Take the Green Train was initiated in 2014 and has been an on-going consultative process with the jazz community to understand priorities, outline challenges, and find the opportunities in new, more environmentally sustainable ways of working.
“The hardest thing to change is this idea that all of this (environmental sustainability) is unuseful and cannot be aligned with other organisational priorities. We need to challenge this narrative.“
– Attendee, Take the Green Train Seminar, April 2015
To date, the project has entailed:
- A working group session on sustainability at the Europe Jazz Conference in Helsinki, Finland, September 2014
- A full-day seminar on environmental sustainability in music as part of the Gateshead International Jazz Festival at the Sage Gateshead, UK, in April 2015
- A working group session on sustainability at the Europe Jazz Conference in Budapest, Hungary, September 2015
- The publication and acceptance of a Green Manifesto for the Europe Jazz Network in October 2015
- A session on environmental sustainability at WOMEX in November 2015
- An action-research project on green touring comprised of two brief European tours by Evan Parker in February and April 2016
- A Conference in the framework of 12 Points Festival for emerging talents in the European jazz scene in Aarhus (Denmark) to present the outcomes of the project and some best practices identified inside the EJN membership about environmental sustainability, July 2017
- The publication of the EJN Green Rider, that was used for years as an internal document, as a public set of guidelines and tips for programmers, artists, agents and audience
- The approval in October 2023 by the Board of Directors of EJN of a Sustainability Policy for our activities.
“The hardest thing to change is this idea that all of this (environmental sustainability) is unuseful and cannot be aligned with other organisational priorities. We need to challenge this narrative.“
– Attendee, Take the Green Train Seminar, April 2015
To date, the project has entailed:
- A working group session on sustainability at the Europe Jazz Conference in Helsinki, Finland, September 2014
- A full-day seminar on environmental sustainability in music as part of the Gateshead International Jazz Festival at the Sage Gateshead, UK, in April 2015
- A working group session on sustainability at the Europe Jazz Conference in Budapest, Hungary, September 2015
- The publication and acceptance of a Green Manifesto for the Europe Jazz Network in October 2015
- A session on environmental sustainability at WOMEX in November 2015
- An action-research project on green touring comprised of two brief European tours by Evan Parker in February and April 2016
- A Conference in the framework of 12 Points Festival for emerging talents in the European jazz scene in Aarhus (Denmark) to present the outcomes of the project and some best practices identified inside the EJN membership about environmental sustainability, July 2017
- The publication of the EJN Green Rider, that was used for years as an internal document, as a public set of guidelines and tips for programmers, artists, agents and audience
- The approval in October 2023 by the Board of Directors of EJN of a Sustainability Policy for our activities.
