Vinyl sales were up 14.2% across all U.S. independent retailers in 2023, according to Luminate, marking the continued growth of a format whose renewed popularity has coincided with a growing industry focus on sustainability — one that has consistently identified vinyl’s carbon footprint as problematic.

Now, the Vinyl Record Manufacturer’s Association (VRMA) and the Vinyl Alliance (VA) have released a study that looks at the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process and offers recommendations on how to mitigate it.

“We hope this report — and a series of subsequent updates — encourages everyone in the vinyl record industry to be radically transparent about the environmental impact of making vinyl records, and what steps we can take to reduce that impact,” the report reads, adding that the data backing it up is “based on a very limited number of businesses in the supply chain.” However, it continues, “we have a range of other companies who are in the process of contributing their carbon footprints, and we hope this report will encourage many more businesses in the supply chain to participate as well.”

The study considers the vinyl industry’s scope one, two and three emissions, which are involved in the entire lifespan of a vinyl record. Respectively, they encompass a company’s direct emissions; indirect emissions from electricity purchased; and all other indirect emissions in a company’s value chain. The study was made in accordance with Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, which standardizes, on an international level, how businesses measure, report and manage their greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the report, the “cradle-to-factory gate” footprint of a single vinyl album is approximately 1.15 kg CO2e, or the equivalent of driving a car for three miles. Fifty percent of those emissions come from the plastic PVC compound used to press the records, another 30% are from energy
consumption at the factory and 13% of emissions are from print packaging like jackets, inserts and sleeves. The remaining percentage includes the manufacturing of lacquers, cutting tools and stampers, and other packaging.

But while vinyl emissions are an oft-cited problem, the report goes a step further by offering five recommendations vinyl manufacturers can take to reduce carbon emissions from their production processes.

The first is to eliminate air freight. “If a label or artist presses at a single location, then ships records to global markets by air freight,” the study states, “these shipping emissions will dwarf anything else you might do to reduce the carbon footprint of your release.”

The next recommendation is to switch to “bio-attributed” PVC compound. A relatively recent invention, “bio-attributed” PVC is made from a waste product created during paper production and uses plant-based raw materials to replace the petroleum that PVC is typically made with. Such usage could cut an album’s carbon footprint by roughly 44%, according to the report.

The report also recommends that manufacturers press on lighter 140-gram, versus 180-gram, vinyl. Heavier weights can increase a record’s footprint by between 14% and 26%, as can the use of splatter vinyl, which entails sprinkling various colors onto a background color before the record is pressed. The report also advises manufacturers to keep their packaging simple, noting that a jacket gatefold on a single record adds 10% to 15% to the typical footprint of a record compared to a standard 3mm spine jacket.

Finally, the report advises all companies in the supply chain to transition to zero-carbon energy. “Pressing plants often have gas boilers, and replacing these with electric or hydrogen boilers represents a huge challenge,” the report states, “but one that has to be grasped.”

The inaugural report was compiled by a working group led by Peter Frings of Stamper Discs alongside Adam Teskey and Alex Deninson of Vinyl Factory Manufacturing Ltd; Ryan Weitzel of A to Z Media; Karen Emanuel and John Service of Key Production; Ian Stanton of Beggars Group; Kamal Nasseredine of Precision Pressing; Vladimir Visek of GZ Media; Ryan Mitrovitch of Vinyl Alliance; Bryan Ekus of VRMA; and Ruben Planting of Deep Grooves.