Presentation for the Deep in the Woods festival, Belgium 2013

How to shift the music industry

towards a more

sustainable track?

Hi, my name is Leen Gorissen. I’m a transition researcher @

VITO andan engaged music lover!

BUT I am getting increasingly more worried about this:

Yes, I am aware that

this is probably not very

rock’n roll…

READING FESTIVAL @ David White

Already 172 tonnes of garbage collected at the Ghent festival

One out of 4 festival attendants leaves their tent

This is part of CULTURE. And culture is very difficult to change. But should we

just ignore or accept this?

We need a new

definition of ‘cool’.

Because this MATTERS and in more than one regard!

DID YOU KNOW THAT

Every 5 minutes 2 million plastic bottles are thrown away in the

US…

© C

hris

Jor

dan

…and plastic that isn’t recycled ends up in our oceans creating huge underwater islands of plastic soup like in the Pacific...

…ENDANGERING and KILLING all marine life…

.

© C

hris

Jor

dan

Photo courtesy of Ron Prendergast

…but also ends up on your plate…

.

…and eventually into your favorite destinations…

Is this how you would want to spend your holiday?

…and eventually into your favorite destinations…

DID YOU KNOW THAT

We are consuming more resources than the planet can generate in 1 year:

World Overshoot Day

That is stealing from the future!

And trouble will begin before we run out…

There’s moreLet’s look at some numbers…

Polar bears: fewer than 25.000 (Polar bear international)

Western Pacific grey whales: fewer than

130 (IUCN)

Sumatran tigers: fewer than 400 (WWF)

Humans (25/08/2013):

7.174.486.209 and growing

Estimated number of

Polar bears: fewer than 25.000 (Polar bear international)

Western Pacific grey whales: fewer than

130 (IUCN)

Sumatran tigers: fewer than 400 (WWF)

humans (25/08/2013):

7.174.486.209 and growing

Estimated number of

OMG

Extinct» Korhoen (Tetrao tetrix)» Kemphaan (Philomachus pugnax)» Zwarte Stern (Chlidonias niger)» Duinpieper (Anthus campestris)» Hop (Upupa epops)» Ortolaan (Emberiza hortulana)

Threatened with extinction» Roerdomp (Botaurus stellaris) » Woudaap (Ixobrychus minutus) » Grauwe Kiekendief (Circus pygargus) » Kwartelkoning (Crex crex) » Strandplevier (Charadrius alexandrinus) » Watersnip (Gallinago gallinago) » Dwergstern (Sterna albifrons)» Grote Stern (Sterna scandvicensis) » Draaihals (Jynx torquilla) » Kuifleeuwerik (Galerida cristata) » Paapje (Saxicola rubetra) » Tapuit (Oenanthe oenanthe) » Snor (Locustella luscinioides) » Grote Karekiet (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) » Grauwe Klauwier (Lanius collurio) » Klapekster (Lanius excubitor)

Seriously threatened• Zomertaling (Anas querquedula) • Porseleinhoen (Porzana porzana) • Zomertortel (Streptopelia turtur) • Kramsvogel (Turdus pilaris) • Graspieper (Anthus pratensis) • Boompieper (Anthus trivialis) • Rietzanger (Acrocephahus schoenobaenus) • Wielewaal (Oriolus oriolus) • Goudvink (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) • Geelgors (Emberiza citrinella) • Grauwe Gors (Miliaria calandra) • Rietgors (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Vulnerable• Patrijs (Perdix perdix) • Kluut (Recurvirostra avocetta) • Tureluur (Tringa totanus) • Kleine Mantelmeeuw (Larus fuscus) • Visdief (Sterna hirundo) • Nachtzwaluw (Caprimulgus europaeus) • Veldleeuwerik (Alauda arvensis) • Boomleeuwerik (Lullula arborea) • Huiszwaluw (Delichon urbica) • Gekraagde Roodstaart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) • Nachtegaal (Luscinia megarhynchos) (3c)• Matkop (Parus montanus)

Birds in Belgium

Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?

e.g. Barnowski et al Nature 2011

© Tiantian Zhang

BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a serious problem

Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?

e.g. Barnowski et al Nature 2011

© Tiantian Zhang

BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a serious problem

All those diverse species together form a living system. Our web of life.

Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?

e.g. Barnowski et al Nature 2011

© Tiantian Zhang

BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a serious problem

All those diverse species together form a living system. Our web of life.

Imagine that one of our designed

systems loses components

uncontrollably

Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?

e.g. Barnowski et al Nature 2011

© Tiantian Zhang

BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a serious problem

All those diverse species together form a living system. Our web of life.

Imagine that one of our designed

systems loses components

uncontrolably

What if all the screws in your car disappear while you are

driving.

Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?

e.g. Barnowski et al Nature 2011

© Tiantian Zhang

BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a serious problem

All those diverse species together form a living system. Our web of life.

Imagine that one of our designed

systems loses components

uncontrolably

What if all the screws in your car disappear while you are

driving. What is the chance of arriving safely?

Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?

e.g. Barnowski et al Nature 2011

© Tiantian Zhang

BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a serious problem

All those diverse species together form a living system. Our web of life.

Loss of biodiversity threatens our LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM!

Imagine that one of our designed

systems loses components

uncontrolably.

What if all the screws in your car disappear while you are

driving. What is the chance of arriving safely?

And there’s more…

And doing this will not make it go away

And doing this will not make it go away

This doesn’t seem very ‘sapiens’ to me

How come

that we have

become so good at this?

And doing this will not make it go away

So, what now?

‘The future is NOT some place we are going to but one we are creating.The paths are not to be found but

made and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the

destination’ John Schaar - Futurist

This is something we tend to forget in our

ratrace world…

Transformational times ask

for transformational change!

So, let’s get our heads out of the sand and start thinking

about

…what kind of transition we want?

Our consumption levels, pollution levels and loss of natural habitats are DECREASING our

resilience

While this is

where I would

want to go

…and where we are heading?

This is the

track we are

on

Why not create the future we want?…and start thinking of how we can influence

the transition

1. Stop, pauze and rethink‘The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking

that created the situation’Albert Einstein

1. Stop, pauze and rethink‘The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking

that created the situation’Albert Einstein

Yet we keep throwing ‘old’ solutions to ‘new’ problems… and

keep reinforcing leadership of the old style in positions that need new leaders

2. Then revise and reorient

What future do we want?What is needed to develop sustainably? What is appropriate?What needs to change to realise the future we want?How can we organize the transition?

ASK

3. Then start acting

Don’t wait for others to take action. They are waiting for you!

From the old way of thinking to a new way of thinking?

exploitation cooperation

extract value add value

take – make – dispose closed lean cycles

overconsumption sufficiency

From old, unsuitable structures to new structures?

vertical horizontal

hierarchical networks

top-down bottom-up

central decentral

pillars communities

So how can we shift

From old steering strategies to new navigation approaches?

mono-actor networks

control and demand adaptation and anticipation

certainty uncertainty

simplicity complexity

Let’s get back to the story

How can the music industry evolve towards a more

sustainable track?From a transition framework

we know that incremental change is not going to be

enough.

What we need is a RADICAL shift in culture, structure and

practice

How can the music industry evolve towards a more

sustainable track?From a transition framework

we know that incremental change is not going to be

enough.

What we need is a RADICAL shift in culture, structure and

practice

That means: ‘doing things

better’

Which means:

‘doing better things’

So how can the music industry evolve towards a more sustainable track?So, who has the MOST impact?

So how can the music industry evolve towards a more sustainable track?So, who has the MOST impact?

And who has the most

impact on them?

Let’sDesign a process of

change

1. Show leadership and envision how a sustainable music sector can look like!

» That requires some serious out-of-the-box thinking

» For that we will need to bring together a group of frontrunners, pioneers and visionary thinkers that co-create a new vision

2. Identify transition pathways of how to realize the vision

» That requires people with guts and impact!

» Identify points of intervention to transform the current business mentality, business models and organisational culture

3. Start up transition experiments

» ‘Learning by doing’ and ‘doing by learning’

» That allow us to learn about barrieres and enablers, about context and scale…

» Then re-adjust, reorient, scale up…

Essential to this is

A GOOD REFORM AGENDA

supported by committed peopleand serious cooperation

Why is this so important?

“The global crisis of unsustainability is not only a crisis of the hardware of civilization, it is also a crisis of the software of minds. The search for a more sustainable development has, so far, been focusing too much on hardware updates, such as new technologies, economic incentives, policies and regulations, and too little on software revisions, that is the cultural transformations affecting our ways of knowing, learning, valuing and acting together. The cultural software is, nevertheless, at least as much part of the fundamental infrastructure of a society as its material hardware.”

Sacha Kagan, 2012

Music is an essential part of the software of

minds

So let’s start by transitioning the music sector towards a more

sustainable track.Let’s build the future we want!

Pic courtesy http://www.chaoswallpapers.com/green_apple_is_live_music_energy_great_dj_background-wallpapers.html

What can you do as an engaged music lover?

1. Think about the music system and its impact on the planet. How does it deal with scarce resources and energy? How does it impact waste and pollution?

2. Reflect upon ways of how we can shift the industry from extracting value to adding value.

3. Talk to your friends about this.

4. Start asking these questions to the people that have impact: artists, organisers,… Use new media such as twitter to fuel a societal debate.

5. Become the change you want to see.

The thinking presented in this presentation is ‘work in progress’ and based on my experience working as a

transition researcher at VITO, Belgium

It arose in my free time and in my own name

Let’s cooperate to change the system:

twitter: L_gori or leen.gorissen@vito.be