Eco milestone for Scottish vinyl pressing plant looking to be ‘greenest on the planet’

Seabass Vinyl, which is based just outside Tranent in East Lothian, has been certified as carbon neutral for 2025 by Carbon Neutral Britain.

The fledgling venture’s mission to be the greenest vinyl pressing plant on the planet has involved setting up a purpose-built factory with sustainability and efficiency at the core of its design. The firm generates its own energy, with some 100 kilowatts of solar panels, two wind turbines capable of producing 9kW of electricity each and 15kW of battery storage, and uses certified renewable sources for any electricity it takes from the grid.

Business co-founders Dominique and David Harvey pressed their first record in 2023. Dominique said: “Being officially carbon neutral certified is a major milestone for us. We are the first pressing plant in the UK to achieve this and, we think, in the world.

“Building and running the greenest vinyl pressing plant in the world has been fundamental to our vision and strategy for the business. It is important for us and incredibly important for our customers that we minimise our environmental impact while manufacturing records of the highest quality.”

The company minimises its carbon footprint in every part of the business - from using pioneering bio-vinyl made with cooking oil on some of its products, to recycling vinyl offcuts. While around half of its customers are Scottish, it has pressed and shipped records for customers around the world. Customers include Last Night From Glasgow, Lost Map, PRAH recordings, Assai, Chrysalis, Ninja Tunes, Moshi Moshi, Gear Box Records, Monohands.

The plant was established as the vinyl revival continues to spin and the industry looks to improve the demand/supply balance.

The final part of Seabass Vinyl’s commitment is to carbon offset where other options are unavoidable. This is primarily related to LPG which powers the steam boiler - needed to create the high temperatures to press records from vinyl “pucks”.

Dominique added: “The buildings were designed to be south facing with a single pitch roof to maximise the benefit of solar power. We are close to the sea and in a location that allows turbines; the buildings nearby are appropriately named Hurricane Court. So all our plant and buildings were designed around our two wind turbines.

“We have worked with Carbon Neutral Britain to measure the overall carbon footprint of the business and have now officially been certified as carbon neutral for 2025.”

Carbon Neutral Britain runs certification schemes for businesses which have reduced their impact on the environment and have committed to further reduction as well as offsetting any unavoidable emissions.

It comes as 2024 was declared “music’s comeback year” after recorded music sales, encompassing subscription streaming, physical music and download, topped £2.39 billion, up 7.4 per cent year on year. Annual physical music revenues were up 6.2 per cent - totalling £330.1 million - as the vinyl revival continued and interest in CDs picked up.

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