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Sustainability at Moods: the analysis

Marian Märki04-02-20264 min. read

How can we work more sustainably? This question is central to Moods. On behalf of the City of Zurich, Moods was one of six cultural institutions to carry out a climate assessment. Now we know how big our footprint is - and where we can start.

The city of Zurich wants to become climate-neutral by 2040. In order to achieve this goal, everyone must pull together, including the promotion of culture. But to tackle this, you first need to know where you stand. To this end, climate assessments were carried out at six cultural institutions in the city to see where they stand and what their main drivers are. This includes us at Moods. The assessment covered the calendar year 2024 (you may remember our survey email). It was carried out by Carbotech AG. We have now received our results - and want to share the findings with you.In total, Moods' activities caused 154 tons of CO2 in 2024. That's about the same as flying from Zurich to New York and back 53 times. But where do the big chunks of these emissions come from at Moods? Two large items stand out in the carbon footprint.
The largest share is caused by personal mobility: a whopping 51 percent of total emissions, or in other words: 78 tons of CO2. More than half of this comes from the arrival and departure of the audience, as fortunately there are many more people in front of the stage than on it. Just under a quarter is generated by the artists' travel to and from the venue and another quarter by the Moods employees' commute.
The second major item is our purchases. They account for 32 percent of total emissions, a total of 48 tons. Food for the bar is responsible for a good half of this. Purchased services cause almost 10 tons, employee catering almost 6 tons and consumables such as printer paper and our dry cleaning service almost 4 tons each.However, this carbon footprint does not mark the end of our work. Rather, it serves as a basis for us to plan the next steps - or in other words: it shows us where we can pull the lever.We see the greatest leverage in personal mobility. In our view, there are two major areas here: The audience and the artists. There are also things we can improve in terms of goods.Arrival and departure of the publicAlthough "only" 28% of Moods visitors travel by car, car journeys are responsible for over 90% of emissions in this area. The reason: a car journey causes many times more CO2 than a journey by public transport; and those who come on foot move completely emission-free. We want to raise our audience's awareness here and also point out how easily accessible Moods is by public transport. Incentives could also be created here. We are aware that there are hurdles here. It may be that there is no alternative to traveling by car or that the car has already been used and Moods is only a "stopover".
Arrival and departure of the artistsVirtually all of our emissions in this area are caused by air travel. No wonder: air travel causes many times more emissions than rail or bus travel. However, it should also be noted that in most cases, air travel is also longer than travel by train or car.In order to shift more traffic to rail, we have already created incentives for artists to switch to the train in 2025 with our Greenrider. For example, we pay for an additional overnight stay in a hotel. The challenge we face here is to make artists even more aware of this. Some international artists are not even aware that this option exists. Unfortunately, it is also sometimes not possible, as there is no train connection from the previous location to Moods or the tour schedule is very tight. In addition, the reliability of Deutsche Bahn is not the best. Fortunately, however, there have already been rebookings after we drew attention to the offer. Such things, even if they are still rare, encourage us and help us to keep going.In addition, we are already exchanging ideas with other Swiss venues to enable the bands to make several tour stops within a few days with short travel distances. We could also imagine doing this exchange with nearby venues from our neighboring countries.Food purchasesIn addition to mobility, we can also improve our footprint when it comes to shopping, especially when it comes to food at the bar. To do this, we want to expand our plant-based range and shop seasonally. We also want to make sure that we buy products from regional and organic producers.We are aware that we can do a lot ourselves - which we not only have to do, but above all want to do. This also includes reflecting on our own measures, reviewing them and talking about them. That's why it's important for us to keep you up to date and to share our thoughts on sustainability and exchange ideas with you. In this way, we can all remind ourselves that everyone can make a contribution. Because we can't be sustainable on our own, but together we can. Because not only is music more beautiful together, but also achieving a goal.

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