Embracing Sustainability of Live Events Gear: Uniting for a Greener Future in Live Events

With the increasing size and complexity of shows, live events carry a significant environmental impact, contributing to carbon emissions, waste generation, and resource depletion. From conferences and sporting events to large music festivals, these gatherings often require extensive energy consumption, transportation, and the use of single-use products. The carbon footprint of live events can be substantial, with emissions from venues, trucking, flights, and power generation. Additionally, the waste generated from these events, including food waste, plastic bottles, and other single-use items, adds to the environmental burden.

It is essential for the live events gear industry to acknowledge and address these impacts to create a more sustainable future. One of the most practical levers available to our industry is embracing a circular economy for production equipment, keeping gear in productive use longer, reducing unnecessary new manufacturing, and minimizing idle inventory that sits unused.

The Role of Online Marketplaces Like GearSource® in a Circular Economy

Marketplaces have fundamentally transformed the way businesses buy and sell goods. In the live events space, that shift matters because used gear is often the smartest sustainability decision you can make. When high quality equipment stays in circulation, it reduces the demand for new production, the extraction of raw materials, and the energy used in manufacturing. That translates directly into lower environmental impact.

GearSource supports this circular economy by making it easier for companies to buy and sell pre-owned professional audio, lighting, video, and staging equipment. By facilitating reuse and repurposing at scale, GearSource helps extend product lifecycles, reduce waste, and keep perfectly viable gear working in the field rather than being replaced prematurely.

GearShare® and Cross-Rentals
Sustainability Through Access Over Ownership

Sustainability is not only about buying used gear. It is also about using the gear that already exists more efficiently. That is where cross-rentals become a major sustainability win.

GearShare was built to promote smarter cross-rentals between rental and production companies. Cross-rental behavior reduces the pressure to purchase new gear for short-term needs, peak season spikes, one-off shows, or tour-specific inventory gaps. Instead of buying additional equipment that may sit idle after the project, companies can access what they need for the exact timeframe required.

Cross-rentals support sustainability in several important ways:

• Reducing overbuilding of inventory: Fewer “just in case” purchases means less manufacturing demand and less future surplus gear.
• Increasing utilization of existing assets: Gear that is already in the market gets used more often, which improves the efficiency of the total inventory footprint of the industry.
• Supporting a circular “use cycle,” not just a resale cycle: Sustainability improves when gear is both reused and better utilized between resale events.
• Enabling smarter logistics choices: When companies can see availability and source closer options, cross-rentals can reduce unnecessary long-distance shipping and repositioning.

In simple terms, GearSource supports sustainability by extending the life of equipment through resale. GearShare supports sustainability by maximizing the use of equipment through access and sharing. Together, they create a more complete sustainability engine for live events gear.

Collaboration and Education
Uniting for a Greener Future

Addressing sustainability and circularity in live events gear requires collaboration and education. Industry stakeholders, including event organizers, venues, manufacturers, vendors, and artists, all play a role in moving the industry forward. This can be achieved through partnerships and initiatives that promote circularity, such as:

• Incentives to trade in, re-market, or redeploy existing inventories through platforms like GearSource
• Programs that encourage cross-rental adoption to reduce unnecessary capital purchases and improve utilization through GearShare
• Smarter planning practices that prioritize access, sharing, and reuse before buying new gear
• Industry education that highlights sustainability wins that also improve business outcomes, like utilization, ROI, and reduced idle inventory

GearSource® and GearShare® serve a unique and vital role in evolving the live events industry toward a more sustainable and efficient future. By supporting both resale and cross-rentals, they help the industry reduce waste, conserve resources, and lower environmental impact, while still delivering the world-class productions audiences expect.