Sustainable future of entertainment culture: an interview with Oh Eun-hye

C02gether recently launched a petition campaign demanding Songpa-gu to release carbon footprint reports of large-scale gatherings, such as concerts and sports events. Indeed, our concern for emissions released in K-pop concerts is also shared by entertainment agencies that profit from concerts, as these companies are also held responsible to fulfill ESG values. In this interview, Oh Eun-hye at one of the most leading entertainment agencies in Korea discussed several ways the industry is reducing carbon emissions and the opportunities and challenges in promoting such a sustainable path of entertainment.

Please briefly explain the connection between your current responsibilities in the entertainment sector and ESG.

I'm part of the Strategic Planning Team, which focuses on the company's overall strategic direction. Essentially, we consider how this aligns with sustainable management perspectives—how it can be reflected in the company's direction, business portfolio, and such. While I'm not directly responsible for this work, my role involves collaborating to explore how it can be integrated into each business portfolio. 

What significance does ESG hold for entertainment companies today?

Broadly speaking, entertainment companies haven't been closely examining this ESG domain for very long. However, the concept of being a publicly listed company, meaning a company whose shares can be bought and sold on the stock market, carries a certain obligation. As the industry has grown and most larger firms began listing, we started viewing ESG as a fundamental framework and mandatory requirement for corporate management, and this sparked significant interest.

This includes environmental engagement, pursuing more sustainable methods and adopting sustainable management perspectives from an organizational standpoint. It also involves demonstrating to shareholders that the company is structurally sound and ethically sound in its management. ESG encompasses all these aspects. From this perspective, entertainment companies are doing the same within their business domains. We are now paying attention to the environment within these business areas. We are continuously educating and guiding our employees, the members of our company, so they can move in the same direction as the company towards sustainability. We are also reflecting this in our business operations.

Specifically in terms of the environment, what are the key areas you are focusing on managing or improving?

Currently, within the entertainment company, there are two major business areas that significantly impact the environment. One is related to performances and tours, which is also a focus of public interest. Previously, performances rarely extended beyond domestic borders. K-pop artists' performances weren't as widespread globally as they are now with constant world tours. But recently, K-pop artists have truly started touring the entire world. Consequently, it's true that environmental concerns are growing significantly. 

Entertainment companies face three major issues. For performances, world tours require air travel—both for the artists and fans flying to shows. Then there's the massive power consumption inside venues. They're constantly blasting beams and projecting onto huge LED screens, so the power consumption at the venue is massive. Then there's the environmental impact of stage production itself, because a lot of stage sets are built just once and then discarded. So we're constantly thinking about how to reuse these elements from an environmental perspective. And while reusing the stage is good, reusing it requires moving it between countries, which then creates transportation issues.

This leads us to consider how compact we can make these stages for transport and reuse. These concerns are actually a very important environmental focus for entertainment companies right now. So, the things I just mentioned are actually closely related to what's commonly called carbon emissions management. When checking carbon footprints, these aspects like air travel during world tours, power usage at venues, constructing stages for reuse, and making them compact for transport all ultimately connect to the carbon footprint. How to build a carbon emissions management system is now a crucial environmental factor for entertainment companies. 

And another thing is, well, making albums. When we make CDs, we don't just put the CD in but also include some printed materials. Since these are crucial products for the company, we're constantly thinking about how to apply eco-friendly materials in such cases. Things like paper usage, or how to use recycled plastic instead of regular plastic, or using fewer harmful dyes. 

And regarding production volume, in the past, there was this thing called MOQ. So, to reduce the unit cost, we often produced a large quantity upfront. But nowadays, we try to shift to production based on pre-orders. This means making only the exact quantity ordered, avoiding excess inventory, and minimizing waste from leftover materials. So we're making efforts like expanding pre-orders to reduce overproduction. Regarding packaging, we're exploring eco-friendly packaging solutions by minimizing plastic use or substituting packaging materials with paper cushioning.

Another area frequently criticized in the K-pop industry for environmental concerns is the excessive inclusion of photo cards to boost album sales, or practices that fuel competitive purchasing among fan communities. Entertainment companies can't completely abandon it due to sales, but they are trying to address it in ways like purchasing album packages that reduce paper or the plastic mentioned earlier, introducing eco-friendly certification methods, or considering digital albums or platform-specific albums. 

And these efforts, especially among major entertainment companies, involve publishing annual sustainability reports. Through these reports, they communicate their efforts and encourage collective action. That's likely the extent of company-level initiatives. 

Beyond that, recently, companies like YG and others are trying to do more. Since our efforts alone have limitations, we're expanding eco-friendly campaigns like these to involve fans. We're encouraging efforts like this. At concerts, we ask everyone, "Let's not use plastic cups. Let's try using reusable cups." We're running campaigns like this, and even with merchandise, when you join the membership, we give gifts at concerts. But now, we're deliberately choosing eco-friendly merchandise for these gifts too. We're doing this intentionally to broaden awareness and expand our reach. You could see this as a growing effort lately.

Then, given other considerations like sales revenue, what do you think were the most challenging aspects, especially when promoting environmental ESG initiatives? What do you see as the biggest obstacles where other companies hesitate?

This relates to what we discussed earlier about physical albums. While other areas offer more flexibility, albums present a unique challenge because photo cards are the primary driver for K-pop fans purchasing albums. Reducing the physical photocard distribution directly impacts album sales in many ways. While we recognize the environmental implications, abruptly replacing them entirely or making such drastic changes is something no entertainment company can currently manage.

Also, while we're making efforts to minimize things like air travel during world tours within our capabilities, it doesn't always go as planned. Flying isn't something we can always optimize by chartering private jets every time, so there are realistically difficult parts. We're continuously considering and deliberating on these aspects.

Earlier, you mentioned pursuing environmentally friendly initiatives for the fandom. In the entertainment industry, where fandom culture is so strong, are there any examples where fans' voluntary participation or similar actions have positively impacted environmental carbon emission reduction?

While there aren't any quantitative measurements of the exact results, I think there are some movements like that happening. For sure, it's becoming more common now. For instance, using reusable containers at domestic concert venues is almost becoming the default standard. Or, as I recall, when Coldplay recently performed in Korea, I heard that Coldplay specifically requested this from the promoter back home. They said that they preferred no single-use plastic water bottles brought into the venue at all, so they consistently pushed for introducing refill stations. 

So ultimately, artists and their teams are becoming more aware of how much waste these venues generate and the negative environmental impact. This heightened awareness is making such practices feel like they're being accepted quite naturally now. In fact, major artists are now directly communicating these issues to their fans as well.

As you mentioned just now, what role do you think affiliated artists can play in conveying ESG-related messages?

Artists are incredibly influential people, after all. So what they say and do is very important. That's why, for example, YG takes it a step further by creating campaign-style videos and screening them at their concerts. The artists themselves directly convey that the environment is crucial, show the waste generated at today's concert, and encourage everyone to join in reducing their carbon footprint. They film these videos and screen them for fans before the show.

Continuously delivering these messages and guidance itself has a huge impact on fans, especially since most fans are teenagers or younger. They put a lot of thought into ways that positively influence this generation. And honestly, it's not bad for the artists' image either, because the fact that they're conscious of the environment means they're actively trying to participate.

And now, at the concert venues, they're also setting up separate booths. For example, when BLACKPINK performed in Hong Kong this time, the venue was huge. It was BLACKPINK's final concert there, and at that time, YG actually set up a very large booth called the 'Your Green Step' booth. So at that booth, fans could participate by calculating things like how many steps worth of carbon footprint they generated just by coming to and from the venue, or moving around inside it. Then, based on that calculation, they'd receive eco-friendly merchandise. It was a booth designed to instill awareness in fans, and they actually operated something like that.

So rather than abruptly overhauling the entire concert operation, we're starting small by having fans directly participate in sustainability campaigns based on their involvement. We're currently in the initial phase of raising awareness about carbon footprints and branding this concert itself as an ESG event. 

You seem to be putting in a tremendous amount of effort. Finally, looking ahead, ESG will become increasingly important. What direction do you think ESG should take within the entertainment industry?

Right now, it's still very much in the campaign phase, or the initial awareness-raising stage. Moving forward, we need to focus on how to grow this alongside business revenue without compromising it. This requires significant consideration. Since it touches on the very foundations of business operations, it will inevitably take time and involve substantial initial costs. We also need to listen closely to the voices of the many people participating. That's the stage we're at now. But the direction itself is clear: we need to envision a business model that continues moving forward, reducing carbon emissions and optimizing resource utilization.

So, we're putting in a lot of effort and attention into this. In fact, entertainment companies are also making significant efforts to reduce what they can immediately in areas like the performances, albums, or merchandise production we discussed earlier. And these ESG efforts themselves are increasingly reflected in stock prices these days. That's why companies are paying even more attention to it now. However, if they focus too much solely on the environment, it could lead to a situation where sales decline. To prevent that, we must consider a wide range of approaches.