With the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference - aka COP29 - reaching its conclusion today, pan-European indie label trade group IMPALA has put out a statement urging its members to “assess their environmental impact” and “recognise the associated business benefits” of ensuring their operations are environmentally sustainable.
On that latter point, IMPALA explains that, “investigating and transitioning to more efficient business practices, and opting for more sustainable production and distribution methods, leads to lower costs over time while reducing waste, as well as a more creative and forward-thinking culture”.
The trade group’s sustainability lead Karla Rogožar adds, “Music and culture have a great influence in shaping public attitudes and narratives. By leveraging this power, the cultural sector can lead the way in addressing climate challenges and inspiring transformative change. This will help amplify the potential to make sustainability a defining feature of our industry and vice versa”.
Today’s statement builds on and promotes IMPALA’s existing work seeking to encourage and enable independent music businesses to reduce their emissions and become more sustainable. It suggests a number of steps music companies can take, including measuring their carbon footprints on an annual basis using the IMPALA Carbon Calculator.
Companies should also look for ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their direct business operations, it says, and those of their suppliers, and also “allocate funds for climate investment / environmental projects to take responsibility for unavoidable emissions, for example to Murmur”.
Rogožar concludes by stating that, for the music sector to make the most of its transformative power in this domain, “it is important to act on multiple levels at the same time, both at small and big scale”.
“We encourage our members to take advantage of the freely available tools at their disposal”, she adds, “to help them advance on their journey and take concrete steps to implement sustainability as a core element of their business”.