GreenBeat Nexus: Stop Touring or Improve Routing?

GreenBeat Nexus is a project of the Music Moves Europe Initiative, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme. It addresses eco-responsibility in the European Music sector. Five Consortium partners have gathered to analyse the needs of the music sector, to develop training models and to offer financial support.

GreenBeat Nexus jumped on the train of the “Green transition of the Music Sector” in January 2026, as the EU had called for in late 2024 (source: ‘Creative Europe: new call for the greening of the music sector’).

Five organisations from the fields of music (European Music Council), eco-sustainability (The Green Room), mobility (On the Move), research (KEA-European Affairs) and grants management (Inova+, as lead partner) joined forces to address climate change in a holistic way. A shift in mindsets at all levels is needed to tackle the climate crisis, and music has a huge potential to bring about societal change at large. Leading by example with decarbonising music activities is one key method to achieve this, but by far not the only one.

The project kicked off with a Blueprint Sprint in March 2026. Key stakeholders from the European music sector met with sustainability experts in the beautiful green Bad Honnef in the Rhine area of Germany. Invited participants arrived from various European countries, representing diverse musical genres, professions and institutions. They all came with different levels of greening expertise.

But of course, the “green transition” did not start with GreenBeat Nexus. The journey began years, even decades ago. A lot of knowledge, tools, training methods and guidelines are already available and in use. Additionally, many music practitioners have a great will to act more and more eco-responsibly. Be it at a grassroots or institutional level, related to amateur, community or professional music making, across different styles and musical genres.

Where to start?

At the same time, there is still a lot of confusion about where and how to start. Which tools are best adapted to what kind of context? How much carbon calculation (time investment) is actually needed? Let alone the daunting thought that eco-friendliness might cost a lot of money. We sometimes even come across controversial ideas: do we need to develop more and other tools, or should we adapt the existing ones?

How about fairness?

Decarbonising efforts aside, there are many more questions related to the green transition which GreenBeat Nexus will need to address. To what extent could the “green transition of the music sector” (and making improvements towards greener music activities) have a relevant impact on reducing global warming? What about other far more polluting industry sectors not taking on responsibility, as political promises and legal obligations fall short?

Should we rather focus on societal transformation at large, and reflect on how music can contribute? How can we make sure that less privileged groups, who are at the same time the most affected by global warming, are not left behind by the greening efforts of the more privileged ones? In Europe, but also, and even more importantly, in the Global South. And last but not least: how can we care for and protect music making when we are facing challenging conditions because of heatwaves, floods and other effects of global warming?

GreenBeat Nexus is just at its beginning. With the Blueprint Sprint, we started to collect what is already there, what works well and what is missing. For 4 years, we will investigate how existing tools can be adapted to different needs, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. Based on a thorough needs analysis, the project will develop scalable training models and offer financial support for music projects that can demonstrate a shift in mindset towards societal transformation.

Rather than simply aiming to “do less harm”, the project will focus on how the music sector can actively “do more good” using the full potential of the sector to lead by example and to raise awareness through artistic projects.

Calls will be out in December 2026. Stay tuned and join the course!