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Hi, hello. I'm beaming like a Cheshire cat today because after being in a big ole' Covid holding pattern for forever, today we finally get to announce the next expansion to the FEAT. universe... the SOLAR SLICE.
The Solar Slice a 1.5% ticketing surcharge that will fund crucial carbon reduction measures for the live music and entertainment sector. This is designed to be a next level manoeuvre to bake sustainability into the DNA of all live events coming out of Covid, and to provide the money that's necessary to prioritise serious climate action.
The Solar Slice is something that's built into the price from the get-go. So for a $50 ticket, this would mean 0.75 cents will be used to make the event sustainable. Artists can vary this price if needed to make the tour work, but by and large we are aiming for the 1.5% ballpark to symbolically reinforce the 1.5 degree warming target of the Paris Climate Agreement.
This is a concept I first dreamt up in 2018, and today, with the help of many people, it's having a ticketing debut with Lime Cordiale - the genuinely lovely, big-hearted & good-haired brother duo who also took out an ARIA award for BEST AUSTRALIAN LIVE ACT last week.
Oli and Louis, in collaboration with Chugg Music, have opted to contribute $1 from every ticket sold to the Squeeze national tour... which is huge. Depending on the number of tickets sold, this will free up approximately $50,000 - 70,000K of dedicated sustainability funds that otherwise would not exist.
We got our carbon accountant partners Ndevr Environmental to estimate the projected tour’s carbon footprint, and it came in at 15,800 tonnes CO2 for the entire tour, or 2,460 tonnes CO2 per show, which is roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 1000 Australian households.
Through FEAT. Live these Solar Slice funds will be dedicated to calculating and reducing the emissions hot spots for the tour and building new low-carbon operation strategies to make future tours even lower impact. We've spend the majority of the pandemic consulting with the brightest-brains and regenerative-minded thinkers to come up with the right roadmap - carbon analysts, climate scientists, First Nations leaders, clean energy business leaders and brainiacs.
So how exactly will this be used to rapidly drive down the emissions of live entertainment? Great question (with a detailed and evolving answer which we'll be rolling out across the new few partner announcements). Given this is a pilot project, there is a large emphasis on data collection to properly understand the emissions blue print of the Australian music touring scene so we can apply this knowledge broadly across all future tours.
For Lime Cordiale, the Solar Slice pilot program will target the following outcomes:
Calculate a robust carbon footprint for the entire tour in order to identify emissions hotspots, and levers for reduction. Externally validate this footprint data.
Incorporate a solar array at a selected venue to capture energy-use data and partially power the event operations with clean energy.
Purchase quality offsets to further minimise the tour footprint where it is not possible to reduce.
Provide funding to Green Music Australia to assist on best practice for waste management, ethical merchandise, and plastic-free event operations.
Direct a percentage of the Solar Slice to Pay The Rent initiatives to transfer touring wealth towards the sovereignty of the Indigenous community.
At the end of The Squeeze tour, FEAT. Live will be able share exactly how the Solar Slice revenue was spent.
We've been developing a two-year investment pipeline to transform the live events industry into a super low-carbon operation. There's so much more to explain on this matter, but we'll leave it here for now.
In the meantime we'd love to know your gut reactions to the Solar Slice - good or bad - so hit us back on our socials if you want to share your thoughts with the team.
H