Going Green: Electronic Music and the Quest for Sustainability

“Sustainability isn't an ‘add on’,” says Clare O’Neill, CEO and Co-Founder at A Greener Future (AGF), a not-for-profit company helping organizations and events reduce their environmental impact.

“It's an intrinsic way that we should live, which is easy to forget when most of us have been born into an extractive, exploitative society.”

The summer’s searing European heatwaves have made clear that the climate crisis is taking place now and we are poorly prepared. Extreme weather led to the cancellation of events including Dutch festival Defqon.1 and Solidays in Paris, while AGF, EarthPercent, DJs for Climate Action and the Bye Bye Plastic Foundation are among organizations across the industry highlighting sustainable initiatives. Conversations at ADE Green, IMS Ibiza and beyond now cover waste management, travel, food, renewable energy and the changes electronic music must make to secure its future. The big question is whether this is too little, too late.

While artist air travel is more than 17 times high as the recommended personal carbon budget, AGF research shows an appetite among festivals for greener behavior. Of 24 assessed events across 12 countries, 85 percent have completely banned single-use plastics.

AGF also found that many festivals achieving its ‘Outstanding’ Greener Festival certification are electronic events.

“Paradise City in Belgium and DGTL in the Netherlands are both plant-based, powered by renewable energy, and have excellent travel networks that encourage low carbon travel,” Claire says.

“Portugal’s Boom Festival owns its site and has spent years regenerating the biodiversity on the land and using permaculture techniques within the festival itself. They've created a transformative space and are an example of how humans can live at scale in a harmonious way with the environment and each other.”

EarthPercent

Electronic music and its ecosystem of music streaming and global events has a heavy carbon footprint, driven by a plethora of festivals, international touring and digital music consumption. According to the Greener Festival report, which analyzed data from events held in 17 countries, the average festival produces 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. 

As Indian DJ/producer Kiss Nuka says: “The world is literally on fire, and it's getting worse. There ain't gonna be any dance music on a burning planet where people are trying to survive. What more motivation to do something do we need?”

Different industry organizations are looking to respond to this crisis, including EarthPercent, one supported by Kiss Nuka, who has pledged a percentage of touring income from her sets to the foundation. Co-founded by activist and musician Brian Eno, the organization aims to “unleash the power of music in the service of the planet”. Alice Pelly, EarthPercent’s Head of Brand Partnerships, previously worked at the Warner Music Group as a Senior Account Manager in the Brand Partnership Team before channeling her energies into the organization and spoke at IMS about green issues earlier this year. 

“Historically, there can sometimes be a fear of criticism with DJs and artists thinking, ‘I take flights, and I can’t talk about climate’,” Alice says. “But you don’t have to be living off-grid with zero emissions to have a perspective on this; we all need to speak about it and the more of us who do, the better.”

“In the dance music space, it’s essential that events are operationally as environmentally-friendly as possible, but EarthPercent is trying to push this into a conversation around social advocacy. Climate justice is a global problem, impacted by those in government and how they manage oil and gas. While the ways in which events look after waste and green energy is important, we want to elevate this conversation as a social issue that relates to everything, not just the music industry but our ability to live healthy and safe lives.” 

Nature is officially credited as a recording artist on major streaming platforms thanks to the Sounds Right partnership with EarthPercent and the Museum for the United Nations. Musicians release tracks that sample natural sounds, such as birdsong or glaciers, then when this music is streamed, nature receives a royalty. 

Madame Gandhi partnered with EarthPercent for the initiative, crediting nature as an official recording artist on her album, Let Me Be Water. It’s a record full of ambient texture and electronic grooves directly inspired by the natural world.

“When a DJ plays music that has lyrics or spoken samples talking about loving people or the planet, it comes to be a very transcendental experience and can make audiences more receptive to new ideas,” she says.

“My partnership with Music Climate Foundation EarthPercent has allowed me to use nature in my music, either sonically or via inspiration and crediting Earth as a co-writer. This way artists are literally putting money where their mouth is, and are serving their communities within their music.” 

Greener Festivals 

Om Unit, Luke Vibert and Dr Meaker are among the DJs and electronic acts heading to Shambala in the UK this summer, a festival that has taken its environmental responsibilities very seriously since its inception in 2000.

“We don't do or buy anything without carefully considering its impact on people and planet,” says Chris Johnson, Shambala Managing Director and sustainability expert. “We have comprehensive policies in place to guide decision-making for the core team, and anyone who works with us - across suppliers, creatives and crew.”

From sourcing drinks, to travel and waste recycling, every element of the event is scrutinized through a green lens. Measures have included sourcing drinks from  EVRYTHNG, a radical anti-capitalist coop where profits are directed to local and climate-focused community projects. Future plans include utilizing more solar power, even harvesting urine from the event and turning it into crop fertilizer.

“Everything we design, build and the materials we buy are based on circular economy principles,” Chris explains. “Basically it breaks down to three principles: using less, reusing wherever we can, and buying responsibly.” 

In the US, DJs including Tiga, A-Trak and Above and Beyond will be playing at the Elements Music & Arts Festival in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Also renowned for its environmental commitments, the event is powered by an on-site solar farm with attendees encouraged to engage with this green ethos. 

Jaron Drucker, Elements' BOH Operations Director and founder of the TECTONIC TEAM, is responsible for back-of-house management and event production. 

“Throughout the weekend, we engage the audience in the campground with our Renegade Recycling activation, an art cart that rolls around campgrounds collecting trash with live DJs and eco resources,” Jaron says. "With our Eco Hub, we have gamified what waste management looks like and have created a space for people to show up and participate while the whole audience helps clean up at the end of the night. The goal is just to continue educating the patron and audience on what they’re using and how much of it they’re using.”

EarthPercent’s Alice Pelly sees these festivals as golden opportunities for event organizers to lay out a more utopian vision of what life can be like. The hope is that attendees can extract these ideals from the festival, then apply them to their real lives.

“As a festival organizer, you’re creating a world for people to live in for three or four days and this means that, within reason, you can come up with your own protocols, laws and social behaviors,” she says. “This is a beautiful, powerful thing to get people together and get them thinking about collective responsibility and being part of a solution.”

“Still, it would be remiss not to talk about all of the pressures in the industry too, which can hold sustainability back. The cost-of-living crisis is ongoing, and venues and events are struggling. The reality is that when people are in short-term survival mode, it can be hard to think big, and sustainable best practices might not be a top priority. That’s why scalable climate solutions are important, so everyone working in music feels they can do something positive to make a difference.”

The appetite and awareness for sustainable behaviors also depends on where an event is taking place. According to Kiss Nuka, location and the position occupied in the industry’s ecosystem has an impact on how much change can occur.

“In India, for example, as the electronic music industry is growing, the funds are still limited, as is general education,” she says. “In some cities, I am struggling to get a good sound system or an engineer who knows how to tune it, so there is barely any space to have a conversation about sustainability. However, I just played Waking Life in Portugal where there is such deep care for the environment we are occupying, down to the tiny detail of asking visitors to make sure the glitter they are using is biodegradable.”

Eli Goldstein is one half of DJ duo Soul Clap and has long been a climate advocate. He’s a board member of DJs For Climate Action and achieved a Master's degree in Climate Science & Policy at Bard's Center for Environmental Policy. He’s also behind Earth Night, a global initiative which saw more than 60 parties take place with DJs and artists encouraged to perform only in their local area.

“There is always good energy behind this green cause but we’re still far off from critical mass,” Eli says. “There needs to be greater collaboration from the different stakeholders and more buy-in from managers and agents. There is some systemic resistance and I have to admit it’s sometimes hard to stay motivated.”

One path forward that has inspired Eli came from a permaculture design class that expanded his thinking and led to the launch of his own Future Sound of Nature Festival back in 2024.

“I live in the country, started growing plants and food, learning about regenerative agriculture, how I can be of service to the ecosystem that I live in - this feels like much more tangible results that I can see, feel, touch and hear,” he explains.

“The concept is all about local artists and community alongside breaking out of this festival tourism mode. We need to be focusing on growing local festivals that support local scenes instead of getting on an airplane to go somewhere exotic. This behavior is so extractive from a community; the environmental and social impacts are usually negative.”

“‘How do you throw a party that is kind to a community and local environment?’ is the question,” Eli continues. “This is a big part of the mission with our festival and we want to make this an open source mission to share what we learn and encourage people to follow.”

A Creative Life

Where does this climate crisis leave traveling DJs and artists? The Belgium-born Nono Gigsta’s commitment to the environment goes further than most - few DJs have gone as far as sailing across the Atlantic to make their club dates. But with the most privileged DJs being in the top percentage of emitters, Nono feels discourse surrounding sustainability needs to be more prominent. She cites how the Clean Scene report that came out of the pandemic revealed how the average touring DJ emits 35 tonnes of CO2 per year, far higher than the recommended personal carbon budget. Another study published by the International Energy Agency in 2023 showed that the top 10 percent of emitters averaged 22 tonnes of CO2 per capita in 2021 and that they were responsible for almost half of global energy-related CO2. 

“Basically, frequently flying DJs are well into the 10 percent emitters category, and their lifestyles are therefore disproportionately responsible for the excess of carbon emissions,” says Nono.

“Whilst we have limited agency over the infrastructure we work and live in, we could try to avoid romanticizing planes, airports or views from the sky. Perhaps I’m stating the obvious here but our collective addictions to social media, and especially, in the case of electronic dance music, of Instagram is hugely problematic and increasingly so with the rise of techno-fascism and the neoliberal-driven corporate-controlled AI.” 

Martyn, founder of 3024, DJ and producer, agrees and suggests that a fundamental reset surrounding the entire dance music ecosystem is required. 

“At the moment, the system is broken; small and mid-sized clubs are disappearing, music as a commodity is being devalued, and underground artists are lacking the economic and technical resources to improve their craft and build sustainable careers,” he says.

“At the same time, streaming services, super clubs and large festivals siphon money and earthly resources out of the ecosystem and towards venture capitalists and other third parties.”

As a response, Martyn believes local scenes need to be fed and watered. Doing so will help smaller clubs thrive while lessening the need for flying in touring artists.

“Framing the environmental sustainability conversation as more of an all-encompassing ethical one will hopefully also get more people on board,” he says.

“All these micro-actions add up and transform how resources circulate and ethical ideas are addressed in the electronic music scene.”

Nono is a DJ, producer and writer who effectively stopped flying between gigs back in 2019. Although her commitment to the environment has not wavered, there have been missed opportunities as a result.

“Not flying has meant saying no to a lot of gigs and perhaps also receiving less offers, as hypermobility is rewarded in a gigging economy,” she explains. “I also turn down gigs in places whose values seem too far away from mine.”

While this approach can be gratifying, there is a precarity surrounding Nono’s creative life which she is all too aware of.

“I don’t know if I’ll be living like this forever,” she states. “It’s incredibly rewarding to stay grounded, make the connections that I make and grow into my artistic practice at this pace. But I don’t know if it’s physically or financially possible in the long term, even given all my privileges. Sometimes the cognitive dissonance with some of the environments I am working with makes me doubt.”

“Nothing brings me as much joy as sharing music with people but we have to be creative and trust that this feeling can take many shapes, including and especially those that don’t come at the cost of so many other forms of life.”

In the future, Nono is plotting an Asia and Australia land and sea tour in October 2026 and will likely be gone for at least a year. Instead of one of us not flying ever again, she argues for greater solidarity and support as a wider dance music community.

“The conversations I am interested in would approach mobility justice in a holistic way, talk about passport privilege, border repression,” Nono says. “Likewise, sustainability should be approached from all angles, including material and emotional sustainability and I do argue for financial transparency, something I've increasingly tried to offer about my own situation in my newsletter. The thing about imperial modes of living is that they really aren’t just about individual consumer choices - they are embedded in infrastructure, policy, and global capitalism.”

From these conversations, there’s clearly an acknowledgment that what has gone before cannot continue indefinitely and that collective effort can at least become more organized and present. From focusing on smaller events to leaning into alternative travel, there is another code of practice there if we look hard enough.

“For a long time I did not have enough weight to apply it and to push my label and booking team to follow sustainability but now I can,” says acclaimed Tunisian producer and DJ, Deena Abdelwahed.

“Concretely: I have learned to say no to one-shot gigs that require flying very far. I try to accept bookings grouped by region, dates that are close to one another. I take long trains, up to six hours, or I combine train and flight. I prefer clubs to festivals. And I group shows on a single trip whenever possible.”

The battle is far from over - and as challenging as it may be to continue pushing, our daily habits, fresh commitments and ongoing innovation within events need to be looked at for inspiration.

“I would like to see more of the mainstream music industry champion people and the planet more,” says Madame Gandhi. “If we as a music industry do not have buy-in from the Coachella and Universal Music groups of the world, it makes it much more difficult to make wild changes.”

“With that said, when I spend most of my time in the UK and Europe, I'm also so inspired to see community-led effort in terms of grassroots sustainability, and modeling what could be possible at a higher level. I think the bigger festivals learn from the smaller ones, and are making smart changes, and that gives me hope.”

Learn more about the initiatives and organizations discussed in the article through the resources below:

• A Greener Future (AGF)
• DJs for Climate Action
• Fictions & Reflections
• A Greener Future
• EarthPercent