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Business News Labels & Publishers
Physical product manufacturing accounts for three quarters of record labels’ carbon emissions
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 15 June 2023
IMPALA – the pan-European organisation for the independent music community – has published a new report tracking efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the sector, informed by labels using the Carbon Calculator the trade group launched last year.
That tool is designed to help individual independent music companies – as well as the sector at large – track their carbon footprints and identify actions that can be taken to reduce the negative impact their operations have on climate and the environment.
Crunching data submitted by labels already using the tool, the new report confirms that “manufacturing of physical products contributes the greatest proportion of emissions for reporting labels, representing 76% of emissions on average. Over three quarters of this figure is attributed to vinyl production”.
“Both vinyl and CD production involve carbon-intensive extraction of raw materials”, it goes on. “Both are made predominantly from different plastics (polycarbonates and PVC), which are derived from petrochemicals, ie from oil. Pressing vinyl to create the final product also requires large amounts of energy”.
“Packaging choice also impacts the final carbon footprint of each product”, it then notes, “a plastic jewel-case CD has a much higher carbon footprint than card packaging”.
Distribution of those physical products is the second highest source of emissions, accounting for about 15%, while general label operations account for the other 9%, including things like business travel and office energy, water and waste.
The report also sets out various measures that individual labels and the label community at large can implement in order to reduce total emissions. That includes “engaging with suppliers on how products are made and packaged; making choices about how products are transported; and running your day-to-day operations more sustainably”.
The focus of the report is inevitably on the carbon footprint of activities that labels are proactively involved in, such as the manufacture and distribution of CDs and vinyl, because that’s where each label has direct access to the necessary data. With digital music, most of the activities that will have an environmental impact happen elsewhere in the supply chain.
On that, the IMPALA report says: “The necessary data is controlled by [the streaming services] and their downstream partners. Some [services] are working towards gathering data from their operations and are establishing emissions calculation methodologies”.
“Digital distribution is a vital part of our industry and makes up a significant portion of income for our members”, it adds. “We’re therefore working closely with [the streaming services] to encourage greater transparency and will support efforts towards measuring and reducing the impact of streaming”.
You can access the full report here.
