The O2 Arena launches new ‘Green Rider’ to tackle environmental impact of live music

London’s O2 Arena has outlined details of a new “Green Rider” that the venue will launch to reduce the environmental impact of live music.

The new move will see the 20,000 capacity venue providing artists and promoters with guidelines for how they can control their carbon footprint, reduce CO2 emissions and choose sustainable equipment and materials.

Sam Booth, the Director of Sustainability at venue operators AEG Europe said: “As a world-famous venue and industry-leaders in live entertainment, we have a responsibility to help drive forward the sustainability agenda for international touring and live events, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do with The O2’s Green Rider.”

Booth added: Working closely with organisations like A Greener Future, we’ve identified key areas where the environmental impact of a tour can be significantly reduced, and this document has been designed to directly address this. Our ambition is to create a blueprint for shows visiting the arena moving forwards, and for the wider live industry, whilst also working collaboratively with artists and touring crews to make events at The O2 more sustainable, but still a great experience for the bands and the fans.”

As well as the Green Rider, the venue will also host a selection of “carbon removed” gigs next year, including four headline dates from The 1975. The shows will utilise a number of carbon removal methods to extract the carbon in the atmosphere generated by the show.

Adam Pearson, the Commercial Director at The O2 added: “The O2 arena hosts over 200 events a year with some of the biggest acts in the world, so we have a massive opportunity here to really drive the sustainability agenda forward in our industry. Sustainability forms a core part of the venue’s business strategy as we strive to reduce our overall environmental impact and ultimately achieve net zero, but we need to be aligned with the artists, promoters and touring crews that come through the door to produce truly impactful change.”

“We’re really excited about the launch of our Green Rider and have received a really positive response from the industry so far, but the document will be ever evolving, so we welcome any suggestions for how to improve this further from the industry.”