Innovation

AEG Presents’ innovation relates to how they have implemented practices to focus on waste reduction and water conservation.

The company shifted to focus on diversion rates and how they could divert the trash from going into landfills, which comes along with holding a live entertainment event. AEG Worldwide, AEG Presents’ parent company, had a waste goal to, “divert 70% of waste from landfill across all operations by 2020”, not just AEG Presents. By 2018, the company was consistently at a 60% rate already. Knowing that the nature of these events is generating trash that needs to be further processed, they also strive to find alternatives to just dumping in landfills or incineration processes, which terribly damage the environment.

The water conservation goal is to reduce potable water consumption at water stressed sites by 4.4% per year.” Using the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct tool, they are able to categorize which locations have high risk that they operate in, focusing on reduced consumption in those areas and getting the rates based on benchmarks from city ordinances. In 2018, they were directly on target with their goal benchmarks, projected to continue with a positive trend.

Within AEG Presents, Sofia identified two recent events produced by them, “Cali Vibes and Electric Forest”, in which they have been implementing these practices. At both of these, a no bottle policy was enforced, as well as the attendees picking up trash, and the company collected and disposed of the waste at the end ethically. Sofia also mentioned the recent efforts at the Fifa World Cup, how “fans from Japan were picking up waste from the other fans”, and said this is exactly what they have been practicing at their events, which has been a great part of their innovation.

Inspiration

The inspiration within the company’s step toward responsible consumption especially came from the knowledge that musical festivals and live entertainment events leave behind a huge carbon footprint. This footprint— including excessive water waste, landfill, and carbon emissions— impacts the planet permanently, unless something is done to counteract these actions. Sofia laid out AEG Presents’ thought process perfectly when she said, “Every company adds to carbon emission. How can we solve it and make it better?”.

AEG Worldwide constantly strives “for excellence in embedding sustainability throughout [their] business.” They are aware that they are in a unique position, having a broad network and fan engagement that allows them to raise awareness about environmental sustainability. Knowing people will see and hear their message, they are using their reach for good and have set in their water conservation and waste reduction programs to offset the carbon footprint that naturally comes with these live events put on by AEG Presents.

The company’s goal is, “to serve as an industry leader in environmental program implementation and stewardship through a partnership with…[the] community,” so this is what fuels them to create the innovations. Sofia added her personal experience with what made her like the company, even before she started working at AEG, “I really valued innovation and sustainability… and am always involved in the mentality that I need to create a good experience for customers and make revenue, while also thinking about the impact we are leaving on the environment.”

Overall impact

The organization’s goal is to have an overall impact on improving the environment and encouraging others to be aware of ways in which they can be sustainable. One way that AEG has done this is by creating the Electricology program at one of their music festivals, Electric Forest. This program encouraged festival goers to collect trash in exchange for points that they can use to win prizes. Kohn Dwight, Operations Director for the festival, stated that, “Our goal is not only to make sure materials get recycled, but also to change behavior so that people generate less waste at the festival and in their daily lives.”

AEG has also created Climate Positive Touring (CPT) which is a group of people who are working to make the live entertainment industry more sustainable. They are creating a guide for venues to follow so they can reach net zero or improve carbon emissions. Their purpose is to have a greener future and in order to reach this, CPT is looking for solutions in how they can implement sustainability to their business practices. They are working with climate justice programs to learn more about what is affecting the environment negatively and to figure out what they can do on their part to improve it. The Chairman and CEO of AEG Presents, Jay Marciano, said, “AEG Presents has the ability and structure to really make a global impact in moving our entire business – which has had a traditionally significant carbon footprint – toward a zero emissions future.” This company realizes that they have the ability and resources to help reduce carbon emissions. They are continuing to stay true to their mission and company values through their impact.

Business benefit

AEG Presents is an industry leader in the entertainment sector. Live music is a very profitable business that also creates a lot of single-use waste from all the food and beverages sold during the events that also tend to be outdoors creating pollution. Boasting major music festivals, including the biggest music festival–Coachella–with over 250,000 festival-goers, AEG Presents is primed to lead the market in sustainability as well.

Referring back to the company’s goal of leading the industry in sustainability along with the community, AEG Presents is addressing that in a number of ways including reducing emissions, water usage, waste, increasing community efforts and incentives, and investing in development of energy efficient sound generators.

Although being environmentally conscious is not necessarily conflated with profits, all of these initiatives create both tangible and intangible financial benefits. Starting with tangibles, AEG Presents has focused on diverting trash from landfills and reducing water usage and emission reduction, successfully hitting targets for their water usage and emission reduction. This shows consumers that they care about conservation, which is something companies should all adopt ethically and financially. This tangibly helps to maintain the environment which benefits everyone, and intangibly shows ethical practices in business, which is very valuable in convincing consumers to continue to patronize, and even spend more on the business, especially those that value sustainability. As a recent Forbes article stated it best, “Nearly 90% of Gen X consumers said they would be willing to spend…more for sustainable products”. With AEG Presents’ commitment to sustainability, they are meeting the curve in adhering to consumer patterns in the current and upcoming generations, while building innovations into their already existing business practices.

Social and environmental benefit

The company is spearheading innovation and sustainability in their industry. They have used their popularity in the industry as a platform to promote a greener future. AEG Presents has implemented company wide actions to decrease their carbon footprint.

AEG Presents introduced AEG 1Earth in 2007 with the goal of “reducing the company’s environmental footprint and raising public awareness about important issues facing their industry, communities and planet”. AEG Presents has done an excellent job following the parent company’s initiative and its positive impact on the planet is evident. By 2018, AEG Presents had made great progress in shrinking their environmental footprint. For example, AEG was able to restore 1,000,000 gallons of water, reduce carbon emissions by 35,883 metric tons in one year, divert 56% of their waste from landfills, and generate 8,595,000 kilowatt hours of solar power.

The organization is a genuine leader in sustainable innovation. Their conservation programs have allowed them to find ways to do more while using less. Their focus on water reduction, carbon reduction, and waste management are all essential components to consuming and producing responsibly. If more companies dedicate resources to sustainable innovation, like AEG does, the global impact on the planet will be tremendous.

Interview

Sofia Booth, Account Executive