Early Saturday morning, students awoke to 22 trucks parked near the JMA Wireless Dome. That afternoon, Sir Elton John arrived by jet in Syracuse. By early evening, Syracuse University’s parking lots were filled with hundreds of cars and buses, each with thousands of concertgoers.

Campus was blasting-off with excitement for his Farewell Tour concert. By early morning the next day, nearly zero visible evidence of the massive event existed beyond videos, memories and the packing of equipment in the Dome. While it was a memorable night, SU missed how unsustainable large-scale concerts can be, including Elton John’s Farewell Tour.

The scenes from John’s concert in Syracuse depict the same scenario from every location of the singer’s massive Farewell Tour. John and his entourage travel on a private jet with 22 trucks from city to city nearly every day during the tour. John’s private jet has registered six flights since Sept. 9. The scope of the farewell tour’s logistics is emblematic of the rest of the live music industry and their high-impact concerts.

A private jet emissions calculator estimated that in four days, emissions from Elton John’s Bombardier Global Express account for roughly 15 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The average American household emits 16 tons of CO2 in an entire year.

Elton John’s carbon emissions are aligned with others who have faced scrutiny for their excessive usage of private aviation. In July 2022, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian came under fire for flights as short as ten minutes. Comparatively, John’s jet registered a flight as short as 23 minutes this week alone, but he avoided much of the spotlight when it came to such unnecessary flights. The flights and their carbon emissions remain a fine detail of what SU misses when hosting major events such as concerts.

Other logistics, including the venue’s energy usage and the environmental impact of transporting equipment, personnel and concertgoers, contribute to carbon emissions associated with major concerts like John’s.

SU’s renovations across its campus relatively balance some of these carbon emissions associated with energy usage. Campus carbon emissions dropped 16% between the years of 2011 and 2019. This is largely due to increases in efficiency such as making buildings LEED Certified, which helps encourage improvements in energy efficiency. Despite these improvements, they do not address the massive increase in transportation emissions that large-scale events generate. This shows that much of the responsibility to limit climate impact falls on the performers themselves and how they mitigate the impact of their tours.

An abundance of resources is available to performers to help reduce their climate impacts. For example, the REVERB group provides eco-contracting for the likes of Harry Styles, The Lumineers and other touring groups that otherwise would have higher environmental impacts. The organization helps artists implement emissions-reducing campaigns and partnerships with industry and environmental NGOs. Performers such as Elton John, whose habits do not reflect the urgency of the climate crisis, need to utilize these services.

SU needs to question how hosting such extravagant events conflict with their climate impact goals. While SU is making improvements to campus as a venue, inviting short-term events that drastically increase carbon emissions actively goes against progress to making campus more sustainable. Hosting performers that actively work to reduce their environmental impact would more closely align with SU’s climate ambitions.

Harrison Vogt is a senior environment sustainability policy and communication and rhetorical studies dual major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at hevogt@syr.edu. He can be followed on Twitter at @VogtHarrison.

Published on September 13, 2022 at 11:12 pm