IMPALA LAUNCHES NEW CLIMATE PROJECT CO-FUNDED BY THE EU

Later this month, IMPALA will be launching the first planned activities of its new Climate Training and Standards project IMPACTS. This EU funded project aims to build new climate literacy capacity for independent music companies across Europe to help them lower their carbon footprint.

As part of its broader sustainability work, IMPALA has already developed hands-on advice for its nearly 6000 members, SME music companies and self-releasing artists, as well as tools such as a bespoke carbon calculator (the first of its kind in the music sector) with Julie’s Bicycle, for its members to track their footprint. The sector now needs training on how to use these new tools, to develop new capacity and skills at scale.

The IMPACTS project will offer customised climate literacy training by international and local experts, in six territories across Europe (Germany, Spain, Italy, Balkans, Finland, Denmark). This will include guidance on using the carbon calculator, encouraging capacity building in the sector and supporting IMPALA’s members in green recovery actions. The first of these six webinars is taking place on September 29^th, for the members of VUT, the German association of independent music entrepreneurs. VUT members can register here.

The project will also aim to establish a framework to start looking at how sector-wide benchmarks and standards might be developed. This will be the role of IMPALA’s Climate Analysis Group, composed of several IMPALA members spearheading the climate discussion and climate experts from Julie’s Bicycle and Thema 1, who will be meeting on a monthly basis throughout the project.

In addition, IMPACTS will contribute to the awareness-raising of positive stories and best practices, as a catalyst for further change promoting climate optimism and the value of both individual and collective actions. You can read about some of these stories and practices on the dedicated blog on the IMPACTS page and on IMPALA’s social media channels.

Horst Weidenmüller, Chair of IMPALA’s sustainability task force and CEO of !K7, commented: “Carbon accounting should be as simple as possible and accessible to all companies across Europe. That’s why we built the first bespoke carbon calculator for independent music companies with Julie’s Bicycle. IMPACTS will help us to start rolling out the tool and test climate readiness in different territories.”

Helen Smith, IMPALA’s Executive Chair, added: “It is great to see that this EU funded call recognised the value of this project by awarding it the highest points among all submitted projects and saw it as a first step in promoting climate literacy and establishing sectorial standards across Europe. We are hoping IMPACTS will serve as a good basis for further climate projects on a more comprehensive scale and with the appropriate support from EU bodies, on the policy-making level and the financial level as well.”

This project is co-funded by the European Union, within the Music Moves Europe envelope managed by MusicAIRE. You can find the full list of awarded projects here and more information about the IMPACTS project here.