2026 Music Sustainability Summit Recap: 9 Actions the Industry Can Take Right Now

In a conversation about the road ahead for sustainability in live music, Live Nation’s director of global sustainability, Lucy August-Perna, advised that it’s wrong to assume vendors don’t care about sustainability. Moreso, it’s that — from lighting to energy to food service and beyond — people have pride in the work they do and systems they’ve built, and are thus often reticent to try new sustainable approaches, given that they might jeopardize their contribution to a show.  

“It’s a mistake to think people don’t care about this,” said August-Perna. “I think as sustainability professionals, that’s what we’ve gotten wrong for a long time. Because when we think people don’t care, you just dig in deeper and you yell at them and try to sell them a solution, and people don’t respond to that at scale.”

The solution she proposed is to create a conversation about sustainable options with various teams and really “understand people’s underlying anxieties and ambitions… It’s not that they don’t give a s–t about the environment…but people have pride. This is an industry where people have been doing this for a very long time, they want to be the reliable vendor they don’t want to disappoint… When you come in and ask someone to change something, you’re kind of challenging, and I will even go as far as to say kind of threatening, something they’ve worked on for a really long time and are very proud of, so I think we’ve got to be aware of that.”

August-Perna advised anyone who’s in a position to offer sustainable options to first get into the minds and ask questions “of production managers, promoters, folks that are truly the ones who are why we have these incredible shows. Let’s understand what they’re resistant to, because I guarantee you that it’s not that they don’t care…Let’s start there and understand if this change were to happen, what would it mean to you, and try to solve for that.”

In a panel discussion about creating more sustainable menus at shows, Live Nation’s vice president of touring, Lesley Olenik, said that for Billie Eilish’s 2024/25 Hit Me Hard and Soft tour, routing was partially based on which venues could offer creative solutions for high-quality plant-based meals.

“We used this as part of the venue picking process,” said Olenik. “So Tulsa came to the table with a lot of really great menu options, and they were super creative. That wouldn’t be a market that we would normally play, but Billie can pretty much sell out any market, and if they’re willing to make their menus fully plant-based, that’s more important to us than going and playing in Dallas, for instance.”

In the same panel about food, Olenik and Elish’s mother, Baird, who is a well-established environmental advocate, talked about hiring a food consultant for the Hit Me Hard and Soft tour who worked with catering teams from every venue ahead of time to ensure there were good, plant-based meals from the touring crew. The tour also brought in plant-based meals from a local restaurant for every city on the tour.  

Baird added that the crew also received a health insurance stipend and access to a mental health program. “We also had massage therapists and puppy rooms and coffee carts,” she said. “The food is part of a big package to make the crew happy. The crew buy-in is extremely important.” (She added that to fulfill union rules, catering also offered one meat option, which was kept behind a curtain.)

Across multiple panels, speakers emphasized the power artists have to create change from the top. Kris Barberg of Los Angeles-based organization Ecoset, which repurposes materials from film and TV shoots, spoke about working on commercial shoots with Billie Eilish, saying “it’s her top-down directive to have zero waste.”

“She wants composting in the green room, plant-based meals and snacks for the crew,” he said. “And because it’s her directive, it works. It trickles all the way down for her team, and then we become a service provider that fits right along in line with the goals, and we can report back on the zero-waste aspect… It is a team sport, but when it’s top down, it’s most effective.” 

This sentiment was echoed by MSA co-founder Michael Martin, whose company r.World provides reusable serveware items for mass gatherings. Martin spoke about how 15 artists, including U2 and Jack Johnson, have given r.World the right to go to promoters to say they want r.World products implemented at shows.

“The challenge is if it’s a request or a requirement,” said Martin. “If it’s in the contract as a requirement, it will be done. If it’s a request, it doesn’t happen, and the reason it doesn’t happen is that fear and anxiety. To sell in a permanent activation for reuse involves a lot of people: concessionaire, the venue owner, the sponsorship team, guest services, security. [It] touches everyone in the building, and if one person says, ‘I don’t know,’ it can sometimes torpedo the whole thing. Which is why artist support is so critical to open the door and give people the confidence to know that ‘Alright, it’s going to work.’”

A conversation about lessons the industry can learn from mass-scale events featured representatives from Disney, the LA28 Olympics committee and Global Citizen. LA28’s Becky Dale spoke to the fact that the Olympics, like most large-scale gatherings, will have a lot of leftover materials once the games are over. As such, it’s crucial to work out how these materials will be disposed of during the planning stages, so they don’t end up going straight to landfills — and so organizers are not left holding the bag.  

“Ask your suppliers to plan for the second life of everything you’re buying up front,” said Dale. “Because if you ask them to do it after the event, they’re going to be like, ‘See ya,’ and then you’re stuck with all of this stuff you have no idea what you’re going to do with… If you ask those questions up front, you find out what they can do, you build it into the contract, and then you hold them to that contract. The size of the problem you have to deal with after the event goes from [big] to [small].”  

Given that waste disposal can be costly, Dale also referenced the “real operational and financial benefits” to planning ahead: “Getting rid of stuff is not free,” she said, “so even if a contract costs a little bit more but it has that built in, that can save you money on the back end.” 

A point brought up during the food panel that applies to all areas of the industry is simply, as Stefanie Lynch of Greener By Default said, to “start somewhere.” Venues, events, labels and other industry entities are large ecosystems with longstanding systems, so identifying one person within that ecosystem who can move sustainability practices forward can have a powerful effect on the entire operation.  

Lynch offered the example of arena food service vendors, who are used to having different types of entertainment every night, “so they’re open to that kind of change and excitement, they just need someone to push them in the [sustainable] direction or challenge them to that direction. I would say that applies to every industry, no matter where you are. Just be that little push for someone to make a different choice.”

The biggest and most pernicious issue when it comes to music-industry-related carbon emissions is fan travel to and from events. During a conversation on fan travel, Aileen McManamon of the Green Sports Alliance shared a simple and effective way that Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (where the New England Patriots play), reduces emissions from idling cars leaving the parking lot — which anyone who’s ever tried to drive away from a big concert or festival knows is also a major problem in music.  

Given that Gillette Stadium has only one road in and out, McManamon shared that stadium operators offer $75 Visa gift cards to fans who sign up to park in a specific lot and then stay for 90 minutes after the game is over. Having these attendees stay onsite significantly reduces idling, lowering carbon emissions and making egress easier for all involved.

“It’s working out really well,” McManamon said. “People are staying late, and they’re often spending that $75 on food or extra merch, and they’re just having a good time as opposed to sitting in the car and kind of losing that great feeling they have if the team has just won.” She noted that if the attendee has to change their plans and leave early, they simply give the gift card back. The model seems easy enough to replicate at many venues and festivals. 

Myriad panels emphasized that to get buy-in on a sustainability initiative, you “have to make it fun,” as McManamon said during the fan travel panel. “The thing that doesn’t work is any kind of finger wagging or PSA ‘Hey, did you know we have transit access?’” he continued. “You have to make it four things: easy, fun, social and a little bit of reward.” While rewards can be physical items like merchandise, she suggested offering up unique experiences, like the chance for fans to be on the Jumbotron during a game or show.  

This idea was repeated during the food discussion, when panelists mentioned the “Billie Burrito” that, with the consent of Eilish and her management, was put on the menu at myriad Eilish shows.  

“It’s not just putting good food items on the menu, but how do you market them? How do you talk about them, how do you get people excited about them?” said Greener By Default’s Lynch, who noted that the carbon emission reductions from plant-based foods sold at just 21 Eilish shows equated to 40.8 metric tons. 

Baird offered some realism at the end of her food panel, saying that while it’s important to be hopeful, optimistic and inclusive, it’s also crucial for everyone to take action right now.

“We have to take it really seriously,” she said. “We are in so many crises right now. Every existential crisis we’ve ever dreamed of is actually happening right now. It’s terrifying, but this [environmental] one looms. If we survive the rest of them, this is waiting for us, and the music industry is responsible… These small changes are great, but don’t think you cannot do it. You really have to talk about food. I can’t tell you how many times I talk to people who are in very deep forms of sustainability, and they’re just not talking about food. Please just make sure, no matter what event you’re talking about, whether it’s a meeting at lunch, a party, whatever, that food is the single most impactful thing you can personally do, and we just have to do it.”