; during the concert period, she partnered with REVERB to measure carbon-footprint indicators and publicized fans' efforts as an achievement. It can be seen as a positive case of connecting her own influence to social interest in the carbon footprint.
[BLACKPINK together with fans at a venue ©YG Entertainment]
Adopting a Sustainable-Concert Framework: BLACKPINK
"BLACKPINK," a global top girl group in name and reality, has adopted a method of systematically measuring and disclosing greenhouse-gas emissions by tour, based on the "Sustainable Concert Framework" developed at the level of its agency, YG Entertainment. Through the framework, BLACKPINK's concerts quantify carbon emissions arising in various sectors—audience travel, venue energy use, waste treatment, and so on—and establish carbon-reduction strategies. They also strive to spread campaigns and messages to raise awareness of the climate crisis. BLACKPINK considered not only the environmental side but also strove to realize social inclusion—introducing venue-accessibility managers to improve concert access for marginalized groups, and adopting a step-by-step safety-management system.
BLACKPINK announced its resumption of group activities with news of a world tour that will begin this July. Let us look forward to the new heights that BLACKPINK's concerts—encompassing the various aspects of ESG—will show.
Global artists at home and abroad are, each in their own way, presenting ESG-practice models that combine environmental protection, social responsibility, and transparent governance, leading positive change across the entertainment industry. The efforts of stars and fandoms—who share not only the joy and emotion of music but also responsibility for a sustainable future—will continue to be a new milestone in global concert culture.
by Editor N