2025 NAMM Sustainability Panel

This year NAMM hosted the panel "Building a Sustainable Future for the Music Products Industry." I had the pleasure of speaking at the NAMM Panel which consisted of members from other guitar manufacturers (Taylor, Martin, PRS), a representative from the USDA, and myself (Kevin Eldridge – Director of Quality & Compliance).



Sustainability was categorized into two general “buckets” – what we as music instrument manufacturers have to do (legal / regulatory requirements) related to sustainability, and what we choose to do because we feel it’s the right thing to do (voluntary sustainability efforts).

Panel members spoke about the work being done regarding traceability of woods and how there is still work to be done to be able to document the exact origin of species of wood used in each guitar. Right now, we know the origin of the wood entering the factory, but the factory is somewhat of a "blender", and it’s difficult to track which wood is used on which guitar for sustainability reporting purposes.



I shared how at YGG we are working to create a culture of sustainability. I started out with my perspective that for a sustainability program to be successful, it has to have support from top management, and that I feel lucky because at YGG we do have that support. After that, I shared some of the “easy wins” we’ve achieved that both reduced waste and saved the company money. Here are just some of the things we have done:

• "Operation Papercut" to reduce number of printed materials / pages that are included in the box of the products we sell.
• Composting to divert coffee grinds from landfill to a local school compost.
• The Monthly Sustainability Newsletter which engages all employees to adopt sustainable practices in the office and at home.
• Recycling used guitar/bass strings since that is something in our industry we use a lot of and doesn’t need to just be tossed away in the trash.

The panel members shared similar programs at their companies, including utilizing state grants / funding to purchase newer, more efficient HVAC equipment for their facility.

I thought it was great discussion & opportunity to share information, and I hope there are many more panels like this one in the future.