INTRODUCING: GREENING THE GIG:
An Entertainment Venue Sustainability Toolkit
What is this toolkit, why did we make it, and who is it for?
This toolkit is designed as a broad, adaptable guide for entertainment venues looking to integrate sustainability into their operations, culture, and brand identity. Rather than offering one-size-fits-all solutions, it provides a framework for venues to explore what “going green” looks like in their own context, whether that means reducing waste, cutting energy use, improving fan engagement, or aligning staff and artists around shared values.
We created this toolkit because music sits at the heart of culture. Venues aren’t just places where people gather, but they’re also where ideas, movements, and shared values take root. By leading with sustainability, venues have the power to set trends, influence audiences, and make environmental stewardship feel exciting and accessible.
At the same time, sustainable operations are simply smart business: they lower long-term costs, strengthen community relationships, and future-proof organizations in a changing policy world. This toolkit aims to show that doing the right thing for the planet isn’t just good business, it’s also living proof that caring is cool again.
Methodologies
Methodologies
Over the academic year of 2024-2025, a graduate consultant capstone team from CU Boulder's Masters of the Environment spent roughly 500 hours per consultant conducting a deep dive into how to make the music industry more sustainable. From their work, they not only developed a 5-year Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) for their partner, Z2 Entertainment LLC, but also created a generalized toolkit for the broader industry nationwide.
Some of their approaches included a combination of quantitative data collection, stakeholder collaboration, and scenario modeling to ensure accuracy and impact. The team conducted facility energy and financial analyses, including HVAC, roof, and maintenance calculations, using baseline metrics, cost extrapolation, and energy savings projections. They implemented detailed waste audits at multiple music venues in Boulder to assess local diversion rates, contamination issues, and sorting practices, alongside surveys designed through iterative feedback and pilot testing to capture audience and staff perspectives. Altogether, these methods combined technical assessments with community-informed insights to build a realistic and actionable foundation for Z2’s Sustainability Action Plan, and therefore created a backbone from which they could then author this Entertainment Venue Sustainability Toolkit
FACILITES
EXPLAINING THE TOOLKIT
OPERATIONS
COMMUNICATIONS
Communication is the wind in which the seeds of change can spread. Approaches range from the team behind the scenes, to the fans in the crowd, to the artists on stage. But one consistent theme is that strong communication keeps everyone aligned and ensures that sustainability isn’t just an initiative or a box to check. No, but rather a story lived and told, inspiring change across all levels of the community. Whether it’s internal teamwork, external storytelling, or client and artist engagement, clear and consistent communication turns values into visible action and culture into community.
FUNDING
Background Context
CU Boulder MENV
The Master of the Environment (MENV) program at the University of Colorado Boulder is an interdisciplinary, practice-based graduate program that prepares students to address complex environmental challenges through leadership, innovation, and collaboration. The program connects students with diverse types of industry partners, equipping them with the technical knowledge, strategic thinking, and hands-on experience needed to drive meaningful sustainability solutions across interdisciplinary sectors.
CAPSTONE PROJECTS
The Capstone Project is the culminating experience of CU Boulder’s Master of the Environment (MENV) program, providing students with the opportunity to apply their academic training to real-world environmental challenges. Working in interdisciplinary teams, students partner with external organizations ranging from nonprofits and businesses to government agencies to develop actionable sustainability strategies and deliver professional-grade deliverables and recommendations that create measurable impact.