REGULARS HOME GROWN Whether it be world tours or studio construction, Gareth Stuckey is determined not to leave his mark! Instead he’s headed for neutral ground, where the air is clean and the beer is free. Text: Brad Watts During October this year I extricated myself HOT COLD & NEUTRAL GS: Exactly, and the rooms are also fully floating to from the AT editorial bunker and headed up Brad Watts: So tell me more about the carbon improve isolation, cooling and air movement. The to my old neighbourhood of Surry Hills in Sydney. neutral aspect of your operation Gareth. I gather new walls are two inches off the structural cement, The aim was to chase up a few tips I’d received there are a lot of issues surrounding the studio’s and there’s damp-proof Isofoam in the cavity. The regarding studios of interest in the district. My carbon neutrality. floor then floats on 25mm Isofoam flooring. I’m initial destination of appeal was the industrious, and Gareth Stuckey: Definitely. Firstly we had to look really happy with it so far. the best aspect of it is literally underground operation of Gigpiglet at the ventilation. Obviously air-conditioning was that we’ve achieved a pretty constant temperature Headquarters, a well equipped production facility out of the question; it’s just too expensive to run and without the enormous carbon footprint. Okay, so it’s run by the very capable Mr Gareth Stuckey. incredibly environmentally unfriendly. But because a bit cooler in winter and a bit warmer in summer, Gareth has been mixing front of house and tour Gigpiglet Headquarters is underground it can also but overall it’s quite liveable without the usual power managing a number of acts over the last decade: get quite damp. To resolve all this I employed a hungry ‘studio’ style air-conditioning. Thirsty Merc, George and his mainstay gig of ventilation specialist who came in and measured BW: Has this always been an ambition for recent years, the inimitable Machine Gun Fellatio. up the volume of the rooms and ascertained the air Gigpiglet? More recently – after MGF’s demise in 2005 – its movement required to manage both the internal GS: I got involved in the carbon-neutral pursuit enigmatic lead vocalist, Pinky Beecroft (a.k.a. Matt temperature and the humidity – now there are 12 as it became more prominent a few years ago. I’ve Ford), has been rekindling his love of perspiring fans throughout the building that extract air. They’re always been a bit of a hippie anyway. I don’t drive a Australian gigging life with his band, Pinky not silent, mind you; you can hear them ticking car, I get on my bike. It’s all about the simple things Beecroft and the White Russians. The outfit is away but you can turn them all off when required. you can do. Obviously I’m not anti-transport – quite a departure from the alternative electronica The air is replaced about three times an hour while riding my bike simply means one less car on the gyrations of MGF, and Beecroft has shown a return they’re running so the relative humidity – at its road. to some pensive song writing and more traditional worst – is only about 2% above the levels outside the production ethics – all while keeping the majority building. I’ve just been in China for a weekend doing a show of his clothes on. In charge of production, recording over there and I simply couldn’t believe it – it’s BW: So the air-con is keeping the dampness under and mixing has been Gareth Stuckey, who I planned horrible. The smog is just incredible! We never control as well as cooling the spaces? to chat with about the making of Pinky’s record, want to live like that here, let me tell you. So for Somethin’ Somewhere Better. But while we all like to discuss record making, it became apparent that there was an issue of far greater import than the making of yet another album (apologies Mr Beecroft). What’s interesting about Gareth’s working ethic is the lengths he’ll go to keep the production process as carbon neutral as possible. One wouldn’t initially believe that record production could be such a contributor to global warming, but like everything we humans do on this planet, its waste products and power consumption damage the environment. Using electricity, driving fossil fuel-reliant vehicles to and fro’ studios and rehearsals, air-conditioning and CD packaging are all aspects of the recording process. AT 54 my part, I’m trying to live my life with a sensitivity to the environment around me, and my impact on it. It’s a sustainability thing. And the whole point of educating people about this is to encourage everyone to do their bit. If everyone takes little steps towards using less energy, we’ll all be much better off. BW: You’re certainly passionate about the concept. GS: Absolutely, it’s very important. I like the world! I’ll probably have kids one day and I’d like them to enjoy the world too. People often hassle me about it, but I’m not saying you’ve got to completely change your entire life, or avoid everything that’s detrimental to the environment. You’re not going to change the urban landscape 100% overnight but you can certainly make a difference. CLIMATE FRIENDLY BW: So how are you tackling the other aspects like electricity use in the studio? GS: A company called Climate Friendly is doing it for me. These guys measure, assess, offset, reduce, renew, and then reassess your carbon footprint. Just like anyone doing any kind of audit, they try and analyse what’s happening in your life as precisely as possible, to see what your work practices are like and how they can be made more efficient. BW: So that means measuring your electricity use, water use and how much fuel you burn? GS: Yep, all of those aspects. What’s fascinating about it is that a lot of your consumption can be traced back to the way you choose to do things. A big part of my lifestyle nowadays involves doing everything as locally as possible. I’ve been living in Waterloo for seven years or so now, and in that time I’ve managed to get this whole building fitted out with materials from this suburb alone. The plasterboard and timber were from a hardware store that’s literally a block from here. I even Pinky Beecroft & the White Russians’ album is borrowed their big wheelie tray to wheel it all back barred from Woolworths here! A lot of the building materials are also from and K Mart because it’s not in a plastic jewel there, but I also use recycled materials wherever case. The cover is made possible. Unfortunately that’s just a small portion of recycled paper and/ of my overall footprint. When I’m touring, I’m or plantation timber and printed with soy inks. flying everywhere, so when you look at the chart of my business’ ‘environmental outgoings’, air travel constitutes about 75% of it. BW: So how do you begin to tackle all that aviation fuel being chewed up? AT 55 GS: Again, that’s where Climate Friendly really FRIENDLY FOOTPRINTS comes into play. It calculates the C02 tonnage you’re To get a clearer idea of how Climate Friendly get accountable for by auditing your flight milage. things rolling, I spoke with its Communications You then pay them accordingly and they ‘offset’ Executive, Jessica Miller. my footprint by using that money to generate new Brad Watts: So Jessica, can you fill me in on just renewable energy sources. how you go about making Gigpiglet carbon neutral? BW: Surely there’s still the worry though that How does the process actually work from Climate Climate Friendly mightn’t be doing the right thing Friendly’s perspective? with your dollars at the other end? Jessica Miller: I guess the first thing to mention is GS: Exactly. This is why Climate Friendly is backed that we don’t tend to use the term ‘carbon-neutral’. by the World Wildlife Federation and accredited The term is becoming increasingly throwaway. We by the Australian Government. All its projects tend to use the term ‘climate-friendly’, and then try are independently audited afterwards by the and get people to think about what their carbon Voluntary Carbon Standard, Gold Standard, and footprint is, where the emissions actually come the Australian GreenPower program. It invests the from, and then what they can do to measure it, money into things like green power, wind farms, as reduce it, and ultimately offset it. What we did with well as supporting and funding other projects that the Gigpiglet crew was initially send through a form will continue to offset my carbon outgoings into the that asked for some information about Gigpiglet’s future. enterprises and, from there, look at where most of the emissions of the business come from. As it Another thing we’ve done at Gigpiglet is offer ‘offset’ turned out, the largest proportion of emissions was tickets at our live shows. For $3 extra you can offset actually from air travel – about 74% of Gigpiglet’s your average Sydneysider’s day out, even if they total footprint. make no effort of their own. So anyone buying a ticket to our shows can choose to do that – it’s BW: So how is that information ascertained? three bucks so it’s not a big outlay.